Discover how Dorcas Cheng-Tozun empowers introverts and empaths to engage in justice work in sustainable, joyful ways.
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Dorcas Cheng-Tozun joins us for an honest conversation about how sensitive and introverted individuals can find their own path in social justice work without burning out or betraying their personalities. Discover how you can be an agent of justice and compassion in sustainable, meaningful ways—no megaphone required.
We unpack Dorcas’s journey from chronic burnout in nonprofit advocacy to discovering "quiet activism," where creativity, relationships, and deep empathy become powerful pathways to change. Learn about the historical roots of quiet activism, tools for avoiding burnout, and the six pathways for sensitive souls to engage in justice work—from creatives and connectors to record keepers and researchers. If you’re a spiritual seeker who feels deeply, is curious about faith-based activism, or wants to serve your community without losing yourself, this episode is for you.
Episode Notes:
Connect with Dorcas Cheng-Tozun through her website: chengtozun.com
Looking for ways to connect with other justice-minded individuals and engage in the work of justice? The United Methodist Church is active in advocating for immigrants, creation care, healthcare and more. Check out our social issues page to get started.
Some United Methodist-related advocacy groups include:
- EarthKeepers
- Immigration Law and Justice Network
- United Methodist Board of Church and Society: umcjustice.org
- United Methodist Volunteers in Mission: umvim.org
In this episode:
(00:00) Engaging sensitive souls in justice work
(02:17) Dorcas Cheng-Tozun’s journey as a sensitive soul
(04:35) Redefining activism
(10:01) Understanding the sensitive person
(11:03) Unique contributions of sensitive minds
(14:34) Valuable contributions of introverts and sensitives
(15:45) New pathways to activism
(18:57) Six pathways for sensitive activism
(28:29) Warning signs of burnout
(33:44) Reacting to burnout
(39:39) Find more about Dorcas
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This episode posted on September 30, 2026
Episode Transcript:
Ryan Dunn [00:00:00]:
Is justice work really for everybody? Let's take a look at how sensitive and introverted individuals can engage in social justice activism in sustainable and meaningful ways on this episode of Compass.
Ryan Dunn [00:00:17]:
Hi, and welcome back to Compass, Finding Spirituality in the Everyday. My name is Ryan Dunn, and in this episode, I talked with Dorcas Chang Tozen, author of Social Justice for the Sensitive Soul. We talked about the reality that many of us feel called to engage in the work of justice, but so much of that work feels life-draining. And oftentimes we feel ineffectual in that work just because of our personalities and who we are. Dorcas shares her own story of burnout and her long road to discovering that there's so much more to justice work than confrontations and public demonstrations. Our conversation gets into the role of creativity, relationships, knowledge and activism, the concept of quiet activism and its historical roots, and finally, the 6 pathways for sensitive individuals to engage in social justice, plus quite a bit more of Dorcas's personal journey. Dorcas Chang Tozen is an award-winning writer, editor, speaker, and social impact professional. She's the author of Start, Love, Repeat, Let There Delight, And of course, Social Justice for the Sensitive Soul: How to Change the World in Quiet Ways.
Ryan Dunn [00:01:32]:
She's also published 2 Bible studies on the topics of migration and mental health. Her work has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Christianity Today, Image Journal, and dozens of other publications in the US, Asia, and Africa. She's currently the Director of Resource Innovation at the Changemaker Initiative. If conversations like this are meaningful for you, hit the like and subscribe button wherever it is that you're listening to this podcast. We would really appreciate that. And now, if you're ready, let's get into our conversation about social activism for sensitive people on Compass.
Ryan Dunn [00:02:14]:
Marcus, thank you so much for taking the time to join us on the Compass Podcast. How goes it with your soul today?
Dorcas Cheng-Tozun [00:02:22]:
Oh, hi, Ryan. I'm so glad to be here. That is a good question. I think like many people, it's an interesting time we live in right now.
Ryan Dunn [00:02:35]:
For sure.
Dorcas Cheng-Tozun [00:02:37]:
And so, there are the geopolitical global things that feel overwhelming, and then there is the, you know, just daily life, keeping track of all of the stuff my kids have going on, as well as trying to find purpose and meaning in my own life, right? So, it feels like a lot sometimes, but But I think focusing on the day-to-day and being open to receiving new mercies and new grace every day helps me through.
