A few practices and insights for the rest of this week
As we head into this last week of November, I wanted to offer a short reflection on the last two months of Awakening Resilience newsletters. We’ve covered a lot of good practices, including many that might benefit you with any friends and family time you have scheduled this week.
A TL;DR of practices and insights you can catch up on, or file for later.
Practice the Sociologist Hat: Observe group dynamics without absorbing the drama.
Micro-practice: Pause during a meeting or interaction, notice your body and the energy around you, and separate your responses from others’ reactivity.
2. Protect your energy with boundaries
Bubble Boundaries: Flexible, permeable protection that lets good connection in, blocks negativity. Seriously, check this one out. Clients have been amazed at the insights from their interactions with this month’s practice.
Discharge Practices: Shake it out, walk it off, or mark transitions with a small ritual to release absorbed energy.
3. Observe patterns of contagion in groups
Rage/frustration, anxiety/hypervigilance, guilt/over-responsibility, and burnout all spread unconsciously through groups. Do you know how to observe without taking it on?
Micro-practice: Name the emotion, notice the story you’re telling yourself, and pause before responding. You’ll feel better than reacting.
4. Reflect on your career and identity
Notice misalignment: Is it dissatisfaction about the role itself or the context/system/group dynamics?
Micro-practice: Track energy shifts, body sensations, and recurring narratives. Start small experiments or boundary shifts before considering major changes.
5. Shift from career compartmentalization to whole life integration
From Venn to Sunshine: Map work and life not as separate circles but as rays of a sun centered on the life you want.
Micro-practice: Each week, ask which rays are bright, which are dim, and what one small action could brighten a ray.
The core thread of these weeks is simple: awareness and reflection are the foundation of resilience, in teams, in our work, and in ourselves. Small, intentional pauses now help you enter relationships, meetings, and family gatherings with clarity, groundedness, and choice.
I’ll wrap up with a few books I’ve read (and recommend) over these weeks of writing:
Weathering: The Extraordinary Stress of Ordinary Life in an Unjust Society by Arline T. Geronimus
Wise Women: Myths and Stories for the Midlife and Beyond by Sharon Blackie
The Dangerous Old Woman (audio - Hoopla ) by Clarissa Pinkola Estés