Back to work, back to anxiety

Welcome to 2025. Are you having anxiety dreams yet? I know I am.

I had a lovely vacation with my family. It was busy and chaotic but also peaceful and restful. I didn’t check my emails at all—except once to make sure that nothing was too thoroughly on fire.

It was wonderful to fully detach, but that created a situation where on Jan. 6—Monday morning—I didn’t know what would be waiting for me.

This stressed me out, leading to anxiety dreams with ridiculous scenarios that all felt real.

When I woke, I was left with a feeling of panic.

It’s funny because when you’re in a leadership position, you’re not really allowed to be anxious. You are in charge of things, and you are supposed to be prepared, responsible, and organized.

I had these thoughts that I should have logged in the previous day and made sure everything was in its right place, so that on Monday, anytime anyone asked me a question, I would have the answer immediately. But I didn’t.

Instead, I went to the gym, washed my bed sheets, and saw friends. And Monday was okay. The sky didn’t fall. There were lots of emails, and I have responded to some of them and it wasn’t very much fun catching up.

It’s hard being in this in-between place where you’re in charge of things, but you also need your own rest and relaxation, and it’s difficult to set those boundaries.

Even though I didn’t feel great about showing up on Monday morning ‘unprepared’, I made the right choice to take real time off.

Making and sticking to these choices is difficult. Leaders need to do this for themselves and also model wellness behaviour throughout our organizations.

Experiences like what I went through earlier this week is one of the reasons we hold the Changemaker Wellbeing Summit. Please join me.

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