Too stressed to work? Let’s cultivate habits of work wellness
Whenever people talk about stress or anxiety, work is almost always mentioned. Work stress is normal, but that doesn’t mean it should be the norm.
Work-related stress and anxiety have been normalised, even applauded in some cases, but I really consider this shouldn’t be the case, and am passionate about resourcing people so that it is not the case, or the norm for them. I spent the last 6 years of my decade in law as a corporate immigration lawyer working from my law firm’s London and Manhattan offices, and I would often work long hours to keep up with my case-load. This snapshot of my life in legal work can give you a feel for how the daily, and often manic, grind is no stranger to me. I understand how easy it is to get into survival mode, ignore how much subconscious weight we carry around, and become disconnected from ourselves in the ways that matter. But, it doesn’t have to be this way.
A healthy relationship and real connection with our authentic selves makes us feel confident in our abilities, not stressed.
A healthy balance between work and wellbeing is one aspect of what I help people uncover through my sessions. Together, we transform anxiety, overwhelm, stress, and day-to-day struggle into confidence, space, inner power, freedom, peace, and joy.
Looking back at my time as a solicitor, I remember how bringing empathy and heart connection into the equation dramatically changed things for me. I was learning to apply my healing tools to work—a process that amongst other things helped me understand how I could communicate with clients and colleagues in ways that allowed their needs to be met as much as my own. The soft skills that my healing practice brought to my work table, like empathy and deep listening, became very useful when reading a room or a situation. This link between great work relationships and cultivating empathy and connection to ourselves is something we explore in healing sessions.
My sessions are designed to give you the tools to connect to your mind, body, and spirit, for the authentic embodiment and expression of who you really are. I call this embodied spirit, or embodied leadership. Embodied leadership allows your communication with other people to be authentic. When you are in embodied leadership, you feel completely safe in your body and boundaries, and you become present. This is foundational to a healthy work-wellness balance; your optimal work mode.
A key lesson for me is that work-related stresses often stem from not being mindful of boundaries. As a healer, I have to understand my needs, and I have learned how to express my boundaries, and make agreements, rather than worry that I might not meet someone’s expectations (whether assumed or expressed). Creating agreements with the people you work with, rather than having expectations of them, or worrying that you might not meet the expectations you imagine them to have, is necessary to creating a balance between wellness and work. And…in order to understand our needs and create the right agreements, connection to our true authentic self is vital.
When you authentically identify clear boundaries around your needs, you are giving other people permission to have clear boundaries around theirs. Sometimes, this is all people need to start balancing work with wellness.
Importantly, there is an increasing body of evidence to show that the various tools available that are connected with well-being and a healthy state of body, mind, and spirit really do have an enormous impact on a person’s ability to maintain health, longevity, and impact and resilience in their work. This is particularly vital if work requires finding solutions to the big questions. For example, the Guardian recently reported that EU officials are being trained to meditate to help fight the climate crisis. Link to the full article HERE. The Mindfulness Initiative also recently published a comprehensive report, Reconnection: Meeting the Climate Crisis Inside Out, in which they “explore the cognitive and emotional foundations of conscious connection and discuss the potential for mindfulness and compassion practices to be developed into powerful enablers of reconnection, fostering both greater resilience and more appropriate responses to global sustainability crises.” You can find the full report HERE.
I am passionate about the work I do to help people re-connect to their authentic selves, and find joy, peace, and freedom, because I truly believe that this is fundamental to our ability to transform our world into a more humane, resilient, compassionate, and loving place. If we are to survive and thrive…if we are to find the solutions necessary for our futures…we have to resource ourselves from a place of love and heart connection.
I work with people one-on-one, and through group healing sessions, using bespoke intensive or extended programmes that are tailored to individual need. This work can be in person or online and I use a variety of tools including energy healing modalities, meditation, breathwork, and yoga to foster greater connection with self, free limiting beliefs, and bring more authentic connection to self and others. I also support my Embodied Spirit Community through yoga, meditation and breathwork practices that resource us, and allow more spaciousness in life. My online community makes it easy for us to work together because you can attend classes from anywhere in the world; you can join me live, or through the library of classes in your own time.
Embodied Spirit Community classes take place live online three times a month, and individual one-on-one or group sessions can be scheduled to meet your needs. Get in touch to find out when the next available class or session is.
Photo: Luke Chesser @lukechesser