Since I posted my last blog two weeks ago about holding on to my optimistic new year’s attitude, the three anchors I identified have been tested. Those anchors are personal values, self-awareness, and self-care practices.
I haven’t gotten sick, or lost my livelihood, or my home, so I did not face catastrophic losses or changes. But a close family member from my extended family died quite suddenly and tragically young. I resigned from a promising but too demanding professional position, and I had more work on my plate involving new technological challenges as well. The events, decisions, aftermath, and amount of work strained those anchors. I remember thinking as I wrote the last blog that I was tempting fate by advertising my resources and strategies. It didn’t take long for that to happen!
A reckoning of how the anchors performed and in what areas now seems in order.
- Personal Values, yes these were challenged
- Of course, mourning the loss of a loved one, how to do this in the time of COVID, how to support directly affected family?
- That professional position, I began to feel that my understanding of the work and responsibilities was not what I had thought. There was a conflict. How to handle this?
- How to maintain the highest level of professionalism, excellence in all aspects of the work at a stressful time?
- Self-Awareness, ditto
- Understanding and attending my own grieving, and understanding how to support others’ grieving process
- My “spidey sense”, what is my gut telling me about this professional position? I felt “get out” distinctly, not comfortable!
- Pacing myself, staying mindful about self-care
- Self-Care Practices, ditto
- Staying mindful of diet, even as I strayed sometimes
- Exercise, even as these sessions were sometimes shortened
- Rest, even as sometimes I had less sleep than I needed
- Spiritual practices, yes, a lot!
- Reaching out for support, I did this a lot, too!
In particular, I prayed a lot, I talked to trusted friends and relatives asking them to be sounding boards on these challenges. Those practices as well as diet, exercise, and rest, even if not perfect, belong in the self-care anchor. Aware of my gut sense about the job and aware of my own needs to mourn belong with my self-awareness practices. I also dared to take risks, for example, quitting a job and using a new technology for a presentation. I trusted myself to make the right decisions. These actions express some of my personal values.
I see, after writing this blog, that personal values inform what I am aware of and the path to take when I am self-aware. And my self-care practices support me throughout. So, tested, and no perfect score, but I did handle a tough couple of weeks to the best of my capabilities. Thank you, personal anchors.