How can I challenge systemic injustice without burning out or losing myself?

This is the question Sor Juana lived. She didn't stop writing when Rome condemned her. She didn't stop thinking when the Church pressured her silence. But she also didn't martyr herself recklessly—she was strategic, she found community, she protected her intellectual life. Burnout happens when you treat justice work as individual redemption. It's not. You're one person in a long line of people asking hard questions. Give yourself permission to work at a pace you can sustain. Some seasons are intense; some are about maintenance and small acts. Some battles you lead; others you support from the sidelines. Your most dangerous opponent isn't those in power—it's despair. Despair makes you careless. It makes you sacrifice the parts of yourself that make you effective. So tend those parts: your curiosity, your friendships, your ability to find meaning beyond the fight. Sor Juana wrote poetry alongside her defiance. She had intellectual joy. That wasn't distraction from her work; it was fuel for it. Ask yourself regularly: am I still *myself* in this? If the answer is no, something needs to change.