Terri

I attended the training this week.  The day after the training I was sitting in a meeting with some peers and one of them brought up an issue/situation that would normally push all of my buttons.  It was expectation coming without context, insufficient time to accomplish the work involved and expectations of all of us to engage this new task without any regard for the other important and priority work that was already on our plate.  As I listen to this individual go on and watched their blood pressure rise with every sentence, I all of the sudden noticed that I wasn’t reacting.  It was almost as if I was sitting on my shoulder observing the situation.  I was listening, I totally understood what was going on and how upset this person was, and I was sitting there calmly listening.  After the meeting I asked this individual what I could do to take something off their plate to give them space to deal with this – when I said that, I watched their reaction and acknowledgement of where they had gotten to on the stress meter.  It was an affirmation or acknowledgment that what they needed to do was take a few minutes to just breath and get things back into perspective.  It was an amazing experience.