Audio Transcript Auto-generated
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Hi. My name is Tracy Leonard, and I'm one of
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the coaches a terawatt.
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I'm also the owner and principal at safe spaces, and
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I'm here today to talk to you about the cost
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of caring in our discussion.
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Today, we're going to define the differences between stress, specifically
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cumulative stress, burnout and secondary traumatic stress.
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We're going to talk about how that stress relates to
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your own life and how you can figure out where
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you're feeling it the most.
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And then we're gonna discuss some resiliency, building factors that
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can help you overcome those levels of stress.
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Now, we won't be completing this together today.
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If we were in person, normally we would.
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But I want you to complete it at some point
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in the next 24 hours.
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After watching this, it's called the Pro Qual, and here
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is a link to it.
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And what you can see is that it's going to
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give you a score for your compassion, satisfaction, your level
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of burnout and the level of secondary traumatic stress that
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you feel.
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It's important to know where you are facing compassion, satisfaction
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and compassion, fatigue, and that's gonna help you address the
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areas that you need to go in and focus on
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now, why do we need to even have these conversations
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about stress burn out and secondary traumatic stress?
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Well, this is why, um when we have these high
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stress levels, it's going to lead to lower productivity in
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the workplace.
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You're not gonna want to take on extra work.
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You're going to have increased absenteeism, health problems, poor work,
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quality impaired judgment, low motivation and high staff turnover.
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So whether this affects you individually or you from, ah,
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workplace environment and perhaps a manager or a leader in
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the workplace thes air things that you want going to
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want to consider in relation to your workforce.
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I want to spend a minute talking about the brain
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and this stress brain loop.
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In particular.
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You can see that our attention perception, short term memory
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learning and the ability to find the words that we
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want to use will decrease when we're faced with chronic
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stress. The physiology of our brain can be changed by
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chronic stress is well, as is indicated in this graphic.
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So take a moment and think about the things in
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your life that are causing you stress.
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Do you find yourself with these decreased abilities.
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Um, is it affecting your sleep?
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Your nutrition intake?
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Do you feel like you are in constant emotional stress?
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Looking at this stress brain loop will give you an
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idea that it isn't well.
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It literally is in your head, but it's not all
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emotional. It is physically causing you.
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Thio have some of these issues again, like attention losing
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your attention.
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Mm decrease in perception, short term memory learning and the
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ability to find words.
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But not every stress you feel comes from the same
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place. It's important to know the difference is because again,
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you're gonna want to tackle it a little bit differently.
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So let's spend a little bit of time specifically talking
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about cumulative stress.
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Burn out secondary traumatic stress and what the differences are.
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This is where you might feel stressed the most or
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have the greatest cost for caring.
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Um, and that would be in cumulative stress.
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Things like working from home distance learning, taking care of
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older parents are having to worry about older parents who
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may be in long term facility care, especially during the
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time of Covic having to get them to and from
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appointments and figuring out what is most important.
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Um, taking care of your Children, the demands of work
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up finding toilet paper.
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All of these cumulative stresses gradually pile up.
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Now you're still able to cope some days better than
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others. But for the most part you can get.
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You can get through these stresses.
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You may find, too, that some of the symptoms of
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this cumulative stress or boredom, fatigue, anxiety, depression and poor
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concentration. Now, when we talk about burnout, this is a
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really a different kind of stress, and it is usually
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almost exclusively related to your work environment.
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We do use burnout and stress interchangeably, but in order
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to effectively tackle this head on, we're going to talk
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about specifically your work environment.
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So if you're able to isolate the cost of caring
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for your career or what you used to care for,
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then this can be an important part of the personal
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personal change that needs to happen.
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Advocating for yourself in the workplace or at a minimum,
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getting out of a job you're no longer passionate about
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could be a catalyst to minimize the toll that burnout
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has on your mental health.
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You're going to feel things like emotional exhaustion, depersonalization apathy
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and again, this is all related to your job and
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the symptoms, Although may carry over into your personal life,
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you may feel them rise a little bit more when
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you are in the workplace or you're doing something job
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related. Eso irritability with co workers.
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Increased anxiety, even driving on your way or commuting on
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your way to work.
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Cynicism again with other employees and other coworkers.
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Physical and emotional exhaustion that you just have nothing else
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to give.