Ryan Dunn [00:03:12]:
Yeah. You're certainly not alone in feeling like it's a lot right now. Just the environment and the atmosphere that we're in has a lot of people feeling like, oh, it's so much. So much so that Many people have kind of gone over to resignation, right? They're just like, I don't know what I can do. And then as we're talking about souls, there are the individuals who are of the sensitive soul variety, which is something that you have self-described as. I feel like in reading your book, Social Justice for the Sensitive Soul, like I'm probably in that boat as well. And I have a feeling that a number of our listeners are too socially conscious and want to be active and engaged in justice issues, but feeling like there's a pressure to always be performative or confrontational or constantly on in those situations. And that is just what leaves us feeling, I guess, empty or drained or feeling powerless in the end.
Ryan Dunn [00:04:19]:
And so you're able to offer a whole lot of hope in finding ways to engage in these issues that we care about while still respecting the fact that we feel an awful lot. So can you help us out a little bit and broaden our definition of what activism looks like, especially for those of us who, let's be honest, 30 minutes we're going to chat here and then I'm going to unplug for a while, who are kind of in that vein of— Yeah.
Dorcas Cheng-Tozun [00:04:52]:
I totally get it. I'll probably go take a nap after this.
Ryan Dunn [00:04:55]:
Right.
Dorcas Cheng-Tozun [00:04:57]:
Yeah. So like I would guess many people, for years I assumed that activism pretty much just looked one way. It was loud. It was confrontational. It was about being out in the streets. It was about being in people's faces, engaging in debates, sort of trying to make change happen by sheer force of will. And part of is that that is oftentimes who we see, right? These are the most visible folks. There are times when that kind of activism is needed and is very appropriate and very effective.
Dorcas Cheng-Tozun [00:05:35]:
And yet I think the reality is that there are a whole lot of people for whom that mold of activism doesn't quite fit who we are either. It is really exhausting. It just feels extraordinarily uncomfortable. It's very stressful, anxiety-inducing, right? It doesn't feel true to who we have been made to be. And so I was living in this tension for years. As soon as I finished school, I went into the nonprofit sector, was extraordinarily passionate about justice issues, and yet I found myself in this cycle of constantly burning out. I was on a very regular, like every 2 years I would burn out.
Ryan Dunn [00:06:18]:
Wow.
Dorcas Cheng-Tozun [00:06:18]:
And it wasn't like Things were getting better as I learned my lessons. I thought I was learning lessons, but actually each successive burnout just got worse and worse and worse to the point where by the time I was 26, I was already just debilitated with depression, anxiety, had to quit my job, couldn't work at all, do anything for almost 6 months. All I did was sleep and cry and go to my therapist. That's pretty much all I was capable of doing because I was so burned out. And so I got to the point of realizing there has to be a different way. There has to be a better way. And it wasn't actually until I started working on this book that I could articulate exactly what was going on for me, right? So there was the simultaneous—
Ryan Dunn [00:07:08]:
Yeah.
Dorcas Cheng-Tozun [00:07:09]:
I'm very much drawn to this work. I care so deeply about it. I feel like this is my calling. And yet somehow the way that I've been going about it is incredibly unhealthy for me. And it didn't seem like it had to be that way, right? If this is my calling, there has to be a way for me to do it that is sustainable, but also meaningful. And so by necessity, I think I had to broaden the definition of what activism was and thinking about, well, if I want to stay in this work, I have to do it differently. I have to find my own approach. And as I started looking into it and started paying attention, then I realized I'm certainly not the only one.
Dorcas Cheng-Tozun [00:07:52]:
People have been doing forms of quiet activism for centuries, right? It's just, again, these are the people that they don't make the headlines. They are not necessarily even named in books, right? We don't hear about them. They're not prominent in history, but they're there and they're so essential. I think one of the easiest examples to talk about is the civil rights movement in the US because it's just, it's so well documented.
Ryan Dunn [00:08:19]:
Yeah.
