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Writing a Commitment Statement

Filed Under: Contemplative Practices, Everyday Feminism, Racial Justice By Beth Godbee July 31, 2020 Leave a Comment

This image shows the word “commitment” written in white chalk on a grayish blackboard.
What commitments (deep dedications and priorities) drive everyday living?

This question feels essential for everyday living for justice. Too often, though, it remains unanswered or even unarticulated.

Without knowing what matters to us deeply—so deeply that it mobilizes, energizes, and guides decision-making—it’s too easy to be on autopilot and to feed the status quo, even when it undermines professed beliefs.

To interrupt the autopilot conditioning that preserves oppression and ongoing violence, I believe it’s important to spend time really getting to know commitments and to understand what’s implicitly and explicitly driving actions.

One way to do this (one that I value as a writer and writing teacher) is through writing a commitment statement: a document that can be drafted, revised, and revisited often.

For years, I’ve been drafting and revising my own commitment statement, and I’ve been suggesting others do so, too—to make decisions about where, when, how, with whom, and why to put energy and attention.

This week, I’ve taken the scary step of sharing my statement as a way to answer the question:

What mobilizes, energizes, and guides the work you find here at Heart-Head-Hands: Everyday Living for Justice?

Navigate over to the new commitments page to read the full statement, which shares not only commitments and land acknowledgements, but also application to the work you find here (from blog posts and research writing to courses and coaching). My statement answers a number of questions, including:

  • What’s guiding the work you find here?
  • How am I striving toward accountability?
  • How do I relate to money and resources?

I share my commitment statement as an accountability, acknowledgement, and re-alignment practice, as I commit again to striving toward social, racial, and environmental justice.

I also invite you to write a statement of your own.

As my close friend and confidant Rasha Diab has taught me: these aren’t statements we write; instead, these are statements that write us. So, I hope you’ll take some time for this practice and reach out to share feedback, reflections, and ongoing efforts in the work.

Committed to showing up imperfectly ~ to learning and unlearning,

Beth

—
This post is written by
Beth Godbee, Ph.D. for Heart-Head-Hands.com. If you’re interested in learning more, read the full commitment statement.

Become a subscriber via Patreon to receive ongoing support for your efforts of striving to live for justice (social, racial, and environmental justice). And consider subscribing to the newsletter for additional resources and announcements. Thanks!

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Tagged with: commitments, environmental justice, habits, learning, racial justice, resilience, resources, social justice, teaching, writing

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Embodied knowledge matters. So do commitments. And especially acting on commitments as part of everyday life, BIG and small. This website—a mix of blog posts and research writing, courses and offerings—shares ongoing efforts toward everyday living (feeling, thinking, and doing) for justice.

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Updates to the new offering “Pathways Through Bu Updates to the new offering “Pathways Through Burnout: A Cohort Experience”:

For the past year, Candace and I have been listening to requests for an offering around burnout (or, more precisely, being burned up), and we launched a new cohort experience August 1st. We are deeply grateful for the range of responses we’ve received since then, and we’ve been prioritizing time to listen and discern what people want and need.

Through a lot of conversation and reflection, we’ve decided to slow down further and to reshape the offering. 

We’ll continue offering interactive workshops on practices for navigating burnout—with new dates announced for November 3rd and December 15th (and more to come in 2024). 

Starting in January, we’ll hold a few one-day retreats with time for art, play, contemplative practice, conversation, and coaching. We hope the retreat will feel like something that’s possible now (with so many pushes and pulls on time and attention).

All of this is leading to a 12-week version of the cohort experience: a season of connection to match a season in life. We’ll reopen applications in the spring and hope that a small group forms well ahead of our start date in September 2024.

The details of all of these experiences—and an invitation to join the workshops in Nov and Dec—are shared online here: https://heart-head-hands.com/pathways-through-burnout/ 
✨✨link in bio✨✨

And we continue to appreciate all sorts of feedback (questions, suggestions, affirmations), so please reach out anytime. <3

[Image says: “Pathways Through Burnout / Practice Workshops / One-Day Retreats / Cohort Forming for Fall 2024” and shows photos of the two of us—Candace and Beth—side by side.]

With @dr._candace_epps_robertson_ #burnout #update #practice #contemplative #meditation #writing #art #retreat
I am slow to edit and share photos, but I want to I am slow to edit and share photos, but I want to share these from the Beyond Granite public art exhibit that just left the National Mall here in DC. I wish this installation was staying long-term. How I struggle with visiting the Mall in the best of conditions. And how these pieces helped me appreciate what could instead be done in this space. 

Also, Jonathan and I got really lucky that the night we visited was the most spectacular sunset! Scroll through for photos of how "America's Playground" appears against an orange sky (no filter).
In case you missed it, here again is the new inter In case you missed it, here again is the new interview with Candace Epps-Robertson @dr._candace_epps_robertson_ :
https://heart-head-hands.com/qa-with-candace-epps-robertson/
✨✨link in bio✨✨
 
This photo shows Candace at a BTS concert, Permission To Dance LA, December 2021.
 
Among the wide-ranging subjects Candace addresses are her experience with #BTSARMY fandom and her current work with museums.
 
Read to the end, where Candace talks about the importance of listening for pursing justice. :-)
New blog post (this one has been a long time comin New blog post (this one has been a long time coming)!
 
It’s an interview with Candace Epps-Robertson -- “On Seasons of Life, Writing, and Career” -- https://heart-head-hands.com/qa-with-candace-epps-robertson/
✨✨link in bio✨✨
@dr._candace_epps_robertson_ 
 
I am incredibly excited about this interview because Candace speaks to a wide range and depth of curiosities. Her related work ranges from reflecting on her journey as part of the BTS global fandom ARMY to curating museum exhibits to teaching writing with visual art and music to caring holistically for ourselves as writers and to navigating burnout. Candace describes the underlying motivations—the deep why—behind the range of questions she asks about social justice, cultural rhetorics, literacy, and writing. It’s clear that this range speaks to the importance of everyday, integrated living for justice: for striving toward justice in all ways of showing up and being in the world—relating, listening, and living.
 
[IMAGE: Photo shows a close-up of Candace Epps-Robertson, Ph.D. with head tilted to the side and smiling.]

#writing #writingcommunity #interview #blogpost #highered #highereducation #literacy #literacyeducation #rhetcomp #writingstudies #bts #btsarmy #museums #art #rest #burnout #socialjustice #socialjusticeeducation #culturalrhetorics #questions #curiosity #listening #everydaylife
If you (like me) feel like you can't keep up with If you (like me) feel like you can't keep up with the posted speed, consider joining this Saturday's writing retreat. There will be guided meditations, time to connect in small-group and one-with-one, and time to write or journal or create on your own. Retreats are certainly one way to claim "me time."

Here's the link (with multiple registration options): https://heart-head-hands.com/product/writing-retreats/
🏕️🏕️link in bio🏕️🏕️

And this photo is of my partner playing around on a path in Shenandoah that we always find hilarious. The posted speed limit of 20 miles/hour feels very at odds with navigating vegetation on foot. :-)

#writing #writer #hiking #hiker #metime #slowingdown #writingretreat #retreat
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About Beth Godbee

I'm an educator and former writing studies professor who believes our fully embodied selves matter in the world. We can’t just think our way out of the incredible injustices, dehumanization, violence, and wrongdoing that characterize everyday life. We must feel and act, too. [Pronouns: she/her.] Read more ...

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