Achieving Calm in this anxious time
We all know the worst thing to say to someone who is feeling anxious, angry or afraid is ‘just calm down’! This isn’t the answer for ourselves or others, we need to dig a little deeper to figure out what else we are feeling to decide the best course of action to take.
It’s like when I first started rock climbing with my son and we started following the routes, it’s not just about your strength and ability it’s figuring out which route to take, when to rest and how best to position yourself on the wall (believe me there’s more than one and my son’s always shouting “twist your hips mum!”). We essentially need to do a little stock check of our emotions first before we can find the right solution for what we are feeling.
COVID 19 is causing anxiety for almost everyone, that is because it is unprecedented, unpredictable and uncertain all things that contribute to anxiety. Rosie Weatherley, spokesperson for mental health charity Mind says “a lot of anxiety is rooted in worrying about the unknown and waiting for something to happen - coronavirus is that on a macro scale”.
I woke this morning feeling anxious, you know that feeling like you have a test that morning, your stomach is churning and your palms are sweaty, but I had nothing stressful in my calendar to cause it. I hadn’t felt this way for a long time but recognised the feelings of anxiety. Through lived experience dealing with this condition I was able to dig a little deeper to see if there was another emotion I was feeling. I found that I was feeling Impotent - away from most of our loved ones in the UK and with Human Resource colleagues and Organisational leaders experiencing high levels of stress and anxiety as an external contractor it felt like there was nothing that I could do.
There is always something you can do though if you think about it and with the conversation with my husband the night before all around remote working and splitting of teams I called an IT specialist consultant friend of mine and we decided we could do a free webinar on:
Remote working - How to do it successfully and safely
The focus will be on the practical technological considerations and the human collaboration ones.
