This course reviews common life stressors associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. Mayo Clinic experts review practical strategies and tips for how to manage and sustain a healthy sense of self, with a focus on parenting, relationships, work and well-being.
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Welcome to Mayo Clinic Cove in 19 expert insights and strategies. The following activity is supported in part by an independent medical education grant from Pfizer Inc and is in accordance with a C CMI guidelines. Covert 19 Expert Insights and Strategies is a comprehensive curriculum from the Mayo Clinic for healthcare personnel worldwide. This presentation covers balancing the needs of family work and well being. Our experts for this course are Heidi Aren't and Mark Hide. Heidi has been with Mayo Clinic for over 15 years. She is a licensed professional clinical counselor in the Employee Assistance Program, where she works with individuals and couples with a variety of mental health issues and life stressors. Heidi has experience working with pediatric patients and families and has also presented posters at national conferences. In addition to her work at Mayo, Heidi is currently teaching in graduate and professional programs as well. Mark Hyde has been with Mayo Clinic for the past 21 years. He is the program manager of the Employee Assistance Program, where he consults with employees and leadership on a wide variety of workplace issues and needs. He has worked in the helping field since 1985. He is a national presenter who has given hundreds of work related presentations for leaders and life motivational talks. This course is accredited by the A m A. For 0.5 contact hours. It's important to note that there are no relevant disclosures for all those involved in this presentation. Now I'll turn things over to Heidi. Thank you. As mentioned, I'm Heidi aren't a licensed professional clinical counselor with the Employee Assistance Program here at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, joined today by Mark Hide E. A P manager. We'd like to begin by saying, Thank you for joining us in our course today. Are learning objectives for today's presentation? Are the following recognized potential stressors in your life, compounded by the pandemic? Identify strategies and tips to aid and managing life stressors in four areas, including parenting relationships, work, life and well being, and to begin to implement strategies or tips into smart goals for yourself. So we'll begin with discussing the potential stressors that have impacted all areas of our life during the cova 19 pandemic. You know, as the epidemic brought on many additional stressors and worries about the safety of our health and that of our loved ones. It also simultaneously really limited. Our resource is including our ability to be able to go to the gym, be able to go to many different social outlets and and churches. So really the perfect storm one might say. So really, what was available to us? You know, maybe no longer waas and what was available really looked drastically different. You know, socially distancing became part of our vocabulary. A lot of lines swarmed outside of restaurants to pick up food. And there was, I think, Justin overall added tension and, of course, isolation in our world. So when we recognize that so much of the pandemic, of course, is out of our control, it's really important for us to zero in on the things that we can control and things that we can manage in our environment. So parenting is the first topic that I wanted to discuss, you know, with everyone being at home for longer periods of time, stress running high parenting, of course, is going to be a struggle. You know, no one planned for this pandemic. So therefore, what are we up against? We're up against. Maybe you know, more people in smaller spaces that we had anticipated for longer periods of time. Um, maybe not a designated workspace for ourselves. If you're working from home, no designated maybe learning space for Children to complete homework, or perhaps a play space for younger Children that just starts to slowly grow smaller and smaller as time goes on. So all of these abrupt changes that we're facing, of course, they're going thio, you know, cause stress and impact. Our behavior can impact our mood, you know, when our when our hours change at work or if we start working from home. Or perhaps we're facing unemployment and teaching our Children from home. Those are all examples of of stress that adds on to our typical life stressors that were already there. So when tensions were running high and Children, you know, start to recognize this, you know, they're very intuitive and very tuned into their surroundings. It's important to note that what we're doing is is really something that is being modeled to our child. You know, our Children are studying our behaviors, and they have for years so as well as we know them, they really know us. So it's important to model as much as you can. Healthy behaviors. One big question that I get frequently is about how to talk to kids about the pandemic. Or do I even talk to my child about them? Do they need to know? You know that maybe they're a little young? Should I even talk to them? My policy on this is that honesty is the best policy that I firmly believe in telling Children simple, honest truth about what's going on and how things are impacting them. And I do this as a way to really build trust. You know, I don't think that Children need to know all of the specific details about what's happening. But they do need to know enough when