Show Notes:

 We are continuing in our series on daring leadership following the work of Brené Brown in her book, Dare to Lead. Today we are focusing on the third area of courageous and daring leadership: BRAVING trust. In this episode we break down the BRAVING acronym for trust and discuss the value and importance of trust in cultivating committed and caring workplace cultures.

Brené and her team have already done the hard work of summarizing the acronym into a beautiful downloadable pdf, and you can find that here under The Braving Inventory. This link also offers access to several other free tools that are connected to her Dare to Lead work.

As discussed in todays’ episode, check out Brené Brown’s book Dare to Lead. You may also enjoy some of her other books, including Rising Strong; Braving the Wilderness; and Daring Greatly. These are some of my favourite books for personal development and wellness. She has a couple of other books that are also excellent, but if you’re new to her work, these are the ones I would highly suggest starting with.

Episode Challenge:

Take some time to look over the braving inventory and consider your personal areas of strength and areas for growth. Consider your workplace and where these pieces show up in your workplace or fail to show up and consider some steps you can take to model some of these areas of deficit in your workplace.

Consider bringing the braving inventory into your team and open discussion about applications within your team/workplace.

Additional Resources:

If you haven’t yet, check out the free Beating the Breaking Point Indicators Checklist & Triage Guide to help you self-assess your experiences and exposure to burnout. Use this tool as information as you get honest with yourself about the impacts you have experienced – and start considering telling the story of your resilience as someone who has invested in their own wellness by looking into our Beating the Breaking Point Training Program designed for First Responders and Front Line Workers. You can grab the free indicators checklist here, and learn more about the training program here.

Connect, Rate, Review, Subscribe & Share!

Connect with me on Facebook and Instagram, or email me at [email protected]. I love hearing from you! Subscribe and share this podcast with those you know. I appreciate every like, rating and review – every single one helps this podcast to be seen by other First Responders & Front Line Workers out there. Help me on my mission to help others just like you to not only survive, but to thrive – both on the job and off.

Show Notes:

 As we continue our series on daring leadership, following the work of Brené Brown and her book Dare to Lead, today we are talking about living into our values. This is about being able to identify what is important to us and ways to engage in our lives that align with these values. 

Too often we fail to reflect on our values and they become background to our daily choices. We go into survival mode, getting through the days and the challenges but lacking intention. Living into our values asks us to get clear on what really matters to us, the core aspects of what we believe matters most. It then means stepping out of survival mode and developing clear intentionality in behaving in ways that reflect these values, even (and especially) when it is unpopular or uncomfortable. To do this Brené outlines three steps:

Step One: We can’t live into values that we can’t name.

You can access a list of values developed by Brené and her team, here (click on the one called List of Values). Use this tool to narrow down one or two values that feel defining of you. Brené instructs that you can ask yourself these three questions to help guide the process (taken from Dare to Lead, 2018): 

1.      Does this define me?

2.      Is this who I am at my best?

3.      Is this a filter that I use to make hard decisions?

Step two: taking values from BS to behaviour.

This involves aligning your actions to the values you’ve identified – it’s where rubber meets road. Brené suggests three questions to help clarify these behaviours (taken from Dare to Lead, 2018):

1.      What are three behaviours that support your value?

2.      What are three slippery behaviours that are outside your value?

3.      What’s an example of a time when you were fully living into this value?

Step three: empathy and self compassion, the two most important seats in the arena.

We need to use empathy to be curious listeners through the process of living into our values and allowing others to live into theirs. We need to utilize empathy to bridge between teams who have varying values as well as varying experiences of being in the arena that shape how they show up. We need self-compassion to manage when we fudge things up, to extend ourselves some grace and an assumption of positive intent. 

Episode Challenge:

1.      Use the List of Values curated by Brené and her team and narrow this down to one or two that feel defining for you. Use the questions above to help the process. If you are in a position of leadership, consider asking those in your team to do the same exercise and discuss the ways your values show up in your work. 

2.      Work through the “operationalizing” process to identify behaviours that allow you to walk your talk. 

3.      Consider your stance on operating from an assumption of positive intent. Does this feel easy/obvious to you that people are doing the best they can with what they have, or does it feel improbable/unlikely/rub you the wrong way? If you have someone in your life (work or otherwise) who you are struggling with, what would change about your approach to them/the situation if you were to know with 100% certainty that they are doing the very best they can with what they have right now? Would the situation with them feel different if you were able to know this was true?

