132. Self-Care During a Crisis
Given everything that’s currently unfolding in Gaza and what I’m experiencing as an Arab American, this week, I’m urging you to create space for self-care when you’re either directly impacted by a crisis or are witnessing your community be affected by one.
As long as you and I are alive, there will be horrible crises in the world. Being a human is messy, and we’re all coping the best we can. There’s nothing wrong with you if you don’t feel like you have the capacity to do your best work or can’t manage the fear, anxiety, and outrage you’re experiencing. However, prioritizing your mental and emotional health is vital during a crisis, and I’m offering you my top tips.
Join me this week to hear self-care approaches that will help you slow your stress cycle and process difficult emotions, whether you’re directly impacted by a crisis or are witnessing one. You’ll learn how neglecting self-care doesn’t solve anything, and I’m sharing how I’m currently giving myself mental and emotional respite so I can take the necessary actions to respond.
Do you want to stop working late and working through lunches? Do you want to have more control over your time? Click here to download my FREE Top 5 Calendar Tips! They are simple and effective, and you can implement them right away!
What You Will Discover:
Why it’s vital to take care of yourself during a crisis.
How to prioritize taking care of yourself when you’re in or witnessing a crisis.
Why it’s worth calling in people who aren’t as directly impacted by any crisis to show up and take action.
How to process your emotions during a crisis.
What you can do if you’re watching your community be affected by an unfolding crisis.
Resources:
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101. Rest Rewind: Allowing Emotions
Full Episode Transcript:
Hey you all, I’m Marissa McKool, and you’re listening to the Redefining Rest Podcast for Public Health Professionals. Here we believe rest is your right. You don’t have to earn it, you just have to learn how to take it and I’m going to teach you. Ready? Come along.
Hi, everyone. This was not a podcast episode that was supposed to come out this week. It’s my first time sitting recording since I got back from my month off. You all are hearing this the week of November 6th. I’m sitting down to record this the week of October 24th. And I was going to talk about how the field of public health promotes hustle culture. But given everything at the time of this recording, going on in Gaza and what I’ve been experiencing as an Arab American, watching this unfold. I kind of pushed that off to next week.
You’ll still get that episode. It’ll still be really useful, but I really wanted to talk about how to take care of yourself and make space for yourself and your mental and emotional health when you are either going through a crisis or you’re witnessing one. Particularly if you’re witnessing one that has to do with people, your family, your friends, people that look like you, your community, things of that nature. So this is going to be a little bit different and to be honest I’m doing this a little bit off the cuff. Normally I have objectives, learning objectives, the whole outline, but I’m not doing it that way today.
And honestly, my podcast producer might come back to me and say, “Hey, that wasn’t so useful.” And I might have to redo this whole thing with more structure. But I really wanted to just speak from not just my experience and what I’m going through now and what I am doing now in the midst of what’s going on in Gaza. But also my experience as a burnout rest coach who has an understanding of the physiological stress system of fight or flight. How your brain functions in these scenarios, as well as drawing a little bit from a personal crisis we had a few years ago where my family had to evacuate from the Caldor fires.
I do want to make a disclaimer, what I am sharing here is not the end all be all of how to take care of yourself or support yourself during a time of crisis. And some of these things might not work for you. They might not be your preference and that’s totally okay. And I’m sure there are approaches to taking care of yourself during times of crises that I’m not going to address. And, while, from the bottom of my heart I hope by the time this episode airs that we have seen a ceasefire with the violence and conflict in Gaza.
I also know this isn’t going to be the last crisis that any of us are experiencing, are witnessing, are facing. So I do hope this episode and part of the reason why I wanted to prioritize it and make it is that it can live on and be a resource for you any time there is a crisis, whether it’s a personal crisis, an environmental one, a global one or anything else. You can come back and in the future, those who maybe are looking for support can find this episode.
And while these approaches I’m going to talk about can help anyone, I really intended for this and I’ve really thought about this as for this to be a resource for those of you who are experiencing the crisis directly or indirectly. Because those of you who have experienced this know, when there is something like a genocide, a war, a harmful policy put into place or anything like that, that impacts particularly one community or a couple of communities that you belong to. You are hurting while that is unfolding.
