Dear College of Education Community,
Have you recently felt “Righteous Rage”? In the face of how we have been so hurt by recent world events, anger is an understandable human response to injustice. “Self-care includes learning to accept, access, and activate our anger”, according to Erlene Grise-Owens, EdD. in her article in the New Social Worker , titled “Self-Care A-Z: Rage, Joy, Justice, and Self-Care”. “Self-care helps us channel our anger to serve progress and change—for both personal and political purposes.” Unfortunately, righteous rage is “often internalized and/or projected in destructive ways.” As an alternative, Eloquent Rage, can be “a creative force, can generate joy”, according to Brittney Cooper, author of Eloquent Rage—A Black Feminist Discovers her Superpower,. She writes, “Joy arises from an internal clarity about our purpose. My purpose is justice [which] brings me joy.” Dr. Grise-Owens adds, “Self-care engages an alchemy of righteous rage and just joy. Anger and joy might appear on the surface to be conflicting opposites. Yet, they’re actually complementary yin and yang of our human emotions. Rage and joy, grief and gratitude, serenity and anguish, disappointment and hope, fear and courage. Self-care helps us traverse the ands of life. By engaging in self-care, we’re present in life’s complexities, whilst honoring our human right to channel righteous rage, claim just joy, cultivate potent power, and cherish whole selves.”
To read more about hope, go to https://www.socialworker.com/feature-articles/self-care/rage-joy-justice-self-care/
Erlene Grise-Owens, EdD, LCSW, MSW, MRE, is lead co-editor of The A-to-Z Self-Care Handbook for Social Workers and Other Helping Professionals
For a list of other self-care options, please see our COE self-care website for resources for faculty, staff, students, and the community at:
https://www.csun.edu/eisner-education/self-care/articles-information-self-care
May self-care help us navigate our righteous rage and find just joy in our work to make the world a better place.
Warmly,
Shari