How're You Doing?

Time to read: Less than 1 minute.

I was talking to a colleague earlier this week, and she observed that there are, like, 16 crises going on at once. There's pandemic news. International news. The verdict in the Derek Chauvin trial. Feelings about returning to the office and school. Kids struggling academically. Kids struggling mentally. Then it's not like regular life events stop happening.

Wouldn't it be nice if you could say, "no thanks on the car trouble today. There's a pandemic."

I'm going to keep this short because it's a lot and your brain needs a rest. Here are two thoughts:

1. Have grace for yourself and others. You are carrying a lot. So are they. Be gentle and kind.
2. Take good care of yourself physically. Eat. Sleep. Rest. Walk. In an intense week, go back to the basics.

How are you doing? Feel free to email me. I always love hearing from you.

Love to you.

Powerful Wisdom From the CR Pop-Up Cafe

Time to read: Time for a few more words. 45 second read.

There was a wealth of wisdom in last week's Corporate Rebel Pop-up Cafe. We talked about recovery and healing. The conversation was so good, I wanted to share it with you.

We've lived through a lot for the past few years, months and weeks. I was consulting with my favorite therapist yesterday and he said, "we are in a 2nd pandemic of mental health issues." Teens and young adults are collapsing. Adults are exhausted. I see it in my coaching clients. Therapists are full. You hear the call for healing on a national and personal level, but what does that mean for you?

The hive on the Corporate Rebel Pop-up Cafe shared what they know about recovery and healing from the challenging times in their lives. Here is their wisdom for you:

• Time: You have to give yourself time to recover and time to heal.
• The basics: Sleep, nutrition, movement, and quiet time (maybe meditation) are all crucial to recovery and healing.
• Individuality: Healing is an individual process. What works for you will be different than what works for your best friend.
• Feelings: You gotta feel 'em. Without drama or story. Simply feel your feelings. Even the despair.
• Compassion: Mostly for yourself. Be where you are without judgment or criticism that you "should" be doing better or "should" be farther along.
• Connection: Connect with others. Recovery and healing is better in relationship.
• Responsibility: You have choices. You choose your path and how you will treat others and yourself as you recover and heal: with anger? with love? with violence? with patience? You choose when to get help.
• Celebration: Celebrate your progress. Yesterday, I put on a dress. I noticed when I drove my car, I was focused in a way I haven't been for months. Those small wins are a cause for big celebration!

I'll put one final thought here: The two important first steps in recovery and healing are knowing that you need it, and giving yourself permission to put your energy toward healing, which can mean going quiet for a while or lowering the bar on "accomplishment" and "success," whatever those mean anyway.

I'd love to hear your wisdom about healing. Or your questions. Please email me and tell me what you're thinking. I always love hearing from you.

Not sure yet when the next Corporate Rebel Pop-up Cafe will be. Watch for it. I hope you can join. The conversations are always amazing and people leave feeling uplifted and calm.

Two Words to Live By

Celebrate First!

This is the first installment of the short, "respect your energy, share my personal toolbox" blog post.

Those two words are it for this week. Enjoy reflecting on them and reach out if you'd like to discuss.

Back to Basics

Time to read: 45 seconds

My home yoga studio

Last week, I saw anxiety at 3:00 am more nights than I care to count. As I lay in bed, yet again, I noticed that I had allowed my physical self-care to slide. Yoga fell off the radar. Cookies were a nightly snack. (If I'm honest, they were a morning, afternoon and nightly snack.) And clearly, sleep was elusive. Let's just say, my family noticed the slide, too.

So, this week, I committed to bring back the basics - nutrition, exercise, sleep, and mindfulness. I set up a one-week experiment.

My hypothesis: If I do basic things to take care of myself, I will feel calmer and sleep better.

Here are my commitments for this week:

• yoga 3x
• meditation 3x
• no sugar
• daily walks
• gardening

I'm a couple of days in and so far, so good. What physical practice belongs on your list of commitments this weekend?

Lastly, hold your goals loosely.

• 20 minutes of yoga? Time to celebrate!
• You might narf a piece of lemon cream cake if your daughter wants to get dessert for her family time choice. I don't know anything about that.
• 5-minutes of meditation? Yay you!
• Planting one plant counts as gardening.

See? Easy peasy if you keep your expectations low.

I'm going to hit that yoga mat covered in cat hair right now.

Your calm resilience is more basic and easier than you might think.

To your well-being!

Christina

P.S. Here are two free resources to help you and yours during this challenging time. Spread them around and enjoy!

1. Rebels at Home Challenge: This challenge is a series of eight 3-minute daily video exercises to uplift you and help you find your place in this global pandemic. And it will give you something new to talk about at your next Zoom happy hour. Sign up here.

2. The Unconventional Guide to Working from Home: This is a downloadable pdf of practical tips and big picture strategies to help you be efficient, focused and effective at home. Click to download the pdf here.

Refreshing Your Spirit

Time to read: 30 seconds

Gwynn Valley at sunset

Hello Rebels,

I'm away at camp.

I spend three weeks working at my children's summer camp in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. In a departure from my regular life of coaching and momming, I spend my days as the Miller (as in grain and an actual water-powered mill) where I take children through a farm to table experience that involves lots of corn and lots of food. (It also involves dead fish, which is a story for another day.)

