🎙️70. Psychological Safety is Underrated: How to Navigate Safety for Yourself & Others in the Workplace (and Beyond)

the spiritual 9-5 podcast transcript

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Episode Published on April 2, 2024

Transcript:

Intro music 🎶

I believe that working can be one of the most spiritual paths that we walk. 

Whether that work is turning your passion into a business, or sitting behind a desk for eight hours a day, or anywhere beyond and in between. And yet, we often take the way in which we show up to work for granted, even though it's where we spend the majority of our time.

Here on The Spiritual 9–5 Podcast, we talk about that. We talk about entrepreneurship, we talk about the 9 to 5, we talk about what it's like to be multi-passionate, and talented, and inspired, and also utterly demotivated. 

We are here to support you in your work, whether your work is sacred to you, or just something that you do to get by. We are here to help you see and know yourself a little bit deeper, and to inspire you to show up no matter what it is that you find.

I'm your host, Marie Groover, and like you I am as multi-passionate as they come. I'm the founder of two businesses that are here to bring the soul back into the office. I, too, work a 9 to 5 in corporate tech. 

I'm a surfer, a writer, a philosopher-artist, if you will, and I'm so excited to bring you this episode today. If you haven't, please leave the show a 5-star rating, and if this episode resonates, consider saving it and sharing it with someone you think it would resonate with too. 

Intro music fades 🎶

I think that safety is underrated. I think that many of us are living with our nervous systems unregulated, in consistent low or even high states of anxiety and stress. And I think that the reason we're living this way is because safety is underrated.

The concept of safety is overlooked and undervalued and taken for granted. Safety is something that we assume we have, like it's a given, in most of our day-to-days. And yet, if we pause to really check in to see if we are feeling safe, what would that answer be? Safety is having shelter and being free from threat. Yes.

But the thing is, threats today don't look like they did years and years ago. A threat is not just someone breaking into your house or being chased by a wild animal. A threat is the perceived experience of emotional, psychological, or physical harm. 

An example of a common threat in today's society and culture is looking over your partner's shoulder, with their permission of course, while the two of you scroll their phone together. And seeing an incoming text or message from a name or number that you've never seen or heard before. It might not be a real or literal threat, but/and I think many of us can relate to this experience of seeing this or something like this. And then noticing maybe your heart beating a little faster, blood flushing into the face, somewhat of a reaction happening within you physically and emotionally. 

This actually happens in the body before the mind can even make the story of, “Oh my God, are they seeing someone else behind my back?” It's a natural human and physiological reaction in that moment. And maybe even until you receive confirmation that it's their dentist or a coworker and that there obviously is nothing to be alarmed about your body is reacting. Your nervous system is reacting and your sense of safety has lapsed. 

Another example: you're at work, you've been striving for a promotion, your boss is on the same page, but still waiting to understand what's available in terms of budget. You're pretty open with your team, so your team knows that you're working toward that next level. Everyone's tracking. Suddenly, you're alerted that there's a re-org happening and that you'll likely be reporting into a new boss.

Not only now is your potential promotion on the line, but the safety of a known team and manager are also now on the line. You may have a physical reaction, followed by an emotional reaction, followed by your mind doing what it does to make sense of what's happening. Now, side note, this is why it's so important to train the mind and your mindset because when uncertainty is introduced in your environment, regardless of what that uncertainty is, you will have a reaction and the way your mind responds is paramount.

It can add or detract from the physiological response, and the emotional response, and the way you actually act and feel and how stressed you are. So training a growth mindset, training an open mindset, is important because when you don't know what's going to happen, it actually doesn't help you to spiral out into the worst case scenarios. 

Okay, one more example, layoffs.

Whether you have been affected by them, whether you are someone facilitating them, layoffs introduce uncertainty. Uncertainty doesn't feel safe. Uncertainty is unknown. How we lead ourselves and others through that is important. 

But back to safety. When we feel safe, we have control over our higher level thinking abilities. Like we can think, we can make decisions, we can plan, we can process. The less safe we feel, the more we begin to react and move from our protectors. We actually lose access to our higher-level processing. And our protectors are ways that we've learned to survive as humans in varying levels of stressful situations. 

