For renegades, visionary idealists and changemakers, all those who advocate on behalf of others, being ambitious about wellbeing is essential. Kindly radical Leadership begins with ourselves. Like a tree trunk that must be strong and well rooted with the right nourishment to withstand the weather and bear fruit, our efforts to create radical change are strengthened when we nourish and tend to ourselves. We need a strong, well-rooted core to advocate for others in our workplaces and bring about the transformative changes we dream of. One thing I have learnt over the years is that the bigger the change you are advocating for, and the stronger your conviction to stand for your values, the more disciplined you need to be about nourishing yourself.

Here are four practical tips for nurturing your resilient core

Change: Start Small and Be Intentional

Change happens in small intentional moments of moving towards a new direction. It is rarely as black and white as we often represent it as especially in today’s world of valuing transformation.

Where you are trying to priortise yourself and your own needs, instead of making grand, idealistic plans, focus on small, actionable moments throughout the day that align with nurturing yourself. (This applies to the organisational changes you envision also).

As an example at the moment I am trying to become fitter, by exercising more and we know this is beneficial for our whole being so its an important if challenging part of nurturing ourselves. I have been focussed on looking for opportunities to generally add more movement into my day. Things like standing up and doing one lap of the office, or doing 2 pilates moves every hour. Small moves can be effective if you are going in the right direction.

Reflection: Tune Into Yourself

The answers for nurturing yourself are not ‘out there’ or even here in this blog. They are within you. We are so accustomed to seeking information externally that we often forget to explore the wealth of information that comes from within us. This type of self awareness or attunement is is crucial in sustaining our wellbeing. If we we are aware of our own bodies, minds and spirits and able to observe well our own reactions, responses and activity give us the insight needed to identify what feeds our energy and well-being and what diminishes it. For example I recently read an article that demonstrated that participants opinions about their sleep quality had more impact on their mood during the day than the objective data given by sleep trackers. How you think and feel in your mind, body and spirit is more important than some of the information that we now have available to us. Tuning into ourselves requires us to tune out from all that is around us so take some pauses during the day to check in with yourself.

Self-Compassion: Practice Tenderness

Self-compassion is a vital skill for protecting against burnout and nurturing well-being. However its not something that comes naturally to many of us who tend to focus our compassion towards others. Self-compassion is a learnable skill but it takes time and practice (and it is easy to criticise yourself for not being compassionate enough).

You may like to try this exercise:

Imagine how you would hold a little kitten. Most of us hold a kitten tenderly, with care and soothing words.

Now think about how you hold your own thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations. If you are like most of us there is probably some judgment, criticism, or resistance. Thats ok, but now we are going to try something different.

Imagine that your thoughts, feelings, and sensations are little kittens. Try holding them gently, with compassion and soothing words.

Self-Care: Focus on the Basics

You need care too. Advertising can have us believing that self-care is indulgent tretats, However real self-care is not indulgent, in fact its often hard work. Treats and things that we enjoy are important too but self-care is broader than that. It involves actively taking care of yourself in all the ways that keep your body, mind, and spirit healthy. Boring but essential things like brushing our teeth, health check ups and doing our posture exercises are mundane, essential and often hard for those of us that are busy caring for others to priortise.

Identify two things you need to do to keep yourself well—and book them into your calendar this week.

Conclusion

To continue to be kindly radical leaders well we need to nourish ourselves so that we have a solid foundation for standing up for our values and bringing our visions of a better future to life.

If you need help caring for yourself you may like to come to my workshop in February: Lead with Resilience in 2025

Stay Kind

Christina