At camp, there is little cell service, spotty wifi, no TV or technology, lots of fresh air, baby animals, and hundreds of children. Even though I end each day covered in cornmeal and drop in bed exhausted at night, I am grateful I get to spend so much time each summer playing with children. They refresh my spirit.

As we prepare to start the Quiet the Noise Challenge, I invite you to consider what refreshes your spirit.

Where can you step outside your usual existence, even if only for a few minutes or a day? What can you do or where can you go to quiet the noise in your life for a while?

If you'd like a quick daily practice starting on August 5, our challenge is just the thing. You can join us here.

Anne and I look forward to seeing you there!

Christina

P.S. If you're excited for the challenge, please invite some friends to join by forwarding this email to them. They can sign up here.

What Your Quick No May Be Costing You

Today I want to talk about saying no and make the case for why you shouldn't.

I know. I know. I have preached that a good, clear no will protect your time and keep your priorities in order. And...

Sometimes a quick "no" costs you opportunities.

See if you share this fear with me:

I fear my life and time will be completely overwhelmed (which has happened a few times). I've learned to manage this potentiality with a swift and easy "no." I've realized recently that I may be throwing that no around like a bull in a china shop, resulting in broken opportunities and shards of potential on the floor. (Enough of that metaphor.)

Here are two recent examples where my fast no almost cost me an amazing opportunity.

1. A dear friend from college is retiring from a muckity-muck chief of everyone job with the US Navy. He emailed me a "save the date" for his blow out party in Washington DC . I emailed him an immediate no, thinking that with kids back in school and the pace of fall, I can't be flying to DC for the weekend. When I mentioned the party to my husband he was, like, "Why not? You should go. It would be fun." He was right.

2. My family and I were invited to a childhood friend's daughter's wedding in Kenya. (Did I mention I used to live in Kenya? See the photo of Lamu, Kenya above for a little taste.) I immediately responded no because tickets are expensive, and we'd have to take our children out of school. At dinner that night, I told my family about the engagement and the "impossible" invitation. All three of them got excited and pulled me immediately from the realm of "impossible" to "likely." My husband? Right again.

What's the message here?

1. Listen to my husband.
    
2. Spend a few more than 2 seconds evaluating an opportunity before you say no. If you're invited to chair that time consuming committee for an organization you don't care about, a swift and decisive no may be just the ticket. A friend's wedding? The trip of a lifetime? Give it more time.
    
3. Consider your values. Yes, I value balance. I also value adventure, life experiences, and my relationships. Be conscious about which value you are honoring or dishonoring with each choice.
    
4. Consider if your no is coming from fear or from a true desire to manage your time and honor what's important to you. Choose based on what's important to you, not fear.

What "no" are you going to revisit as a result of today's content? Pop on over the the Corporate Rebel HQ Facebook community to tell us all about it. Click here to comment or join!

With Rebel Love,
 
Christina

P.S. The conversation is happening in the Corporate Rebel HQ Facebook community. Click here to comment on today's content, ask questions, and join the rebel conversation. 

P.P.S If something you read today made you think of a friend or colleague, please share it by forwarding this email to them. They can sign up to receive it right here.

The #1 Strategy for Managing Stress. Yes, even YOU can do it!

What's the #1, research-proven strategy to manage stress? Here's the punchline, right up front.

Meditation

If that's all you needed, then you can go now and use your 89 seconds of bonus time however you please. If you are already listing all the reasons you can't meditate and have 89 seconds to spare, keep reading.

Here are the popular reasons I hear from my clients not to meditate:

• No time.
• No quiet space.
• Impossible to quiet my mind.
• Too wiggly (that was my reason for years).
• Too impatient.

Those excuses are a bit like saying you need to get in shape before you hire a trainer. Meditation will help you with all these things plus it's proven to improve your immunity, lower blood pressure and to change your brain to enhance compassion and promote calmer reactions to the stresses of life.

Meditation is not just for the ashram anymore. Companies like Google, McKinsey & Co, AOL Time Warner, Apple and Procter and Gamble encourage meditation for their employees because they know that meditation promotes the happiness and productivity of their workforce.

The list of benefits goes on and on, and you can start to realize all kinds of good things within 10 seconds of your first meditation. What else can promise you such fast results?

Meditation CAN fit into your busy, fast-paced life.

Here's how meditation works for me. Ideally, I wake up before my family and meditate in the dark before anyone else is awake. That happens, like, 1% of the time.

Usually, my husband comes in to start his coffee grinder. Then my son wakes up and climbs into my lap for a snuggle which invites the dog to join us. Then we settle in.

My point in telling you this is that meditation can fit into your regular life. In fact, your regular life can serve to help you focus your practice and model to others the importance of a little stillness and quiet.

Here are three easy ways to fit meditation into your life:

1. Sit at your desk with your eyes closed for 5 minutes. Find a little stillness.
2. Go for a walk with the only purpose being to enjoy the sights around you.
3. Find a meditation app or program (there are hundreds online) that you like. My favorite is the meditation series from Deepak Chopra and Oprah Winfrey.

Give meditation a whirl then tell me what it was like. If you already meditate, I'd love to hear what practices work for you and the benefits you receive.

Om.

Christina