For example, when I was a kid, my mom would occasionally lose her emotional self control and lash out and it was very scary. And I learned to shut off my emotions, to hold a straight and steady face, to not cry, to not react because reacting meant that her reaction would be bigger. And I wanted her reaction to end so that I could feel safe again. 

I talked about this a little bit in an episode, many episodes ago, about how I once thought that maybe I was a psychopath. Well, this is partially why. Because I learned the protection mechanism of detaching from my emotions. Because that's what enabled me to resource and find safety again. 

Now, you could see how detaching from my emotions could both help me be successful in life and my career and hinder me from true connection and deep relationships, which also becomes a plateau in your success in both your life and your career as well, by the way. 

Another example of a protector, I'll take one from one of my clients. Her brother died when she was young and her parents, likely out of fear of losing her or fear of abandonment, were extremely controlling of her. And so anything that she wanted to do or experience that was outside the realm of what they perceived as safe, they would shut down. Good things, bad things, it didn't matter. And so something that my client learned to do was, in advance of a request or desire or a need that she had, she would figure out what all the objections might be and then have a response ready for all of them. To essentially prove the validity of her desire or need in order to try to get it. She learned that she couldn't be truthful about everything because not everything would be accepted and that she had to be right in order to receive things like basic needs sometimes. 

And what that resulted in her adulthood is constantly preparing to prove herself, constantly justifying her actions or her thoughts or her wants and desires or her needs even. And not feeling like she can want anything for the sake of wanting it, but needing a reason, needing a valid reason. And that's a protector. 

Now, protectors are not always about safety, by the way. Sometimes we are in our protectors when we're trying to source validation, acceptance, understanding, when we want to be seen, when we want to be heard, and we've learned certain ways to get those things when we were children, right? 

We've learned how to manipulate a situation or manipulate other people in order to get these things like to be seen to be understood to be validated to be accepted. But something to note is that when we are using a protector, when we are acting out of a protection mechanism unconsciously, we cannot be acting from our true selves. 

So, we cannot both be freely being ourselves and be protecting ourselves. We cannot both be protecting ourselves or hiding. Yeah?

So back to safety. When we're not feeling safe, whether a threat is real or perceived, we will engage in our protectors and we will not act from a free or liberated or sovereign or authentic self. So workplaces who are like, “bring your authentic self to work” or “be authentic,” etc, etc. Workplaces who say that but do not actually provide a safe environment..

You're not gonna get a whole lot of authenticity there. 

Same thing with managers, managers who say to be authentic or to bring your whole self to work, but then perform or act from their own protectors. The same thing will be true. Good luck having and cultivating a truly connected and highly performing team. You won't. 

One of the most important skills for a leader to have is to be able to cultivate psychological and emotional safety for those in their presence. And before that, one of the most important skills for a leader and everyone, and remember we are all leaders here, to have, is the ability to cultivate and source emotional and psychological safety from within, for the self. So it's important to know when you're not feeling safe, when your nervous system may be dysregulated, so that you can cultivate safety. So that you can show up and lead yourself and lead others authentically. And so that you can cultivate safety for other people who come into your orbit or presence, so that they too can show up authentically. 

By the way, safety is underrated even in this episode, because I'm not even going to begin to talk about how the persistent low level of anxiety or stress or lack of safety wreaks absolute havoc on your health.

You can run every day and eat greens and drink smoothies and be a boss at work and get ahead of your to-do list and spend money on fancy treatments like facials and micro-needling, but if you are not addressing your body directly by learning how it reacts to the stress in your life and learning how to regulate yourself and cultivate safety, eek, I don't know, man. As a holistic coach, as a yoga teacher, as a recovering perfectionist, as a person who goes to therapy, eats well, works out, and still goes off the rails sometimes, I would recommend starting here. Starting with yourself, starting with safety. 

It's something that I wish I had learned years and years and years and years ago before now. 

So this episode is first about knowing when maybe you aren't feeling super safe. Like what are the signs and symptoms of nervous system reactivity? 

And then second, what do we do about it?

