Mindful in 5 Podcast

Egg, Potato, Or Tea?

• Season 5 • Episode 167

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Let’s be honest: work stress isn’t going anywhere. The key isn't to avoid it, but learn how to manage it in a way that works for you — and the first step is self-awareness. Are you like an egg that hardens under pressure, a potato that softens and becomes flexible, or a tea bag that transforms its surroundings?

In this episode, learn what your stress response says about you and how to manage stress in a way that fosters growth and resilience. Plus, follow along with a simple mindfulness exercise to increase self-awareness, avoid burnout, and make meaningful changes to your workday!

Transform career setbacks into powerful comebacks with mindful strategies and AI tools that helped me land executive roles as shared in my upcoming book, 'Phoenix Rising - Ignite Your Job Search.' Secure your spot in our exclusive Early Bird community for pre-launch access and an intimate launch event by pre-ordering through the Phoenix Career Chronicles podcast show notes or at spiwejefferson.com today.



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Spiwe Jefferson:

Welcome to Mindful in 5, where busy professionals find your peaceful oasis to thrive in complex work environments. I am Spiwe 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. Did you know that 83% of professionals say workplace stress follows them home like a shadow? Well, okay, not the shadow part, but this statistic was cited in a 2013 work stress survey conducted by interviewing over a thousand employed adults by Harris Interactive on behalf of Everest College. On behalf of Everest College, another study found that 54% of workers report that work-related stress negatively impacts their personal lives. Younger generations, such as millennials and Gen Z, are disproportionately affected, with 71% of Gen Z workers scoring poorly on work health metrics. And some of these studies were conducted before COVID, which just exacerbated all the stress that we had already. But here's the question what if that heat could be harnessed to fuel resilience instead of burnout? Today, we are exploring a provocative question Are you an egg, potato or tea.

Spiwe Jefferson:

Meet Chantal Dubois, general Counsel at Sunderland Medical. Every workday she eats the same thing for lunch a sweet potato, a boiled egg and some chicken and a mug of tea. The ritual isn't monotonous for her, it is a masterclass in mindfulness. So let's explain the science of simmering. Chantal's routine hides a metaphor. The egg hardens under boiling water. Like many of us in high-pressure roles, eggs represent guardedness. Think deadlines, boardroom clashes or your boss or colleagues unwelcome micromanaging. Do you armor up sacrificing flexibility? Second, the sweet potato. It softens, absorbing heat to become nourishing. Softness is not weakness. The potato adapts, turning stress into fuel.

Spiwe Jefferson:

In the Mindful and Five book we learn that Chantel's husband suffers from PTSD. When it flares, she leans into this flexibility, pulling out her compassion over trying to control his behavior. And then, third, the teabag In Hot Water. And then, third, the teabag In hot water. The teabag transforms its surroundings into something rich and fragrant and delicious. Heat unlocks its hidden potential. Chantal has a mentee, a car VP of sales, who is desperate to learn how to center himself. He represents her team moment in that he helps her turn the workplace stressors and Vukchin into mentorship. That actually improves not just her life but the life of her coworker and, by extension, the people that they touch every day.

Spiwe Jefferson:

Okay, so now it's your turn. Let's practice a mindful in five, five-minute boiling point reflection together. If it's safe to do so, close your eyes, let's take a deep breath in, hold it and exhale Again. Deep belly breath, feel your belly expanding, hold it and then exhale, allowing all that tension to release from your body, with your eyes closed. Identify your default. Are you a neck? Do deadlines make you brittle? Do you harden? Do you lash out at your co-workers? Or are you a potato? Are you able to channel that stress into creative fuel? Or are you more like that teabag, altering toxic environments or just floating along and allowing your good vibes and your good spirit to just waft out and positively impact everyone around you?