there is a change to the routine and change to their structure. So filling your child in and letting them know if they're going to school, they're not going to school. If daycare has changed, if it has not, you know when you're home and when you're not home is really important. Then they can learn Thio again to trust you and expect support when change comes. So it really it's important to look out some tips and some strategies for parenting in the pandemic. It's, um there's these air, some simple guidelines that I wanted to review. I wanted to know to disclaimer to that If your child is struggling with anyway, if any mental health issues or developmental concerns that it's important to consult with your child's pediatrician for additional support, that what I'm going to review today, um, well, not take into consideration any child with special needs. So one of the things I wanted to mention is really structuring your day, you know, setting a schedule and attempting to follow it. Having a calendar or planner can really help in adult to feel productive, but it also can help a child to know what to expect. You know, Children really start to feel secure and comfortable when they have a routine. I can help them cope much more effectively as well to when stress does occur and change does occur because then they at least have some consistency and what's happening with their day to day routine. So encouraging your kids Thio interact with this calendar and schedule is helpful to and even to help create it. You know a lot of people that I've worked with have gone out and picked up a big poster boards and help have their child help them to create and design and color on a calendar or planner on. Perhaps your child can even help the writing in. You know something in the free space as well, too. The more engaged your child is and what's happening. Hopefully, the more motivated and more positive of an experience. This will be, um, younger. Children tend to get more restless as we know so really important to keep things moving and maybe change. The focus of attention is needed. So what I mean by that is that if you're you know, perhaps you're doing a homework assignment with your child at the kitchen table. Perhaps then you move to the living room for the next activity in a little bit. Just that way, kids don't get so bogged down and don't start to feel so stuck in the the area in which they are also recognizing that that flexibility is very key with Children, though to you know them the best so and you know your child the best. So if something is happening and today is not a great day Thio be implementing something or moving things around That's fine as well. To you know, you can kind of flexibility with this. Another strategy and suggestion is to get kids outside to play whenever you possibly can. You know, 15 minutes in nature can do wonders not only for yourself, but also for your child. You know, Children need to get their bodies moving. Get that excess energy out. Justus adults would dio. So then I also encourage you to think about, you know, You know, sometimes we represent a lot of barriers before we even try something of Well, it's too cold here. Oh, it's too hot, You know, again, a child is never harmed by bundling them up, getting them outside or by putting on some sunscreen. You know, do what you can if you don't have a walking path nearby. You know a sidewalk will will be a Z equally as impactful. You know, 15 minutes outside encourage you to consider that could do wonders for yourself and your child. So when things aren't going well, as we know that they will not always be rosy. Um, Children can act up, you know, things start to melt down. The best thing that you could do is a parent is to see as calm as possible. Really Try and keep your cool. The calmer voice that you have, the more team you could be, the more can help impact of really agitated brain and more agitated child. So really focusing on taking a deep breath and restarting. One thing I think is important for every parent to be reminded of our some of the stages of mental development of Children. And this being, you know, when we are spending an excessive amount of time with our Children are more than than usual. We start to recognize or realize, you know, Hey, you know, they've been here. They know that I'm working from home, you know, they're six. They should know that not to bother me. That's just not always the case. I think we have to be reminded of where our child's development is in order to be able to help create some additional patients and some tolerance for our Children. So I wanted to review Jean pH is theory and cognitive development, and she suggests that Children move through four stages of mental development so if your child is between birth to age to this is really a sensory motorist Stage, um, important to recognize that Children are really just learning about the world around them through their senses and the manipulation of objects. If you have a child between age two and seven, that's a pre operational stage. Children, of course, are engaging in a lot of symbolic play. The understand a lot of the concepts of past and future. However, they do not fully understand concrete logic. If you have a child between ages seven and 11, that is a more concrete operational stage, Children are much more aware of external events. Their thinking becomes more logical and organized, however, still very concrete and Children 12 and up. It's a formal operational stage. Children use logic to solve their problems. They view the world around them, and they start to make plans for the future. So I