So we'll talk about how to establish safety in yourself. 

And finally, third, we'll talk about how to cultivate safety for others. 

It's all really good stuff. So go ahead and hit pause right now as you send this episode to three people that you know would absolutely benefit from listening. 

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Okay. Signs that we may not be feeling safe, AKA signs that we may be using protectors and not acting from our authentic core or true self.

These are also signs that your nervous system is activated or dysregulated. 

First one is kind of easy, over or under eating and or experiencing cravings and extreme appetite changes. Personally, something that I do is that I use food as a source of grounding when I'm feeling stressed or unregulated. Or I use food as a source of control when I'm feeling out of control.

So I'll like count my calories, plan my meals, etc, etc. And when I was younger, my body was more malleable. So I could eat salads for a week and lose weight, or go for a run every day for a week and lose weight. Now, that is not the case anymore. 

But because it was something that I could do when I was younger to be in control, it was something that I had control over, it's still something that I will reach for as a protector when I'm not feeling safe.

It’s either, you know, taking control over my food or taking control over my body or it's overeating. It's using food to ground. My dog is also a really great example with the food category. So my dog is a fearful dog. He's a rescue from Korea. I have no idea what happened to him before I got him other than his tail is broken. Like, even though it's healed now, it's like permanently sideways and he's intensely afraid of humans. I've had him for over a year and he is still just now coming around to me. 

And when he feels even slightly anxious, he doesn't eat. No matter how hungry he is, no matter how good the food is, like he's been served the best of the best steaks even, no matter how close he is to the food, no matter what. Basically, if he's scared or if he perceives a threat, he will not touch his food. So food, over or under eating, is one sign that you may not be feeling safe or that your nervous system is activated. 

So highly recommend just touching in and notice what's your relationship with food normally and what's your relationship with food today. 

Another sign that your nervous system might be activated or that you might be not feeling safe is slipping into codependency or fawning or trying to manage other people's feelings. 

So,many of us as children learned a particular way to source safety. If you grew up in a home where there were unspoken rules and you knew what those were, even though no one actually explicitly told you the rules, then you may struggle with codependency. Because you may have learned how to behave in order to manage or in order to temper someone else's feelings. Basically as a mechanism to source safety and calm in your home. 

Another way of testing this is, when your parent or close friend or a family member walks into the room, can you immediately sense how they feel? If yes, you may have experienced some psychological or emotional trauma where knowing how your caregivers felt and what to do about it was also a source of safety for you in your home. 

These things carry over into adulthood and into the corporate workforce, by the way, where we learn even more so to manage the perception and feelings of those around us.

Which is actually codependent and not secure or healthy, but that's just a whole other episode. What I will say is other people's feelings are not your responsibility. But if you feel like they are, and if you feel like you need to do something about it, that is a coping mechanism. It's also a sign that your nervous system is activated, and you guessed it, that you are not feeling fully safe.

Another sign or symptom of nervous system dysregulation is brain fog, burnout, exhaustion, trouble paying attention or concentrating. I don't think I need to explain these too much. Also feeling disconnected to surroundings or to others, having a short fuse, having a quick temper, being irritable or experiencing irritability. These are also signs that your nervous system is activated or that you're not feeling safe. Also experiencing anxiety, overwhelm, feeling on edge. These are also signs that your nervous system could be dysregulated again that you're not feeling safe. And finally, attempts to control. 

So I kind of said this earlier when I was talking about food, but attempts to control can go well beyond food, right? I said this actually a couple examples ago as well when I talked about people, right? Attempting to control other people's emotions. That's another good example. So food, people, but I would also say overworking, like being a workaholic. This is totally a protector. Hardcore controlling your calendar, hardcore controlling your children, your again, your food intake, your workouts, your body. These are coping mechanisms. These can be protectors, which are indicators that this is what you do potentially to source safety or when you're not feeling safe, because when we don't feel safe, control, and/or certainty, these two things we reach for because they help us to feel secure again. 