If assuming positive intent is difficult for you, and if you struggle with other pieces like perfectionism, lack of self-compassion, etc., look below for additional resources that you may find helpful. I highly recommend all of Brené Brown’s work, although I think my favourite (aside from Dare to Lead) is Rising Strong…possibly because it was the first book of hers that I read and after that I was hooked!

Additional Resources:

If you haven’t yet, check out the free Beating the Breaking Point Indicators Checklist & Triage Guide to help you self-assess your experiences and exposure to burnout. Use this tool as information as you get honest with yourself about the impacts you have experienced – and start considering telling the story of your resilience as someone who has invested in their own wellness by looking into our Beating the Breaking Point Training Program designed for First Responders and Front Line Workers. You can grab the free indicators checklist here, and learn more about the training program here.

As discussed in todays’ episode, check out Brené Brown’s book Dare to Lead. You may also enjoy some of her other books, including Rising Strong; Braving the Wilderness; and Daring Greatly. These are some of my favourite books for personal development and wellness. She has a couple of other books that are also excellent, but if you’re new to her work, these are the ones I would highly suggest starting with. In addition to her books, she also has two podcasts, Dare to Lead and Unlocking Us, as well as a ton of free resources and guides available on her website.

Connect, Rate, Review, Subscribe & Share!

Connect with me on Facebook and Instagram, or email me at [email protected]. I love hearing from you! Subscribe and share this podcast with those you know. I appreciate every like, rating and review – every single one helps this podcast to be seen by other First Responders & Front Line Workers out there. Help me on my mission to help others just like you to not only survive, but to t...

Show Notes:

Today we are tackling empathy which involves a set of five skills. Together these skills and the act of engaging empathically is a lynchpin piece in the willingness to rumble with vulnerability – which is one of the four components of daring leadership identified by Brené Brown’s research. 

During this video we identify the value of empathy lies in our ability to connect in a real and meaningful way with people, who are high value assets within systems and organizations. We need people to bring their best in order to offer the best services and supports to the communities you serve – and we help cultivate their best by offering them leadership that sees, hears, knows and values them as whole people. Empathy is a set of skills that when used together offers space for people to be seen, heard, known and valued – empathy works to see what someone is struggling with through the lens of what they feel about it. It is curious and willing to learn rather than know, and it creates meaningful connection which helps to grow safety, trust, confidence and commitment. Workplace cultures that place high value on their people in offering these pieces have repeatedly shown significant improvement in job satisfaction, reduced burnout and related medical/stress leaves, reduced absences, increased productivity and increased commitment to the job and workplace. 

The Five Empathy Skills:

1.      To see the world as others see it, also known as perspective taking

2.      To be nonjudgmental

3.      To understand another person’s feelings (and be able to accurately label feelings – AKA Emotional Intelligence)

4.      To communicate your understanding of that person’s feelings

5.      Mindfulness

Click here to watch a short video by Brené Brown on the difference between empathy and sympathy/advice giving/etc.

Click here to jump to one of my favourite tools for building feeling fluency – the Feelings Wheel (it’s great, I promise!!).

This episode is the third in a series covering the principles that emerged from Brené Brown’s research and writing. I would highly recommend her book, Dare to Lead, and would encourage you to consider reading along as we cover pieces of it. I generally highly recommend her resources which include podcasts, a Netflix special, a youTube video on empathy and a TedTalk about vulnerability and shame from a number of years ago. 

Episode Challenge:

Take some time to think about how you interact with empathy. Maybe it’s something you use all the time, or maybe it’s been a skill you’ve undervalued, ignored or never learned. Take a look at the five empathy skills and notice which areas you could work harder at honing and improving. Consider where you could implement these skills more effectively to cultivate daring leadership and a culture of care within your workplace, as well as within your life outside of work.

Additional Resources:

If you haven’t yet, check out the free Beating the Breaking Point Indicators Checklist & Triage Guide to help you self-assess your experiences and exposure to burnout. Use this tool as information as you get honest with yourself about the impacts you have experienced – and start considering telling the story of your resilience as someone who has invested in their own wellness by looking into our Beating the Breaking Point Training Program designed for First Responders and Front Line Workers. You can grab the free indicators checklist here, and learn more about the training program here.

