Spinning, spinning! Many of us have been dealing with an increasingly turbulent atmosphere that has presented as violent hurricanes, the announcement of the ending of the DACA program, a healthcare system in dangerous limbo, and public demonstrations of racist, threatening and viciously unkind human behavior. Even if we are not affected personally, many of us have friends and family members who are affected, and it just seems like folks are more on edge now than I remember in my half-century tenure on this planet.
I am witness to this tension negatively affecting many of my clients and much of the stress leads back to how we all communicate. I’m not suggesting that we can fix everything with kinder, gentler communication, but that it would be a good practice for all of us to take a step back, take our emotions of anger, disappointment, and frustration out of the dynamic, and try to channel that extra energy into our own accomplishments, ones that we have control over. Maybe it’s a naïve thought, but wouldn’t it be a move toward better if we all did some personal reverse-turbulence manifestation of our own?
We all handle stress differently and giving your peers, work buddies, colleagues and family members space and time to process the barrage of negativity is a good place to start.
Somehow I accumulated a giant sized to-do list over the summer, so, I, for one, will start there. I am going to focus on getting tasks slashed off of my list. Every time someone misses a phone call appointment with me due to their own evacuation tasks and every time I get an edgy or curt email, I will respond with love, support and as grandma always said…”Give them honey!”
It reminds me of a line from Huffpost writer Deidre Maloney, “Much of what we do in a given day has nothing to do with those around us and everything to do with what we’re doing or thinking about.”
See article: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/deirdre-maloney/sick-of-dirty-looks-and-c_b_4703783.html
My daughter started a new school this year and asked me over the summer to teach her how to make more friends. “Honey,” I said. “Lots of genuine, caring honey!”