You Got This! Mentally Strong with Self-Awareness, Resiliency, & Adaptability.
By Debra A. Van Cleve
Create Results Consulting
Today is such a crazy time with the global pandemic shutting down or diminishing or changing business operations at many Veterinary practices. During these times, often, people are focused on their emotions and their internal state. At the same time, they are trying to navigate this new and uncertain way of operating. Such as working from home, or as part of being an essential job and having to take extra time and care with everything you do to protect yourself, your loved ones, and others you work with. Emotions heighten, and the amygdala or emotion center in the brain is enhanced, leaving the rational part of our mind in the dust.
When emotions lead the way, eventually misunderstandings and frustrations occur among each other (work colleagues, and at home too). Our patience is disrupted, and tempers might flair more easily as the stress builds up. That stress comes from experiencing change.
Change is not easy even when we know about it, plan it, and have structured guidance as to how it will all occur. Now add the fact that so much is “unknown” right now, and we are not sure of the next steps day-to-day. Then add in the fact that many are isolated and not used to being locked up and away from others for a long period of time. It’s stress piled up. And this doesn’t mean you don’t have some control over all of it.
You can learn to manage this stress in your own unique way. It does take more energy right now than you may be used to, and it’s worth it to support your sanity and happiness. So, what can you do:
- Reflect or use some sort of personality profile like Wiley’s Everything DiSC Workplace profile to identify what makes you tick. What are your natural inclinations, what causes stress for you, what motivates you, what are your priorities, and where do you like to spend your energy? Once you grasp you, then think about what to do to create more motivational opportunities and to spend energy on the things that fill your bucket. This doesn’t mean you do not need to get your work responsibilities done. It means to ensure that you are spending time on the things you love too!
- Now use that same profile or reflect on how others you work with at the practice operate answering the same questions above about them. Decide how you can best approach a person so that the conversation is motivating for both of you – making decisions, finishing a project, talking through an issue, or just in support of each other. We are all different, and with the level of stress we are experiencing, it’s just about slowing down and taking the time to think through how best to communicate with one another and support each other.
- The serenity prayer is valuable here, “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.” We cannot change what is happening, why it is happening, or how it happened. All we can do is change the things you have control over, and that is yourself. How you choose to respond to the challenges of today is up to you. Be human and vulnerable, yet confident and courageous.
- Get mentality strong – we call this resilience. It’s your ability to bounce back each time things get tough. To say to yourself and even others, “this too shall pass.” Or, “here is what I am going to do today to overcome how I might be feeling, to solve a problem…” It’s your capacity to adapt readily to any situation. This all starts with ensuring your mind and body are healthy with 7-8 hours of sleep each night, good workouts consistently, healthy eating, meditating and list goes on. Find your method for staying mentally strong.
Remember, you got this! It’s all about managing those emotions appropriately by enabling the logical side of your brain help. When feeling down, frustrated, or angry, it’s the amygdala taking over. Time to pull in the big guns and ask your rational brain to help you discover the facts in your emotional story. To see what the emotional brain is hiding. Usually, you will find that FEAR is standing in the way – especially right now with the fear of the unknown. I saw this post on linked in about fear and loved it. I would like to share it with you.
FEAR – Forget Everything And Run – or – Face Everything And Rise. It’s your choice!
Stay mentally strong and embrace what is. Look for opportunities to grow yourself, strengthen relationships with others, build better ways of operating, and clean up areas that are cluttered and causing inefficiencies (at work and home). Find ways to help others and make a difference for one person at a time and one pet at a time. Make someone else smile; it’s contagious and cause you to smile too!
It all begins and ends in your mind. What you give power to, has power over you. If you allow it.
