Feature in CanvasRebel: Meet Eliza Ramos
We were lucky to catch up with Eliza Ramos recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Eliza thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Was there a defining moment in your professional career? A moment that changed the trajectory of your career?
I have always been curious about what healing means to those I come into relationship with. I’m aware that for me, my definition of healing is constantly changing. And when looking back at these past two years, and the hardships we have all been through, healing has meant coming back to myself, to the things that matter to me, to the way that I most authentically want to be in the world. When the pandemic hit and it brought up a lot of my old fears that I thought I had “dealt with”, but that there was still something to learn from. I by no means think healing is linear, and I think there is a level of growth that happens every time we cycle back to something in a different way.
When I’m coaching people, I talk about that moment or experience when our stuff shows up again or in a new way or something gets hooked and those things that maybe we judge ourselves and say ‘But I’ve healed that, and it’s suddenly there again.’ For me, the practice of meeting the moment with mindfulness has really come into play – acceptance that this is the moment that I’m in, even if it means anger or pain or grief or loss. I often find that the most suffering I’ve experienced is when I’m pushing against what is happening, or when I’m telling myself “this shouldn’t be happening, this is all my fault, why can’t things be different”, etc. The second I could actually meet the reality of what was happening… then I could enter creativity in terms of what I could do about what I was facing.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I’m Eliza Ramos. I currently live on unceded Ohlone land in Oakland CA. I come from a multi-cultural multi-lingual family. I’m the second of four siblings. I consider myself a creative, an artist, an explorer, an adventurer. And there are many other things I can say, but I’ll start with that. Vocationally, I’m the CEO of an organization called Circles International. Our aim is to support social justice leaders to cultivate wellbeing and prevent burnout… because burnout is really rampant in the social justice field. If you look at social justice and organizing compared to other vocations or work that people might enter, the level of turnover and mental health burnout is really high. I honestly came to this work because of my own burnout.
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