Spiwe Jefferson:

Now you can rewrite your script based on what you want to be. I say all the time mindfulness is about being present in the moment, without judgment and without being overwhelmed by what's happening around you. That without judgment piece is so critical but so very difficult, because we judge ourselves over just about everything. So you can rewrite your own script. You can decide if you are today an egg or a potato or tea. Decide whether you want to continue to be, whichever one you are. If you are, then keep at it. If you want to change it, rewrite that script. You can say something like next time my boss or coworker erupts, I will fill in the blank for how you would like to react, and you can apply this approach to anything that you can predict is going to be a stressor when you get up every day. You can apply it not just to work, but to your household, to your kids. The next time my testy teenager has an eruption, I'm going to decide If you've been doing things that haven't been working. This gives you an opportunity to think clearly, before you get into the heat of the moment, about how else you might like to respond, so that you can try and get a different outcome. And if it doesn't work, that's okay. Keep coming back and sitting in your stillness and coming up with other ways to cope, feeling bad and beating yourself up. If you don't like the way you have been reacting, simply say well, hey, you know what, now I know better, I'm going to do better and just try. Mindfulness is a practice, not a destination. So as long as you have breath in your body, you have another day to practice and do better the next day than you did the day before. So then dive deeper.

Spiwe Jefferson:

I invite you to grab a Mindful M5 journal, available on Amazon and in the show notes for this episode. You can use a journal to track your reactions to life's hot water moments. There are two journals available. There are companions to the Mindful in 5 book. What I call the classic edition is a. What color is that journal? It's black. I had to turn around and look at it. It's a black book with a picture of a journal on the front. And then the God Lovers edition is a blue journal and it's got, I think, a picture of the corners of a number of journals on the front.

Spiwe Jefferson:

But journaling can increase the clarity of your thoughts and your convictions and the desires that you have for the alternate behaviors that you would like to exhibit. So if you don't already try journaling, this is something that you might find quite helpful. One of my daughters actually picked up journaling in this season of her life and she is journaling. I think she has journaled every day, actually for a couple of months now, and found it to be incredibly, incredibly helpful. So, however you choose to do it, even if you don't pick up a Mindful in 5 journal. If you've got a booklet with some blank sheets of paper in your home, just start there.

Spiwe Jefferson:

The Mindful in 5 journals have journal entries and prompts that correspond to the stories in the Mindful in 5 books. Need a little bit more guidance on how to think about your daily life and your thinking. In particular, with the Mindful in 5 series it's organized into three seasons dark, dawn and day to meet you at whatever season of life you are in, and so the journal is also organized in that way. So if you sit down one day and you're like, hmm, I feel like today feels like a dawn kind of day. I'm excited, I'm learning, I'm optimistic, maybe a little bit uncertain about what's to come, maybe a little bit over my skis in terms of the work I have in front of me, then this is the season. You can pick a journal entry from one of the chapters in that season and then you can journal to the prompt. So I invite you finally to take on this challenge for this week For three days.

Spiwe Jefferson:

For this week For three days, consider replacing your negative self-talk with something positive, for example, when you might say something like this is too much.

Spiwe Jefferson:

You could instead say something like what is this teaching me? And feel free to sign up at https://www. spiwejefferson. com/ or in the show notes to the Mindful Ninjas email and send me a note and let me know what your aha moments have been. Sometimes I publish those as either testimonials or as feedback that would be helpful to other members of the Mindful Ninja community. So all that to say you don't control the heat, but you always control the transformation. Will tomorrow's fire leave you hardened, softened or infused with purpose? That is the question that I will leave you to consider for yourself today. I would love it if you would rate and review to help more leaders find clarity in their chaos, and share this episode, if you found it helpful, with somebody who could use a reflection on whether they are an egg or potato or tea. Maybe resist the temptation to tell them what you think they are, just in case they disagree. Until next week. This is Spiwe saying be mindful and be well.

James@DiscovertheVoice:

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 https://www. spiwejefferson. com/, or unsigned copies from Amazon, Barnes and Noble or wherever you get your books. Visit https://www. spiwejefferson. com/ 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.