Dorcas Cheng-Tozun [00:08:20]:
It's one of our most well-documented documented social movements. And so of course we know about Dr. Martin Luther King and all of these leaders who were incredible. And yet for every Dr. King, you probably had tens of thousands of other individuals who were supporting the civil rights movement in really local ways, in quiet ways, in behind-the-scenes ways, as administrators, as people who just would go talk to their neighbors, as people who made the brave choice to boycott buses. The civil rights movement would not have had the impact it had if it was only Dr. King.
Ryan Dunn [00:09:04]:
Right.
Dorcas Cheng-Tozun [00:09:05]:
His words, his efforts, they were only amplified because of this huge groundswell of grassroots support and people doing things big and small in their daily lives to try to help make change happen. So now think of activism as just any kind of action that contributes towards social justice, that contributes toward the dignity of other human beings, that gives them greater opportunity to live with health and safety and opportunity, and really is seeking a more fair and equal and just society for all of us.
Ryan Dunn [00:09:47]:
Great. Well, as long as we're in the vein of giving descriptors, do you have a similar description for those who might be described as the sensitive soul or sensitives, as you sometimes call 'em?
Dorcas Cheng-Tozun [00:10:00]:
Yes. So there is a personality trait called being highly sensitive, or folks are called highly sensitive people, right? And this was coined by a psychologist named Dr. Elaine Aron around 30 to 40 years ago. So relatively still a new concept, which is why I think a lot of people still haven't necessarily heard about it. And Dr. Aron estimated that it could be up to 15, 20% of the population are highly sensitive. More recent research suggests that it could even be as high as 30% of the population.
Ryan Dunn [00:10:38]:
Yeah.
Dorcas Cheng-Tozun [00:10:38]:
So not insignificant. If you yourself are not highly sensitive, you probably know somebody who is.
Ryan Dunn [00:10:44]:
Yeah.
Dorcas Cheng-Tozun [00:10:45]:
And highly sensitive people have these very particular characteristics. And I should mention that this is innate. This is not because of how you were raised or some particular thing you experience. This is just how our brains are wired and it's how we came into the world. And so highly sensitive people are characterized by being extremely deep feelers and very deep thinkers.
Ryan Dunn [00:11:13]:
Hmm.
Dorcas Cheng-Tozun [00:11:14]:
So deep feelers feel a lot of emotions. A lot of highly sensitive individuals are also very empathic, right? You're very in tuned with the emotions of others as well as your own emotions. I would say that the deep feeling Sensing also relates to sensory experiences. So it is oftentimes the case that highly sensitive people, the stimuli that come at us from the world, they just hit us at a more intense level than your non-highly sensitive people. So if there was a loud noise, if there was a really bright flashing light, if you got a paper cut and felt pain, right? your experience of that as a highly sensitive person would probably be at a higher level. So they've done studies where highly sensitive people actually do feel more physical pain than non-highly sensitive people. Same with the bright lights, same with the smells and the sounds, right? It just sounds louder to them. It feels brighter.
Dorcas Cheng-Tozun [00:12:19]:
It looks brighter, right? And so their experience of the world can feel fairly intense, which is why highly sensitive people sometimes can easily be overstimulated or feel a little bit overwhelmed by their environment. If they're like in a super noisy environment, if they're at a concert, right, or a football game or something like that, it can get overwhelming. And then the deep thinking part is really that they are planners.
Ryan Dunn [00:12:48]:
Mm-hmm.
Dorcas Cheng-Tozun [00:12:49]:
They are folks who love to kind of sit and reflect and contemplate after something has happened. They tend to ruminate. and kind of wonder a lot about how did that go? How do I feel about it? What could I have done differently? So there is a lot going on inside the mind of a highly sensitive person. So that's kind of the formal description of what a highly sensitive person is. I would say that this book and sort of the term sensitive soul, I mean it to also include people who consider themselves to be highly empathic.
Ryan Dunn [00:13:27]:
Yeah.
Dorcas Cheng-Tozun [00:13:27]:
As well as a fair number of introverts as well, because there are a lot of overlapping characteristics between those 3 groups. Although you could just be one of them, you don't have to be all 3. But there are a lot of similarities between the 3. And I think when we talk about social activism within those 3 groups, a lot of us can struggle with similar challenges.