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Not being present physically there, but you have emotionally checked
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out. You may get physically ill on dhe.
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It might be a little more psychosomatic and not exactly
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sure where it's coming from.
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You have poor sleep habits.
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You may notice yourself with an increase in substance abuse
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or substance use and impatience that you just you're really
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digging on other co workers to get you things that
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maybe that you need.
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And you're a little short with, um, and a great
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quote, the chronic condition of perceived demands out waves.
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Perceived Resource is so think about that in your career
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and in the workplace, and how is that affecting you
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right now?
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a secondary traumatic stress is a different beast.
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It's also known as compassion fatigue, and this might not
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be prevalent for everyone.
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But for those of us in who are working in
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the helping professions teaching social work, healthcare, another like professions,
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not only are we dealing with the cumulative stress, we
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may have a little bit of burnout, but then we
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also may have the secondary traumatic stress, which is really
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affecting us.
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And if we haven't dealt with our own traumas in
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our life, this is where the cost of caring can
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be extremely great.
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And this is also a place where regular check ins
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with a supervisor or mentor can be beneficial.
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They can help you see how you are or aren't
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processing the trauma from your own trauma and from the
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trauma that you may be experiencing or be, um, be
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hearing and seeing from people that you work with, they're
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gonna help.
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Those mentors and supervisors will help you develop boundaries for
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yourself and those that you closely work with so looking
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a little bit more at secondary traumatic stress.
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This is when you're going to have emotional distress.
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After hearing about something that happened to someone.
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It might be something from their childhood abuse and neglect.
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Incarcerated parents divorce.
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Um, it could be something that they're going through now.
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Maybe they're the victim of domestic violence or a fire
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or the death of a loved one from Cove in
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19. Something along those lines that's present.
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Right now, secondary traumatic stress can off can also be
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a sudden onset.
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Um, it may have been building up in the background
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dealing with a person, But then all of a sudden,
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there is a trigger for you.
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Maybe again, if you've got some a Ndele tw with
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trauma in your own life, something might be a great
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trigger for you.
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Symptoms are a little more severe for secondary traumatic stress.
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It can mimic those of post traumatic stress disorder.
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You may have flashbacks, nightmares.
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You may avoid places you may avoid clients and people
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that you work with specifically because they every time you
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see them or you have to deal with something that
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they're going through, it just brings that trauma to the
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surface for you.
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This level of helplessness as well that you don't want
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to help them anymore.
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Um, it can lead Teoh a sense of paralysis where
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you just hit a wall and you can't do anything
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for them or for yourself.
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You also might find, with secondary traumatic stress that you
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have hyper vigilance and everything that you dio so again
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just to consider this.
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The big differences between thes two costs of caring, particularly
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the secondary traumatic stress in the burnout, is that secondary
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traumatic stress develops as a result of making empathetic an
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empathic connections with others with those that have been traumatized.
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Whereas burnout is the result of administrative stresses such as
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too much paperwork or large caseloads.
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Um, so it's really important to think about where that
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stresses, especially if both of these things air coming from
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the workplace.
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Where can you siphon them into burn out can really
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come from an unsupportive and a demanding work environment, and
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you'll have to decide for yourself if that's something that
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you want to continue with.
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The other part of secondary traumatic stress, um, might be
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the If you're caring for elderly parents or older parents,
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they may have traumas themselves that they have not dealt
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with that.
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Now all of a sudden can surface for you, so
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you may be in, um, the field of marketing or
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something that doesn't seem like it's, you know, that you
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would really be exposed to people that are.
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You have gone through traumatic events.
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But if you are dealing with those older parents and
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caring for them and then caring for your Children, this
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is where the secondary traumatic stress can be a factor.
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So don't dismiss it if it's not a prevalent part
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of your work life.
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But it is something important to consider because it may
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surface for you at some point.
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So now that we've gone over thes stresses and how
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it is affecting your brain, both physiologically and how those
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symptoms kind of, um, Percy are how they are perceived
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by others and how you are feeling them, I want
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to talk a little bit about some of the resiliency
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things you can do to begin to reduce those stresses
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in your life.
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There are five components that will dive into a little
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bit here, and just remember an increased stress and increased
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self care is going to give you growth, whereas increased
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stress and decreased self care or no self care at
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all is going to lead to injury.
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So the first one I want to dive into a
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little bit here is self regulation.
