Mindful in 5 Podcast

Stress to Success Quick Fixes

• Spiwe Jefferson • Season 5 • Episode 143

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Can workplace stress really be transformed into career success? Discover the surprising power of the 3-3-3 reset technique to bring calm and clarity to your workday. This episode of Mindful in 5, hosted by Spiwe Jefferson, offers a scientifically-backed mindfulness practice that takes just five minutes to turn potential stressors into opportunities for growth. Learn how to embrace a beginner's mind with childlike qualities such as trust, openness, and creativity, enabling you to approach each day with renewed enthusiasm and a softer heart.

Join the Mindful Ninjas as we walk through the 3-3-3 reset: visualize cheerful elements around you, identify grounding sounds, and release tension through mindful body movements. This simple practice can help shift your nervous system to a calmer state, supporting clearer thinking and better decision-making. Whether you're in a bustling office or working from home, these techniques promise to create a more peaceful and joyful work experience. Tune in to start your journey toward a more supported and vibrant professional life today.


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Speaker 1:

Welcome to Mindful in 5, where busy professionals find your peaceful oasis to thrive in complex work environments. I am Spiwa Jefferson attorney, certified mindfulness practitioner and author of the Mindful in 5 book series. Here to guide you to a clearer, softer and more supported life. Join me and your fellow Mindful Ninjas as we explore science-backed mindfulness strategies for successful leaders that you can implement, starting with just five minutes a day. Elevate your work, empower your life, work higher, live stronger. Let's go.

Speaker 1:

Do you often feel overwhelmed by stress at work, your mind clouded and your sense of peace shattered? Chronic stress can disrupt your cheerful outlook, leaving you feeling unsupported and disconnected from the joyful aspects of your career. The title of today's episode is Stress to Success Quick Fixes. We are exploring how to transform stress into success with quick, clear fixes bringing a softer approach to your workday. And if you are wondering about the cute kids in imagery this season, we are embracing the beginner's mind by channeling childlike qualities trust, openness, authenticity, creativity, resilience and optimism to transform our mindfulness practice and daily lives. If you want to learn more about the beginner's mind and the concept of approaching every day and your work with childlike wonder, check out the season five kickoff episode that delves more into that topic. Let our playful cover art inspire you to approach each day with fresh eyes and an open heart. Okay, back to our topic. Imagine navigating your professional challenges with a sense of calm, clarity, turning potential stressors into stepping stones for growth. By mastering stress management, you can create a more peaceful, joyful work experience.

Speaker 1:

Let us now explore a soothing technique called the 3-3-3 reset. Here is how this clear process works. Wherever you are, take a pause from whatever you're doing if you're safe to do so. A pause from whatever you're doing if you're safe to do so, and close your eyes. If you're sitting at your laptop multitasking, take a pause, it won't be long. Close your eyes. So, for step one, take a deep breath, hold it Exhale. Take another deep breath in, hold it, exhale and let the tension flow out of your body like a river. One more time Inhale in, hold it Exhale, exhale. So for our first step, pause and name three things you can see in your mind's eye bringing cheerful awareness to your surroundings. So just mentally visualize where am I and what do I see around me when my eyes are open. That brings me cheer. And if your workplace does not bring you cheer, think about the thing that you are going to bring into your workspace so that you can see something that brings you cheer, if nothing else. Take a look at the cover art for this season and hopefully it will do for you what it does for me, which is make me smile and feel just a little bit lighter whenever I see it.

Speaker 1:

Step two identify three sounds you can hear, grounding yourself in the peaceful present. So just be in the moment with your eyes closed, sharpen the focus of your ears and just listen for at least three things that you can pick up that increase your awareness of the present moment. Are there people talking around you? Are there cars going by? Are you in your neighborhood, at home working? Can you hear birds chirping? Can you hear the wind? So just pause and identify the sounds. Are your kids running around outside your office?

Speaker 1:

Just pause and listen for the sounds that you can hear and now, as you're sitting there with your eyes closed, move three parts of your body, releasing tension with joyful intention. For example, rotate your neck forwards, rotate your neck backwards, shrug your shoulders. This is a favorite of mine, because I do a lot of typing and sitting and every so often I just take a break and shrug my shoulders so that I can feel the tension increase and then decrease as I drop my shoulders. And if you're standing like me, you can bend at the waist. You can bend forward, like I'm doing now, you can bend backwards like I'm doing now, you can bend from side to side and allow yourself to just feel that tension ease in your body. Feel that tension ease in your body and now you can open your eyes. Research shows that this mindful practice can quickly shift your nervous system to a calmer state, supporting clearer thinking and decision-making.

Speaker 1:

See, part of the reason I started Mindful in 5 was because I had a lot of lawyer friends who said, oh, spear, this mindfulness stuff sounds amazing because I'm so stressed, but I don't have time. You know why? Because I'm so stressed doing my job. So then I said, well, can you just start with five minutes? Can you give yourself, if you're giving your company eight, 10, 12 hours a day, can you give yourself just five minutes to take a break? And a lot of my friends said, well, I suppose I can just take five minutes. And so the point I want you to take away one of the points certainly is that it doesn't take a lot of time, and you don't have to go to the spa, you don't have to go on a grand vacation to infuse elements of self-care that can reduce your stress. Now there are also some really good episodes that we have done in past seasons on stress. I will include those in the notes for this podcast and you can listen to those at your leisure as well.

Speaker 1:

But here's what I want you to think about, two things. Number one stress is not your enemy. It is simply energy waiting to be channeled into a clearer, more joyful purpose. And here's a thought-provoking. I found it thought-provoking. It just really opened my eyes when I first heard it, when I first thought about it. I actually got this concept originally from a pastor who was talking about stress, and when he said it I was like, oh my gosh, he is so right.