Ryan Dunn [00:13:48]:
Right, because as we've talked about, so many of the stereotypes of somebody who is an activist come out in the extroverted, A-type personality.
Dorcas Cheng-Tozun [00:13:59]:
Yes.
Ryan Dunn [00:13:59]:
Doesn't mind telling people how it's gonna be.
Dorcas Cheng-Tozun [00:14:01]:
Not afraid to fight and debate. Yeah.
Ryan Dunn [00:14:03]:
Right. In our faith tradition, we would call him the prophet-type personality, right? So one of the things that I really pulled out of deep meaning of your book then is that there, as somebody who is, I wouldn't say I'm one of the sensitives, but probably highly empathic and definitely introverted, I do not need to conform to the stereotype of the activist in order to engage in meaningful work. And I would love for you to lay out for us some of the attributes or positive traits that people who are introverted or deeply feeling, or even on the, I guess, the highly sensitive scale, what do they bring to this work that is unique and valuable?
Dorcas Cheng-Tozun [00:14:51]:
They bring so much. And so I really would love to see more sensitive empathic introverted folks find a way to be in these spaces, because I do feel like they're a little bit too dominated right now by, by the, our more assertive brothers and sisters. Um, but—
Ryan Dunn [00:15:11]:
And you bring up how that can be an issue too. And it is, you know, everybody's that type of personality, there tends to be too much conflict, right?
Dorcas Cheng-Tozun [00:15:18]:
Yes. Yes. Because you need that balance. Really, we need one another, right? We, we need the assertive Type 8 personalities to kind of help pull us as the more sensitive, folks out of our comfort zone to do things more boldly and to act a little bit more quickly than we might choose to do on our own. But I think they also need us, right, to pull them back a little bit, to maybe turn down the temperature sometimes, right, to find different avenues, different approaches. It is not always the case, right, that charging head-on at a problem is the best way to solve it. And I think that that introverted folks and sensitive folks are really great at being creative and more subtle and finding these different ways, different strategies that haven't necessarily been tried before. But to your question of the strengths that they bring, well, that's one of them for sure, is creativity, is their thoughtfulness.
Dorcas Cheng-Tozun [00:16:26]:
That they will really look at an issue or a program or an idea from all different angles and anticipate what will work well, what won't. But also there is this heart that sensitive individuals bring that I think helps us to stay connected to the true meaning of the work, right? So it can be really easy for a lot of us to get caught up in the specific goals that we've set or the activities that we're all about, right? Or we need to achieve certain things. And then you start to lose sight of, oh, but wait, these are actually the people that we're wanting to serve, or this is who we really want to be collaborating with, or this is truly the impact that we want to be seeing in communities, right? And I think that highly sensitive people are just really attuned to the needs of others, to the suffering of others. That's why they're so drawn to this work because we see suffering and we cannot bear it. And we don't want others to have to bear it either. And so we want to do something about it. And so I think there is that focus constantly on what is good, what is good for the people that we are working with, what is good for one another, what is good for the planet. There are certainly sensitive people who are very attuned to nature and the natural world and wildlife and care really, really deeply about that.
Dorcas Cheng-Tozun [00:18:08]:
And, and so I think that they tend to not lose sight of that as easily. They're also highly relational. And so they will notice, well, most of us hate conflict, but we will notice if there's tension in the room.
Ryan Dunn [00:18:22]:
Mm-hmm.
Dorcas Cheng-Tozun [00:18:22]:
If somebody hasn't spoken up yet, if If somebody is not doing well and we need to acknowledge that and care for them, right? So they're just really good at seeing things that others cannot necessarily see. And it is an incredible gift in any organization, in any context, but I think particularly in the work of justice.
Ryan Dunn [00:18:48]:
Can you talk a little bit about some of the roles that they might fill into? Like, you lay out kind of 6, paradigms or pathways for sensitive people to get involved. Can you talk about some of those?
Dorcas Cheng-Tozun [00:19:01]:
Yeah, so I wanted to make it really concrete for people, not just in the abstract, but to acknowledge that there are so many ways that you can approach social justice work. And there are ways that people have been doing this for decades, if not longer. So I tried to find people throughout history or in the present day who are or have been doing this work in these particular ways and have found ways to do it really effectively, just as a way of planting some seeds. So these 6 pathways that I have, it's only 6, so it is only meant to stir up some ideas.