recognize that no parenting is really easy, You know, young child or adolescent. Every agent stage has its has its struggle, so we wanna be able to simplify things as best as you can. You know, as a parent, take some breaks whenever you can. If you have a support that you're able to utilize and a healthy and safe way. I encourage you to utilize that. Or some resource is, you know, set boundaries when you need to with your Children, Um, and again invest in your in yourself as well to when you take some time for yourself and prioritize that it can help you to become a better parent. This is one of my favorite quotes. Um, there's no such thing as a perfect parent, so just be a real one. Really. Encourage all parents to really give yourself some grace during this time. There is no harder job. And when you are facing a pandemic, a. Well, we know that it's just compounds things. So I'm gonna transition now to talking about another possible area of stress, which is relationships. The slides here gonna address relationship stress in terms of a primary partnership between two committed individuals. So in the past 69 months, now, we've been, you know, majority of us have had a lot of altered routines. Things were very different for us, and we're a lot of us are at home, which more frequently so as a result of of course, being at home. Or but, um, more, more time with our loved ones, typically, um, it could be fantastic. We can really enjoy each other and enjoy our common interests, but also on the other end, it can also become an incubator of some stress and frustration. So most likely you can also be just a mixture of those of those things, depending on the day. That's how it is for many people. So with those altered routines and and conflict is growing by nature, you know tension in the home is kind of rising. Um, important Thio. Just normalize this a little bit for you all. Recognizing that, you know, issues from the past can start to take front and center. We have other things on our plate now in terms of increased laundry increase dishes, cooking and grocery shopping. It's, of course, going to create some conflict so important to recognize that and to know that this is going to naturally arise. So when your relationship is struggling, that dynamic is difficult, and no one's happy at that point, you know, in the in the nuclear family. So here's some tips and some strategies to help kind of managed just relationships. Stress. The first thing I encourage you to do is just to recognize when your partner or family family member is struggling. And this might be very easy to do because your family member might be very concrete and come to you by saying, I'm struggling. I'm having a really hard time. But you might have a family member who is not going to acknowledge it in that way and not communicate, um, upfront So you might notice different behavior, you know, some isolation changing, um, in their ability to care for themselves, you know, perhaps passive aggressive behavior. The most important thing is to do, like I said, is to acknowledge us and to recognize when there is a call for help and when they are struggling. So one thing that you could say is just very simply, I'm worried about you. I'm concerned about you wondering if we could sit down and talk. This recognize ation of of your partner can do wonders. The next suggestion is to just acknowledge the difficulty in the scenario we're all in again. No one plan this. No one prepared for this, and by being able to just sit side by side with your loved one and acknowledge we're in this together and that we're both here can sometimes help. Another idea is to also just be able to offer to help recognizing that, you know, being able to provide some emotional support for your loved one could be really beneficial. Recognizing to that, we can't fix this. You know, this isn't something that we can stop. We can't change the pandemic or our current circumstances, most likely. But we can be there next to our partner and also offer some logical and kind of, um, logistical options, you know, for help, maybe to help ease some tension and stress. Is there anything that I can do differently? Anything I can help with, you know, to help take off some of those typical tasks. Maybe that might be beneficial. And recognizing that, um, if your loved one or yourself at all are struggling with any mental health issues, it now might be the time to seek out additional resources and support. You know, individual counseling, couples counseling. There are a lot of telehealth options that are available so that people can seek out mental health support in a safe way. Um, and I think it's important to recognize that this has been going on for quite some time. It might be time to seek out additional resource is court, But most of the time all we essentially need is our partner to to sit and to listen and to be present. You know, give your partner the gift of just being able to be present along with them when they are struggling. Self care is the next thing I wanted to discuss in self care sometimes can be seen is very selfish, and I'm here to tell you that it's really not. It's actually really unnecessary concept and being able to bring your best self to a relationship. We have to practice self care. Andi. It's not saying that in order to do so that you have to spend in excess of them on a time away from your partner because I realized that that's not practical at this time, and it certainly isn't always an option. Um, so there are many ways that you could take care of yourself, and you can do so with your partner or on your own. And there's a way