Speaker 1:

And what it is is that stress is typically not about what's happening in the moment. Stress is about what you are thinking about, things that either have happened or that may or may not happen. But most of the time when you are experiencing stress, the stressful thing isn't actually happening. So what that means is that stress is not so much action-based or event-based. Stress is most often thought-based. If you don't believe me.

Speaker 1:

Think about the nights when you have stayed up ruminating about something that's stressing you out. You're lying in bed, stressed out, unable to sleep. What's actually happening in that moment? In that moment, that embarrassing thing that you did yesterday or last year is not happening. That difficult conversation that you have to have with your employee, your co-worker, your boss tomorrow isn't actually happening. That presentation that is terrifying you isn't happening. What's happening is you're lying in bed thinking about the things that you are worried about that either have happened or may or may never even happen.

Speaker 1:

So stress is thought-based and the reason you can't sleep is because your body can't tell the difference between the lion is behind me, chasing me right now, versus I'm just thinking about the lion chasing me right, even though there's no lion, your body reacts the same way it releases adrenaline, it releases hormones that get you into fight, flight or freeze mode and, of course, you're not going to be able to go to sleep because your body's like hey, we are in danger, get up, do something right, and that's why you cannot sleep.

Speaker 1:

Thing right, and that's why you cannot sleep. And so one of the ways that you can reduce that stress is to practice this 3-3-3 reset, because you cannot hold fear in the same space when you are calmly and slowly breathing. It is one of the reasons why breathing is such a critical component of mindfulness. When you are stressed and you start slowly breathing, it forces your brain to go oh wait, we are calm and all of those stress hormones start to ebb out of your system because you can't be breathing slowly unless there is no need to be concerned. So it's a way to force your body to calm down. It's a gentle approach that gets you from flight, fright and freeze to I'm calm, I'm safely in bed, I am fine. I am fine.

Speaker 1:

So practice that 3-3-3 reset daily, especially when you feel that stress mounting. Notice how it brings a softer and more supported energy to your work. Are you ready to master stress and cultivate more joy in your career? I have to remember to tell you that there are free and paid downloadable toolkits on spewedeffersoncom, launched especially in season five, to support your journey and you and all of the other mindful ninjas out there. If you're thinking, who damn Mindful ninjas is the name that I give to all of the listeners, all of the subscribers to the email, all of you who care about your mental wellness and state of being, such that you are taking those active steps to increase and improve that mindfulness muscle in your bodies and in your minds. And those are the people that I call mindful ninjas and you are one of them. And if you're feeling like I don't know if I would think of myself in those half-a-luton ways well, you just keep practicing, you just keep using the tools and the strategies that we are unpacking this season and in past seasons and, before you know it, you're going to look back and you're going to see the results. It's kind of like if you want to be more fit, if you want to be more buff. You don't just sit there and think about becoming the thing. You take active steps. And then your active step might be I'm going to go to the gym three times a week, four times a week, every day, whatever it is, and one day you're going to look back and you're going to realize that you are stronger. There are things you can do now that you couldn't do before. There are ways in which you can scale those steps without being winded in ways that would exhaust you before right. So mindfulness is the same thing you keep practicing consistently, day to day, in five minute increments at the beginning of your day, at the end of your day. Take breaks during your working day and just take five minutes to breathe and reset in real time. And one day you will turn around and you'll say you know what? I realize I'm less stressed. I realize my kids don't bother me as much anymore. I realize that my coworkers don't irk me the way they used to, and so these are the ways that you get from here to there. So download those toolkits and, if you are able to find and think of somebody who you know who is stressed, share this episode so that they too, can harness the power of mindfulness and find ways that they can use to address those stressful situations in life. Remember, small shifts in how you handle stress can lead to big changes in your professional life.

Speaker 1:

Those of you who are God lovers, take a moment in your morning centering exercises, your morning prayer and meditation to hand to him your stressors. If you think of the divine creator as your divine mother, sit at your divine mother's feet and hand to her the things that are causing you stress, I like to visually see the thing that's causing me stress and I put it in a box and I wrap that box in a beautiful container, I put a bow on top of it and I put it in the palm of my hand and I just release it to my divine mother, to my heavenly father, and I just say you know, here is this thing that's stressing me out, and I visualize it lifting off my hand and floating out into the ether, up, up, up, like a helium balloon, and that is how I mentally let go of the things that stress me out. So we've given you a lot of strategies here to manage stress today, some ways to think about stress and how you can overcome it and tame it. And, by the way, stress can be your friend If you are stressed out about that big presentation you have to give.

Speaker 1:

One of the great ways to overcome that sense of stress is practice, practice, practice and prepare, prepare, prepare. And once you get to that presentation, you are going to be grateful for all that stress that drove you to be prepared for this thing that you were thinking about. And so stress is not always a bad thing not by a long shot. So just learn to manage it so that it serves you instead of you becoming a slave to your stressful thoughts. So go in peace today, and may your work be filled with clarity, joy and inner peace Until next week. This is Spiwe saying be mindful and be well.

Speaker 2:

Thank you for listening to Mindful in 5. If you enjoyed it, share it with a friend, follow and rate it on your favorite podcast platform. Pick up your signed copy of the book and journal from spewayjeffersoncom, or unsigned copies from Amazon, barnes, noble or wherever you get your books. Visit spewayjeffersoncom to download sample chapters of the book, watch videos and become a mindful ninja. Join us on the LinkedIn Mindful in 5 group and share your thoughts. Until next time, be mindful and be well.