Ryan Dunn [00:19:40]:
Yeah.
Dorcas Cheng-Tozun [00:19:40]:
It doesn't mean that all of us are going to fall into one of these 6, but I did want to lay out, these are real options that maybe if one of these resonates with you, that's fantastic. If not, maybe it will trigger some ideas for something else. So the first one, that I mentioned is called connectors. And so these are folks who do activism through relationships. And when I say relationships, I don't mean that you are hitting people over the head with what you believe to be right, but a lot of it is just about friendship. One of my favorite studies that I came across when I was researching this book was the organizational Sociologist Adam Grant had looked at, I think it was over 500 studies, and he put together all the results. And they were all studies based on 2 people who didn't know each other previously, who were from different backgrounds, either socioeconomic backgrounds or racial ethnic backgrounds or something as political. They had different political affiliations.
Dorcas Cheng-Tozun [00:20:49]:
And these 2 people would sit down face-to-face, not over Zoom or anything, but face-to-face, place and simply have a conversation and not a debate and not a, you know, I'm gonna try to convince you that I'm right, but just talking about themselves, their families, getting to know one another. And in those 500 studies, 94% of the time, there was a reduction in bias and prejudice simply by having a conversation with somebody who's different from us, simply by seeing the humanity in one another, of recognizing the commonalities we share, even though there are ways in which we are different. And so there's actually a lot of power in simply extending friendship to people in your neighborhood, in your school, in your church, wherever you are at. And I think that we have really underplayed that, but it is an actual term called relational activism. And there are some people who are incredibly gifted at building these friendships and building these connections and networks and bridging people and connecting them to one another, right? We absolutely need people who can do that work because I feel like that's one of the foundational pieces upon which everything else is built. So that's one. The second is creatives, which I think a lot of us know who these are. These are artists.
Ryan Dunn [00:22:14]:
Yes.
Dorcas Cheng-Tozun [00:22:14]:
These are writers and painters and songwriters and dancers and screenwriters. And these are folks who show us in really new and different ways. They show us the way things are and the way things could be.
Ryan Dunn [00:22:33]:
Mm-hmm.
Dorcas Cheng-Tozun [00:22:35]:
And it's so helpful for us to have creative, talented, inspired people who can speak to us in ways beyond just words, just me talking on this podcast, that's not going to hit everyone in the same way as them looking at photographs or paintings or listening to a song. That's a huge part of why you have protest songs in almost every movement, because it gives people a vision for what they're working toward. It inspires them, it unites them. And so the power of art in the context of social justice cannot be understated. And then I also talk about record keepers, which this was so fun to research. So this is librarians, historians, archivists. You think about the ways in which historians and librarians have come under attack even in our own country.
Ryan Dunn [00:23:38]:
Yeah.
Dorcas Cheng-Tozun [00:23:38]:
And this actually happens in pretty much every country in which you have an oppressive regime because they recognize that these individuals, because of the knowledge that they are protecting and the wisdom that they are holding, they are a core part of us recognizing who we are as people, of our being able to learn from our mistakes in the past, and how do we do things differently? How do we ensure that this doesn't happen again, right? What has been fair or unfair in the past that we can right moving forward? We need the work of these people to help us better understand ourselves in the kind of societies and communities that we wanna build moving forward. We also have builders who are inventors, engineers, product designers who are making actual things that serve people in really meaningful ways, right? You think, I mean, I know here in the US we are just awash with technology and we are completely overwhelmed by all of our stuff, but that's actually not the case in many parts of the world.
Ryan Dunn [00:24:50]:
Hmm.
Dorcas Cheng-Tozun [00:24:51]:
And there are so many people who still could benefit from well-designed, creative, affordable technology that will help them economically with their education, with connecting them to the world, right? And so, we need more and more of these creative, innovative designers and engineers to put together this technology that will serve others well. And then there's 2 more. Equippers are like mentors teachers, coaches who really give the rest of us the knowledge and the wisdom and the skills to do meaningful work. And then finally, the researchers are academics, scientists, folks who really help us understand what is going on in the world. What are the problems? What's causing the problems? Who's being affected by them? And what can we do about it moving forward? And so, The folks who sit in labs and crunch numbers and go out and do surveys, they are invaluable in informing us of what needs to be done and how we can do it.
