THE JOURNEY TOWARDS RESILIENCE CONTINUED FROM PAGE 32
“ You really have to know your triggers ; you can ’ t kind of have them in the back of your head . And when you know them in some way , you can almost begin to anticipate them , notice them before they get the better of you .”
— Leigh Weinraub
possible to simply do away with to-do lists altogether , the creation of another list — a “ stop list ”— may help reduce the stress they cause .
“ When we think about the idea of resilience , we have to empower ourselves to let that come forward . And in order to do that , we have to stop , even for a microsecond ,” Jane Cho explained .“ In a situation that we ’ re in like [ the pandemic ], we have to ask ourselves what is essential . And if we can focus in on the essential , we can really gather our forces to empower our resilience to kind of get through this difficult period .” Cho noted that by taking the time to evaluate those to-do lists with a critical eye , we can identify items that can be set aside , even if only briefly , to reduce the stress we may be carrying and focus only on what is truly critical .“ We have to be much more judicious in determining what is essential and what is not . focus on what is truly critical .“ We have to be much more judicious in determining what is essential and what is not ,” Cho said .“ We can ’ t just keep going the way we ’ ve been going forever and ever . It ' s just simply not possible .”
Session moderator and Senior Vice President & Global Head of Wellbeing Mia Kyricos urged leaders to recognize the need to set aside tasks not related to those essential
Embracing … Uncertainty ?
Over and over throughout the pandemic , the word “ uncertainty ” has been identified as a chief cause of our collective pandemic-related anxiety . As Leigh Weinraub pointed out , embracing uncertainty , rather than fleeing from it , can be crucial to managing stress during tumultuous times : “ In the beginning of having these conversations [ about resilience during the pandemic ], what was becoming more and more clear was that every conversation was about helping a person realize that there are many things that they are actually in control of , and they need the momentum and the confidence and the energy to control the things that they can . And at the same time , there are things that they are not in control of and they don ’ t love — the uncertainty of surrendering and accepting the mystery of life and how to have the awareness … to know the difference between taking action on things that they can control versus embracing the uncertainty .” If being at peace with the unknown is a struggle for you , Weinraub offered a book recommendation : Man ’ s Search for Meaning , by Viktor Frankl .
34 PULSE ■ JULY 2021