🧃Joyful Juice: June🧃

Each month we bring together the things sustaining us — what we're reading, who we're learning from, what's keeping us going. Whether you've been part of The Joyful Activists community for a while or you've just found us, we're glad you're here.

Things to read, watch or listen to

• The Gender and Education Association (GEA) is a volunteer-led international intersectional feminist charity, and they are looking for written contributions for their blog! Learn more about the opportunity here.

• Last month we shared the seven types of rest, and this month we've got an article on seven types of rest for autistics. If you're neurodivergent, does this relate?

• Are you looking for inspiration for your activism? Check out Actipedia, an open-access, user-generated database of creative activism. It’s a place to read about, comment upon, and share experiences and examples of how activists and artists are using creative tactics and strategies to challenge power and offer visions of a better society.

• Are you interested in research on burnout? Read Laura Crossley's research 'A Silenced Epidemic: Burnout in the Cultural Sector; and How We Can Create a Better Future'.

• The theme for our Community Circle in May was the word 'enough', and some of us spoke about the sense of doing enough when it comes to climate activism. One of our lovely community members shared this article, ‘An equal and habitable world is possible’: academics set out sweeping vision for planetary survival'.

Words to live by

Communities, courses and wellbeing resources

• If you're a climate activist looking for mental health support, check out this directory to find a climate-aware practitioner

• Do you like journaling or setting intentions? Write a letter to your future self here.

Journal prompts

There's a long tradition in activist spaces of arguing that hope — especially in the face of evidence — is itself a form of resistance. That choosing to believe things can change, when everything around you suggests otherwise, is not naivety but a political act. It's an idea that can feel galvanising on some days and completely hollow on others. These prompts aren't asking you to land anywhere in particular, just to reflect about where you actually are with hope right now.

1. Is hope something I choose, or something that happens to me?

Think about where hope actually comes from when it's real for you. Not the version you perform or argue for in a room, but the kind that's quietly there underneath. What tends to bring it out, and what does it feel like when it arrives?

2. Does hoping still feel like an act of resistance to me — or has it started to feel like something else?

Notice which feels more true right now; the days when believing things can change feels like the most radical thing you can do, or the days when it just feels like work. Don't try to resolve it. Just sit with what's honest.

3. Is there somewhere I've quietly stopped hoping, and what do I make of that?

See if you can find a place where hope has gradually receded - not dramatically, just a door that's slowly closed. Let yourself look at whether that feels like wisdom, or grief, or something you haven't quite named yet.

Join our community

1. Look after yourself with us by joining our virtual workshops here

2. Book us to facilitate a workshop about mental health, wellbeing and joy in your organisation here

3. Share this blog with your communities

4. Working on something cool? Email us so we can include it in a future edit of Joyful Juice

5. Talk to us, our inbox is open! katy@thejoyfulactivists.com