As discussed in todays’ episode, check out Brené Brown’s book Dare to Lead. You may also enjoy some of her other books, including Rising Strong; Braving the Wilderness; and Daring Greatly. These are some of my favourite books for personal development and wellness. She has a couple of other books that are also excellent, but if you’re new to her work, these are the ones I would highly suggest starting with.

Connect, Rate, Review, Subscribe & Share!

Connect with me on Facebook and Instagram, or email me at [email protected]. I love hearing from you! Subscribe and share this podcast with those you know. I appreciate every like, rating and review – every single one helps this podcast to be seen by other First Responders & Front Line Workers out there. Help me on my mission to help others just like you to not only survive, but to thrive – both on the job and off.

Show Notes:

 Today we are in week two of our series on daring leadership and cultivating a new generation of leaders who are equipped to lead with courage and transform the broken systems from the inside out. We are continuing to follow Brené Brown’s work, primarily from her book, Dare to Lead. Today we are focusing in on the first of four skills sets that she identifies as components of courage, which is a key facet of daring leadership.

As a reminder…

Brené Brown defines leadership as, “anyone who takes responsibility for finding the potential in people and processes, and who has the courage to develop that potential.” (emphasis mine).

And the four skills that are key components of courage include: 

a.      Rumbling with vulnerability

b.      Living into our values

c.      Braving trust

d.      Learning to rise

This episode is focused on rumbling with vulnerability, and next week will be a part two of this topic digging into empathy and shame resilience a bit further as well as some additional concepts and skills that fall within rumbling with vulnerability. Following weeks will focus on the other three skills identified above. 

The idea of the rumble comes from a speech made by Theodore Roosevelt in 1910: "It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

This quote lays the groundwork for the idea of vulnerability and risking being in the arena, which isn’t always glorious, but is the only path to glory – the spectators (the “cheap seats” as Brené calls them) do not. Brené defines vulnerability as, “the emotion that we experience during times of uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure.” Can you think of a time where you had to show courage and bravery where you didn’t feel uncertainty, risk and/or emotional exposure?!? Vulnerability is often misperceived as weak, but it is in actual fact directly tied, invariably, to every act of courage that has ever taken place.

Rumbling with vulnerability really just means that we are interacting with this uncomfortable space – that we’re not taking the easy way out and choosing the “cheap seats”, but that we are looking honestly at our own stuff, and inviting interactions with others that are open and willing to touch on things that can be uncomfortable but are also very meaningful. It means taking off the armor and being real, with ourselves and others.

Here is a link that shows the “Armored Leadership” versus “Daring Leadership” lists that come from Brené’s work – check it out here.

We acknowledge that we are often working in settings (and living in settings more generally for that matter!) that demand that we armor up. The broken sharp edges of the system require armor to survive, but this is also a contributing factor to burnout – we starve people of feeling seen, heard, known, and valued because we only reward the armor, which is not sustainable. This is why we need to change the system – to reward brave, courageous interactions that grow vulnerability and wholeheartedness. 

This episode is the second in a series covering the principles that emerged from Brené Brown’s research and writing. I would highly recommend her book, Dare to Lead, and would encourage you to consider reading along as we cover pieces of it. I generally highly recommend her resources which include podcasts, a Netflix special, a youTube video on empathy and a TedTalk about vulnerability and shame from a number of years ago. 

Episode Challenge:

Think about your sphere of influence. How can you offer small steps toward wholeheartedness within your sphere? How can you connect with others who are willing to do the work to do the same?

Additional Resources:

If you haven’t yet, check out the free Beating the Breaking Point Indicators Checklist & Triage Guide to help you self-assess your experiences and exposure to burnout. Use this tool as information as you get honest with yourself about the impacts you have experienced – and start considering telling the story of your resilience as someone who has invested in their own wellness by looking into our Beating the Breaking Point Training Program designed for First Responders and Front Line Workers. You can grab the free indicators checklist here, and learn more about the training program here.

