Finding Clarity and Courage in the Unknown: One Day at a Time

Published June 2 in Healthcare News by Danna Beal.

We have all been impacted during this global pandemic in ways we could never have imagined. Healthcare has been severely hit during these unfolding days, weeks, and months. We owe our continuing gratitude for the selflessness, courage, and sacrifice of so many people in all aspects of healthcare delivery. It has taken a toll on everyone, both here and around the world. How we emerge from all this is still evolving and lies in the realm of the unknown. Based on my experience with thousands of people, the unknown is cited as their greatest fear.

The frenetic and often dysfunctional workplace culture came to a grinding halt, causing us to face not only our external fears, but also, our inner demons and shadows. In the midst of sheltering in place, working remotely, working under strict guidelines, being unemployed, isolated, and feeling loss, it is hard to find one’s footing. Economic worries and financial losses can be overwhelming. In the absence of a knowable future, the ego goes into self-protection and dictates reactions and solutions. However, thoughts directed by the ego are fickle, floundering, argumentative, exaggerated, insane, contradictory, and utterly unreal. I believe we always have the choice to listen to our ego or our soul. Our feelings are a response to the narrative and can change instantly if we recognize their source.

Profound Opportunity to Create a New Culture

Although we have not had anything of this magnitude in our lifetimes, we have witnessed people coming together with compassion and love in previous crises. We now have a profound opportunity to bring love and compassion to the workplace and the world.

Tantamount to creating a new and cooperative culture is the individual process of self-realization. This includes facing our inner fears and demons. Fear is inside you and is not caused by a situation or an enemy. But it is so hidden in most people, they do not even know that it is fear that is motivating them. Blame and projection, drawing lines in the sand, and creating enemies are all a result of fear. Fear melts when you align with your inner core, allowing your courage and strength to arise.

This period in time offers pause for self-reflection, a time to restore and renew your sense of purpose, your values and your path in life. You can assist in creating a new culture when you are operating from the strength of love and inner wisdom.

Resiliency and Energy of the Human Spirit to Survive Daunting Challenges

You are witnessing and participating in an extraordinary moment in history. If you were to look back from some future point in time, what would you like to remember? What lessons did you learn, how did you survive, how did you face challenges, how did you make a difference, and did you share the energy of love and compassion? How did you contribute to a new culture? Will you see that despite uncertainty and suffering, your inner strength and will to live carried you to new heights of understanding and wisdom? Despite many losses, there are many beautiful moments occurring right now. Let this moment in time be a place of remembrance of the resiliency and energy of the human spirit to survive daunting challenges.

Project Illumination—Steps for Bringing Light and Inspiration to the Workplace

We have an opportunity to bring in light and inspiration to the workplace, create clarity in the fog of confusion, and heal the complex web of egos competing for power and validation. Here are my suggestions to assist in creating a new culture:

1. Take one day at a time and, in very severe situations, it may be one moment at a time. This can immediately calm you and bring you to the present. Trying to control days, weeks, and years ahead of you, is overwhelming and exhausting. Trust that you will find solutions and inspirations as life unfolds. Life is a gift and it is offering new experiences and opportunities, often disguised initially as problems. Innovation and new opportunities arise in calmness, not angst. When you trust in the unknown you tap into imagination–the wellspring of creativity—genius itself.
2. Start each day with gratitude for all the good in your life. Put your losses in perspective. Though times are exceedingly difficult, some of the things we complain about are not worthy of our attention. Start to notice how much you complain about people and situations that are petty and small. Complaining is a hidden way to be a self-righteous victim and there is no power in being a victim.
3. Incite group will—a powerful catalyst for new and innovative ideas. Find mutual goals and values and celebrate contribution. Whether working remotely or in the workplace, engage others with understanding, humor, clear communication, asking questions, listening, and demonstrating respect. Share and honor stories that are uplifting, heartwarming and bonding to your team and your organization. Recognize the human spirit in all of us.
4. Stop being so hard on yourself. These are unprecedented times. Give compassionate grace to yourself and others. Perfection is an illusion and it only leads to self-recrimination. Self-shaming or self-criticism is an epidemic within the pandemic. Only you can give it up. Stop clinging to self-imposed suffering. Renounce it now.
5. Do not completely isolate yourself. Reach out to others through video chats, phone, and safe environments according to the guidelines in your area. Be outside and enjoy exercise and fresh air. Emanate love and compassion whenever you go. Kindness is a great healer. Eyes are the windows of the soul and even in a mask, people can see your smile in your eyes.
6. Be discerning and measure information from your own values and intelligence, not sensationalism and drama. Be open to all points of view and find your own voice. With so much disinformation out there, it is understandable when people do not know what to believe. Ask yourself, “Who does this benefit? Does it resonate as truth or does it sound like fanaticism? Will it help bring peace and reconciliation? Does it bring us together or divide us?”
7. Be free. Regardless of circumstances, freedom is first a state of mind. Victor Frankl, author, neurologist, and holocaust survivor found freedom in a concentration camp. He stated, “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”