Ryan Dunn [00:26:02]:
I'm curious where you see yourself on those pathways. Are these kind of personality descriptors, or are these really just roles that, you know, at some point you may be a record keeper, and then as you move on to a new project, you become a researcher?
Ryan Dunn [00:26:18]:
Is that the case?
Dorcas Cheng-Tozun [00:26:18]:
Yeah, I think maybe the latter more so, and it doesn't have to be your career, your day job, right? There are people who, you know, you are busy with other things during the day, which is completely fine, and then this is what you do on the weekends or in the evenings or just whenever you have a free moment of time, right? Or it's a volunteer position. This can look and feel so many different ways. I definitely, as As someone who's been writing for about 15 years now, I feel like I'm very much a creative, but also have been in the place of being a connector. I recently was a high school teacher, so was definitely in the space of equipping.
Ryan Dunn [00:27:06]:
Yeah.
Dorcas Cheng-Tozun [00:27:06]:
And so I think you can kind of move around. You can be more than one at the same time. You can hop from one to the other. A lot of it, and I think that's a big message that I'm trying to say in this book is that there's no one path, there's no one answer, and it's not necessarily the case. There are some folks who, you know, they just seem to always know what it is that they are called to do and they stick with that for their entire lives. Mm-hmm. And yet I think that's actually quite rare. I think most people will do different things in different phases and different seasons of life, right?
Ryan Dunn [00:27:47]:
Right.
Dorcas Cheng-Tozun [00:27:47]:
My work now as a parent of 2 boys is completely different from what I would do when I was single and unmarried, right? And that's okay. And it will probably look different again when I become an empty nester. And so we also are whole people who are living these whole complex lives, and we need to take that into account in terms of how much we can do, when we can do it, what it looks like, how much of ourselves we pour into it. And so to give ourselves permission to feel like, okay, I will do what I can. I will do the best with what I can, but I don't have to do more than that.
Ryan Dunn [00:28:29]:
As you look back on your own experience as someone who encountered burnout on several occasions, can you see now some of the warning signs of when that burnout was starting to occur?
Dorcas Cheng-Tozun [00:28:42]:
Yes. And I really wish that I had known better when I was younger. At the same time, I probably wouldn't have learned the lessons as well without having gone through it. So one thing I've learned is that our physical bodies are incredibly wise.
Ryan Dunn [00:28:58]:
Mm-hmm.
Dorcas Cheng-Tozun [00:28:59]:
And so it is oftentimes the case that our bodies will give us warning signs when we are overdoing it, when we're pushing ourselves too hard, when we're not resting, when we're way too stressed or anxious. So as a— I believe I was 23 when I started having heart palpitations. And because I was only 23, I thought that was normal. I was like, well, I guess everyone has heart palpitations.
Ryan Dunn [00:29:25]:
Right.
Dorcas Cheng-Tozun [00:29:25]:
Yeah.
Ryan Dunn [00:29:25]:
This is just it. This is what the heart does.
Dorcas Cheng-Tozun [00:29:27]:
Yeah. And so I didn't think anything of it. And, you know, probably around 24, I started having trouble sleeping. And there were all these ways in which there were clear signs looking back now, but at the time I just You know, it's part of it is that phase of life where you're in your 20s, you don't think anything can touch you.
Ryan Dunn [00:29:48]:
Right.
Dorcas Cheng-Tozun [00:29:49]:
And so, I just kept pushing and pushing and the heart palpitations got worse, the insomnia got worse, right? There were other signs of anxiety that I just did not pay attention to. And it wasn't until I talked about the burnout I had at 26 that got to the point where my body stopped functioning, and I did not know that was possible until it happened to me. So I woke up one morning, I felt absolutely awful, but I still dragged myself. And it wasn't that I was sick, right? Like it just, there was something in me that felt like—
Ryan Dunn [00:30:27]:
Yeah.
