Loving yourself, but not too much.
After a rather hot fell run, shower, dinner my mind wandered again as to People in the Media, Marketing, Advertising Industry and the handling of anxiety, stress, and bluntly low self esteem.
Sunbathing by the Trig Point on Kerridge Hill.
I really don’t want to waffle as I am notorious at times for that. Nor lecture, or proverbially ask people to suck eggs. Ahem.
Based on my own experience from March 2020 to this point I must confess to having suffered from anxiety, worry, stress, and low self esteem. Some of this naturally comes from running your own business as a sole trader, where you do everything. But I think Covid (and interestingly enough Brexit as well) added a whole new dimension to “doing business” for all People who work.
As we grew deeper into lockdown business dried up, people could not be seen etc. etc. etc. As a precaution I furloughed myself, having been a good boy and paid all my taxes and kept accounts up to date. I happily took calls from contacts old and new as they sought advice. But with one eye on market conditions. Which deteriorated to be honest.
The interesting Stuff
What I did notice was anxiety at times, or worry, and interestingly some low self esteem. A lot of this was grounded in Sales, Revenue, and business comms’, i.e. phone and e-mail traffic had decreased.
I started to have “stinky thinking”.
Was I running my business incorrectly?
Was I incapable?
Was I losing my touch?
And so it went on….
As a Person what did I learn?
What I learnt was that it is okay to worry. It is actually quite natural, just as anxiety is, and low self esteem. It is part of the human condition. And what I discovered was not to be frightened by it and recognise it as natural and sit in the emotion rather than act spontaneously, or fall to pieces. Which I appreciate is easier said than done. Sitting in the emotion (of worry, anxiety, low self esteem) allows you to recognise it, to know it won’t last, and I discovered such feelings normally turn themselves on and off, or come in waves. Avoidance of such emotions can be counter productive as you lose an ability to recognise them and sit in them.
A useful ACRONYM I discovered is RADAR when you suffering.
Recognise that there is a problem or situation.
Accept the problem or situation.
Detach from the problem or situation.
Ask for help and advice if needed to the problem or solution.
Respond to the problem or situation if necessary.
It has helped me before now and the crucial ones for me are remembering to detach and ask for help if necessary. We People can be very insular at time, especially people in Media, Marketing, and Advertising.