that you can always fit this. And there's always time if you prioritize yourself care. So some couples that, like Thio practice self care together will sometimes go on. Nature walks together. Bike rides. They might share similar hobbies. Your interests. Ah, lot of couples that I've worked with will tell me that they like to dio their varied interests at the same time in the same room. So one might be reading and the other one might be working on a hobby or craft of some sort, but that they recognize that we're doing self care. But we're also in the same room so that they find some enjoyment and also still being close. What really important for you to find what works and to try and do this proactively. And what I mean by that is just to do this continually, you know, even on a good day that you're doing something for yourself, it doesn't like I said have to be hours and hours of time. But finding a small window of time for yourself is extremely important. And then, like I said, to do this continually, if we start to try and do a self care when we are at our lowest of lows. It starts to feel like a Band Aid approach and really abandoned for a really gaping wound. So then it's typically not as impactful. One thing that you do when you're creating self care when you're doing self care is that you essentially create a window of tolerance. And what we mean by that is that when we are able, Thio manage things, um, in a better way. We are able Thio not have stress and pressure and practices much so by doing self care on being physically active, staying mindful in the here and now we create a window of tolerance for pressure and stress. So and that's the really the ideal place to be, especially during a pandemic. So doing whatever you can can really make an impact. So to conclude our strategies on relationships, I really encourage you to evaluate the energy and effort that you're putting forth in that relationship. Ah, lot of people will come to me telling me, you know, Gosh, you know, my partner isn't doing this or or they're doing too much of that and I think that the all those air really worthy things to evaluate. It's also really important to look at yourself and to look at what am I putting into my relationship on my own individually and what am I giving? Putting forth eso really encourage you to challenge yourself to try something different, to help yourself individually and also to try something different to help your relationship be really in tune with what's happening? What's going on around you can make a huge impact, and now I will turn things over to Mark Hide. Mark is going to review the impact of Kobe 19 and our ability to juggle our lives, our work and our well being. Well, it's Heidi covered here. There is no shortage of life challenges for all of us as we look at our issues when our our family parenting our homes own self care. There's so many issues that happened so quickly. You know, the last 10, 15 years I've presented hundreds of talks in the workplace about work, life and balance. And I've always said life is rarely balanced. Well, at least it's not as balanced as long of a zloty, as most of us would like it to be without minimal disruptions, you know life is very fast paced. Before Cove it our times were incredibly fast paced. Already. We know there were a number of real life challenges and issues that we had its people and as a society before emotional mental health issues, addiction, abuse issues and substance, lots of self care, stress, medical issues. We have all kinds of issues. However, when Cove it hit, everything came together times two or three. So what we all were dealing with that maybe we were somewhat managing, um, now became an incredible burden to manage. So life is really like a juggle. There's so many things that we have to do. But what we look for our periods of time, where we're able to juggle life and feel somewhat of a sense of control, that we know that there's a maybe an end in sight or that we know if we do these certain things more than likely, we're going to feel much better. And that created a real challenge for us during this cove. It time because we don't necessarily see an end in sight. Families air dealing with another daily daycare juggle of who's gonna help with child care issues Where are my kids going to be today? Who's gonna help them with distance learning? Teacher just called and said, We're quarantined starting tomorrow. 14 days. What about my job? That changes in my shift. Job task. Who's going to cover the kids? So so many issues that we now hear, which would make sense that life now we've added instead of two or three juggling pens 67 or eight. So certainly we all feel the effects of that. So life before Cove it was a challenge and certainly with Cova just added a lot more to it. Now this topic of stress and resilience. Sometimes I cringe to bring these terms up because they're so used or maybe over used, you know, on this time period that we're in. But we think about stress for a minute. Always remind people that number one stress was really a science term, and we've applied that term to our feelings and emotions. So as a science term, stress was really meant to say how much how much force or pressure can item withstand before its form changes or altars in some way, or the structure is the integrity of the structure maybe a cracks or breaks, and we take that metaphor and we apply it to human life, which could be very subjective at times my feelings of stress. But the way that I feel thinking emote could be very similar or very dissimilar to somebody else, of course. So there's some objective things