The first significant insight from Elizabeth Bishop’s webinar is the role of love in serving others. According to Bishop (2022), service can be defined as an expression of love and caring that can manifest itself in various ways. In this regard, a social worker who helps a family shares their inner feeling of love. One should note that in Bishop’s understanding, love is not a commodity. Consequently, love does not cost anything to a servant; instead, such feelings as fear and anxiety may have a toll on one’s mind. However, the answer to this danger lies in finding new sources of love within oneself rather than loving people less as a protective measure.
Secondly, Elizabeth Bishop noted the immense importance of joy and fulfillment in human well-being, including servants’ well-being. Bishop (2022) argues that the traditional understanding of service as a selfless act, where a servant neglects their well-being, leads to perpetual emotional exhaustion. In contrast, the self-responsive approach to service, where one attends to what brings them joy and fulfillment, creates positive spiritual energy and enhances service contribution (Bishop, 2022). Therefore, attending to their well-being needs is vitally important for servants.
Lastly, Elizabeth Bishop offered an algorithm for building a self-love continuum that may help servants in their professional activities. Instead of turning self-care into an agenda item, Bishop (2022) suggests starting by nurturing self-love and self-compassion, which would organically guide a servant to becoming a self-responsive human being. As a result, a servant would be able to lead a full life instead of entering the self-responsive state only at certain periods, such as the end of working days.
Overall, I might integrate the idea of nurturing joy and fulfillment into my practice by concentrating on pleasant things associated with my profession. I would try to avoid confusing service with selflessness in order to prevent emotional exhaustion and frustration. In addition, I would focus on the feelings of pleasure and self-fulfillment coming from accomplishing my duties. By taking pride in my actions, I would find the inner source of love, the vital essence of service.
Reference
Bishop, E. (2022). Expressions of service: The gifts of self, sensitivity, and responsiveness [Video]. Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation.