Flourish Element #1: Your Personal Well-Being

I've always said,
“If we aren’t at our best,
we can't do our best work.”

But what does “being at our best” mean right now in these times of great change and deep uncertainty?

• Should we stop working with clients until we feel stable and fully on top of things? (Is that even possible?)

• Are we supposed to work even when we are feeling so wobbly and unsettled we aren’t functioning well? (This doesn’t sound sustainable either.)

• Can we create a new middle ground that allows us to be fully present with ourselves while also being in touch with our clients? (How do we do this when everything is changing so intensely?)

Some days are going to be easier than others

There will be days when you are able to function. You’ll wake up and be able to do the work you are called to do. You’ll be able to focus, think in full sentences, and put your thoughts in order. Even with the awareness of the events unfolding around you, you’ll be able to stay focused and productive.

And then there will be those other days when that is not possible. It may take hours for you to find a point of center where you can breathe and feel any sort of focus. When you have days or moments like these, honor your experience even if you can't make sense of why you are feeling the way you are.  On days like this you may feel so unsettled, so unmoored that you can't begin to think about much beyond your own deep self-care.

If you're experiencing any personal transitions in the midst of this huge global unfolding, my tender heart feels your tender heart. I know firsthand that it is quite an experience to navigate both simultaneously.

Know you are not alone in this experience!

Every Change Catalyst I’ve talked to is tumbling around in this newly unsettled world.

Given our sensitive, intuitive, empathic natures, we are often pulled inward to soothe our own tender hearts and souls as we feel the deep undercurrents of change.

We are all spending quite a bit of time just trying to find our own feet so we can stand and find our way forward each day while navigating the global and personal waves simultaneously.

The wobbly, unsettled, and unmoored feelings you are having
are absolutely normal, natural, and understandable

You aren’t meant to push through these feelings or “just get over them.” You shouldn’t even try!

Your sense of feeling unsettled may come in waves — day-to-day, week-to-week, month-to-month — as you are sparked by additional world events, by things in your own life experience, and through your own personal processing.

These roller coaster moments are really putting us all in touch with our own personal humanity while building a deeper understanding of what our clients are experiencing. The more we can learn from our own experiences of this journey, the more we'll have to offer our clients as we deepen our work.

We have a long way to go before everything is “normal” again.
and Our New normal is Unknowable at the moment.

How do we each stay connected with our own center in moments of great change?

How do we have the resilience and the resourcefulness to come back home
to ourselves in the moments when we need it most?

How do we take care of ourselves while also being
strong enough, grounded enough, and centered
enough to be able to help others at the same time?

Riding the wave of our Own Personal response to transition

What can we do to sustain our best state in each moment:

Deep Physical Self-Care: Above and beyond the actions we need to take to protect ourselves from the COVID-19 virus, we need enough sleep, nutritious food, ways to engage our minds, and movement. It’s important to get some fresh air with a walk or through an open window. This is not enough to sustain us, but it creates a good start to our foundation.

Self-Soothing Our Nervous System: As very sensitive beings, we need to find self-soothing practices that bring us back to a calm state whenever we are knocked off-center. Each of us will have our own go-to methods of self-soothing. When we find the practices that work for us we need to keep doing those on a regular basis to bring ourselves back to center — emotionally, mentally, and spiritually

Circle of Social Support: We also need to know that we are not alone in this journey. We need to have the reassurance that we are supported by others, even when we can’t be together physically.

The bottom line: To be at our best for ourselves, our families, and our work, we need to honor our personal well-being and calm our nervous system so we can return to our center as often and as deeply as we need to each day.

Resources to Help You

Transition Books by Carol McClelland, PH.D.

The Seasons of Change:
Using Nature’s Wisdom to Grow Through Life’s Inevitable Ups and Downs

Nature's Wisdom Deck: A Powerfully Insightful Guide for Exploring Life’s Changes

Read More about these books.

If you would like to learn about the
Seasons of Change Model, visit our sister site Seasons of Change.