You are trying to process what’s happening while that’s unfolding, while also trying to advocate, to speak up, to take action and that’s a lot. And during those times, that’s when we really need whether you want to call them allies or co-conspirators or whatever it may be who aren’t as directly impacted to show up and to take action. Because they can take action without the additional emotional burden that people who are directly or secondarily impacted by whatever the crisis is.
If you are an ally, if you are a co-conspirator showing up in a public health crisis and a humanitarian need. Yes, you need to take care of yourself first. I do not want you to neglect yourself either. But particularly those of you listening who may be directly or secondarily impacted by whether it’s what’s happening in Gaza or another crisis.
Recognizing just starting off by recognizing I have two layers happening here, I have the first layer of impact, whether it’s the emotional burden I’m carrying, I’m processing, or in actuality some other type of burden I’m facing having to evacuate. Having to immediately respond, having to find safety, those kind of things. And then on top of that, trying to take action to speak up, to be an advocate, to do something, to make a change. Those are two levels there and that’s hard to juggle.
So I’m going to talk about this kind of in if you’re directly impacted. And you’re in a situation where maybe you’re evacuating because of a hurricane or a fire or violence or you’re directly impacted by a harmful policy put into place or anything like that. And then I’m going to talk about some things you can do if maybe you’re not directly impacted, but secondarily, you’re watching your community, your loved ones being directly impacted and that has a huge emotional effect on you.
So if you are directly impacted by whatever crisis, whatever is happening it’s important to recognize that your fight or flight mechanism is turned on. And to be honest, if you’re listening to this, it probably means maybe not completely, but for many of you that you’ve gotten to a place of safety, because your first priority is safety. It’s unlikely you’re going to listen to a podcast episode when you need to get all your stuff and evacuate your home. So if you’re listening to this, you’re probably and hopefully in a better place of some sort of safety, some sort of stability, even if it’s short term.
And if you are in that place you are likely experiencing exhaustion, not just physical exhaustion but mental and emotional. Because your brain has been in overdrive for however long, several hours, several days, several weeks, scanning for danger, in a constant state of decision making and working to predict or anticipate the next obstacle. And that is normal. Your brain is trying to protect you from whatever is going on and in a crisis that is useful.
But then what happens when you get to a place where you are physically safe or somewhat stable, your brain is probably going to try to stay in overdrive and might be stuck in that fight or flight mode, which burns up your mental energy, which is already low. And it also doesn’t allow you to process the emotions that come with what you’re experiencing. And you need to be able to let your body process those emotions, to slow down the stress cycle.
So if this is you, if you’re in a situation where there is a crisis going on and you had to respond because you are in danger. Whether maybe it’s a policy danger and you’ve had to put in place protections to keep yourself safe. Whether it’s environmental danger and you’ve had to evacuate to keep yourself safe, whatever it is. And you’re now in a place where there is safety, there’s stability, again it might not be long term but for the moment and you do not need to take immediate action. Here are some things you can do to help prioritize taking care of your mental and emotional health.
First, take breaks from social media and the news. I know it can feel hard to do that because you want to stay informed and because your brain is really worried something’s going to happen when you’re not checking and that you’re going to be in danger because of that. But if you are in a place of safety and if you are in a place of some stability you can allow yourself an hour or a few hours or even a night or weekend, depending on your situation off of these outlets. And you can remain informed.
Allowing your brain a break from processing all the updates will help you when and if there is a time where you have to take action again or you have to make a bunch of decisions again because your brain will have had time to rest. The next thing is, give yourself space to process emotions. Allow your emotions because there are emotions there. Maybe it’s worry. Maybe it’s fear. Maybe it’s anger.
But when you are in fight or flight mode and you’ve had to get yourself out of a dangerous situation, you’ve had to make decisions to protect yourself and your family to respond to whatever crisis is happening. That takes precedent. Of course, your safety is number one to your brain. But you still have emotions happening. And we have talked about this a lot on the podcast. If you are not processing your emotions, it’s not like they go away. They just build up and can make things more difficult.