with stress, how much changing cortisol our body has, or adrenaline, but also about our thoughts, our views, which can again be very subjective and very different. So it's always complicated when we think of what stress means from one to another, as we know. But here's the key that I found in thousands of people that I've counseled over the years is that most of my experience is yours. Everyone's is really related to life consequences. The stress that we have make sense, for the most part, because life continuously throws us different challenges and different curse. So the winding road you see on the screen is pretty much life. It very rarely happens where people say things worked out exactly the way I thought, from beginning to end for a long term for long periods of time. So life is really about stress is really about consequences, that air difficulty from life and the key to it that we try to help people with is clearly are we able to adjust and be flexible? What do I mean by that? Well, we know when the life changes. In other words, the road changes. New information has been presented to us. So maybe there's a domestic issue, a family issue, the parenting issue. Maybe there's a medical issue. Maybe there's a grief for los issue, so the road curves on us. And so we must be able to adjust to the new information that we've been given whether we wanted to or not. We now know that we have to adjust. You think of sports players really easy to say. An individual or team often has to adjust their game plan based upon the information. What's happening Lifetime so true with us as individuals, no flexible peace really means flexible expectations, because when we want what we want and we expect what we want and if we can't get that because there's so many barriers, barriers in our way or obstacles, people can get really emotionally frustrated and then they can feel that differently. Internally and express that in ways that maybe artist healthy. So a flexible expectation almost means Yep. It doesn't surprise me today, but I had to call my day care is gonna be closed down for 10 days. It almost doesn't surprise me that so and so is now going to be quarantined, which means we can't go to their house anymore and bring the kids. So we almost have to have that flexible expectation and miss time period that we're living in that says par for the course as opposed to Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh. When we do the oh, my gosh, then we end up having all kinds of internal and external frustrations that we feel or express to others in the last bullet about personality, the reality of stresses. You know, if we're seriously, um, committed to managing stress, we're gonna have to take a look at our basic personality because some of us are more prone to be reactive than others. Some people have maybe a different personality nature. They may not feel differently inside, very stressed, but the way they express that maybe is much less Coleman than someone else. So we have to take a look at our basic personality structure, no matter what it is, and we all have toe kind of tweak it. We're not necessarily going to try to change basic features of our personality, you know, 180 degrees. But we are going to be responsible generally for tweaking it to say this is my tendency. However, I have to work really hard at focusing and concentrating un, expressing myself maybe in different ways, right? So our personality is a lot to do with our experience of stress, and then key is who do we share life with? So whether it's our coworkers or significant other, our Children, our family members, our neighbors, co workers who we share life with, especially in a private, intimate level, really can make or break our experiences about how we manage stress and how it affects us individually. So making sure that we surround ourselves with the right kind of people who encourage and help us in a healthy way. Now, the term resilience resilience is often used as a definition again of science, of how much force or pressure the object can withstand. Before it, you not only cracks or breaks with stress. But before it gets back to its original form. So often we take that metaphor. We talk about a human ability to recover quickly from disruptive change, and usually it's with the least amount of disruption during that. And how can we get back to our previous level of functioning right when I was young, people would use the phrase you need to get back in there or you'd hear, get back on the horse, whether it was academics or sports or theater or music. We may not be happy with our performance, or we felt like we did something not so good or wrong Issue became. Get back in there and try again. So resilience here really has a lot to do with. How do we manage the stress that we have so that we have the best chance to get back to at least where we were before and our feelings and our thoughts and our expression of that. But you may be asking, How do you do that? People ask me that in my office. Well, how do you do that? It's nice to think about ways to manage dress and some of things. The tips that we've shared. But how can you do much about being resilient to make sure that that you're able to get back to where you want to be? Well, the first part of that answer, I think, has a lot to do with when we commit ourselves to know that it's our responsibility to manage our own thoughts, our feelings, her emotions, how we express our emotions, our behavior and the key is no matter what, no matter what or the course of my career. Many people have said to me, Look, I was doing all can till this happens. I