As discussed in todays’ episode, check out Brené Brown’s book Dare to Lead. You may also enjoy some of her other books, including Rising Strong; Braving the Wilderness; and Daring Greatly. These are some of my favourite books for personal development and wellness. She has a couple of other books that are also excellent, but if you’re new to her work, these are the ones I would highly suggest starting with.

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Show Notes:

Among the many challenges facing First Responders & Front Line Workers, systemic toxic workplace dynamics is a significant factor impacting wellness. Every front line worker I have ever known has identified this as a stressor they experience and has been a significant factor in the decline of worker wellness for far more people than it should be. Today we are talking about these realities, as well as a challenge to raise up a new generation of leaders who are equipped to lead from a place of wellness and with a focus on wellness, with a hope to create change to these toxic systems from the inside out.

In this episode I share some of my own experiences of toxic workplace environments as well as my experience learning about leadership and collaboratively creating an incredible workplace culture that has been life changing for myself and everyone else who works in this space. I also share some pieces that have shaped this – largely emerging from the work of Brené Brown in her book, Dare to Lead. The pieces from her book and quotes identified in today’s episode are below for reference, as is a link to this book and some of her others (they are all phenomenal!).

No matter what role you are in, you are a leader. You shape and influence because you exist within the system. It may be in small ways, but it counts. And what if we connected together and all our small pieces added up even quicker into something totally altering to the status quo of the broken system that continues to break good people. 

Drawn from Dare to Lead by Brené Brown (2018, p. 4, 10-12):

Definition of Leadership: “I define a leader as anyone who takes responsibility for finding the potential in people and processes, and who has the courage to develop that potential.”

Her research identifies that there are three pre-requisites at the heart of daring leadership (as outlined in the definition above), and these include:

1.      “You can’t get to courage without rumbling with vulnerability. Embrace the suck.”
She then outlines that courage, in this context, involves four key skill sets:
a.      Rumbling with vulnerability

b.      Living into our values

c.      Braving trust

d.      Learning to rise
Note: We will be covering these topics in coming episodes.

2.      “Self-awareness and self-love matter. Who we are is how we lead.”

No truer words have ever been spoken. “Who we are is how we lead” is exactly why we need to work at investing in ourselves and cultivating our own sustainable wellness plan in order to be able to lead from a place of wellness and in a way that asks others to invest in their own wellness for the sake of organizational wellness and the supports offered down the line to the populations we are serving.

3.      “Courage is contagious. To scale daring leadership and build courage in teams and organizations, we have to cultivate a culture in which brave work, tough conversations, and whole hearts are the expectations, and armor is not necessary or rewarded.”

We have to lean into our own courage – which, remember, connects back to being vulnerable – to be able to lead others to do the same. When we can be more real with each other, human with one another, there are more opportunities to connect authentically and work together in ways that can be transformative for all involved. 

This episode is the first in a series covering the principles that emerged from Brené Brown’s research and writing. I would highly recommend her book, and would encourage you to consider reading along as we cover pieces of it. I generally highly recommend her resources which include podcasts, a Netflix special, a youTube video on empathy and a TedTalk about vulnerability and shame from a number of years ago. 

Episode Challenge:

During the coming week, pay attention to where you have influence within your workplace. How can you anchor to your own wellness and model wellness to others within your workplace? How can you demonstrate care and valuing of others in the ways you wish leadership demonstrated? What would it look like to be vulnerable in ways that would enhance connection and leadership at work? And last but not least, consider sharing the podcast and related tools with others in your workplace – start a community of helpers who are motivated in becoming equipped to really make change to the system, together.

Additional Resources:

If you haven’t yet, check out the free Beating the Breaking Point Indicators Checklist & Triage Guide to help you self-assess your experiences and exposure to burnout. Use this tool as information as you get honest with yourself about the impacts you have experienced – and start considering telling the story of your resilience as someone who has invested in their own wellness by looking into our Beating the Breaking Point Training Program designed for First Responders and Front Line Workers. You can grab the free indicators checklist here, and learn more about the training program here.

As discussed in todays’ episode, check out Brené Brown’s book Dare to Lead. You may also enjoy some of her other books, including Rising Strong; Braving the Wilderness; and Daring Greatly. These are some of my favourite books for personal development and wellness. She has a couple of other books that are also excellent, but if you’re new to her work, these are the ones I would highly suggest starting with.