Oh and then anytime we notice ourselves in the stereotypical trauma responses of fight, flight, freeze, or fawn, that may seem obvious, but anytime we find ourselves in these reactions, it's safe to say that we are not feeling safe and that our nervous system is therefore activated. Because our nervous system's job is to scan constantly for safety. And when we're not perceiving safety, then the nervous system is activated. 

So these trauma responses of flight, fight, freeze, fawn are not the only indicators that we're in nervous system overdrive or that we're not feeling psychologically safe. But they are also indicators that we are in nervous system overdrive and that we're not feeling psychologically safe. It's just not limited to that. And guess what? Most of the time, safety is available to us.

We just haven't been taught how to source it and cultivate it for ourselves. And so instead we cope, we overeat, we under eat, we control, we do and experience all the things that I just talked about. 

And so what do we do about it? Well, we reestablish safety in ourselves. 

How do we do that? There's a few ways. 

So one way is simply awareness, observing, noticing, learning how your sensitivities impact your nervous system. Learning what you're sensitive about, and I want to use the word sensitive lightly because I don't mean, you know, sensitive, I guess, in a negative kind of way in the way that sometimes we think about it. But I mean, sensitive, like the senses that trigger your nervous system. Knowing your window of tolerance. So we all have a window of tolerance that we operate in. Knowing when we're outside of that window of tolerance is huge, but also noticing, you know, maybe even within that window of tolerance, how much let's say low level stress or anxiety is included there. How much low level stress or anxiety are we used to just operating with in the day to day? And how is that affecting us? 

So it's really just about becoming aware of where we are, how we're feeling, what affects us, how it affects us.

And the way that our nervous system responds or what our window of tolerance is, it may vary in different situations. But awareness is really the very first step. And it's also, I would say the most advanced step, you know, it's always about coming back to the basics. Awareness is a basic that will never let you down. 

Another way to reestablish safety in yourself and to regulate your nervous system is to complete your stress cycles.

This is from a book called “Burnout” by Emily and Amelia Nagoski. Highly recommend this book, by the way. So when a gazelle is being chased by a lion, its nervous system turns on, it goes into flight mode, it runs, and then when it survives, it will shake. So you'll see this if you observe any animals that undergo stress. If you just watch National Geographic or animal videos on TikTok or Instagram. You'll notice that when animals get away, when they get to safety, they shake their whole body out. 

And this is a signal to the body from the body that it's safe now, we can relax. So something that we as animals can also do to complete stress cycles is to shake our bodies or to engage in really intense activity, most especially after a stressful day. So running, working out, dancing, cardio. Just shaking your body in the living room or at your desk. 

I'd say even next time you close Zoom after a stressful meeting, try it. Just shake your arms and torso if you don't wanna get up. Though I do highly recommend just standing up for a second and shaking your body for around three seconds and just notice what happens. 

Another way to reestablish safety in the self is through somatic work or grounding.

So this is stuff like breath work, meditation, visualization work, yoga, any mind, body, or mindfulness practice. It could be a mindful walk, could be mindfully washing your dishes, but linking body, mind, and ideally breath as well, is a technique that calms and grounds and regulates your nervous system. So if you notice that your nervous system is out of whack, if you notice that your heart is beating a little bit faster, that you're feeling a little stressed out, you're feeling a little overwhelmed, you don't have to necessarily shake. You don't have to necessarily have this deep level of awareness in terms of what it was that triggered you and what you can do about it next time. Instead, you can literally just shift into some mindful movement. 

So again, you might mindfully pick up your glass of water and thoughtfully drink your glass of water. You might engage in some breath work. You might mindfully wash your dishes. You might mindfully walk from your desk into the kitchen and back. Anything that links body and mind, and again ideally breath will help. 

Three more so Co-regulation is another one. 

This is one of my favorites. If you are feeling activated, but there's no true threat Ask your partner or a friend or a family member for a hug. Hug for three or more seconds. That communicates to the brain and to the body that you are safe.

A kiss will also do the trick, but same thing, at least for three seconds to send the full message. And if you don't have anyone to hug or kiss, being with a pet can work, too. So petting your dog or your cat or just sitting together, potentially touching, talking, that will also send the message to your nervous system that you are safe. 

