Conscious Service: Ten ways to reclaim your calling, move beyond burnout, and make a difference without sacrificing yourself

by Elizabeth Bishop

Overview

Conscious Service: Ten Ways to Reclaim Your Calling, Move beyond Burnout, and Make a Difference without Sacrificing Yourself will help all types of service providers understand and move beyond burnout and compassion fatigue while discovering a renewed energy for serving others. Each of us can learn how to thrive and find fulfillment in our vocations as we make a positive difference in our homes, workplaces, and communities.

Using everyday examples, personal stories, and illuminating questions, Elizabeth Bishop invites us to reimagine how we think about, train for, and embody service. Blurring the line between the traditional and the alternative with expertly chosen spiritual and self-help insights, Conscious Service: Ten Ways to Reclaim Your Calling, Move beyond Burnout, and Make a Difference without Sacrificing Yourself offers pragmatic and inspiring guidance for service providers and the people responsible for the systems and structures through which service is delivered. Even if serving others isn’t the core focus of their vocation, readers will discover keys to avoiding compassion fatigue, feeling better, living with purpose, and contributing with impact.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781616499587
Publisher:	Hazelden Publishing
Publication date:	04/19/2022
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Elizabeth Bishop is the creator of The Conscious Service Approach™, a research-based set of principles designed to enhance both the experience of service providers and the quality of service they offer.

Bishop’s professional background includes more than forty years in human service. Her experience ranges from facility- to community-based services and from direct service provision to management and leadership responsibilities. She has specialized in developmental services, brain injury rehabilitation, and mental health programs. She has taught at the post-secondary level for more than twenty-five years, including within formal academic programs, continuing education, and professional development training.

As the founder of Elizabeth Bishop Consulting, she facilitates an ongoing discussion about what it means to be of service through her regular blogs, social media presence, workshops, and online courses.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments xi

