Productivity Paranoia As A Poison

I have not been able to stop thinking about this article from Morning Brew. In particular this part:

"In a survey released by Microsoft yesterday, only 12% of business leaders said they are fully confident that their hybrid employees are productive at work, compared to 87% of employees who say they are productive."

87% of employees feel they are productive. Only 12% of their bosses think that's true. 12%?!

We've been doing corporate wellness and stress management for four years now and time and time again we're asked to bring in our stress management workshops. Demand INCREASED for these services as more employees moved to remote work. The number one question we're asked: "How do we create on and off time with work? How do we set boundaries?"

In most cases, people are working MORE at home both to prove that they're working and because, without commutes, they have more time to do so.

According to this article, this discrepancy between leadership and employees is leading to productivity paranoia which "can result in intense virtual tracking."

I once worked a marketing job where our boss put cameras behind our backs and pointed at the computer screen to ensure we were never, ever not working. It was a fear-mongering tactic and what it managed to do was scare me half to death, dramatically increase my stress, and eventually caused me to leave the company altogether. My work quality decreased because I wasn't taking the downtime to regroup, focus, and strategize. The increased tracking didn't make me better at my job. It made me worse.

Micromanaging rarely works. If leadership is setting strategic goals, planning with their teams, and setting regular check-ins against those goals there should be zero confusion about productivity. The purpose of productivity is to PRODUCE something. Not just to keep everyone busy.

Have any of you had this experience? We want to hear from both employees and employers. Does this article resonate?

https://lnkd.in/expCBQEy

[Picture of a very young marketing version of me.]

4 Strategies for Better Mental Wellbeing

It's finally May! The best month of the year because for 31 days everyone is talking about our favorite subject: mental health awareness (not to be confused with wellness, fitness, or dieting–we’re talking mental and emotional health).

To celebrate mental health awareness month we are sharing some of our favorite easy, accessible strategies for mental well-being:

1. Understand the difference between stress + stressor: The stressor is the workplace conflict. The stressor is an unmanageable workload, caregiving, an unsolvable problem, racism and microaggressions that wears you down day after day. The stress itself is your body's reaction to that stressor. Influencing the stressor isn't always possible, we might not be able to make our boss a great leader or eliminate the conflict with a coworker, but there is something we can do to influence the physiological stress! 

2. Complete the cycle: To influence the stress we have to complete the cycle–allow our bodies to cycle through the cascade of hormones and physiological responses activated when we’re in fight or flight. While there are lots of ways to do this, the ones that get the most attention are movement and mindfulness. Just a few minutes of movement and a few rounds of breathwork can start to down-regulate our nervous system and help us move out of fight or flight.

3. Get vulnerable: We get it, everyone is talking about vulnerability, but every time we speak publicly about our struggles and our wins around mental health there is, inevitably, at least one person that comes up to us and says, "I thought I was the only one that deals with this." And mental health often works that way. For so long we’ve kept it in the dark, locked behind closed doors, dealing with it alone. But naming something gives you power over it. You can start small by talking to friends or family, but keep in mind that you get to set the terms of that conversation because people will respond to you with their own internal dialogue, biases, and experiences. If you don’t want advice let your loved one know at the onset of the conversation that you want to share your experience and are working through it but you’re not looking for advice. If you do want advice ask for it specifically: do you want experience shares, recommendations, or anything else! If talking to loved ones feels scary a neutral third party like a therapist can be an incredible asset. 

4. Grief, Grief Everywhere: “Grief Everywhere” is the title of an Atlantic article that popped up in our Apple News feed last month. We clicked on it immediately because we resonated with it so deeply. Grief has been everywhere. On a personal level we have lost loved ones, friends, and pets, as a society many of us feel like we have lost time and opportunity, as a community we have often felt disconnected and alone. Grief is, in fact, everywhere. The line that stood out to me most was this, “We must not mistake a return to ‘normal’ life as the end of someone’s pain.” As we move through the rest of this month we encourage you to check in with the way grief plays on your mental health and to be aware that those around us may look fine but truly be struggling. Check in with each other and as we often say, “if you need the help, get the help.” If you don’t know where to start you can find a list of resources here.

Mental well-being is an incredibly complicated, difficult, and unique-to-you conversation to get started. Taking care of your mental health can include setting boundaries, investing in self-care, engaging with your community, practicing vulnerability, and seeking professional help. It's your journey and you get to decide how you embark on it. Our hope is that you know you're not alone, that there are resources available to you if you need them, and there is no shame in seeking the help you need.

To get started on your stress management journey join our course here. If you’re ready to jump right into therapy check out our resources here.

Mental Health Awareness Month

May is mental health awareness month.

Mental health is the health we prioritize at TRILUNA because it's the health at the center of it all. Without mental health we cannot prioritize ourselves, our movement practice, or our habits. It all starts with mental well-being. As a culture, we've had a pick-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps, toxic positivity approach to mental health for too long. We have moralized mental toughness without ever offering resources for understanding our brains and our chemistry. We have suggested that we are one green juice away from health. We've been told to toughen up, be professional and not show emotion, or just deal with it. But TRILUNA wants to turn that on its head. 