Another method, going into the more advanced methods for regulating the self, would be developing parts of your nervous system that have been shut down throughout your life experience. 

So I'll take myself for an example. I mentioned earlier that I learned to disconnect from my emotions when I feel threatened. And so I had to actually relearn how to stay connected to my emotions. And I actually had to relearn how to develop true empathy. Because I shut that down too. Right? If I'm not connected to my emotions, how can I be connected to other people's emotions or how someone else might be feeling? So, I had to relearn. 

Something else that's common for women is needing to relearn the fight response. Needing to relearn that it's okay to be aggressive or assertive or dominant at times. And something common for men to relearn is how to soften. And so how do we do these? Awareness. All the way back to the beginning, back to the basics. Awareness is the beginning, but often working with someone else can be super crucial as well.

So maybe bringing in a therapist or a somatic coach, or even just socialization in safe communities with mature nervous system, so that you can learn from others directly in a safe way. A really great place for that, by the way, if you're looking for a safe community or communities with mature nervous systems, I would say go to a yoga studio. That's a really great place where a lot of people are practicing awareness. They're practicing kindness and compassion. And so, going there to help regulate yourself, being around other people and observing what's happening with them and observing what's happening in your body and working that way, can be super beneficial. 

I would say that was the very beginning of my somatic journey. And that was the very beginning of my nervous system regulation journey as well. Before I knew what any of this meant, I practiced a lot of yoga. And I would say it's yoga that ultimately led me to this place here. So I don't know, maybe I'm biased.

And finally, my favorite way to reestablish safety for the self is to create safe spaces and environments through home or office energetics. 

So office energetics is actually a new offering that I'll talk more about in a future episode, but essentially it's optimizing your office space or your working environment for you. Home energetics is the same thing. So Jacey Herbert is the owner of a business called Home Energetics.

And she infuses feng shui, intuition, your personal story and ancestry into the design elements of your home so that you can feel harmonious, calm, safe and nourished in your spaces. Really so that you can meet whatever goals that you wanna meet, but part of the basis of meeting and achieving goals is feeling safe, most especially in your house. Your home is your home. This is where you go to restore, to nourish, to rejuvenate yourself. So your home should feel safe and your environment, it affects you, right? 

And so creating an environment that is safe and calming and nourishing is really important, both at home and in the office. So Jacey is who I'm partnering with for Essential Teams to deliver the same methodology, but applied to the workplace. Because let's be real, one of the most activating environments for modern day nervous systems is our workplace. 

So, we just talked about signs that you may be feeling unsafe. 

We talked about ways that we can reestablish safety or regulate our nervous systems. 

Now we'll talk about how we can cultivate and contribute to environments that are safe for others. 

First and foremost, when cultivating safety for other people, you must be regulated yourself. This is where you get to practice and demonstrate responding rather than reacting.

If you are a reactive person, especially if you're in a leadership position or a management position or if you're a parent and especially if your reactions are erratic, aka other people cannot predict how you will react or show up day to day, then you are not creating an environment that feels safe for other people. 

So if you want to create and cultivate safety for others, you have to first take radical accountability for yourself and for how you show up.

Next, clear, calm, and confident communication is the kindest gift that you can give to anyone. It also helps other people feel safe around you because when you communicate clearly, you remove uncertainty or any hanging questions. 

Bonus points if you're open and receptive to any and all questions for people to bring to you after you share something. Uncertainty is a huge activation of the nervous system. Uncertainty or the unknown, it activates a physical response within us. When you can clear up any uncertainty for others, you'll be cultivating safety for them, for both of you actually. 

A really great tangible practice for clear, calm, confident communication is this little formula of one) tell people what you're going to do, two) do it, and then three) tell them what you just did. 

I learned this in yoga teacher training, but it has served me way beyond the yoga studio and people's yoga mats. 

If you're gonna talk about layoffs, for example, what you can do is this: 

Tell everyone that you're going to talk about layoffs; tell them what specifics you're going to share, and what you're not able to share; tell them why and how it will help; and then deliver the information about layoffs. And then repeat to them what you just did. 

For example: 

“Hey team, I know layoffs have been on everyone's minds.