So this might look like crying. It might look like journaling. It might look like talking through what you’re feeling. There are many different ways to process your emotions. And I have several episodes on this that we’ll link in the show notes. And then the last piece I want to share with you and then we’ll get on to if you’re kind of indirectly impacted, watching your community being impacted by a crisis.
But the last piece, if you are directly impacted and you are physically safe, remind your brain of that. Tell yourself and your brain that you are okay. And maybe the verbiage of I’m okay, doesn’t land right with you. You can figure out a different way to remind your brain and say it in a slightly different way. Because what you want to do is almost, I don’t want to say comfort. That’s not the right word. Reassure maybe and provide some relief to your nervous system.
To help your nervous system calm down so it can get the respite it needs. To help your stress cycle slow down, because if you are actually physically safe, you can tell yourself that. Your brain might not be registering that you’re okay in this moment. Your brain might not be registering that there is no immediate danger in this moment. And so it’s still ramping up that fight or flight. And when you remind your brain that you’re okay, that you’re safe in this moment it helps your nervous system calm down and slow down and get the rest it needs.
So if there is another day that you need to go into the fight and flight because you’re in actual danger, you have the energy, you have the capacity to do that. You have been through a lot and there might be more to come. So that’s why it’s so important to take care of yourself, your mind, your body, your emotions when you are physically safe and stable to do so because who knows when you’re going to have to respond again.
Okay, so I’m going to shift gears slightly, but a lot of the recommendations are very similar. For those of you who are watching a crisis unfold against your community, maybe family, friends, colleagues. Maybe you’re not immediately directly impacted but you’re watching your community be. It doesn’t mean that you don’t have strong emotions about it. It doesn’t mean that your brain isn’t going into fight or flight because it is. And you might be pushing yourself to advocate, to show up.
Maybe you’re calling representatives asking for them to step in and do something. Maybe you’re volunteering. Maybe you’re fundraising. You’re taking action and you’re doing that because you care deeply and because of this secondary or tertiary or whatever it may impact. But that doesn’t mean you don’t need to take care of yourself. And I know it can seem trivial to focus on yourself when you’re seeing people you care about, your community suffer but it’s not.
Again your fight or flight system when it’s activated, when your emotions are on overdrive, when you have grief, when you have anger, when you have fear. That can take a toll. And neglecting taking care of your mental, emotional and physical health isn’t going to solve anything. And it’s not going to help sustain whatever action you want to take to support communities being affected, to advocate for political support, to raise funding, whatever it may be.
So again, taking a social media or news break can be really, really useful. When there is a huge crisis it’s just 24 hours a day on social media and the news because from a news perspective, that’s what gets views. From a social justice perspective on social media, that’s what helps get information out that the mainstream news might not be covering. And I know it feels like I need to be on to see what’s happening but you can give yourself a break and still stay informed.
Taking a break from processing updates, tragic news and seeing images or videos or firsthand stories can help you get enough space to process your emotions, to slow your stress cycle. And be in a better mental and emotional space to continue to take action to help. Again, this could be an hour, a couple hours a day, a weekend. Over the past weekend, I took the whole weekend off of social media. And I am so glad I did because I’ve noticed a huge difference this week of how I’ve been able to show up in my efforts both on social media and politically and advocacy and fundraising in so many different ways.
The other thing that can be really helpful is to connect with others in real life. Connection is one of the best ways to process and move through stress. It might be grabbing a coffee with a friend or going on a walk with your partner. And it doesn’t necessarily have to be talking about what you’re experiencing, although if you want to do that, great, but you don’t have to. It can just be in connection with people in your community, in your network, your family and friends.
Another thing you can do specifically to help with your physiological stress response is to move your body. Maybe it’s stretching. Maybe it’s a short walk. Maybe it’s dancing or lifting weights. This helps you so much with getting mental clarity and increasing energy levels and releasing body tension and reducing anxiety. After I record this, I’m actually going to my Orangetheory class.
Over the past week as everything’s been unfolding, one of the places I’ve gotten the most mental and emotional respite is my workout class. When I’m on that treadmill running and I’m actually doing the best runs I have because I need a space to just let my brain go. And for me that’s been helpful and that’s been the place. For some of you, maybe it’s not working out. Maybe it’s spending time in nature.