can't I can't do this when people do this or when someone treats me this where when this happens, they kind of have these qualifiers to say, I can't be responsible anymore And we have toe have that strong, resilient mindset that says, No matter what life throws at me, no matter what curves, no matter what discomforts, no matter what, it's my responsibility to manage myself in the most healthy and profitable way. For me and others, that's not easy. So the next question is that what do you do specifically? And I think that really comes down to a couple of things. One of the ways that we do that is that we have to be flexible. Is I mentioned so we could be resilient when we know that we expect some things to challenge us that we normally wouldn't in this cove it time because there's so many different things I talked about juggling at once. We just have to expect daily ah, phone call that could disrupt us pretty quickly where we normally wouldn't expect that on a daily basis during most of our life. But during this kind of time, where things were closed and there's so many changes happen rapidly around us, we have to expect that. So we expect that a new mental model, so to speak, Number two that we have to problem solve life is really about problem solving. We think about it. That's what we do from sun up to sun down the problem, solve everything from our hygiene. What time do we get up? What is the routine we go through? What about our food and then the daily problem solving of getting to work, and if you have a family getting kids ready and what day is it Blue Day. What kind of color day is it? Today is a jammy day. Is it certain whatever day that you have to remember constantly, Um, we're problem solving. Now we have to problem solve all those normal things, plus the's added stressors and challenges that the severity level, those is pretty high. Who's gonna watch the kids? What do we do with the financial loss? Thes air high level. So we must constantly be thinking about problem solving and some things we can problem solve pretty quickly and that we have a solution in a matter of minutes or so. Other things may take us information gathering and a number of days to be able to come up with a plan to be able to solve whatever it is we have to manage during that time period. And the other key, of course, is people support. Anecdotally, all of us can give example after example of people that we know who have healthy support. They tend to have more happiness in life and contentment, which I'll talk about in a minute, and they tend to get through things in a very different way compared to people who have very little people support and arm or isolated. So research as well as just common sense interaction tells us that healthy people support is the key to help us manage stress and to be resilient and the last bullet about creating daily stability. Heidi touched on this, and it's so important when we go through tough periods in our life, life is related to the sense of control or the loss of control. We all need some sense of control in our life. Is human beings to be able to manage life and get through? We're not in control of many, many things. We don't know what the weather is going to be, but we're in control of trying to get some information and then planning for the weather. So in order to give ourselves some daily stability, when you're in a situation where there's lots of rapid change that you can't always control, you have to give yourself daily things. And it could be simple stuff that we normally don't do, like Here's what I'm planning to eat today. Here's what time I'm taking break and I'm having these favorite snacks or or this is my 2030 minutes of Hobby Ton, and I'm going to read, relax or watch my favorite sitcom. It has to be daily winds when you're an incredible strain. Psychologists know working with clients when your clients are really stressed and have major, major lack of control issues like grief, bereavement, medical, domestic you help must help them with daily issues that give them a sense of comfort and stability. So we all have to do that. We can't wait to the end of the week to do it. That won't work. We need daily things at times and then contentment, contentment a little different than happiness. Happiness is generally related to our circumstance. Circumstance goes, well, a nice dinner time with friends. We feel happy, but it can change in a hurry. Somebody does something. We get a phone call or new information. Happiness can change in a heartbeat. Contentment, on the other hand, is Maura about that. No matter what contentment is really all about, in the midst of adversity, challenges and problems around me not denying those I see him. I feel, um, I'm trying to problem solve and manage those, but there's a sense of contentment and the sense of contentment is because people usually would say, because I know who I am. I know my thoughts about life. What life is it still has valuable still has value. It still has meaning. I still have a sense of purpose and function. So in spite of the challenges, I'm content doesn't mean I like those challenges. But my inner spirit or my nature is much more content knowing that I have value and meaning, and that really is the place for most of us that we try to get to right. We want to be content because we know just a matter of time before we all deal with Cem. Change that. We don't like something that happens to us or information around us that greatly distresses and bother us. So we know that we can't be dependent upon just happiness related to our circumstance. We must find something in our inner self