Nearly every individual faces stress in their life, and this is all the more the case for those doing “people work”. Prolonged stress could reduce our ability to be interested or motivated in areas that deeply engaged or inspired us – a state that is called burnout. What if we could find ways to manage stress before it becomes burnout? In this website we feature ways to approach self-care, and resources to help those doing people work manage stress and prevent burnout.

We hope you can find time for this website regularly and get ideas on making your self-care an everyday practice, not just something to practise when you are feeling low. Start here first, and then consider visiting the Self-care section for resources, exercises and ideas that you can use for stress management as an individual. The Collective care section also has resources and exercises that a collective space – an organisation, a collective, a group of individuals – can consider to make their spaces self-care-friendly. Know more about our work and access relevant resources from TARSHI in the Our work section. Click the button below to know more about the contents of this website and how to use them.

TARSHI (Talking About Reproductive and Sexual Health Issues) is an NGO based in New Delhi, India, that has been working on sexual and reproductive health and rights since 1996. Stress management and burnout prevention have been an integral part of our work since our inception as a helpline, in which our counsellors offered counsel, information and referrals on issues related to sexuality. Which is why we believe that self-care is a fundamental right for those who do people work and engage with distress and discrimination everyday as part of their work. We believe that self-care is feminist and should be intersectional, as prioritising self-care to prevent stress and subsequently burnout is gendered and denied to people based on their gender, class, disability status, caste, religion, occupation, and more. 

The worksheets are exercises of different kinds designed to help you in your self-care journey. Some help you identify things that give you joy. A few are to help you understand your emotions, reactions and responses. Some others help you reflect on your journey to understand how you may want to move forward, be it as an individual or as someone part of a larger collective, organisation, or movement. Click the button below to check out the diverse range of worksheets!

Self-care Essentials is TARSHI’s attempt to get those doing people work to think more actively about stress in our lives, and about reducing stress and preventing burnout through self-care and collective care. TARSHI does not claim to be an expert in the subject. We want to use our years of experience in this area to take this conversation to more people, and to enrich it by adding layers that reflect the diversity of human lives and experiences. Which is why this resource is always Work in Progress: we are aware of some gaps in our resources, and there may be some we don’t know about. We invite you to be a collaborator in this journey with us.