Preface xiii

Introduction 3

How to Get the Most from This Book 9

Chapter 1 Know Why You're Here 15

An invitation to Purpose 15

The Call to Service 17

What Am I Even Talking About? 20

Two Types of Motivation 21

External Driving Forces 22

The Million-Dollar Question 27

What Really Matters 30

Personal Values and Impartial Service 33

Your Guiding Values 34

Say Why You're Here 36

Chapter 2 Show Up Fully 39

An Invitation to Wholeness 39

The Stuff in the Closet 41

Five Channels of Human Being 43

No. Seriously: Do Not Be Discouraged 45

You and Your Body 46

Yeah, but Who Has the Time? 49

Listening to and Learning from the Body 51

Thinking about Thinking 55

Meet Joyce 56

Critical and Creative Thinking 58

Conscious Thinking 60

Emotional Labor 62

Sensitivity Is a Superpower 64

Budding Emotional Intelligence 65

Habits and Emotional Hometowns 67

Emotional Maturity (and a Final Word about That Superpower) 69

Connection and Unity 71

The Purpose of Relationship 73

The Mirror 75

Attending to the Voice of Your Spirit 77

Inspiration and Intuition 78

Integration, or the Alchemy of Personal Artistry 79

Chapter 3 Embrace Full Responsibility 81

An Invitation to Freedom 81

A Word about Owning It 83

Daily Duty and the Responsibilities of Living 84

Our Responsibility for Happiness 87

Responsibility and Role 88

Which Baby Will It Be? 91

Don't Hide Your Humanity 92

From Dream Job to Nightmare Burden 93

Responding to Your Thoughts 97

That Jane Is a Real Bitch 100

Responding to Your Feelings 102

Your Emotional Bedrock 106

Acting Responsibly 108

Boxes and Beliefs 111

Our Responsibility for Hope 114

Chapter 4 Connect with Your Self 117

An Invitation to Discovery 117

On Going West 119

Exit Plans, Escape, and Self-Abandonment 121

You're Looking through a Lens 123

Self-Reflective Practice 125

Embrace Your Greatness 128

Great Is Different from Perfect 131

Your Point of Power 134

Personal Traps, Self-Esteem, and Your Shadow 138

Elyse Runs Home 141

Self-Compassion 144

Chapter 5 Communicate with Love 147

An Invitation to Enlightenment 147

Ego and Other Obstacles 150

Intentions, Good and Otherwise 152

I'm Sorry You're Hurt 154

Competing Intentions and Hidden Agendas 156

It's Okay to Want Things, by the Way 159

Integrity 160

Underground against Carol 161

Power and Truth 164

Respect and Conflict 168

That Thing with Carol Isn't about Carol 170

Language Is Power, Listening Is Love, and Precision Honors People 172

Chapter 6 Focus on Transformation 177

An Invitation to Vision 177

Invitation, Intimacy, and Trust 179

Rapport and Reciprocity 182

Reimagine Where the Lines Get Drawn 184

Enmeshment, Estrangement, and Engagement 186

Empowerment and Power 189

Suspend Judgment Long Enough to See Past It 192

Empathy and Imagination 195

Is Empathy a Gift or a Curse? 199

Each of Us a Mosaic 200

We Are All Experts 203

Bearing Witness 206

Chapter 7 Create Community Together 209

An invitation to Leadership 209

Geese 212

Power Is Power, Regardless of Role 213

Culture and Change 215

Supportive Community and Service Provider Well-Being 218

There Is No Such Thing as Neutral 221

Anita's Gift 223

"Labor vs. Management" Is Unhelpful 226

Transparency and Authenticity Go Hand in Hand 229

When We Need the Support of Our Community 233

Navigating Conflict with Safe Sounding Boards 236

No Room for Ego 239

Your joy Matters 242

Chapter 8 Seek and Share Support Continuously 243

An Invitation to Compassion 243

The Energy of Compassion 245

No One Is Immune 248

Resilience Is Hard-Won 251

Stevie 254

Family Caregivers 258

Strangers in the House 261

A Word to Family Members (from a Family Member) 263

Intimacy and Codependency 264

The Problem with Compassion Fatigue 268

Good Grief 271

Chapter 9 Learn from Your Life 273

An Invitation to Openness 273

Stay Curious 276

Lead Like a Learner 279

Not Everybody Will Like You 281

You Have Buttons 286

Spare the Drama 290

Learn and Teach 292

Nobody Owes Us Education 295

Your Experience Matters 297

Chapter 10 Be Here Now 299

An Invitation to Presence 299

An Invitation to Accept the Invitations 302

Epilogue 309

Notes 313

About the Author 315

Editorial Reviews

"As a Social Worker, I have worked in various aspects of burnout prevention for over 25 years as an educator and clinician. Conscious Service offers a fresh and meaningful perspective on what it means to serve others while honouring the self.

Elizabeth Bishop offers a holistic invitation into a deeper understanding of what Conscious Service truly means and how to achieve it. Her thoughtful storytelling combined with calls to reflection and action, are both informative and inspiring. While this is a book about service, it is ultimately a resonating call to helpers to come home to themselves in loving, compassionate and caring ways.

This work speaks to the mind, body, heart, and spirit of helpers, asking provocative questions that encourage those of service to remember the self. Bishop invites us into a "pilgrimage of self-connection." She asserts that compassion doesn't make us tired but rather overextension of the self is what exhausts us. If you want to sustain meaning and increase satisfaction in your service work, and you want to avoid patterns of abandoning yourself that can happen easily to those of us who serve the needs of others, this empowering book is for you."

Lynda Monk

"As an educator in the field of health sciences, I often get asked by my students questions about how I got “here”, and how did my motivations and values shape my career trajectory. I often have stressed the need to follow my gut, and the challenges in maintaining balance when you literally want to change the world. I have often wished there could be a resource to support their exploration into their own sense of purpose and abilities, while at the same time filling the gap that is need in the ‘real-world’, without burning out. This book is the guide I have been looking for as it encourages curiosity and a holistic approach to service. I will definitely be recommending this book to my students, who are aspiring health professionals, to help them promote their own wellbeing while becoming curious about their own journey to conscious service."

Paola Ardiles; Senior Lecturer

...fosters what may be a new generation of thought for training our future healthcare providers to be Knowledgeable, Skillful, Dutiful and Altruistic.“

“Conscious Service would be a useful addition to Medical Humanities, Community Science, and Bedside Rounds for all healthcare professionals. The future livelihood of the healthcare professions, may benefit greatly from the contents herein.

Dr. Brian W. Tobin