This week, we continue our conversation about exhaustion and burnout for activists and folks in impact fields with a very special guest, Taj M. Smith.

Taj M. Smith (he/him) is the founder of Rooted Respite, an online burnout support community serving activists, DEI practitioners, faith-based changemakers, and others committed to creating a more equitable world. As a Black transgender entrepreneur, Taj’s work amplifies anti-oppressive thinking and a worldview dedicated to bringing people back into relationship with themselves, each other, and the land.

Taj is a coach, writer, and speaker with a creative passion for music and literature, particularly sci-fi and fantasy. His written work explores the ways sci-fi overlaps with spirituality, justice, and identity to create hopeful futures.

His writing appears in Sojourners, Huffington Post, and the Harvard Divinity Bulletin. His own transition story was published in Austin Hartke’s book Transforming: The Bible and the Lives of Transgender Christians. He holds a BA in Politics from UC Santa Cruz and an MDiv from Harvard Divinity School.

We are bringing transparency to collective exhaustion, exploitative capitalism, how hard it can be to say no, stress, overwhelm and the baseline state that we as a society might be expected to function at. Also how our value or self worth is tied to what we “do” and what happens when we actually pause. There will also be space to invite the question on what about when we are tired and other people’s jobs are at stake, or the climate, or lives. Hopefully we can find a little rest, a little joy, a little ease in how shift our relationship to rest.

This is the first part of our conversation on exhaustion and burnout. If you enjoy this episode, be sure to check out Episode 11 featuring Taj M. Smith!

What would it look like if we all had the support we needed? What would it feel like if we were able to self-accommodate and have more space for accessibility and adaptability in our lives and work environments? We are exploring what it is actually like to be in self-accommodation, have the conversation around disability, and ask for adaptability. How to create more space for possibility and honoring where our bodies are. We have invited our FIRST guest, Lauren Goldberg, a proudly disabled and neurodivergent social impact entrepreneur, to join us in the conversation!

Notes:

• Follow Lauren at https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauren-e-goldberg/
• Learn more about working with Lauren Goldberg at https://laurengoldbergcoaching.com/
• Malia is co-facilitating a 4-part workshop called The Belonging Ambiguity Project: An embodied exploration of mixed race identity with Karine Bell, Dr. Leticia Nieto and Resmaa Menakem, - March-June 2024. Go to: https://www.rootedglobalvillage.com/belonging
• Julia is hosting a 1-day in-person retreat in NYC on Sunday, March 24th - The Belonging Lab. Learn more and sign up at https://www.juliafirestonecoaching.com/retreat
• Curious about Malia's Windmills Disability and Inclusion training? Reach out to Malia at malia@maliawright.com