I'm going to take the next 10 minutes and talk about what I know and what I'm able to share when it comes to layoffs. I'm also going to share with you what I don't know and I'll give space for you to answer any questions that you have. How does that sound?” 

People say yes. Then you continue. 

“Okay team, layoffs are in fact happening. What I've gathered is that we have over-hired in the last three quarters, and we've duplicative resourcing. And therefore, we're going to eliminate some of the duplicity in the organization in order to cut costs and sharpen our bottom line and create more role clarity for all of you. 

Additionally, the leadership team is committed to keeping all talent where possible. So we're also looking into shifting folks into different roles as opposed to laying folks off where possible. Now, our team is not overlapping with any other teams that I know of, but that does not necessarily mean that we are safe. What I'm doing about that is XYZ.

While I don't have any information on which teams are being scrutinized, I will keep you informed as I'm able to. While I can't promise you that our team will stay intact, I can't also say that our team or anyone on it will be cut. Therefore, please take care of yourself first, and now I will open it up for any questions. 

Questions come in. They are all clearly answered or with promises to follow up, and then the summary. 

“Okay, team. So we just talked about layoffs and where we stand. I know I answered the questions that you had, but if you have further questions, please don't hesitate to bring them forward privately if that feels more comfortable. Thank you all so much for your time and attention as we navigate this unknown time together. Do you feel complete?" 

So that was just an example.

A shorter one would be me cueing a yoga pose. Actually, I'll do that too. 

“So okay, friends, we're about to go into Tadasana or mountain pose.

Please come forward and stand at the top of your mat with feet touching, toes and heels meet. 

Press firmly into your feet, strengthen your legs, draw in your core, grow long in your spine. Let the shoulders fall away from the ears. Let the crown of the head reach toward the sky. Chin is neutral, jaws relaxed. Tadasana, mountain pose.” 

Got it? (laughs) So you tell them what you're doing. That was where I said “we're about to go into Tadasana or mountain pose.”

You guide them into it or you do the thing that you say you're about to do.

And then you recap what just happened. You tell them what you just did or you remind them where they are, yeah? 

So clear, calm, confident communication helps to create safety for other people. 

Another great way to cultivate a safe environment for others is to simply do what you say you will and if you can't or don't, say it. Acknowledge it and take accountability.

So in the example of clear communication around layoffs, I mentioned something about follow-up questions and coming back with more information. Ideally, you add in a timeframe or time windows, because this helps people know what to expect, and then ideally you hold yourself to that time window. 

“I'll get this information back to you by end of day tomorrow,” then you do it, right? Like if you say, I'll get this information back to you by the end of the day tomorrow, then you make sure to do that. That's what I meant.

If not, you reach back out by the end of day tomorrow and you acknowledge what you said you do, and that you're not quite able to follow through with your original promise but that you're working on it. And then again, do it. 

This creates trust and people trust us when they feel safe around us. So the two go hand in hand. 

Another method for creating and establishing safety is similar to clear communication. It uses clear communication but it is to establish and uphold clear boundaries. 

Boundaries teach other people how to be in relationship with us. Boundaries are not relationship enders. They are the foundation for really solid relationships that are built on trust and mutual respect. 

When you create and uphold boundaries for yourself and for others, other people feel safer and they can relax around you because they know what to expect, they know how to be in relationship with you. There are no questions. Yeah? Okay. 

Two more ways to hold safe space or cultivate safety for others, and then we can close it down for today. 

So another way to cultivate safety is compassion, empathy, and grace. 

This is not the same thing as letting people off the hook. You can compassionately tell someone that their presentation sucks. Compassion and empathy and grace–these are about understanding. These are about seeing the person in front of you as a fellow human being. 

When you are compassionate and kind and empathetic, people can't help but feel safe around you. They let their walls down because they know that you're not judging them. 

And again, compassion isn't being nice. It's not letting people off the hook. It's truly extending love to another being, recognizing yourself within them, and seeing them for who they truly are and appreciating what you see.

Oftentimes it's separating the person from their work, right? If someone has a really terrible presentation, care about them enough to tell them. That is compassionate. 

