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2022 and The Great Purge
How will you increase your consciousness amidst ongoing worldwide stress?
As we enter a new year, and the third year of worldwide pandemic anxiety, we’re witnessing increased outbursts of anger, incivility, and violence. Retail, customer service, and travel staff see the worst of this behavior, with one employee characterizing the general mood in her store as “angry, confused, and fearful.”
While there’s no excuse for this bad behavior, it is understandable why so many people are reacting to the ongoing societal stress in such a visceral way. New research shows that worrying about the pandemic and COVID-19 leads to poorer choices and mental decline. Impaired cognitive abilities caused by stress manifests most clearly in how we treat others.
It’s not enjoyable to experience or witness this stress and incivility. But herein lies an opportunity for all of us: examine how our current circumstances trigger such behavior and why.
The year 2022 can be the year we all increase our conscious leadership by taking the time to better understand our internal motivations and how those desires impact ourselves and those around us. Sometimes we need to purge the low-conscious thoughts and feelings that lay dormant in our subconscious.
Great stress and anxiety bring these thoughts and feelings to the surface for us to examine and address, much like a purging experience. It’s rare to go through such a personal purge collectively as we’ve all been doing for the last two-plus years.
An analogy for this low-conscious purge is to consider your subconscious like a cup full of murky water you hold in your hand. If you just hold it still, the water doesn’t get disturbed and stays in the cup, festering for years. But if something jiggles the cup, like another person grabbing your arm, or an earthquake, the muddy contents are upset and spill out all over the floor.
Often when we experience disturbances such as stress, anxiety, or fear, all that internal programming we need to address is exposed. We can assess what’s causing us to act out; to hurt ourselves and others. This is when consciousness can truly be elevated and make us all stronger conscious leaders. Working with a coach is one of the best ways to become more conscious of the triggers, thoughts, and behaviors that hold us back from being conscious leaders.
The Great Resignation in the workplace reflects how people are reevaluating their work situation. Now it’s time to reevaluate other core values and behaviors as well. I hope in 2022 you’ll take the time to assess your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. How have external circumstances impacted you? What have they triggered? Make coaching a priority this year so you can make 2022 the year you purge old ways of being for new, more empowering, highly conscious ways of being.
Work happy. Live happy. BE happy.
Meredith
The way we work and build teams is rapidly changing. Leaders often feel unprepared to navigate the transition. As a conscious leadership coach, consultant and communicator, Meredith helps leaders and their teams create new ways of working and relating so they can prepare for the future by consciously co-creating it.
Contact her to develop your conscious leadership and transform your organization into the workplace of the future.
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