Why We Need to Safeguard Our Capacity for Caring

Thanks to Juan Pablo Rodriguez.

As someone who has spent decades working in and around purpose-led organizations, it has taken a long time for me to come to this conclusion but come to it I have:

One of the most important things we need to safeguard

in today’s worrisome world is our own capacity for caring.

The Rewards and Difficulty of Caring

Caring, after all, can be immensely motivating and rewarding. This is true whether you work for a purpose-led organization, contribute time or money to an important cause, or spend your days caring for someone you love.

After years of caring for my aging mom, I dearly missed not only her presence in my life, but the act of caring for her. Life seemed a little less meaningful without it.

And yet caring can also become difficult to sustain, especially in times like these.

One reason is that the pressing challenges of our day often seem to greatly outweigh our capacity to make a difference. Another is that we often cannot escape reminders of yet more things to be concerned about.

More important than the reasons, however, are the results.

Stress goes almost without saying. Numerous studies show that significant numbers of Americans are currently stressed about the state of the world.

The Risk of Caring Without a Sense of Agency

But another outcome that is talked about far less: when we are caught between deep caring and an increasingly shaky sense of agency, we risk disengagement—if only out of a need for self-protection.

We also risk diminishing our own sense of humanity and, in turn, our quality of life.

At least for me, I can feel my heart tighten when I see news of a tragedy and quickly turn away because I can’t bear witnessing one more horrible thing.

And here’s the rub:

The last thing we need now is less engagement and humanity from people who care and want to be on the side of a healthy and just world.

So, how can we safeguard our capacity for caring?

More specifically, how do we manage to take in what is going on but not to such an extent that it makes us despair? How do we care deeply while remaining open to the still abundant joys in life? And how do we act but not with a sense of the weight of the world on our shoulders?

I can’t pretend to have simple answers. But having learned the hard way what doesn’t work—and searching for the past decade for answers to what does—I have come to some clarity around a few things.

The Goldilocks strategy may work for some: not too much caring and not too little, but just the right amount.

The challenge for me is: Who is to say what is too much or too little? And wouldn’t the answer change with ongoing circumstances, day to day, even moment to moment?

A Bigger Way to Hold the World

What has been more reliably helpful for me is taking our place in a bigger story—one in which we stay connected to what moves and inspires us even as we continue to protect what needs protecting and help heal what needs healing.

This is where savoring comes in. It is a psychological capacity that has become the subject of a growing body of research, including a recent 20-year meta-analysis examining the benefits of savoring interventions.

In my work, it is about savoring the world as a counterweight to the felt pressure to help save the world.

Savoring expands our ability for both purpose and possibility.

But it goes deeper than sustaining our capacity to meet the challenges of our times.

Savoring the World is about coming into a different kind of relationship with a world that is troubled and magnificent at the same time.

A relationship in which we know we belong—and, as in the best human relationships, there is both the giving and receiving of care.

We care for the world. And we consciously allow ourselves to be cared for by it, too.

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A Day of Inspiration

Much of this thinking is shaping a new offering I’ve developed for purpose-led organizations: A Day of Inspiration.

It is an experiential day designed to help people reconnect with what first drew them to their work, rediscover what sustains them now, and carry that forward into how they lead and contribute together. Drawing on emerging research on savoring interventions for navigating stress and adversity, the goal is renewed connection to mission, people, and resources.

Please reach out if you’d like to have a chat.