There’s so many studies that are starting to come out to show that being in nature, whether it’s going on a walk, looking at beautiful fall colors out of your window can help lower stress hormones. And it can also help you reconnect yourself and find clarity in how you want to show up, not just for others, but for yourself. Now, I know I separated those approaches into if you’re kind of directly impacted versus secondarily. But the honest truth is any of those approaches, if you think that they would be helpful for you, try them.
Remind yourself you are doing the best you can and that’s all you can do. It’s okay if you’re not super productive at work. It’s okay if you’re distracted. It’s okay if you want to opt out of some conversations or social engagements because it doesn’t feel right. It’s okay if you need to take some space from some people. It’s okay if you need to spend a couple of hours binging YouTube or Netflix. It’s okay if you’re using some food to comfort yourself.
In society we have all these things that you should do this, you shouldn’t do this for your health, for this or that. And we put it in this box and make it so black and white. But being a human is fucking hard, that’s part of the reason why I knew I had to record this podcast episode, because at least as long as you and I are alive, there are going to be horrible things happening on this Earth. Some are going to be political, some are going to be natural disasters, some are going to be interpersonal.
Being a human is messy. We live in a complex world and we’re all just doing the best we can. And there’s nothing wrong with you if your coping mechanism while you’re going through a crisis is to have a glass of wine and a piece of chocolate cake. There’s nothing wrong with you if while you’re managing your fear and your anxiety and your outrage, you want to shut off and just watch a bunch of YouTube makeup tutorials.
There is nothing wrong with you if you don’t feel like you have the capacity to do A+ work on the report you have due on Friday. We are all just doing the best we can, coping the best we can. And you know what you need. I’ve just given you some suggestions of how you can support yourself but they aren’t the only ones. I encourage you to try them. But also if you have others that you’ve been utilizing or you want to try, go for it. It’s not easy to navigate being stressed in a physiological fight or flight stress activation.
Having a bunch of emotions, maybe being directly impacted by whatever crisis you’re facing or watching your loved ones. While also trying to show up to your day-to-day life and meal prep and grocery shop and get the kids to school and get your work done. And also advocate and reach out and volunteer and take action. And if you’re listening to this because you’re navigating and facing a crisis, I want to remind you that taking care of yourself matters now more than ever. It’s not selfish. It doesn’t mean you don’t care. And I’m right there with you.
So I know that was a little bit different. I hope that was helpful. I hope if you are facing a crisis that you do take a little time, maybe just 10 minutes, half an hour a day to prioritize yourself, your mental and emotional health. And give yourself the space to slow your stress cycle, to process your emotions, to give your brain space or whatever else you need. So with that, in deepest love and humanity, I’m going to sign off for this week. And next week we’ll talk about the hustle culture that exists within public health. Bye, everyone.
If you found this episode helpful then you have to check out my coaching program where I provide you individualized support to create a life centered around rest. Head on over to mckoolcoaching.com, that’s M-C-K-O-O-L coaching.com to learn more.
Hi, everyone. This was not a podcast episode that was supposed to come out this week. It’s my first time sitting recording since I got back from my month off. You all are hearing this the week of November 6th. I’m sitting down to record this the week of October 24th. And I was going to talk about how the field of public health promotes hustle culture. But given everything at the time of this recording, going on in Gaza and what I’ve been experiencing as an Arab American, watching this unfold. I kind of pushed that off to next week.
You’ll still get that episode. It’ll still be really useful, but I really wanted to talk about how to take care of yourself and make space for yourself and your mental and emotional health when you are either going through a crisis or you’re witnessing one. Particularly if you’re witnessing one that has to do with people, your family, your friends, people that look like you, your community, things of that nature. So this is going to be a little bit different and to be honest I’m doing this a little bit off the cuff. Normally I have objectives, learning objectives, the whole outline, but I’m not doing it that way today.
And honestly, my podcast producer might come back to me and say, “Hey, that wasn’t so useful.” And I might have to redo this whole thing with more structure. But I really wanted to just speak from not just my experience and what I’m going through now and what I am doing now in the midst of what’s going on in Gaza. But also my experience as a burnout rest coach who has an understanding of the physiological stress system of fight or flight. How your brain functions in these scenarios, as well as drawing a little bit from a personal crisis we had a few years ago where my family had to evacuate from the Caldor fires.