Connect, Rate, Review, Subscribe & Share!

Connect with me on Facebook and Instagram, or email me at [email protected]. I love hearing from you! Subscribe and share this podcast with those you know. I appreciate every like, rating and review – every single one helps this podcast to be seen by other First Responders & Front Line Workers out there. Help me on my mission to help others just like you to not only survive, but to ...

Show Notes:

Courtney Jewell is an ICU nurse in Calgary, AB. In November 2020, during the "second wave" and the wave of anti-mask backlash from those with "COVID-fatigue" and the ongoing politicization of masking, Courtney posted her frustration on her social media. It went viral and was picked up by news sources across Canada (check out the Global coverage here). Here is what she shared, and you can link to her post here. 

"I have been absolutely disgusted by the comments made by fellow Albertans on Facebook posts and news articles. These horrific Internet Trolls are spreading misinformation and baseless conspiracy theories about Covid-19 in our province. These awful people, hiding behind their computers are accusing Nurses and Doctors and data analyst of inflating the numbers, lying about the overwhelmed state of our hospitals, trying to fear monger or even trying to take advantage of all the overtime pay. 

It’s gross, and I this is what I want to say to every terrible, ignorant person out there who has been changing my perception of humanity...we will still be there for you! 

Despite all the crap you are spreading on-line, when you come into Emerg, with your eyes bulging out of your head because you can’t breathe...we’ll take care of you. Even at great risk to our own health, we will do everything we can to help you oxygenate better as Covid starts to ravage your lungs. And when you deteriorate, we will sedate you, intubate (put a breathing tube in) and transfer you to one of the EXCELLENT ICU’s we have across this province! Even though you’ve been spreading on Facebook that these critical care areas are empty and full of lazy staff that just want to collect overtime pay, we will care for you. We will carefully flip you onto your belly (prone positioning) so that your lungs can have a better chance to oxygenate. We will chemically paralyze you but be nice enough to make sure that you are well sedated so that you are not awake, paralyzed and scared. We will call your terrified and worried family members to tell them that we are doing EVERYTHING we can to save your life. When you go into acute renal failure we will put you on CRRT and become your kidneys for you. As the virus over takes your body, we will support your blood pressure, carefully titrating life saving medications so that you don’t suffer a cardiac arrest. We will bath you, clean your mouth and make sure to lubricate your eyeballs every two hours. I know you think we are just lazy and bored, but we’ll still do all this for you. 

We will treat you with respect and dignity and compassion, because that is what we do. No matter what you have said, what you have done, we will care for you. Because that’s just who we are. We are not hero’s but simply people with compassion and who have a desire to help....we don’t need to be attacked right now. 

And you know who else we care for?? 

We will care for your older brother who had a heart attack last night, and your son who was drinking and driving and smashed into a pole. We will care for your niece who had her first baby and then suffered a massive postpartum hemorrhage and your cousin who had a mental health crisis and poured gasoline over himself and lit himself on fire. Your mom who had a massive cancer surgery and your uncle who fell down the stairs and is now a quadriplegic. Because despite what you are telling everyone on-line, we are full of these patients as well. 

So my dear ignorant, misinformed Internet Troll, even though you tried to take me down, make me lose my faith in humanity, I’ve decided that you won’t win. And when the reality of this crisis hits you in the face, or destroys the health of someone you love, we’ll be there for you. 

I will stop reading the comment sections and continue to teach my kids that when there is a crisis...look for the helpers. And of course, to love thy neighbor! 

So much love to my brothers and sisters, fighting in ICU’s across the province, especially to the staff at the Peter Lougheed here in Calgary. We, at the Foothills ICU are thinking of you guys!"

I so enjoyed this conversation with Courtney, and I hope that you found it meaningful too. It would be great to show Courtney some love for coming on and sharing her heart. We would love to hear what you found meaningful from this conversation - share with us on my Facebook or Instagram and I'll make sure Courtney gets tagged in! You can also give a shout out to Mike Sangster whose awesome post we share at the end of this episode.

