"Every Once In A While, Life Gets In The Way."

"Every once in a while, life gets in the way." - My graduate school professor used to say this in our class all the time. He'd tell us about those moments that, like a sudden, oncoming storm, events show up in our lives, catch us off guard and force us to cope.

You know those moments right?

• A flat tire on the way to an important meeting
• The 3:00 am phone call from the Emergency Department regarding your son and his automobile accident with the urgent request to get here as soon as you can.
• The text message from your bank questioning the excessive charge on your credit card, the one that you didn't make.
• Your boss calls you into their office and starts the conversation with you by saying, "As you know, our company has been going through some restructuring.."

What do you do? How do you handle unexpected stress?

I remember the 6:00 am phone call from my mother telling me my dad was in the hospital and "to get here as soon as you can," like it happened yesterday. The 90-minute drive to Boston took me only 45 minutes. The subsequent months afterward involved figuring out his illness and subsequent care needs. As a family, we learned a lot about "navigating."

From all of the experiences we had related to his medical care, and subsequent challenges, I developed an online course, "How to Manage Unexpected Stress" which can be found at https://unexpectedstress.com. I created the course because we learned the hard way that the journey from "every once in a while life gets in the way" to managing and recuperating from an illness that involves multi-organ failure and interactions with numerous providers and hospitals can be quite long and immensely complex.

I learned of the importance of paying it forward and helping other patients and families who were experiencing the same challenges, because now, healthcare is more difficult to navigate than it has ever been.

The course is developed into 7 areas which include:

1. Acceptance: Acknowledging that the stress is present and staying grounded so you can begin to strategize how to navigate through it.
2. Communication: The different types of communication (verbal, non-verbal and microexpressions) that can assist you with communicating with providers and people who can assist you.
3. Teamwork: The importance of developing a team who can assist you with navigating your unexpected stress.
4. Make Your Plan: Now that you have a team in place, it's time for a plan. We'll walk you through the different components of making a good plan to assist you. (and yes, we took from Coach Lou Holtz's acronym "W.I.N" (what's important now) because it works so well when you need to navigate unexpected stress.
5. Emotions and Feelings: Did you know that there are over 3000 words in the English language that define emotions or feelings? How do you know which ones to use? How do you communicate how you feel to get the help and support you need when you're stressed out?
6. Physical Symptoms: How to define and manage your physical symptoms of stress? We'll start by understanding what happens when you feel stressed and then decide which coping skills are best for you based on how the stress affects you physically.
7. Coping Skills: What coping skills do you need to implement to manage your stress? Can you develop a routine to help make your life easier while navigating stress? And then, most importantly, we discuss the differences between "healthy" coping skills and the maladaptive coping skills that may help you feel better initially, but will not serve you well if you keep using them.

If ever you need a jumpstart on managing stress that shows up quickly and unexpectedly for you, this course is it. (But I'm biased because I wrote and recorded it). I know for sure - both professionally and personally, we need to have more navigators in our lives to assist us with managing these moments when life gets in the way. And there's no better way to start than here.

To receive 15% off the $149.00 cost of the course, enter the coupon code "leys" (without the quotes). Can't afford the cost of the course but need the information because life has "gotten in the way" for you? Message me via LinkedIn - I'll help get the course to you at no charge.

As a healthcare professional and coach, my mission has been to help patients and families navigate their health challenges. Along the way, I've also worked with top-notch healthcare teams and learned how our team collaboration has made the care we provide for our patients and families better. I developed this newsletter to examine how our personal development and culture help enhance our employee experience and performance - and not just in healthcare. I write weekly on LinkedIn about topics that help you improve your personal and professional brand, relationships with your team, and career. Thanks for reading - I'd love it if you followed my newsletter by hitting the subscribe button above or connect with me at? Susan A. Leys

#management #healthcare #health #mentalhealth #personaldevelopment