Give yourself GrACE
Hey Changemaker,
Summer is almost over, and December will be here before you know it. With the high of summer Fridays and vacation season almost behind us, many changemakers feel anxious about fall and the impending year-end crunch. This phenomenon is so common one therapist coined the term "autumn anxiety" to describe it.
Whether you feel guilty about ALL the things you didn’t get done in the first half of the year, you're bracing for an increased workload over the next few months, or you’re in a very good place and want to stay the course, I invite you to pause, take a breath, and give yourself GrACE.
Giving yourself GrACE is about being kind to yourself and honoring that no matter what you haven’t checked off your to-do list, what you’re feeling right now, or how you’re showing up, ultimately, you’re doing the best you can, with what you have, right where you are. That’s all that anyone can ever ask of you. And that's all that you can ever ask of yourself.
In practical terms, this is a three-part process of:
1. Acknowledging what you are thinking and how you are feeling. Whatever you are thinking and feeling is valid, so don’t try to fight it.
The never-ending stream of your emails—embrace it. Hate the hybrid work policy? That’s okay too.
2. Confronting your challenging thoughts and feelings. Meet them head-on instead of resisting or avoiding them. The key is understanding that while your emotions and thoughts are very real, they don’t always tell you the truth. It’s healthy to acknowledge they exist, but you don’t have to accept the stories they may tell you. According to author Don Miguel Ruiz, "Ninety-five percent of the beliefs we have stored in our minds are nothing but lies, and we suffer because we believe all these lies."
Yes, you receive a lot of emails, but you’re super smart and have the capacity to triage based on the level of urgency and importance. And while you may not like the hybrid work policy, is it all bad? Or are there aspects of it that actually work to your benefit?
3. Executing the next best action step. You can choose to take action despite your challenging thoughts and feelings. This requires understanding they may never go away completely, but you can get better at managing them over time so that they don’t keep you in a place of suffering.
No, you can’t wave a magic wand and have every challenge disappear, but you can ask yourself: What’s in my control to change? What’s one small step I can take right now to make this change?
Working through these steps helps you put GrACE into action and remember that you matter and your work does too. Leon Brown puts it this way, “Never underestimate the valuable and important difference you make in every life you touch, for the impact you make today has a powerful rippling effect on every tomorrow.”
No matter your role or title, you create ripples every day when you show up to do the work. And if you’re doing good work, there will always be demand for your time and talent. This translates to impact, some of which you may never see in your lifetime. But it all matters. And you matter too!
Here’s to a solid finish to 2023!
A BIG hug,
Meico
P.S. There’s still time to join us for the Virtual Wellness Retreat for Changemakers, Friday, July 28 - Saturday, July 29, 2023.
It’s a 2-day experience designed to help you pause, reflect, and move through the process of improving your well-being so you can sustainably increase your well-doing for the long haul.
We’ll use the C.H.A.N.G.E. framework for well-being while well-doing from my forthcoming book How to Thrive When Work Doesn’t Love You Back: A Practical Guide for Taking Care of Yourself While Changing the World to guide our experience.
Learn more and register here: www.mindfultechie.com/retreat.