I am also grateful to Mike Sangster, a pediatric PT from Halifax, who shared this (link to original post here):

"Anyone who really knows me knows that I love Spider-Man. I have loved Spider-Man since I was a kid. I wanted to be a superhero when I was six years old, and that dream never really left me, which probably explains why I chose pediatrics. Some of my patients call me Spider-Mike. This all started in my early career when a young patient and I shared our love for the webslinger and he told me that Spider-Man was the only real superhero because “Peter Parker was just a regular guy, just like us, who happened to be bitten by a radioactive spider”. Made sense to me. 

In times like these, many people call healthcare workers heroes. Some celebrate us by making noise in the streets every night, giving us discounts at stores, and even thanking us for our service in the street. At the face of it, that makes sense. People need heroes because heroes save us when there is trouble. Heroes overcome the villains. Heroes give us hope. At the start of the pandemic I thought that maybe this was my Spider-Man moment. However, as I reflect on the past number of weeks, I know that none of us working in healthcare are heroes.  Sure, we wear masks, face shields, gloves, and the PPE equivalent of a cape, but in truth we are a lot more like Peter Parker than we are Spider-Man. Peter Parker is a person, “just a regular guy” in the words of my patient, who is just trying to figure it all out. Behind his mask, he has suffered loss and experienced victory. He has doubts and sometimes wants to retreat. He feels every hit in every battle, noting in the movie ‘Spiderman: Far From Home’ that even though he is Spider-Man “it still hurts”. But he keeps showing up. He is scared that who he is puts his family and friends in danger. He longs for normalcy. And there is no superhero PPE to protect his heart and his mind. 

We aren’t heroes. We are Peter Parkers. Behind the mask we are just trying figure it all out and do our best. And it hurts. But we will keep showing up.

One of the great Spider-Man quotes comes from Uncle Ben who says: “With great power comes great responsibility”. All of us have the power and indeed the great responsibility to flatten the curve. Please do your part, follow the guidance of our health leaders, and know that we will be there when you need us.

#nottodaycovid"

Thank you to those willing to talk with me, share their...

Show Notes:

In today’s episode, we are talking about how to process our experiences (COVID-related or otherwise) with others in our lives. We are talking about shaping interactions intentionally and pro-actively – whether these be with colleagues who “get it” or our communities of supporters outside of the work who don’t necessarily get it, but care about us and want to offer what they can. We talk about seven key steps to setting up an interaction for success in an effort to process and make sense of our experiences. These seven steps are laid out in a free downloadable pdf info sheet that you can snag, here.

Episode Challenge:

Download the free pdf info sheet that pairs with this episode, and use it to work through the seven steps in at least one interaction this week. Challenge yourself to step outside of your comfort zone and try it out!

Additional Resources:

If you haven’t yet, check out the free Beating the Breaking Point Indicators Checklist & Triage Guide to help you self-assess your experiences and exposure to burnout. Use this tool as information as you get honest with yourself about the impacts you have experienced – and start considering telling the story of your resilience as someone who has invested in their own wellness by looking into our Beating the Breaking Point Training Program designed for First Responders and Front Line Workers. You can grab the free indicators checklist here, and learn more about the training program here.

Connect, Rate, Review, Subscribe & Share!

Connect with me on Facebook and Instagram, or email me at [email protected]. I love hearing from you! Subscribe and share this podcast with those you know. I appreciate every like, rating and review – every single one helps this podcast to be seen by other First Responders & Front Line Workers out there. Help me on my mission to help others just like you to not only survive, but to thrive – both on the job and off.

Show Notes:

In this week’s episode we are talking about the pieces that we need to have in place to set ourselves up for success as we work at processing experiences, including (but not limited to) something with the magnitude of a freaking pandemic. If you missed last weeks episode, you’ll want to go back and start there as much of this weeks episode is predicated on understanding what it means to process, which was the focus of last week’s discussion. Also, in case you missed it and would find it helpful, I’ve included the link to last week’s info sheet – a pdf download that you can access by clicking here. You may find this tool helpful to support you in covering your bases while you work at processing.

