Emotions are what make us human. Suppressing emotions is unfair to our emotional intelligence, and having to hide how we feel instead of having a conversation that could further the understanding and bridge the divide, keeps us stuck in emotional insecurity.

These days the boundaries between work and life have blended and blurred because the physical space of work has moved to our devices and into our homes; however, the mental and emotional boundaries are the issue, not time and space. It's the worry we need to learn to work with.

Belonging is one of our core human needs and to feel that we matter, that we contribute and that we are cared about. This is an essential part of the mental health conversation at work, it's not just about the overwhelm from having too much on our to do list.

Every day, what we care about directs our choices, we just don’t see it when we are busy doing life. Every day, it’s who we are that makes us unique and it’s what we care about that drives us. And every day, our self-care is our connection that brings us back home to ourselves.

Many people say they don’t have time for self-care, I say they don’t have time not to. When you make self-care proactive and the foundation for doing your best work, staying on top of tasks and interacting better with the people you work with, it creates more time—because it’s how we spend time better and it’s how we achieve our goals without burning out.

Power‐Pausing is the essential tool that helps us access the growth mindset, where our thinking is constructive and we make better decisions.

Change is often seen as disruptive but it’s important to remember that so is innovation. So what if we could learn how to use change in a more constructive way by using Power-Pausing and asking questions, using curiosity and courage to get to the clarity that gives us the confidence to create?

CARE is a two-way street when it comes to human relationships, one that’s built on trust, empathy, and authenticity. Things can get muddy because we can only cultivate a level of relationship with others to the extent we have one with ourselves, which is also how you can survive a toxic culture: by taking care of you.

Solving a toxic culture is complex, challenging – and human. We need to start by recognizing that culture is about our human condition, experiences, and behaviors.

The person is more important than the award. Humanity is more important than accolades. This is how competition and care work together.

In our fast-paced world, harnessing our human advantage begins with a pause. It allows us to change the outcome by providing the space to listen to ourselves and ask better questions

Overwhelm is something we can feel in small moments or for days; for some, it can trigger an anxiety attack, and for most, overwhelm comes from the daily stream of more to do that adds up to chronic stress and a mind that feels like it's about to boil over.

Most people think they don’t have time to pause, when the reality is we don’t have time not to. For us to cut through the noise of challenges and problems and think with more clarity, we must pause.

You have permission to speak up, you have permission to be you, you have permission to do great work, you have permission to pause, and you have permission to choose what’s a good next step for you. 

We don't start our workday hoping for adversity, yet, adversity is what problem solvers are for, what innovation is for, what learning new skills is for, and what sometimes creates loss and sometimes creates a new path. The Self-Care Mindset® will give you the skills to make challenges and adversity at work easier to navigate, handle, and harness.

When things get difficult, we tend to drop our self-care and focus on sticking to what we know. That’s how we burn out, not because we wear out from working too much - which is often how we deal with adversity - but because we’re not integrating our emotions.

Maybe what we’re seeing right now is the great re-alignment, where we start to align people, purpose, productivity, and performance from a place that’s more care-driven from the inside out. Where the inner culture reflects the outer culture and where we are not driven by quick reactions to fixing problems but rather take a step back before we respond so that we can make more meaningful and discerning decisions.

Change is a strange thing. We want change when we are the ones deciding on it because something isn’t working. Yet, when we find the change uncomfortable, we fall back into old patterns and habits.

Let’s take a deeper look into the skills of The Self-Care Mindset® as we move through this year together and learn how to use them in everyday situations. You can apply the tools you learn in the book in any situation because self-care is not what we do at home after work to recover. It’s not the bubble bath or the me-time after dinner. Self-care is not time out, it’s how we spend our time better, and it’s a mindset we have with us all the time.

What if, every day, we could have a beginner's mind? The curiosity, courage and confidence to not know, to question our automatic reactions and do something with mindful care and attention? The beginner's mind allows us to make choices according to what is present, based on where we want to go. Instead of focusing so much on the goal, we focus on the journey of getting there.