Committed Action
A Guide to Advocacy and Action
When we experience moral distress or moral injury, it can be challenging to know how to move forward. But by engaging in daily activities that align with our values, we can start the process of healing and moral repair.
Key Points:
Our values are expressed through our behavior. What we do shows the world what we care about. Healing and repair require sustained corrective life-experience and can be a life-long process (Evans et al., 2020).
Daily repair activities provide opportunities to try on corrective experiences, positive behaviors, and honor the values that were violated in morally injurious events. You have someone right now you can support, some value you can honor (Litz et al., 2015). Examples of Daily Repair Activities:
Honoring losses experienced
Remembering stories that others want you to forget
Giving or receiving goodness from others
Reengaging in pleasurable activities
Connecting with others
Practicing wellness behaviors or spiritual practices
Showing compassion to self or others
Take breaks! Recharge! Don’t go so hard you burn out! Serious athletes all know about periodization. Taking rest days, sometimes training in “zone 2” and only strategically training in “zone 4” and “zone 5” is key for peak performance when it most matters. Periodization is important in committed action too! We may all be asked to do some incredibly hard things in the future. If you constantly revving in “zone 3” with no breaks, you might not have anything in the tank when you need your max effort. So practice; build your capacity, and be ready for max effort when what you hold most dear needs your protection and advocacy.
So practice; be consistent; get your form right; take rest days; show yourself kindness. Take action on the things that make your life worth living, and what you are willing to sacrifice for. By consistently engaging in value-driven actions, we can create a life of meaning and authenticity, even in the face of moral pain.
For Further Exploration:
You know what you have to do but are not doing it? Atomic Habits is a solid book breaking down how we can make the changes we need to make change easier, more obvious, more pleasurable, and more satisfying. Get the basics for free on his website.
Ambivalent about change? Explore your ambivalence with compassion. You might find you have a values conflict, and you need to find an opportunity to creatively honor both values.
References:
Evans, W. R., Walser, R. D., Drescher, K. D., & Farnsworth, J. K. (2020). The Moral Injury Workbook: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Skills for Moving Beyond Shame, Anger, and Trauma to Reclaim Your Values. New Harbinger
Litz, B. T., Lebowitz, L., Gray, M. J., & Nash, W. P. (2015). Adaptive disclosure: A new treatment for military trauma, loss, and moral injury. Guilford Publications.
Smith-MacDonald L., Lusk J., Lee-Baggley D., Bright K., Laidlaw A., Voth M., Spencer S., Cruikshank E., Pike A., Jones C., Bremault-Phillips S. (2022). Companions in the Abyss: A Feasibility and Acceptability Study of an Online Therapy Group for Healthcare Providers Working During the COVID-19 Pandemic. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 12: 801680.