Key pre-requisites for processing:

1.      Safety Is Key. The opposite of stress and trauma is safety. Safety helps to reassure our brain and our body that we are out of the hot-seat moment of a significant stressor or traumatic event and that we can let our guard down a bit. It lets our brain and body take a break from scanning for threat, assessing for risk, and running anticipatory scenarios to be prepared for all of the possible outcomes. Safety also helps us keep our brains and bodies anchored in a context that recognizes that we have not-so-safe experiences but that we also have some safe ones – which helps it to process from a lens that knows and feels connected to the fact that the world isn’t all bad or hard or stressful all the time. Skills to support safety include mindfulness practices which we talked about in Episodes 7, 8, and 9 of Behind the Line (check out our library of episodes here to listen to these)

2.      Balanced Brains Process Best. In your work you run the risk of over-training the stress-center part of your brain (which we talked about in Episode 7). To help support the most effective processing, we need to ensure that we are cross-training our brains so they can use all their best resources to help us make sense of our experiences. We do this by consistently utilizing resilience skills, mindfulness practices and self-care routines (if you want to review these concepts, check out episodes 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14…yes, I know that’s a lot, but they cover these exact pieces – listen while you are commuting or exercising or doing the dishes – you got this!)

3.      It’s Not JUST About The Story. When we are processing, it’s not about just telling the story of how things went, it needs to be our story of how what happened impacted us. We need to be able to take time to really look at it, and be willing to be honest with ourselves about the scope and scale of impact. 

4.      Connection. Anchoring ourselves into a community of people who help us to feel seen, heard, known and valued is imperative. This helps us to contextualize our experiences from a frame of reference that knows we have worth and helps to counteract some of the crummy thinking, perceiving and skewed/biased internal narratives that we tend to carry with us and allow to inform our meaning-making processes. Reach out to your people to help feel connected to being seen, heard, known and valued – and if you don’t have this kind of support, get really intentional about working to build it. 

Episode Challenge:

Review any of the suggested episodes that you may have missed to help round out your skills to support great processing. Keep working at implementing consistent resilience, mindfulness and self-caring skills – it’s a gradual process, and it’s ok to play the long game. 

Additional Resources:

If you haven’t yet, check out the Beating the Breaking Point Indicators Checklist & Triage Guide to help you self-assess your experiences and exposure to burnout. Use this tool as information as you get honest with yourself about the impacts you have experienced – and start considering telling the story of your resilience as someone who has invested in their own wellness by looking into our Beating the Breaking Point Training program designed for First Responders and Front Line Workers. You can grab the free indicators checklist here, and learn more about the training program here.

Connect, Rate, Review, Subscribe & Share!

Connect with me on Facebook and Instagram, or email me at [email protected]. I love hearing from you! Subscribe and share this podcast with those you know. I appreciate every like, rating and review – every single one helps this podcast to be seen by other First Responders & Front Line Workers out there. Help me on my mission to help others just like you to not only survive, but to thrive – both on the job and off.

Show Notes:

COVID-19 has hit the world hard, in ways we were largely unprepared for. But no one was hit quite the way First Responders and Front Line Workers were. Being in the thick of it, with your own fears and risks, showing up because you’ve committed to helping – there’s been no time or space or support to step back and really take stock of all that’s happened. All that’s been asked of you. During this episode I share my concern that if we don’t ensure our front liners are equipped to process what they’ve had placed on them, we risk losing a swath of really incredible helpers to burnout, and that would be such a tremendous loss for our communities and an absolute shame.

The content of this episode was a bit more dense than usual, so I have created an info sheet to summarize the concept of processing that you can access by clicking here. You may want to consider printing this off and using as a reference, particularly if you practice journaling or other practices where you engage in reflection, as you may find this helpful to guide some of those practices. I suggest in the episode that you may find it helpful to listen to this episode a couple of times through to help anchor the concepts.

Episode Challenge:

-        Spend some time reflecting on how you are processing the story of the pandemic in your own life. What factors are you listening to? Are there one or more factors you need to pay more attention to? What is the story your psyche is putting together? Are there additional perspectives or context that you need to bring in to help the story fit in a way you can integrate and hold as your own?

-        Consider registering for the Beating the Breaking Point course, currently at reduced cost using coupon code BTBP100OFF. Click here for more info, or here to jump to the registration page.

Additional Resources:

-        Info sheet created to partner with this episode can be accessed by signing up here.

-        Learn more about the Beating the Breaking Point training here. Register here using coupon code BTBP100OFF before the end of the day on March 11, 2021 to access the training for $100 off.

