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Meeting the Moment

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The election is over in the US, and we are processing a mix of emotions. Whether you find yourself disappointed or celebrating, now is the time to meet the moment with care.

Pause and pay close attention to how you feel. Are you irritable? Angry? Overwhelmed? The first step is to recognize and name what’s here—not to deny it. Meet the moment. Notice any body sensations: Are your shoulders tight? Is your stomach unsettled? Do you feel your breath in the chest, the belly? Acknowledge it all with care and curiosity.

Tend to what might support you: exercise, a talk with a friend, music, a good cry, a laugh, a deep breath, a walk in nature, a cup of warm tea, a rest. What might help soothe your nervous system? Calming your body and mind doesn’t deny your feelings; it prepares you to respond with clarity and wise action. The more we can self-regulate, the more resilient we are.

Self-care isn’t just a personal act—it sets the tone for those around us. As leaders, your mindset impacts your team, and the culture you create can provide much-needed support.

In these uncertain times, the simple practices we embrace—listening more deeply, speaking with kindness, and showing compassion—help us navigate forward with clarity and intention.

Today, let’s choose to bring awareness and kindness to our interactions, to meet ourselves and each other with patience and respect. (Note: this does not mean complacency.)

I’m here to support you and your organization with resources and ideas to cultivate resilience and well-being in your workplace, especially in these challenging times.

Together, let’s take one intentional step at a time.

Thank you for your time and for sharing this message with anyone who might benefit.

Warm wishes, 

Explore How Mindful Stress Management Can Support You

As leaders, our actions ripple through our teams and communities. Creating a supportive environment is more important than ever. That’s why I’m committed to providing simple, practical tools for managing stress and enhancing resilience—so you and your team can meet every moment with clarity and compassion.

BROWSE WORKSHOPS

Reflect and Reset

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We’re a few weeks into 2022 and it’s not too late to reflect on your growth and learning over the past year. It can fuel you for the year ahead, reminding you of your strengths, values, and resilience. You’ve got this!

Reflection Writing Practice

Give yourself time to pause, inquire, feel, write. Use a pen, a colored marker, a crayon, a digital device – whatever works for you. Respond to one or more of the prompts below. Allow and explore whatever emerges as you write. Write for yourself, not with the intention to post or polish. And always, invite compassion for yourself.

Consider These Questions

  • What stood out for you last year?
  • What did you do well?
  • What gave you joy?
  • What illuminated insight?
  • How did you deal with challenges, with suffering?
  • What do you want to continue (or start) cultivating and nurturing in the new year? It may be an action or it may be a feeling.

Go easy on yourself. Be kind. These past couple of years have been unlike any we’ve experienced.

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To learn more:

  • YouTube for guided mindfulness practices and talks about stress, the brain, and the body

Same Storm, Different Boat

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The following quote has helped strengthen my compassion for people and is a reminder that we all manage stress in different ways. I came across it in early 2020 as stay-at-home orders due to COVID-19 started hitting around the globe.

“We’re in the same storm, but in different boats.” (source unknown)

It has reminded me to meet each person where they are and to listen closely to what people have experienced, knowing their experience may be quite different from my own. Through my work, I’ve heard a lot of stories about grief, transition, loss, fear, isolation, increased job demands. Most of the world has been through a time of chronic stress as well as a time of deep reflection and change. It has taken an enormous emotional toll and affected people’s mental health.

In the past year alone I have led over 100 virtual workshops, courses, and 1:1 coaching helping people work through the changes and uncertainties of the pandemic. My training and work with Mindful Stress Management has sharpened my ability to help others deal with mental health, burnout, anxiety. And it has helped me personally move through the pandemic.

Though stress is a natural part of life, we can change our relationship to stress. It is not going away. As long as we’re alive stress is a companion – helpful at times and overwhelming at times.

So how are you?

How have you moved through these past 15+ months? As we continue to adjust and move forward in new ways, what are you and your organization most concerned about?

Questions to Consider as You Move Forward

  • How has the pandemic impacted your life and work?
  • What is your go-to activity to help deal with stress?
  • Name what you have learned during the pandemic that will stay with you.
  • Consider what your biggest concern is now as we reconstruct our work, workplace, and relationship with work?

Listen to a Podcast Interview with Terre: Tips on Managing Stress

I had the pleasure to be a guest on the ReFocus podcast with Angela Stephens. You can listen and jump to what interests you.

Podcast: Terre Passero Shares Tips on Managing Stress
https://www.refocuswithangela.com/podcast-1/episode/51465c22/47-terre-passero-shares-tips-on-managing-stress

Overview:

2:20: What is mindfulness?
5:50: Changing your relationship with stress
7:00: Acute vs chronic stress
11:30: Breathing tip to calm the nervous system
13:50: Mindful, heartful listening
18:15: Fab 5 – Practices for the brain and body
23:00: What Terre does to deal with her stress
28:00: Going back to the office
35:00: Working with both small and large businesses
38:00: Terre’s journey to founding Mindful Stress Management
44:10: A favorite song to remind us all that we are “Worthy”

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To learn more:

  • YouTube for guided mindfulness practices and talks about stress, the brain, and the body

How to Change Your Relationship to Stress

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Oh, how life has changed in 2020. And today the US is holding elections. In the midst of it all, are you finding ways to take care of yourself? I hope so. We are in it for the long haul. It’s especially important now to prioritize self care for our mental and physical well being. At the same time to recognize that these are challenging times (which we will get through), so go easy on yourself, be kind, do things that bring you calm, joy, energy.