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So think of things like an internal body scam, relaxing
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all of your muscles for five seconds, going from head
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to toe, breathing, um, smelling the sense that calm you
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down and those sense that our natural to do that,
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um, chewing mint chewing gum.
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This is where you really want to engage your five
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senses when you're feeling yourself stressed, and that will help
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self regulate and can help bring your stress levels down.
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You can do it as a reaction to stress.
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Or you can begin to do the self regulation as
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a prevent preventative measure and begin your day with them.
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Um, put them at some point during the day on
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dhe that will really help you begin to make thes
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engagements with your five senses.
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More natural intentionality is another factor in building your own
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resilience. This is the idea of principle based living rather
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than a demand driven.
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Living boundaries are a huge part of living with intentionality.
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So what are some rituals that you might go through,
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Um, and some boundaries that you might create as you
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transition from home toe work and work to home.
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Whether that's physically you're in the same space because you're
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working from home or you are commuting, um, thinking about
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where those boundaries begin to come in and where you
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leave one at one place and begin to focus on
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the other.
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What are some other boundaries that you have or maybe
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don't have and should, like, Do you respond to emails
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when you are off?
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Do you say no when you are at capacity at
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work? Um, and you just can't attend another meeting.
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Do you have the strength to be able to do
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that? Or the knowledge that being ableto have those boundaries
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are going to be a big part of dealing and
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lowering your stress levels.
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Changing perception, another really important part of building resiliency and
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yourself to reduce these stresses, Changing our perception of our
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situation again whether it is at home or at work,
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can give you back the power to make personal choices
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that benefit you.
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And a big area of this is learning to react
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to what you can control.
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So focusing on what is within your power to control
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and doing that, and making those changes and leaving the
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rest behind and that quick change your perception can be
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a big factor in reducing your stress levels.
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Connection and support is the fourth part of really living
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a resilient life in building resiliency towards thes stresses that
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you might be feeling and this high level of the
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cost of caring.
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It's important to consider who is in your personal network,
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who is in your professional network.
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And then the next question to ask is, Do those
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people bring you joy?
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Are those relationships ones that leave you fulfilled and feeling
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positive about yourself?
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And if not, it might be time to re evaluate
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those relationships, making sure that your cup is being filled
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and that people aren't simply taking away from your cop
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in that they're also filling it for YouTube.
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Finding support groups is a great way to have a
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network of people to talk thio.
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So if we're talking about the cost of caring for
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your Children or your parents, maybe you need to find
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a support group that is, um, you know, that's deal
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specifically with those issues.
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If you're having um, dealing with issues off work in
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workplace and burn out.
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Maybe there's a connection or support that you can reach
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out to their, um, and they need to be meaningful
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just being ableto log onto a you know, a group
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just to kind of read what other people are going
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through. It can help you, but it can also harm
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you. So you really want to take that into consideration?
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Um, and really thinking about the accountability you have for
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yourself and how others can make you accountable.
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That might be more of a group that you want
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to be a part of our network that you want
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to consider building, and it's important to remember that being
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vulnerable, um, asking for help being accountable toe others really
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is going to be a place where you grow from
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and the last of the five resiliency skills here to
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kind of buffer.
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That cost of caring is self care, and it's going
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to be most effective when you are intentional about it.
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So think of the five senses and self regulation here
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within this aspect as well.
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Um, being physically active, listening to music, immersing yourself in
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nature, whatever it might be, find activities that can reduce
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the cost of caring at home and at work.
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So let's take a look at this self care wheel
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a little bit more again.
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You can see we're talking about physical, self care, psychological,
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emotional, spiritual, personal and professional, and you may feel pieces
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of the pie are more in tune to you and
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what you need and others air not.
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And that's okay.
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It really is going to be what you need at
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any given time and not what whatever it might be
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that is important.
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If it is work for the moment, or if it
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is, um, something at home that you need to deal
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with. Those pie pieces of the pie may change, and
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it may change over time.
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You may find in one year you're relying a little
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bit more on some things, and the next year, not
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so much.
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So this was just a really brief glimpse into my
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cost of carrying workshop that I have with Terawatt.
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If you want to learn more about my sessions or
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concessions from the other coaches, please go to go terawatt
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dot com and you can also learn more about my
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work in creating safe spaces by my website.
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Thanks, and I hope to hear from you soon