Last week’s webinar, Manage Well Without Losing Yourself, was full. Not just the Zoom room but full of honesty, questions, and the kind of truth-telling that doesn’t always have a space at work.
We talked about the tension between keeping it all together and holding onto yourself, about what it means to lead when you’re tired, navigating conflict, or just trying not to lose it.
One of the most repeated questions was,
How do I manage everyone else without losing myself?
And we answered it with something deceptively simple.
Start with what you’re carrying.
If you’re feeling stretched thin, try a couple of the practices we shared.
The Brain Dump and Body Scan
When the mental swirl is strong and the pressure is building —
Brain Dump
Write down everything you’re holding, tasks, worries, expectations, and the invisible emotional labor.
Don’t edit or filter yourself. Write everything out as it is in your mind.
Body Scan
Close your eyes and imagine a slow scan moving from your forehead to your feet. Notice any place in your body where you feel tension. That’s where your body speaking to you.
Focus on the area of tension and take a deep breath in and exhale forcibly to release the stress.
Together, these two practices shift you from being reactive to awareness, the first step of WAVE™.
We go deeper into these strategies in our the full WAVE™ toolkit, designed for people who want to stay grounded even in intense moments.
If you registered for the webinar, keep an eye on your inbox tomorrow. We turned the originally planned handout into a full toolkit, packed with work examples and grounding strategies to help you stay steady when it counts.
If you missed it, that’s okay.
We’ll be opening a few more sessions this fall. Keep an eye out next week for what’s to come.
Until then, here’s a reflection for your consideration.
What do I need to return to myself?
Not your role. Not your team. You.
You don’t have to wait for a crisis to practice managing well.