I do want to make a disclaimer, what I am sharing here is not the end all be all of how to take care of yourself or support yourself during a time of crisis. And some of these things might not work for you. They might not be your preference and that’s totally okay. And I’m sure there are approaches to taking care of yourself during times of crises that I’m not going to address. And, while, from the bottom of my heart I hope by the time this episode airs that we have seen a ceasefire with the violence and conflict in Gaza.
I also know this isn’t going to be the last crisis that any of us are experiencing, are witnessing, are facing. So I do hope this episode and part of the reason why I wanted to prioritize it and make it is that it can live on and be a resource for you any time there is a crisis, whether it’s a personal crisis, an environmental one, a global one or anything else. You can come back and in the future, those who maybe are looking for support can find this episode.
And while these approaches I’m going to talk about can help anyone, I really intended for this and I’ve really thought about this as for this to be a resource for those of you who are experiencing the crisis directly or indirectly. Because those of you who have experienced this know, when there is something like a genocide, a war, a harmful policy put into place or anything like that, that impacts particularly one community or a couple of communities that you belong to. You are hurting while that is unfolding.
You are trying to process what’s happening while that’s unfolding, while also trying to advocate, to speak up, to take action and that’s a lot. And during those times, that’s when we really need whether you want to call them allies or co-conspirators or whatever it may be who aren’t as directly impacted to show up and to take action. Because they can take action without the additional emotional burden that people who are directly or secondarily impacted by whatever the crisis is.
If you are an ally, if you are a co-conspirator showing up in a public health crisis and a humanitarian need. Yes, you need to take care of yourself first. I do not want you to neglect yourself either. But particularly those of you listening who may be directly or secondarily impacted by whether it’s what’s happening in Gaza or another crisis.
Recognizing just starting off by recognizing I have two layers happening here, I have the first layer of impact, whether it’s the emotional burden I’m carrying, I’m processing, or in actuality some other type of burden I’m facing having to evacuate. Having to immediately respond, having to find safety, those kind of things. And then on top of that, trying to take action to speak up, to be an advocate, to do something, to make a change. Those are two levels there and that’s hard to juggle.
So I’m going to talk about this kind of in if you’re directly impacted. And you’re in a situation where maybe you’re evacuating because of a hurricane or a fire or violence or you’re directly impacted by a harmful policy put into place or anything like that. And then I’m going to talk about some things you can do if maybe you’re not directly impacted, but secondarily, you’re watching your community, your loved ones being directly impacted and that has a huge emotional effect on you.
So if you are directly impacted by whatever crisis, whatever is happening it’s important to recognize that your fight or flight mechanism is turned on. And to be honest, if you’re listening to this, it probably means maybe not completely, but for many of you that you’ve gotten to a place of safety, because your first priority is safety. It’s unlikely you’re going to listen to a podcast episode when you need to get all your stuff and evacuate your home. So if you’re listening to this, you’re probably and hopefully in a better place of some sort of safety, some sort of stability, even if it’s short term.
And if you are in that place you are likely experiencing exhaustion, not just physical exhaustion but mental and emotional. Because your brain has been in overdrive for however long, several hours, several days, several weeks, scanning for danger, in a constant state of decision making and working to predict or anticipate the next obstacle. And that is normal. Your brain is trying to protect you from whatever is going on and in a crisis that is useful.
But then what happens when you get to a place where you are physically safe or somewhat stable, your brain is probably going to try to stay in overdrive and might be stuck in that fight or flight mode, which burns up your mental energy, which is already low. And it also doesn’t allow you to process the emotions that come with what you’re experiencing. And you need to be able to let your body process those emotions, to slow down the stress cycle.
So if this is you, if you’re in a situation where there is a crisis going on and you had to respond because you are in danger. Whether maybe it’s a policy danger and you’ve had to put in place protections to keep yourself safe. Whether it’s environmental danger and you’ve had to evacuate to keep yourself safe, whatever it is. And you’re now in a place where there is safety, there’s stability, again it might not be long term but for the moment and you do not need to take immediate action. Here are some things you can do to help prioritize taking care of your mental and emotional health.
