Maintaining Your Good Habits & Cool Upon Returning to Work
Ahh, holiday’s! A beautiful opportunity to refocus grow and regulate. If you have been following along and took part in my New Years Reset, Reflection & Release Process and had a mindful break you probably shifted your perspective and launched your evolution forward a few notches, yay!
Transitioning back to work or study after leave can be a challenging adjustment. Many individuals find themselves grappling with maintaining their progress during the reintegration into a structured routine and the demands of a bustling work or study environment. For many the transition back to work may evoke feelings of stress, anxiety, and overwhelm. The shift to a more regimented schedule and increased responsibilities can disrupt the equilibrium of our nervous system, the allure of old habits, desire to people-please or the temptation to revert to less healthy coping mechanisms may arise, posing a threat to our overall well-being and productivity. In this article, I’ll outline effective strategies, backed by insights from renowned coaches and self-development experts, to help you maintain a regulated nervous system and uphold good habits as you return to work.
Strategies for Success:
Understanding your Challenges:
Do you crack at the first request, stop eating healthy when you finish late, run catastrophic scenarios? Get clear on where your dangers lie. Next, create a plan to navigate them.
Mindful Preparation:
Engage in mindfulness practices such as meditation, deep breathing exercises, or visualization techniques to cultivate a sense of calm and centeredness. Renowned mindfulness coach, Jon Kabat-Zinn, emphasizes the importance of present-moment awareness in reducing stress and enhancing overall well-being.
Visualise Yourself Undertaking Your New habits Once Back at Work.
See it all going perfectly. Rehearse it often. This is Visual Motor Rehearsal, which Dr. Joe Dispenzer is a strong proponent of. Through this process you are practicing and forming brain connections to perform the task optimally and enhancing your belief in possibility, something essential for forward momentum.
Establish Boundaries:
Set clear boundaries between work and personal life to prevent burnout and maintain balance. Outsource, delegate, anticipate or dump inessential, unimportant or intrusive tasks. We need boundaries to protect our time, energy, and emotional well-being. Communicate your boundaries assertively with colleagues and supervisors, and prioritize self-care activities outside of work hours.
Prioritize Self-Care:
Prioritize self-care practices that nourish your mind, body, and spirit. Engage in regular exercise, adequate sleep, nutritious eating, and activities that bring you joy and fulfillment. Renowned self-care advocate, Dr. Kristin Neff, emphasizes the importance of self-compassion in fostering resilience and well-being. She asserts that it is not the people who out-perform or over-achieve to gain a sense of self esteem who are happy, but rather people who can practice self compassion and meet themselves in the depths of some perceived failure who ultimately lead very happy, balanced lives.
Cultivate Resilience through a Daily Gratitude practice:
Brene Brown highlights the power of optimism and resilience in overcoming adversity and vulnerability. We are all vulnerable to loss when we have anything good in our lives, and often we can find ourselves rehearsing tragedy. Practice gratitude and positive self-talk by simply writing down or reflecting on and enjoying the good in your life, present or past. This is a great adaptive coping strategy to navigate future setbacks with resilience and grace as Brown states that research has found that fully inhabiting our wins and being grateful builds an internal reservoir of resilience which we need to carry us through inevitable challenges.
Gratitude practice also: feels AMAZING, regulates the hormones of stress, puts your body into rest and digest (enabling healing, growth and forward momentum) builds a positive neural network that associates the world with these blessings and feelings of safety, improving your overall worldview as I have also outlined in my book “21 Days of Gratitude - Culivating a Happy, Positive State of Mind”
Seek Support:
Seek support from trusted friends, family members, or mental health professionals during times of transition. Reach out to your support network for guidance, encouragement, and perspective as you navigate the challenges of returning to work.
Navigating the transition back to work mindfully requires intentional effort and self-awareness. By implementing these suggestions you can more easily uphold good habits as you return to the workplace. Remember, you have the resilience and resources within you to navigate this transition with grace and resilience.
All the best of health and happiness.
E xx
References:
Kabat-Zinn, J. (2003). Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) Workbook.
Brown, B. (2019). Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts.
Neff, K. (2015). Self-Compassion: The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself. Subscribe to stay up to date with all new Blog entries! You'll also receive a FREE copy of my Life Purpose Questionnaire.