Dorcas Cheng-Tozun [00:30:28]:
I couldn't do it. I just couldn't face the day, but I still dragged myself to the car. I commuted into work. I went to my desk and sat down. And then I didn't move for about 20 minutes. I could not get myself to move. I couldn't even turn on my computer. And then somebody walked by, one of my coworkers walked by and he asked me, he just said, hello, how are you? And I burst into tears.
Ryan Dunn [00:30:57]:
Mm-hmm.
Dorcas Cheng-Tozun [00:30:59]:
And then there was a little flurry of activity around me and then I got sent home. And then the next day, the exact same thing happened. I showed up at work, I sat at my desk, and I could not make my hand move to turn on my computer. And then when someone said hello to me, I burst into tears again and I got sent home again. And it was so shocking to me that that could happen at such a young age.
Ryan Dunn [00:31:29]:
Mm-hmm.
Dorcas Cheng-Tozun [00:31:30]:
But there had been so many warning signs for years that I had ignored. And so it got to the point where I think my body just said, I'm shutting this whole thing down because you're not paying attention to anything else, and this is the only way that I can get you to pay attention. So yes, absolutely, there are warning signs. It may not look like that for you. For some, I think our emotional health also, right, is really telling. If you find that you are acting from a place of primarily anger, resentment, judgment, hostility toward those who think differently from you, that's not a good sign, right?
Ryan Dunn [00:32:15]:
Yeah.
Dorcas Cheng-Tozun [00:32:15]:
That's usually a place of at least being emotionally unhealthy, probably being spiritually unhealthy. It's a very serious sign that there is something within our souls and spirits that we need to tend to. And I would say to not discount that any more than the physical manifestations of those kinds of stresses, because if we don't pay attention, the anger and hostility within us, there can be a lot of collateral damage from that, right?
Ryan Dunn [00:32:49]:
Yeah.
Dorcas Cheng-Tozun [00:32:50]:
A lot of harmful actions that we may completely unintentionally do, but we still do them because we do not, we're sort of not able to have a handle on those emotions anymore, right? And so we may end up hurting people we love. We may end up hurting our coworkers, the people we're trying to help. And so it's really important to pay attention to those warning signs. And there will always be warning signs. And so I think it's important to not just go, go, go, go, go, but to make sure that we are taking time to occasionally slow down, to quiet ourselves, to really listen to the inner voice and the voice of God, of, you know, what is it that we need to hear? What's the message that our bodies and our minds and hearts and the spirit are telling us that we really need to be listening to right now?
Ryan Dunn [00:33:43]:
Yeah. Somebody is going to listen to this who is in the burnout, who's at that phase. In your experience, do you have a, maybe like a helpful first step that they might do in reaction to that burnout?
Dorcas Cheng-Tozun [00:34:00]:
I will say a few options since I know that not everybody needs the same thing. For me, rest was so critical.
Ryan Dunn [00:34:12]:
Yeah.
Dorcas Cheng-Tozun [00:34:13]:
Actual, like, rest from work. So, taking time off if you're able to, also physical rest. I have become a huge fan of naps 'cause I think it's just so good for our bodies and our minds. And as well as rest from the noise of the world. It is such a noisy world. And so another really excellent step would be to, if you are on social media, if you are a bit of a news junkie like I am, Hmm. it is oftentimes wise to take a step back from that and to limit your intake. Because I think the news media as well as social media, right? They are fueled by our anger, by our sorrow, by what really gets us riled up.
Ryan Dunn [00:35:10]:
Mm-hmm.
Dorcas Cheng-Tozun [00:35:11]:
And so there is value in knowing what's going on in the world, but those may not be the best channels to get that information. And certainly I don't think we need to subject ourselves to a daily deluge of just overwhelmingly bad news from every single corner of the globe. Our minds are not meant to handle that much bad news, right? You think about the access to information that humanity has had for the vast majority of human existence has been very limited. Right. Yeah. We've only known sort of what's going on with the people within 1 square mile of us, right? And so now it is not, none of us are built to bear the burdens of an entire world. We cannot do that.
Ryan Dunn [00:36:03]:
No.
