Note from Enlivening Edge Magazine: Synchronisticly, here is another article related to the upcoming EE Community Conversation April 20 reflecting together on self-care. Register by April 15 to receive access information or email [email protected] after the 15th.
By Elizabeth Solomon and originally published in the Teal Team January 2023 newsletter.
This quarter’s Teal tips are on WHOLISM, a primary principle of Teal.
Tip 1—Grief Steamrolling: In a recent webinar titled ‘Is Work Broken?’ Jane Peterson shared this Tik Tok video. This video testimonial is a sobering and honest window into what so many people are grappling with right now: feeling invisible and gas-lit within workplaces that refuse to acknowledge their stress, grief and despair.
I would venture to guess that all of us are feeling this grief in some capacity or another, even if we don’t take the time and space to acknowledge it. Post traumatic stress from lockdown; numerous deaths and losses over the past four years; the threat of climate change and climate migration; economic uncertainty: these things touch all of us in some way or another.
What needs to shift in order for leaders and organizations to honor and acknowledge the feelings caused by living in this time of great transition? How can work–the place we give so much of our time–make space for the totality of the human experience?
Tip 2—Rest. More rest. More and more rest: Ed (Teal Team co-founder) and I (Teal Team member) had a casual check in yesterday in which I shared my unending need for rest right now. As a New England resident, I am familiar with January as a season of hibernation. But this feels different– like my own internal pushback against the capitalist machine that tells us to “keep going” and “pull ourselves up by the bootstraps” no matter what life throws at us.
After almost four years of pandemic parenting, overlapping losses, relationship growing pains, and serving clients in my growing business, I find myself in need of some loooong stretches of silence. I used to be afraid to stop because “what if I never started going again?”
But what I am experiencing now is much more WHOLE. I know I am a person who loves to do and create and be active in the world. Can I also be a person who takes space, time, and honors my own needs for rest? I also have the feeling that slowing down in this moment is vital to making proper sense of the accelerating stressors in the world.
Perspective and clarity are critical if we’re going to fashion a more sustainable, human-centric future. Meanwhile, I am feeling supported in approaching rest as resistance by outfits such as The Nap Ministry.
Tip 3—When it comes to being our authentic selves at work, where are the boundaries?: This question popped into my inbox last month: “On one hand, we’re told to bring our authentic selves to work; on the other hand, we don’t want to be overly emotional. What are some tips for achieving/modeling strong emotional discipline?” I opened up a conversation on Linkedin full of Tealy tips:) We at the Teal Team would love to hear your thoughts on this!
Republished with permission. Featured Image added by Enlivening Edge Magazine. Image by Sasin Tipchai from Pixabay.
