Composting Our Collective Stress: Rethinking Resilience in Social Enterprise
By Terry Murphy, CEO of Sheffield Social Enterprise Network (SSEN)
Summary:
Social entrepreneurs hold purpose deeply, but passion alone can’t protect us from burnout. Drawing on thinkers like Gabor Maté, Joanna Macy, Rob Hopkins and Vanessa Machado de Oliveira, this piece explores how Sheffield’s social enterprise community can build collective resilience by slowing down, reconnecting, and composting what no longer serves us.
When Passion Meets Exhaustion
At some point in every social entrepreneur’s journey, passion collides with exhaustion.
I’ve seen it in others and felt it myself — that quiet fatigue that comes from caring too deeply in systems built to stretch us thin.
It’s not just about long hours or tight budgets. It’s about emotional exposure and the ongoing work of balancing mission and survival, compassion and sustainability.
Dr Gabor Maté calls this “the myth of normal.” In The Wisdom of Trauma, he shows how suppressed pain and unresolved stress shape the way we lead and relate. We can’t separate our inner life from our outer work.
And in many ways, resilience begins with learning to compost what no longer serves us: the habits of overwork, self-sacrifice and striving that deplete the very soil we stand on.
From Extraction to Regeneration
Chris Johnstone, in his work on burnout prevention, reminds us that we cannot continuously harvest from exhausted soil. We need to feed what nourishes us, prune what drains us, and allow fallow periods where we rest and recover.
Vanessa Machado de Oliveira, in Hospicing Modernity, deepens that idea by urging us to compost what’s dying in our systems and ourselves. The exhaustion, saviour narratives, and patterns of overwork that no longer serve life can become fertile ground for renewal.
Healing isn’t a luxury; it’s infrastructure.
What’s Been Shaping My Thinking
Recent podcasts and learning experiences, from Active Hope training to Forest-Bathing sessions, have been powerful prompts for reflection.
In a Mark Hyman and Daniel Schmachtenberger conversation, they explore how chronic illness reflects systemic stress. Our bodies mirror the dysfunction of the systems we live within. Just as unprocessed stress shows up in our bodies, our organisations carry collective trauma in the form of burnout, scarcity thinking, and fatigue.
Thomas Hübl’s teaching of resilient presence also stays with me. He says trauma interrupts relationships and that healing comes through presence, not avoidance. The ability to stay with discomfort, to hold it without rushing to fix it, may be the deepest skill we can cultivate.
And in his conversation with Bayo Akomolafe, one line still echoes:
“The times are urgent, so we must slow down.”
In a culture addicted to speed and certainty, that feels radical. Slowing down isn’t retreat; it’s how understanding emerges.
Bringing the Work Home to Sheffield
These reflections haven’t stayed theoretical. They’ve shaped how we support social entrepreneurs here in Sheffield.
Through our bursary programme, SSEN has helped people access Active Hope and forest-bathing sessions led by external practitioners, and I’d like to support more opportunities like these in future.
The Active Hope approach, created by Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone, offers a framework for facing reality without losing heart. It moves through gratitude, grief, new perspective, and action. It helps us honour pain while reconnecting with purpose and act from clarity rather than panic, from love rather than fear.
Forest bathing offers something quieter but equally transformative. Spending unhurried time in nature, noticing the feel of the air or the sound of wind through trees, reminds us that we belong to something larger. It restores perspective and steadies the nervous system.
Connection as the Core of Resilience
Resilience grows through connection. That’s why our monthly Netwalking events and regular socials have become such valued parts of SEGA. Simply walking and talking alongside one another matters.
Our next social is at The Gardeners Rest at 4 p.m. on Friday, 14 November, and everyone’s welcome.
We’re also developing Peer Pods that link people working in similar spaces as well as those at comparable stages in their journey, alongside our mentoring programmes.
These relationships offer perspective, shared learning, and mutual care — the social equivalent of companion planting, where diverse roots strengthen the soil we share.
Resilience isn’t a solo act. It grows between us.
Collective Imagination and the Transition Ahead
Rob Hopkins, in The Transition Handbook, writes that resilience isn’t about bouncing back but about adapting and reimagining what could be. It’s a strength that grows through connection and shared purpose.
That idea runs through our network. From Active Hope to forest bathing, Netwalking, and Peer Pods, we’re cultivating a culture of mutual care that recognises wellbeing as the foundation of social impact.
Like permaculture, our ecosystem of enterprises thrives on diversity and cooperation.
We’re learning to design our work so that it nourishes both people and purpose.
From Urgency to Maturity
Maté reminds us that trauma drives many of our collective behaviours, often without us realising it. When leaders act from unacknowledged fear, they repeat the very dynamics they hope to change.
Rachel Donald, in Fear is a Bad Motivator, argues that fear narrows imagination and cuts us off from compassion. We see it in our politics: outrage replacing dialogue, blame replacing care.
We need another way.
Chris Johnstone’s burnout-prevention work, Vanessa Machado de Oliveira’s composting ideas, Rob Hopkins’ transition thinking, and Joanna Macy’s Active Hope all point to leadership rooted in presence rather than panic. It’s not about denial or detachment; it’s about responding from calm, awareness, and empathy instead of fear.
Maturity in leadership means meeting complexity without hardening, leading with courage and compassion instead of defensiveness, and modelling balance in a world that feels constantly off-kilter.
A Call to Action: Building Collective Resilience
There is already so much wisdom and care within our Sheffield social enterprise network.
Organisations like Space to Breathe, Kaleido Arts, Warmth Community Sauna, Bloom Sheffield, A Mind Apart, Open Gates Outdoors, and Spring Bank Studio already show what it means to create healing, reflective, and connected spaces.
I’d like to explore the idea of a Resilience Commons for Sheffield — a shared framework for wellbeing, reflection, and collective renewal built around what our community most needs.
If you’d like to be part of this movement, I’d love to hear your thoughts.
What would help you and your teams stay balanced and connected in the work you do?
What could we create together to make care and reflection part of how we grow as a city?
Share your ideas with us at hello@ssen.org.uk.
Burnout is a collective signal.
Resilience can be a collective act.
And together, we can compost something beautiful.
Thanks for reading, and for the work you do to keep hope alive in difficult times.
References and resources
Mark Hyman & Daniel Schmachtenberger – Why Chronic Disease Is Exploding!
conversation on complexity and systemic health
Thomas Hübl – Resilient Presence - resilient presence and trauma integration
Bayo Akomolafe & Thomas Hübl – Bold Frontiers of Spiritual Healing - dialogue on urgency and slowing down
Gabor Maté – The Wisdom of Trauma and The Myth of Normal
Chris Johnstone – Burnout Prevention within the Active Hope Training and Active Hope (with Joanna Macy)
Vanessa Machado de Oliveira – Hospicing Modernity - composting cultural patterns
Rob Hopkins – The Transition Handbook and work on collective imagination
Rachel Donald – Fear is a Bad Motivator