Okay, last thing. I'm gonna come back to office energetics. Okay, I'm specifically talking about work now and seriously. Your environment affects you subconsciously. It also affects those around you. 

Have you ever gotten into a friend's car that is like full to the brim of trash and random shit? How did you feel when you got in their car? Maybe you're that friend, by the way. How do you feel every time you get into your car? 

Companies invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in creating offices that have a vibe or a felt experience whenever you walk into them.

Yet we don't put enough intentionality into our spaces and the spaces that we share with others. The spaces that we invite other people into. And I'm talking about physical spaces, but we actually could be talking about the spaces that we create energetically, even over Zoom. 

Office Energetics, shameless plug, helps you create an environment that optimizes safety and harmony in your working life, which includes your work with others.

So remember, your environment sends signals to other people about whether or not they can trust you, whether or not you are a safe presence, whether or not it is safe, period. If you want to cultivate more safe and connected relationships at home or at work, then cultivate safe physical spaces. That is, it's key. It's so important too. 

Okay. This was a big episode. So let's recap:

We talked today about how underrated safety is, and yet the key role that safety plays in our lives. We really scratched the surface of it, but we did talk about it. Safety is the underpinning of our entire lived experience. So we talked about some signs and symptoms of feeling unsafe or signs and symptoms of having an activated nervous system.

And we talked about how to regulate our nervous systems or how to reestablish safety in our bodies and our minds. And then we talked about how we can begin to cultivate or extend that safety to other people in our connections and in our interactions. 

I will add that none of the lists today that we talked through are exhaustive. And I hope that this episode was helpful and useful and valuable for you. 

If so, please share it with someone that you know could benefit from cultivating more safety within themselves or cultivating more safety for other people. They may obviously be stressed, overwhelmed, or anxious, but they might also seem fine. So be generous when sharing this particular episode because I promise that it makes a bigger difference than you may know. Okay, see you next week.

Outro music 🎶

Thank you so much for listening to The Spiritual 9–5 Podcast. I'm your host Marie Groover and I am beyond honored that you are here. Please follow, save, and rate the show and if you can, share your favorite episode with a friend. It makes the world of a difference. 

Connect with me on LinkedIn. I would love to hear from you what you think about the show or my work, so don't be shy.

And I'm always here to connect and support you or your business through coaching, team building, and leadership development. You can find my work in the show notes. 

Until next time, Big Love.

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Shownotes:

Is your nervous system dysregulated on the regular? Are you living in a state of consistent low (or even high) level of stress, anxiety or overwhelm?

Because our nervous systems are constantly scanning our environments for safety, safety is the underpinning of a light and joyful experience, free of stress and overwhelm, most especially in the office. However, many of us are operating in a window of tolerance that includes persistent levels of stress and anxiety. It's almost as if we've accepted that this is the way it has to be (when actually, it doesn't have to be this way).

This episode talks about how to check-in with your nervous system, to become aware when you are not feeling safe and to course correct. Overall it outlines:

• How to know when you're dysregulated

• How to source safety from within

• How to cultivate a safe environment for others (which is one of the most important skills to develop if you lead or manage people)

This episode also covers examples for navigating safety in the workplace.

Themes: Psychological and Emotional Safety | Nervous System Regulation | Leadership Development | Layoffs | Personal Development | Career Development | Office Environments | 9-5 Stressors

References:

“Burnout” by Emily and Amelia Nagoski: https://www.burnoutbook.net/ 

Jacey Herbert: https://stilljacey.com/   

1:1 with Marie Giveaway Form: https://bit.ly/3VqHSCE  

Links:

Marie Groover ⁠https://www.mariegroover.com/⁠

The Corporate Psychic ⁠https://www.thecorppsychic.com/⁠

Essential Teams ⁠https://www.youressentialteam.com/⁠

Connect on LinkedIn ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/cmariegroover/⁠

Join the Mailing List ⁠https://thecorppsychic.myflodesk.com/e7bmhjidj4⁠

The production of this episode was in collaboration with ⁠Lyndsee Nielson⁠. See her work⁠ here: ⁠⁠www.lyndseeloves.com⁠