𝘽𝙪𝙧𝙣𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙞𝙨𝙣'𝙩 𝙘𝙖𝙪𝙨𝙚𝙙 𝙗𝙮 𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙠. 𝙄𝙩'𝙨 𝙘𝙖𝙪𝙨𝙚𝙙 𝙗𝙮 𝙞𝙜𝙣𝙤𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙨𝙞𝙜𝙣𝙖𝙡𝙨.

This past year forced me to embody that lesson.

I lost my mom... and my marriage ended.... all while I was still trying to build a business.

Some days I could barely breathe, let alone network or write social media posts.

So I learned how to do just enough to stay visible and keep the business breathing. I didn't hustle. But I didn't disappear.

I integrated... I honored the season I was in.... and now I'm emerging with a new alignment and new insight.

𝘞𝘦 𝘧𝘳𝘦𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘭𝘺 𝘥𝘦𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘶𝘮𝘮𝘦𝘳 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘪𝘥𝘥𝘭𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳... 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘷𝘦𝘴 𝘈𝘕𝘋 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘮𝘴... 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘩𝘺 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘣𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘰𝘶𝘵.

So .... I'm emerging from a long winter, and I've written my first newsletter article in almost five months to share about my quiet "relaunch" and to offer some workplace and leadership lessons.

If you've been running hard for a long time and ignoring the signals, this one might resonate.

I was having coffee with a friend the other day, chatting about the season of transition that my business and personal life are both in, when he made an encouraging comment about his confidence that I will accomplish my goals no matter what.  

Oddly, as he spoke those words a deep, visceral wave of emotion washed over me. Tears came to my eyes and my throat tightened as I could literally “feel” my longing for a very specific goal. And it wasn’t a job or a client or anything external.  It was a craving for peace.

I frequently say that if there’s one universal need that remains unmet far too often, it’s the need to feel seen. When we hold space for ourselves and others to be fully human, something extraordinary happens—a key turns inside our hearts, unlocking connection, freedom, and transformation.

2024 was already a rollercoaster year for me, and then the entire ride went completely off the tracks on December 9th when I got the call that my mom had very suddenly and unexpectedly passed away.

This week was World Mental Health Day, and as I reflected and read many relevant posts on this subject, I had to acknowledge that my own mental health has not been that great lately.

It’s been over a year since I left corporate life behind and chose to start Regenerative Workplaces with a mission/calling/vision to help organizations be more human centric and end the normalization of burnout and “hustle culture.”

And I’m weary….

I’m curious.  Do you work for an organization that is holding on, white knuckled, to mindsets and ways of working that are still rooted in the 1900’s?

If so, they are about to be swept away by a coming tidal wave of change.  The 21st century is calling, and it’s not just an AI revolution, it’s a human revolution.

If you’re familiar with my work you’ll know that I often say well-being in organizations needs to be a strategy, not a benefit.  I address the ways that organizations may unknowingly be CAUSING stress and burnout in their organizations with systemic micro-stressors that ultimately undermine any efforts to boost well-being through benefits.  Systemic micro-stressors are hardwired into the fabric of generational corporate processes, policies, procedures and behaviors built on the industrial revolution.

I recently spoke as part of a panel at Donna Carlson's quarterly forum on Mental Health at Work. The theme of this particular session was optimization - How do we optimize humans, teams and workplaces to advance greater well-being and mental health?

According to recent research released by Gallup, more than 60% of global workers are struggling or suffering, and the percentage of employees who say they feel stress, worry and sadness a lot of the day or who feel burned out at work very often or always, have increased in the past decade.  Meanwhile, the belief that our organization cares about us, which was on the rise up through 2019 and peaked sharply at the start of the COVID pandemic, has steadily decreased since 2020 to levels we’d not seen in a decade.