Urgency requires response, but triggers reaction.

Reactions like:

• Your heart rate spikes
• Your breathing gets shorter
• Your stomach plummets
• Your thoughts start racing (oh shit is this really happening right now)

After many years, my heart rate still jumps when urgency comes knocking.

I have to remind myself it’s ok!

These feelings are there to kick me into action. But just like the Tortoise and the Hare, it’s actually a lot more effective to let the Tortoise stay in the lead. Calm, methodical and precise. It’s very important to not react when the stakes are so high.

By grounding myself in the present, I’m able to respond rather than react.

The response factor is critical to providing high quality support.

Improving your response factor is incremental, it happens gradually over a long time.

My body wants to take action. Now! It’s up to me to gradually increase my awareness of those reactions and transform them into responses. At first this only happened after the fact, with writing or debriefing. Years later I can mostly catch the tension as it rises, put it aside and stay focused. I still have moments of struggle and for that I lean in to my supports, write reflectively and figure out – when did the Hare get ahead of the Tortoise?

What helps you stay grounded? 👀👇🏽