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What We Need To Process A Pandemic
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.
View all episodes
By Lindsay Faas
5
55 ratings
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.