Connect, Rate, Review, Subscribe & Share!

Connect with me on Facebook and Instagram, or email me at [email protected]. I love hearing from you (really – it’s my favourite!)! Subscribe and share this podcast with those you know. I appreciate every like, rating and review – every single one helps this podcast to be seen by other First Responders & Front Line Workers out there. Help me on my mission to help others just like you to not only survive, but to thrive – both on the job and off.

Show Notes:

This week we are finishing off our 5 week series on self-care, and today’s episode focuses on how we make lasting change and habits to go the distance. During this episode I talk about the Stages of Change Model by Prochaska and DiClamente which includes 6 stages. I have created an infographic that summarizes the stages and you can find it here. The Stages of Change Model is helpful in clarifying that change is not a one-and-done kind of process – it takes time, effort and repetition. We may slip and feel like we’ve gone “backward” sometimes – but know that it’s never really backward, it’s always one step closer than you were before. 

We also discuss James Clear’s book, Atomic Habits, as well as a video resource he offers on his website that you can check out here. In his work he talks about four stages of habit formation which include: noticing, wanting, doing and liking. It looks a bit like this:

· Noticing: Get really clear on the habit you want to create or eliminate. This isn’t just noticing there’s an issue, it’s noticing how that issue works in your life and getting really explicitly clear on what you are going to do to change it. For example, it’s not enough to say “I’m going to do more self-care” – it needs to look more like, I am going to go to avoid screens after 10pm, and be in bed by 10:30pm every night after doing 15 minutes of stretching.

· Wanting: Once you’re clear on what you are going to change and the commitments you are willing to make to make it different, you need to set things up to help you get there. James talks specifically about your physical environment being a significant factor in either supporting or derailing our habit formation and he says, “You don’t have to be the victim of your environment, you can also be the architect of it.” This might mean things like setting an alarm to remind you to stop screens at 10pm, having fresh sheets on your bed to invite you to crawl in at 10:30, and a space set up with your yoga mat and some chill music to do some stretching before you hit the sack.

· Doing: I love what James says about this: “shut up and put the reps in.” When it comes to doing, we just have to do. Over and over again. Habits come through repetition, and as we do something more it becomes more and more a part of us and who we perceive ourselves to be.

· Liking: Human nature is such that we are provoked to do things when there is a sense of reward. One of the challenges with many of the “good for us” things is that the reward is less immediate. James suggests creating a reward system to promote engaging in habits that don’t have immediate gratification and offers the idea of marking a calendar with an X for each day you do the new habit. Work to get a string of X’s and then try not to break the chain. Might seem silly, but it works!

Last of all we talk about how the system you belong to will tend to offer mixed messages about self-care. It will likely encourage you to do it, but then slap you upside the head when you do. It’s tricky, and unfortunately it is hard and slow to change the system, so focus on what you have control over and not what you don’t. You can do you. You can control taking a deep breath, scrunching your shoulders up and then releasing them down and away from your ears, you can control your screen time and your sleep on days you’re not working…

At the end of the show I also let you know that for the next week, until March 11th, we are offering the Beating the Breaking Point course to our listeners for $100 off the regular price. If you don’t know much about this course, check it out here. When you’re ready to register, click here and use code BTBP100OFF.

Episode Challenge:

If you’ve enjoyed this series on self-care, you’re going to LOVE Beating the Breaking Point, and I would really encourage you to consider registering before March 11th using the code BTBP100OFF. The 7 part online course can be done at your own pace, and is risk-free with a money back guarantee. Check out the info page for more details by clicking here, or jump to the registration page here to sign up. If you’re not sure whether the course is the right fit for you, I would encourage you to snag our free Indicators Checklist & Triage Guide to help assess where burnout is at for you right now – you can sign up to get it here.

Additional Resources:

Stages of Change pdf infographic

Atomic Habits by James Clear

James Clear’s Website & Video

Connect, Rate, Review, Subscribe & Share!

Connect with me on Facebook and Instagram, or email me at [email protected]. I love hearing from you! Subscribe and share this podcast with those you know. I appreciate every like, rating and review – every single one helps this podcast to be seen by other First Responders & Front Line Workers out there. Help me on my mission to help others just like you to not only survive, but to thrive – both on the job and off.