because of what we believe about life and purpose, to get us through those tough times. And lastly, I wanna just mentioned work the sentiment that here around the country, from colleagues and certainly employees, is change, change and more change. That's pretty much what co over the last six or seven months has brought to most employees in almost every industry. Change is rapid, and we know when organizational leadership makes mawr change too rapid. Everyone almost knows that. That's probably could be a real challenge. We're gonna have unintended consequences. So leaders air usually careful, however, in this time leadership on all different industries. This has had to make very rapid, quick decisions, rapid change more than they would clearly like to do, but have to for a number of reasons and sustainability and keeping his many people as we possibly can safe. So change. Changing mawr Change is kind of the theme that we're all experiencing and one of the keys and work groups that will really make or break our experiences. A coworker in the work group is. Can we be patient and tolerant in a time that usually most of us say I probably have less patients and less tolerance, we almost have to say more patients, more tolerance in a work group will lead to better outcomes. In a better experience with our colleagues, our colleague, illness with each other, our teamwork or effectiveness. We have to be patient that people have different thoughts and different views than we do about things. We have to be patient and tolerant with other people's understanding about what we should or shouldn't be doing or why we have to be much more patient and tolerant because there's so much stuff happening that may not be aware who may not be aware of or we may be aware of and just have very different views. But the work group will do much better when people express themselves and a careful manner. And that leads me to my last point, kind of the key to life and the key toe work life that I talked about an awful lot. And that's emotional maturity, work groups in my work with employees and all different industries. Most people say, when the majority of my peers, my coworkers, care about how they affect other people when I and they care about how we affect others by the way that we treat them, that's a pretty darn good work group, and when they usually use the term majority, we don't expect everyone in perfection. But when work groups say the majority of us really care, we could differ as Faras East is from the West with our co worker about ideas or thoughts or work, or even with our leadership managers and directors and administrators. However, we care about how we affect each other, and it guides how we behave, what we say in what we do. That is probably the best one the workplace can have, especially during so many changes. Remember when there is a vast amount of change in a short period of time and the stakes are high. So people are doing different task, different schedules, different shifts, home life impacted. We typically have very strong emotions, very strong reactions. So it is the most important thing that the workplace conduce you is to hold people accountable as peers and leaders and to expect everyone to be patient and tolerant and how we treat each other with great care and concern. Even when we disagree. That's a mark of a good team and a good workplace culture. I would be remiss if I didn't mention it's a good idea to have smart goals if you're not familiar with smart goals to an acronym used to basically help guide us as we make a plan or our goal for what we wanna manage or change. Our goal should be specific. They should be measurable. So we know that we can actually attain them through realism, that they're realistic, that we don't make unrealistic goals that air too far off or not timely. So to make them be specific and attainable and realistic and have a time period if you're developing a backup plan for childcare for distance learning, you plug in the specific pieces to make sure you have people that her realistic and that they can respond timely to you and that your goal is timely. But what you expect from them and realistic and then just in summary. We've said a lot of information in a short period of time, but there are many ways in which we can cope with stress during these trying life events. Sometimes we're gonna manage things in a very similar way, and other times we're going to experience things very differently and manage them very differently, based upon the uniqueness of who we are and will focus on what we can do today. The second bullet. It's so important that Heidi and I've highlighted over and over again in this presentation that when we feel somewhat chaotic, it doesn't mean that we are chaotic, the feeling maybe natural, of course, because it is a chaotic situation. But we need to do what we can to take a sense of control back by doing those tips and things that we highlighted throughout this presentation. And lastly, utilize your resource is reach out for support when needed. Resource is are so important and people are so important that we must. You must depend on that. We go through very trying times. I want to just say as we wind up, um, if you've enjoyed this and would like to be part of other presentations uncoated 19 events, please take a look at the screen and visit the website that's highlighted here. You'll need the log in if you're a first time user and creating the count that allow you to have access and be able to view other co vid 19 presentation. Heidi and I want to thank you very much for allowing us to spend time with you today.