First, take breaks from social media and the news. I know it can feel hard to do that because you want to stay informed and because your brain is really worried something’s going to happen when you’re not checking and that you’re going to be in danger because of that. But if you are in a place of safety and if you are in a place of some stability you can allow yourself an hour or a few hours or even a night or weekend, depending on your situation off of these outlets. And you can remain informed.
Allowing your brain a break from processing all the updates will help you when and if there is a time where you have to take action again or you have to make a bunch of decisions again because your brain will have had time to rest. The next thing is, give yourself space to process emotions. Allow your emotions because there are emotions there. Maybe it’s worry. Maybe it’s fear. Maybe it’s anger.
But when you are in fight or flight mode and you’ve had to get yourself out of a dangerous situation, you’ve had to make decisions to protect yourself and your family to respond to whatever crisis is happening. That takes precedent. Of course, your safety is number one to your brain. But you still have emotions happening. And we have talked about this a lot on the podcast. If you are not processing your emotions, it’s not like they go away. They just build up and can make things more difficult.
So this might look like crying. It might look like journaling. It might look like talking through what you’re feeling. There are many different ways to process your emotions. And I have several episodes on this that we’ll link in the show notes. And then the last piece I want to share with you and then we’ll get on to if you’re kind of indirectly impacted, watching your community being impacted by a crisis.
But the last piece, if you are directly impacted and you are physically safe, remind your brain of that. Tell yourself and your brain that you are okay. And maybe the verbiage of I’m okay, doesn’t land right with you. You can figure out a different way to remind your brain and say it in a slightly different way. Because what you want to do is almost, I don’t want to say comfort. That’s not the right word. Reassure maybe and provide some relief to your nervous system.
To help your nervous system calm down so it can get the respite it needs. To help your stress cycle slow down, because if you are actually physically safe, you can tell yourself that. Your brain might not be registering that you’re okay in this moment. Your brain might not be registering that there is no immediate danger in this moment. And so it’s still ramping up that fight or flight. And when you remind your brain that you’re okay, that you’re safe in this moment it helps your nervous system calm down and slow down and get the rest it needs.
So if there is another day that you need to go into the fight and flight because you’re in actual danger, you have the energy, you have the capacity to do that. You have been through a lot and there might be more to come. So that’s why it’s so important to take care of yourself, your mind, your body, your emotions when you are physically safe and stable to do so because who knows when you’re going to have to respond again.
Okay, so I’m going to shift gears slightly, but a lot of the recommendations are very similar. For those of you who are watching a crisis unfold against your community, maybe family, friends, colleagues. Maybe you’re not immediately directly impacted but you’re watching your community be. It doesn’t mean that you don’t have strong emotions about it. It doesn’t mean that your brain isn’t going into fight or flight because it is. And you might be pushing yourself to advocate, to show up.
Maybe you’re calling representatives asking for them to step in and do something. Maybe you’re volunteering. Maybe you’re fundraising. You’re taking action and you’re doing that because you care deeply and because of this secondary or tertiary or whatever it may impact. But that doesn’t mean you don’t need to take care of yourself. And I know it can seem trivial to focus on yourself when you’re seeing people you care about, your community suffer but it’s not.
Again your fight or flight system when it’s activated, when your emotions are on overdrive, when you have grief, when you have anger, when you have fear. That can take a toll. And neglecting taking care of your mental, emotional and physical health isn’t going to solve anything. And it’s not going to help sustain whatever action you want to take to support communities being affected, to advocate for political support, to raise funding, whatever it may be.
So again, taking a social media or news break can be really, really useful. When there is a huge crisis it’s just 24 hours a day on social media and the news because from a news perspective, that’s what gets views. From a social justice perspective on social media, that’s what helps get information out that the mainstream news might not be covering. And I know it feels like I need to be on to see what’s happening but you can give yourself a break and still stay informed.
Taking a break from processing updates, tragic news and seeing images or videos or firsthand stories can help you get enough space to process your emotions, to slow your stress cycle. And be in a better mental and emotional space to continue to take action to help. Again, this could be an hour, a couple hours a day, a weekend. Over the past weekend, I took the whole weekend off of social media. And I am so glad I did because I’ve noticed a huge difference this week of how I’ve been able to show up in my efforts both on social media and politically and advocacy and fundraising in so many different ways.
