“Tough Times Don’t Last, Tough People Do!”
Some quick tips and tricks to help our business communities learn to ride the wave of this pandemic from a both a brain health and psychological safety perspective:
Identify what are your primary safety needs (security, autonomy, fairness, esteem/worth, trust and your sense of self). Based on that self-check in, here are some strategies and interventions that can support your psychological safety needs right now:
- Security – Establish and follow regular routines and strategies (i.e. staying in your pj’s all day is not one of them), foster and model open communication to support certainty and consistency.
- Autonomy – Focus on things that are within your locus of control or support a perception of control, offer choices and accommodate personal needs for space.
- Fairness – Establish and maintain boundaries, ensure that equity in conversations, level of contribution and resources are extended to all in our social sphere, avoid too much screen time esp. at night. Adequate REM sleep is important for brain recovery and repair; 7-8 hours.
- Esteem – Try not to take things so personally and remember we are all in the same life craft, take time to validate other people’s efforts and contributions, and take time to actively connect socially via phone/video conferencing. Talk, share and foster deep meaningful relationships.
- Trust – Create connections with like minded folks and discover the commonalties and shared experiences we have with each other, adopt a “WE” mindset not an “I” mindset. Engage in intermittent fasting as this helps the brain during stress to stay sharp, focused and creative.
- Sense of Self – Know thyself relative to your personality style, internal bias, beliefs, how and what influences, what impacts your ability to cope and/or be triggered. Be conscious and aware of how the media is impacting your brain health and inner world.
If you are struggling or have loved ones whom are suffering and having difficulties coping and riding this wave, seek out supports and resources. I am happy to lend a hand and to lift the spirits and the lift up our community and all those we love and hold near and dear to our hearts.