Understanding and Managing Moral Injury
"Moral injury refers to the anguish – grief, shame, anger, disgust – that result when we witness or engage in behaviors that violate our own deeply held moral values. It occurs when we know the right thing to do, but circumstances make it impossible to pursue the right course of action." — Kristen Neff, PhD & Christopher Germer, PhD
The Growing Challenge
In a collapsing society, more and more of us are experiencing moral injury in one way or another. We are unable to meaningfully address the many devastating things happening around us – authoritarianism, climate destruction, ICE abductions, and genocide just to name a few. This is amplified by social media and the 24/7 news cycles that connect us to crises worldwide, far beyond our local communities.
For compassionate, high-achieving social impact leaders, staying engaged while acting in alignment with our deeply held beliefs has become increasingly challenging. It's no surprise that so many of us feel overwhelmed, anxious, and exhausted.
Reframing Our Experience
When we view burnout through the lens of moral injury, we bring systemic context into our personal experience. This shift allows us to stop seeing our exhaustion as a personal failing or temporary setback. Instead, we recognize it as a reflection of the dysfunctional systems we're living and working within.
I know this personally. One of my core values is integrity – showing up for what I believe is right, speaking up, and taking action. While this is fundamentally positive, it has also driven me to extend myself to enormous degrees and feel distressed when I'm not doing literally everything possible to address the wrongs I see around me.
Strategies for Managing Moral Injury
So how do we continue doing good work while preserving ourselves for the long haul? How do we continue to do good in an increasingly complex world? How do we both hold ourselves to a high standard of living our values while still making space to actually LIVE our lives?
Here are a few key strategies:
Practice Self-Compassion We can be incredibly hard on ourselves. What if we were kinder and more gentle with ourselves instead? Remind yourself that we're all doing our best. Validate your feelings of anger, sadness, grief, or fear as natural responses to challenging circumstances.
Acknowledge the Scale Recognize that our systems are broken and that fixing them is a massive undertaking beyond any individual's control. Releasing the illusion of control can be frightening but also creates space to focus on what you actually can influence.
Accept that your Job isn’t Everything Your job is unlikely to align 100% with everything you believe. As Amanda Litman, Founder of Run for Something, puts it: "A job is an economic transaction first and foremost — work cannot be your political or civic home... Not everything I want to do politically fits within the mission of the organization I literally built from the ground up."
“Action is the antidote to despair” — Joan Baez
What can you do beyond work hours to address your moral injury?
What will you put down during the workday to make space for that?
In what ways can you re-ground in your values and remind yourself of the actions you're taking that align with them?
Where are you out of alignment, and what realistic options do you have to change that? If there are obstacles that exist to making those changes, note them, and give yourself some compassion for why it might not be possible to make a change at this time.
The Long Game
Most importantly: be gentle with yourself. You don't have to do it all. You're not alone in this work, and it's not a competition. You don't need to feel guilty for living your life, experiencing joy, or prioritizing your needs.
We're in this for the long haul. Getting honest about what sustainable, compassionate action looks like must be part of the solution, and that starts with how we treat ourselves.
Citations
Litman, Amanda. “How to get a job in politics: Where to look, how to think about it, & more.” 8 August 2025, https://amandalitman.substack.com/p/how-to-get-a-job-in-politics.
Neff, Kristin, et al. Mindful Self-Compassion for Burnout: Tools to Help You Heal and Recharge When You're Wrung Out by Stress. Guilford Publications, 2024.