Dorcas Cheng-Tozun [00:36:03]:
We are not made for that. We will hurt ourselves if we try to do that. So I think that's another critical step. Therapy has also been incredibly helpful for me. So if you're able to find a therapist online or nearby, I'd highly recommend that. I have had some very dear friends who have been incredible sounding boards for me or who have just listened, who have prayed over me, and that's made a huge difference as well. And I will say also, I think there is this pervasive feeling within social justice circles, but to some extent even within some faith circles of there's sort of this nobility in suffering. And that's not untrue, but I think I bought into this notion that the more I was doing good work, the more I should be suffering.
Ryan Dunn [00:37:08]:
Right.
Ryan Dunn [00:37:08]:
The suffering becomes the thing. Yeah.
Dorcas Cheng-Tozun [00:37:11]:
The more I was suffering, the more it was a sign that I was doing good work, right? And so it's like, yes, more suffering's actually a good thing, right? The more I have to sacrifice, the more tired I am, the more cranky I am, the better, because that just means that I'm laying it all out there for a good cause. And I have come to understand that that is a really warped sense of what it means to do good in the world and what it means to follow Jesus, right? That That there will be suffering, but not because that's a good thing.
Ryan Dunn [00:37:41]:
Yeah.
Dorcas Cheng-Tozun [00:37:42]:
It's just because that's the way the world is. But ultimately what God's dream is for us and what human flourishing requires is our joy. And so it took me a long time to give myself permission to have fun again. There was a period of probably about 10 years where I had no hobbies. I had nothing that I did for fun because I didn't think that was appropriate. Like, I thought it was a waste of my time.
Ryan Dunn [00:38:11]:
Yeah.
Dorcas Cheng-Tozun [00:38:12]:
And my energy, and that I had to put 100% of every single iota of energy I had into something meaningful. But I didn't understand that joy is meaningful, joy is essential. And so, if anybody out there is like me, please, Find your joy, find something that gives you great happiness, find something that's just for you, whether it's crocheting or hiking or being with your pets. Those are all things that I think we honor God and we honor the minds and bodies and hearts that God has given us by finding joy in creation and in what the creative abilities of human beings. So I have found that joy is a major factor in being able to sustain myself in this hard world. Yeah.
Ryan Dunn [00:39:24]:
Well, yeah. And that can be a form of resistance even in activism in itself is cultivating that joy in a world where—
Dorcas Cheng-Tozun [00:39:31]:
Not letting yourself get beat down by the awful things going on around us. Yeah.
Ryan Dunn [00:39:39]:
Well, Dorka, if somebody was listening to that and they're like, I got to find out more, where can they research more about you?
Dorcas Cheng-Tozun [00:39:47]:
Yeah, they are welcome to come to my website, changtozen.com. I love hearing from folks. So if you write to me through my website, I will do my best to get back to you. And if you're interested in the book that we've been talking about, Social Justice for the Sensitive Soul, I'll say also there was a newly released paperback version that just came out. So you can get it in paperback, you can get it in hardback. I know some folks like audiobooks, so it's available that way as well.
Ryan Dunn [00:40:18]:
Mm-hmm.
Dorcas Cheng-Tozun [00:40:19]:
But yes, please do reach out.
Ryan Dunn [00:40:21]:
I love hearing from Well, thank you again for sharing your experience with us and for taking the time to illuminate us about some of the ways that all of us can get involved in the good work of making the world a more just and joyful place.
Dorcas Cheng-Tozun [00:40:39]:
Thanks so much for having me, Ryan. It's been a pleasure.
Ryan Dunn [00:40:41]:
You bet.
Ryan Dunn [00:40:42]:
What do you think you're taking away from this conversation? Are you imagining a few ways to become an agent of If you want to check out other resources about social activism, then visit our show notes at umc.org/compass. Thanks for taking this journey with us. We also want to extend a special thank you to the team at United Methodist Communications for making this podcast possible. And of course, to you, the listener, for making it possible as well. If you haven't already, please take a moment to subscribe. rate and review Compass on your favorite podcast platform. It helps others find us and join in our conversations. And thanks again for listening.
Ryan Dunn [00:41:22]:
We look forward to journeying with you next time on Compass. In the meantime, peace.
