Support After Abortion is founded on the pillars of compassion, collaboration, and capacity. We strive to humanize abortion through stories of compassion, and we work to unite leaders and organizations through collaboration within the abortion healing movement. We believe the health and wellbeing of leaders in the healing industry is important as it impacts their ability or capacity to serve. Matt Ingold of Metanoia Catholic shares a powerful self-care tool for all leaders, whether they be the leaders of their home or leaders in the abortion healing movement.
Compassion fatigue and burnout are real
“As leaders in the industry, we are aware that compassion fatigue and burnout are real,” says Support After Abortion CEO Lisa Rowe. Self-care for leaders is critical. How often leaders help others but not themselves. How often they show up with excellence in their workplaces, yet there is struggle in other areas of their lives. Whether leaders realize it or not, they may be giving and serving from a place of depletion. They may want to pour into their clients and their ministry, but as Matt Ingold shares, “We can’t give what we don’t have.” Ingold presents a solution with his Metanoia Catholic journal, a practice that helps leaders to care for themselves in a way that fills them up, so they have enough to serve others.
Ingold and his wife created the Metanoia Catholic journal to help individuals become more aware of what is going on inside themselves. Ingold shares, “So often we think our circumstances are what guide our negative thoughts, but in actuality, it’s more about our thought life. Our emotions and habits come from our thoughts, and we tend to forget that we have the authority to choose what we think, how we feel, and the way in which we show up.” Taking authority over our thoughts and how we choose to respond improves the ways in which we interact with others and ourselves. Taking negative thoughts captive is like selecting the seed we plant and allow to take root and grow. The question is, are we choosing to plant seeds of scarcity or abundance? We have the power and free will to decide; the Metanoia Catholic journal shows us how.Healing and Growth are not “one and done”
As leaders in the abortion healing industry, we know that healing comes in layers. Like healing, growth is an ongoing process. Ingold shares that this journal isn’t just another New Year’s resolution. He adds, “Satan doesn’t sleep. There is no time to be complacent—the enemy is always lurking, waging a battle in which he wants us to forget who we are and who our father is.” If Satan can get inside of our heads, he can do damage. He can distract us or pull us away from our calling. For this reason, intentionality in our thought life is of the utmost importance. The Metanoia Catholic journal helps us to recognize our negative, reoccurring thoughts because those thoughts spill into all areas of our lives, including leadership. Once we can recognize our negative reoccurring thoughts, the journal’s skills and strategies will help us take that thought captive by sending “antibodies” to attack and destroy it. Taking such thoughts captive, catching them before they can multiply and wreak havoc, is a freeing, healthy practice.
Because we know that “healed people, heal people,” as leaders, we want to be sure that we are always pursuing our personal growth and development. The Metanoia Catholic journal weaves together the healthy practice of journaling with the tools and skills of raising self-awareness for our thoughts. Leaders are role models to clients and their ministries because they live examples of what healed looks like. Leaders are entrusted with much, so much is expected, and self-care needs to be expected. The self-care of a leader impacts the leader’s ability or capacity to serve others.
As a leader, if you’d like to learn how Support After Abortion supports and develops leaders, please visit our Healing Network Partner page and join us for an upcoming webinar.
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