The other thing that can be really helpful is to connect with others in real life. Connection is one of the best ways to process and move through stress. It might be grabbing a coffee with a friend or going on a walk with your partner. And it doesn’t necessarily have to be talking about what you’re experiencing, although if you want to do that, great, but you don’t have to. It can just be in connection with people in your community, in your network, your family and friends.
Another thing you can do specifically to help with your physiological stress response is to move your body. Maybe it’s stretching. Maybe it’s a short walk. Maybe it’s dancing or lifting weights. This helps you so much with getting mental clarity and increasing energy levels and releasing body tension and reducing anxiety. After I record this, I’m actually going to my Orangetheory class.
Over the past week as everything’s been unfolding, one of the places I’ve gotten the most mental and emotional respite is my workout class. When I’m on that treadmill running and I’m actually doing the best runs I have because I need a space to just let my brain go. And for me that’s been helpful and that’s been the place. For some of you, maybe it’s not working out. Maybe it’s spending time in nature.
There’s so many studies that are starting to come out to show that being in nature, whether it’s going on a walk, looking at beautiful fall colors out of your window can help lower stress hormones. And it can also help you reconnect yourself and find clarity in how you want to show up, not just for others, but for yourself. Now, I know I separated those approaches into if you’re kind of directly impacted versus secondarily. But the honest truth is any of those approaches, if you think that they would be helpful for you, try them.
Remind yourself you are doing the best you can and that’s all you can do. It’s okay if you’re not super productive at work. It’s okay if you’re distracted. It’s okay if you want to opt out of some conversations or social engagements because it doesn’t feel right. It’s okay if you need to take some space from some people. It’s okay if you need to spend a couple of hours binging YouTube or Netflix. It’s okay if you’re using some food to comfort yourself.
In society we have all these things that you should do this, you shouldn’t do this for your health, for this or that. And we put it in this box and make it so black and white. But being a human is fucking hard, that’s part of the reason why I knew I had to record this podcast episode, because at least as long as you and I are alive, there are going to be horrible things happening on this Earth. Some are going to be political, some are going to be natural disasters, some are going to be interpersonal.
Being a human is messy. We live in a complex world and we’re all just doing the best we can. And there’s nothing wrong with you if your coping mechanism while you’re going through a crisis is to have a glass of wine and a piece of chocolate cake. There’s nothing wrong with you if while you’re managing your fear and your anxiety and your outrage, you want to shut off and just watch a bunch of YouTube makeup tutorials.
There is nothing wrong with you if you don’t feel like you have the capacity to do A+ work on the report you have due on Friday. We are all just doing the best we can, coping the best we can. And you know what you need. I’ve just given you some suggestions of how you can support yourself but they aren’t the only ones. I encourage you to try them. But also if you have others that you’ve been utilizing or you want to try, go for it. It’s not easy to navigate being stressed in a physiological fight or flight stress activation.
Having a bunch of emotions, maybe being directly impacted by whatever crisis you’re facing or watching your loved ones. While also trying to show up to your day-to-day life and meal prep and grocery shop and get the kids to school and get your work done. And also advocate and reach out and volunteer and take action. And if you’re listening to this because you’re navigating and facing a crisis, I want to remind you that taking care of yourself matters now more than ever. It’s not selfish. It doesn’t mean you don’t care. And I’m right there with you.
So I know that was a little bit different. I hope that was helpful. I hope if you are facing a crisis that you do take a little time, maybe just 10 minutes, half an hour a day to prioritize yourself, your mental and emotional health. And give yourself the space to slow your stress cycle, to process your emotions, to give your brain space or whatever else you need. So with that, in deepest love and humanity, I’m going to sign off for this week. And next week we’ll talk about the hustle culture that exists within public health. Bye, everyone.
If you found this episode helpful then you have to check out my coaching program where I provide you individualized support to create a life centered around rest. Head on over to mckoolcoaching.com, that’s M-C-K-O-O-L coaching.com to learn more.
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133. How Public Health Promotes Hustle Culture
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