Let's be clear though, we are not therapists or counselors. In this space, we are students and fellow humans. But we have also done a lot of personal work in this space so we are going to offer you some resources.

We understand that not everyone is comfortable with therapy and that there are people who think therapy isn't for them. We also understand that therapy has a lot of work to do in decolonizing itself. For more there check out Dr. Han Ren (we lover her IG account @dr.han.ren). There is a way to care for your mental health at every level of interactivity and price. If you're new to this space and would rather just start by exploring on your own you might start with CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy) which helps identify and change underlying thought patterns. As part of her mental hygiene routine, Elizabeth uses an app called Bloom. 

One of our primary goals at TRILUNA is to be vulnerable and transparent about our own struggles with mental health and to share what has worked for us (and what hasn't). We hope that as a result of our work more people feel comfortable seeking help with their mental health. There is absolutely no shame in seeking out therapy. You do not need to be in emergency mode to go to therapy. Couples counseling doesn't mean your relationship is bad or wrong or doomed to fail. Needing therapy doesn’t make you weak. You can find a therapist that fits your needs (finding the right fit is critical and it may take you a few times before you land with the right one). You can have a faith-based therapist or one that is not. You can do telehealth or go in person. You can have therapy that's focused on: family, LGBTQIA, sex, race, trauma, eating disorders and body image, and/or relationships. You get to set the terms of your work.

Prioritizing your mental health is a gift you give yourself. It's a gift you give the world. You don't have to put on a brave face every day to get through it. You are not alone. 

Some mental health resources we really love: 

Traditional Therapy - 

The Gaia Center For Embodied Healing

Therapy For Black Girls

BetterHelp (telehealth)

Cerebral (telehealth that can prescribe medications)

If you're looking for therapy in your area and worried about cost try searching "sliding scale therapy." 

If you're looking for a therapist be very clear about what you want. You can get specific, "I want a Black, faith-based therapist that identifies as a woman." 

There are many types of therapy so you can investigate which works best for you. There are five primary types and many different ways those types are executed against*: 

• Psychoanalysis and psychodynamic therapies

• Behavioral therapy

• Cognitive therapy

• Humanistic therapy

• Integrative or holistic therapy

*Learn more here.

Apps & Education - 

10% Happier Podcast + App

Bloom CBT

Hotlines & Crisis Numbers - 

Many options available here.

Stress Management Series: Know Your Limits

Stress management lesson for the day: Know your limits.

TLDR; If you’re feeling close to your limit maybe avoid the Sprint store and do your favorite mindfulness thing whether that’s running, or resting, or having a cold beer in the sun with a good friend.

Today I was reminded of a hard lesson: know your limits. In the last 30 days, I have lost my grandmother and my beloved pet friend. TRILUNA is entering our busy season. I have two side projects actively in the works. The house is a disaster. It’s a lot. Right now my stress cup is pretty full. I know this. I can feel it in my body like a lump in my throat. But today I ignored it and I went to run an errand that I should have known would put me over the edge.

Our fellow stress management teacher Rosa Castano reposted an image from artist Maiseie’s Ghost “burnout can look like” where 6 signs are listed: 1) little to no motivation 2) insomnia 3) emotional overwhelm 4) amplified anxiety 5) exhaustion 6) easily triggered. Burnout is caused by chronic stress, unchecked stress, and or intense periods of stress. Grief, stress, and even excitement about projects/future have me caught in a really intense emotional period.

When I’m in these really intense spaces it doesn’t take much to trigger overwhelm in me. In scenarios like these, I try to stay ahead of the little things that can build up and push me over the edge. I clean the house, I make food for the week, I make lists, but I should have known that a fourth trip to get my phone fixed would be too much for me today. But I didn’t listen to the signs and when things went wrong again I was short with the person helping me (not a good look) and abandoned the project. In the car I felt the dam break. The most comfortable emotion for me is and always has been anger and so that’s where I went. I got home, slammed some doors, threw on my running shoes, and cried my way through the neighborhood.

When I started running again last month I had no idea that it would see me through so much loss–but it has truly been a gift. Having a movement practice that I genuinely love that isn’t in service of weight loss has been life-changing. Nike’s Coach Bennett feels like my best friend in the world right now (IFKYK). As teachers people often suggest that we should have figured out the secret sauce to a stress-free life. Two things: 1) BORING 2) ridiculous. We all have stress, experience loss, have too much on our plate.

The work we do is about identifying the right mix for your secret sauce—awareness that helps you identify patterns that keep you stuck in the cycle, tools for managing the inevitable, and strategies for getting ahead of it next time. My secret sauce is knowing my limits, not ignoring them once I do, and running when I need to manage the physical stress response in my body. Knowing your limits isn’t about not pushing yourself to be better, it’s about recognizing where to push and when to rest.