What you do, think about, and pay attention to consistently shapes your brain.

You are not alone.

I’ve worked with hundreds of people in organizations over the last 7 months. When I ask, “How has your life changed?” I hear the following over and over: no division between work and home; online learning for children (AND working full time from home) is horrible; unable to see elderly family members; death in the family; sick family members; fear of losing my job; no alone time; too much alone time; weight gain; can’t sleep; no energy; layoffs; loss of income; fear of losing my home; loneliness; no social life, and then once in awhile someone announces a wedding or a birth.

Of course we’re stressed!

The brain does not like uncertainty. This activates the stress reaction. And there is plenty of uncertainty, fear, grief to keep us in a state of chronic stress: COVID-19, our job, health, the world, the environment, politics, social justice. The body’s stress response is a natural reaction to perceived or real threats.

But remember that we have the capacity to interrupt the stress reaction, to make choices that calm the body and brain, and support our well-being. 

Simple Ways to Interrupt the Stress Reaction

  • take 3 conscious breaths, exhaling slowly
  • recall a pleasant, safe experience or place
  • hum, sing, listen to music
  • take a hot bath
  • reach out to a friend
  • exercise
  • yoga
  • firmly plant each foot on the ground
  • shake your legs
  • stretch your upper body
  • do a few pushups against a wall
  • aromatherapy
  • spray yourself with fine water mist
  • recognize safety in the moment
  • give yourself a hug

Remember that you can cultivate calm within so you can better take care of yourself and those around you. It’s good for your health!

Steady, steady, easy does it. 

Pause overlooking the Pacific

Self-Assessment

These are 5 Key Behaviors to Support your Mental and Physical Health 
How are you taking care of each one? Rate yourself from 1 – 5 for each item. 1 = weak, 5 = strong. Total it up, multiply by 2 to get a percentage.

Sleep   _____
Nutrition  _____
Exercise / Movement   _____
Rest / Recharge   _____
Social Connection   _____

Identify those you rated 4 and give yourself credit, some appreciation. Keep it up! 🌟 For items you rated 1 or 2, no shame, no blame. Consider what you can do to strengthen those behaviors. For example, if you’re not sleeping well, you can do something relaxing before going to bed — a bath, soothing music, a few deep breaths. Catching up on the news, however, is pretty certain to activate the stress reaction. 

It is up to you
Small actions add up
You matter

Rest and recharge the brain and body with this 5-minute POP practice: Pause, Observe, Proceed. Stepping away from the action for even a brief time can help calm the nervous system, sharpening focus and connection.

4 Steps to Manage Stress

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Stress is not an ailment, nor is it something we can eliminate. Stress is a part of life and actually, without it, we wouldn’t survive. The body’s stress reaction can motivate us, enhance performance, and prepare us to fight, run away, or freeze in the face of potential, perceived, or real danger. The reaction is natural and has evolved over millions of years to protect us.

How we perceive stressful situations can impact how we respond to them. This 4-step process can help you assess and deal with stressors in your life. By identifying the value you place on stressors, you might perceive the stressor differently so it doesn’t feel so overwhelming. And you can identify the stressors you can’t control. Leaving more emphasis on those things you CAN control.

Try this 4-step process to assess stressors in your life:

  1. Identify Stressors: List 3-5 stressors in your life. Examples: finances, my manager, taking care of my elder mother
  2. Assess: For each stressor, identify its value. Why do you do it? Why do you care? How does it fit with your values, goals? In what way does it support your life at this time? If there is no value, you may want to reconsider the situation. Example: I need money to live comfortably and to help my family; I appreciate my job but feel overwhelmed and find it hard to talk with my manager; I love my mother and would do anything for her.
  3. Adjust: Recognize how you feel about the stressor once you explore why you’re doing it, why you care (or not). Identify the stressors that you can control. Spend more time on those. Let those that you can’t control be as they are. Example: I value and need the to work. I need money. I like my job. I don’t want to let go of any of them. I can’t control my income at the moment, but I can control my spending.
  4. Choose next action: Identify one small step that you can take to address one stressor. Don’t try to take it all on at once. That is overwhelming and can set us up for failure from the start. Example: A small step is that I will make a budget and see where my money is going and where I might shave costs. / Re manager: I will talk with a friend/counselor about my manager and strategize how to address it.

busy woman at computer

Remember, how you view a stressor can shift your perspective of that stressor. It doesn’t necessarily change the stressor, but it can change your relationship to it.

Also, identifying and focusing on what you can control puts you more in the driver’s seat, giving you a greater sense of agency. For example, we can’t control world events, but we can choose how much and how often we read or take in news during the day. We can control how we respond to events and how we take care of ourselves in the process.

Stay focused on the things that give you some peace and clarity. consider what you can control. And even if stressful, remember why it’s of value to you and see what happens.

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To learn more:

  • YouTube for guided mindfulness practices and talks about stress, the brain, and the body

Season’s Greetings

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During these short days and long nights (in the Northern Hemisphere, that is) may you take time for quiet reflection, contemplation, rest, self-care. It can be a busy and fairly stressful time of year—completing projects, celebrating, traveling, grieving, healing, and simply taking care of everyday life⁠⁠. Recharge!

In the midst of wherever you find yourself, may you take a moment to pause. And to that end, please enjoy this 

Happy Holidays and wishing you well as the season turns and the calendar advances. 

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To learn more:
  • YouTube for guided mindfulness practices and talks about stress, the brain, and the body

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