5 ways I care for myself as a conservationist

I haven’t always cared for myself in my conservation journey. In fact, I know that in the past it has been a point of pride to brag about how I almost died in the field at the hands of a mother orangutan. It’s pretty crazy how so many organisations and projects have such awful safety protocols, but instead of complaining, we wear our near-death experiences as a badge of honour. Not anymore though.

I know from experience that caring for yourself is challenging when you are entrenched in guilt for not earning enough, not doing enough and not being enough. I know that some nature warriors in this world would rather give their last ounce of sanity to creating positive change before they admit to needing a bit of TLC themselves. But honestly, the time for this self-depricating way of thinking needs to be put behind us.

You’d think we, more than anyone, would understand the importance of sustainability, and the need to sustain ourselves into the future. But I guess it’s like doctors and nurses who smoke- knowledge doesn’t always inform behaviour.

Since creating Lonely Conservationists in 2019, I have learned to understand the importance of advocating for myself as a conservationist who needs rest and to be valued and nourished by my lifestyle and career choices. I learnt this over time by seeing that the more I advocated for my own needs, the more opportunities and remuneration I was offered by others. In essence, I started to set the standard of how I deserved to be treated and respected in the industry and I emplore that you try to open yourselves up to this respect and nourishment too.

So, in no particular order, here are 5 ways that I care for myself as a conservationist. Your care homework is to choose just one of these ways and practice it for yourself 🙂

1- Please throw your rest guilt in the bin!

The moment I internalised the notion that resting was productive for my body- it changed the game. Being stressed all the time, or living in flight or fight mode is not great for your body. In nature, there is hardly the energy resources to sustain such a highly demanding lifestyle. If your body doesn’t have the time and space it needs to replicate cells and restore your bodily processes in a safe environment, then cellular mistakes can get made and bodily processes can falter. Can you sustain yourselves under these conditions? I think not! A lonely conservationist always laughs that I once told people that they need to mitosis effectively, and I stand by that statement to this day.

Its important to remember that spring, a very productive time of year, only occurs for a set length of time before inevitably, winter will once again roll around and lull animals in to hibernation, or into a break from hunting or reproducing. Some animals will don their most boring colouration in this time, nature’s equivalent of pyjamas, as they focus on hiding and surviving. In nature, rarely anything is productive all year round, so neither should you be. If you feel like sometimes you need to hibernate, sloth or just get by- that is because you do, in fact, need to do these things.

2- And while you’re at it, chuck your other guilt in the bin- you are not an impostor

No two people are on the same conservation journey and trust me when I say that absolutely nobody is existing as a perfectly flawless conservationist all the time. Honestly, how tedious and impossible would your life be if you were?! Yes, we all think that we could do a multitude of things better, or have a more impressive job or back catalogue of experiences. but you know what? We are all doing our best with what we have and that’s all we can do.

Here is a podcast episode that my husband Todd and I made about impostor syndrome and how to life hack it away if you need some assistance with this. But in essence, the piece of information to internalise here is that diversity is important, and as a conservationist, you already knew this. Whatever reason you have to feel inadequate or different from others- eg. your lack of education or job title, is the exact reason why your voice needs to be represented and considered and why it’s imperative that you get yourself a seat at the table.

3- Know that you are VALUABLE to the industry

This one is hard to believe if nobody is hiring you or accepting you for opportunities- however, when I started to act as if I was valuable to the industry, the industry magically started valuing me back.

When I was taking every opportunity and bending over backwards to please people in the industry, I was so easy to exploit and take advantage of. If I am so willing to work for free, why would they pay me? If I am willing to clean gear all day, why would they include me in the research work? The thing is, by advocating for your wants, needs and worth, you will sort the wheat from the chaff and end up finding organisations that will take that bit of extra effort to value you for your skills and passions.

Here is a podcast episode about how to acknowledge and advocate for the skills you have in the conservation industry and here is another one about applying the other valuable skills you have to your conservation career.

4- Find your community

I know what it’s like to feel like the loneliest conservationist in the world. I know what it’s like for friends and family to not really understand my career or life choices and to feel isolated from the societal norm. I know what it’s like to not see anyone else in the industry struggling and to let my struggles suggest that I may not be worthy of making it in the industry at all. But do you know what remedies these feelings of loneliness or inadequacy? Someone saying me too.

I found my community of like-minded individuals through creating Lonely Conservationists, and this community is always open to those who need it. If you don’t have a supportive conservation community of your own through working, studying or volunteering- I urge you to share your story to our blog or introduce yourself on the Instagram feed to find a support network in your area or with your niche interests.

This community saved my sanity AND my career, so please DM me if you’d like to set up a time to talk, or just exchange some messages and I’ll see if I can help you in your journey too 🙂

5- Learn to love the ways that you fail

In interviews, hiring parties often want to know how you have overcome failure, challenging people or experiences. This means that these experiences are super valuable for persisting in your career, and you should start collecting these stories proudly as an indicator of your growth and development.

I am a HUGE believer in failure positivity, to the extent that I even have a beautiful failure wall where lonely conservationists can go and share their learnings anonymously and learn from the experiences of others too.

My mantra is to “make shitty pots” because your first pot (if you decide to take up pottery, which I never have) will never be your best pot. So you may as well get the shitty pots out of the way as soon as possible to get yourself closer to crafting your best pot. Failing fast to get it out of the way with is another way to think about it. Your failures aren’t self-ruining experiences, they are just a number of shitty pots that you can look back on as you continue to craft better and better pieces of art. This is something I find exeptionly beautiful. As this podcast episode says, you have to take the U out of failure.

To conclude…

To be honest with you all, sometimes I experience eco-grief so crippling that nothing seems to matter in contrast, especially a blog simplifying five actions that can seemingly apply to self-care. But truthfully, a combination of resting, advocating for my reasons for and ability to grieve, understanding that I am doing what I can do, chatting with like minded people and making shitty pots, has allowed me to escape the cavern of doom.

Resting seems to be the most effective means of caring for myself, re-connecting with nature, nourishing my eyes and ears with birds and reading fiction all helps. By embracing rather than resisting rest this year, I am already finding myself to be happier, more resilient and creative. But honestly, however you best care for yourself is THE most important self care you can do- you don’t need me to tell you that!

How do you care for yourself as a conservationist? Share your conservationist care techniques in the comments!