The power in feeling positive and coping in a time of crisis

I'm feeling a bit reflective today. A day after venturing into the second half of my forties and maybe partaking in a wee too much fun in what has become my closest attempt of "normalcy" - a driveway party just at the 10 person max rule while giving it our best attempt at social distancing. Even with all the uncertainty we are currently facing and possibly a slight hangover I felt pretty darn good. Actually, I've been feeling good for at least the past 3-4 weeks after what I can admit now was probably the most stress and anxiety I have felt in a long time. I know there are plenty of my friends, former colleagues and clients that are likely dealing with similar if not worse bouts of stress and wanted to share what I've done to help turn those negative feelings around.

Just like in business, it is usually a good starting point to reflect on prior experiences - remembering those best practices of what worked and what did not. In my professional life I experienced 9/11 and the "Dot-com" crash while working at an Executive Recruiter in the heart of Silicon Valley in late 2001. I'll never forget cold calling on companies that were full of people one week and walking up to an empty and locked door in some cases the very next day. I experienced being laid off for the first time ever during the Great Recession in 2009 as I was finishing up my MBA. In late 2017 I would experience being laid off in a company reorg as my wife and I were about to embark on purchasing a new home on the exact opposite coast. Now, in late March 2020 my wife and I were notified that we would both be laid off as the parent company made a business decision to dissolve the division we worked for. Needless to say I've faced my share of stressful work situations outside of my control. While I'm typically a positive and upbeat person I am still human and with Covid19 causing a variety of concerns for all of us it was taking its toll on me going into early April. My sleep patterns were horrendous, if you could even call it sleep some nights. When I would happen to fall into deep enough sleep the nightmares hit in full force. I was watching and reading every Covid19 article I could. The doom and gloom was settling in and I couldn't seem to shake it. Thankfully my wife noticed the signs and while she let me voice my concerns she countered with reinforced positives.

Probably around the end of that second week of feeling mentally miserable I knew that I needed to pivot and get myself in positive place. If I was going to be looking for a new opportunity, I had recalled from all the laid off dot-comers I had coached as an Exec Recruiter that being in a negative place will often reflect in your interview. During those dot crash months I remember recommending to pink slipped candidates doing some sort of volunteer work as an outlet and way to improve their spirits. I had received some complimentary thank you cards from several that truly took that feedback to heart. I found myself now reflecting on that experience and myself looking into possible volunteer opportunities in areas that are important to me. I also knew I needed to try something I hadn't done before as this current situation was not exactly like the others. For many years I had considered trying meditation. At this point I figured why the heck not and after chatting with a few friends I knew experienced with meditation I gave it a whirl. I think the first morning I tried it was only for about 5 minutes but upon opening my eyes I felt a wave of relief wash over me. It honestly was quite a magical experience. Over the next 5 days I would slowly increase the time till I was around the 15-20 minute mark. Each day I felt my mind not drifting off as routinely into a negative space and if I did, I was quickly able to get out of the funk. In combination of meditation I started doing the following:

• Significantly reduced the amount of daily news articles I read - even recently mentioned in a group text thread with friends to try and limit our news article references to more positive ones
• Started exercising more
• Reduced the amount of alcohol consumption (Yes, those Zoom Happy Hours can be accomplished without consuming an adult beverage despite popular belief)
• Regardless if I meditate or not I find myself doing some deep breathing exercises several times throughout the day
• Try to be more routine about my sleep and work schedule

I've personally been working primarily from home for several years so that aspect really wasn't a change for me. I have no doubt that being able to get back into a good sleep pattern makes a huge difference in being able to remain in a positive state of mind. To get there though all those changes likely helped to a degree.

So, what has transpired over the last month? The wife and I decided to take a leap of faith and launch our own search firm after all these years (https://www.specialtysearchgroup.com) continuing a focus in the healthcare space including Health Systems, Pharma, SpecialtyRx, Biotech, HealthTech, Med Device, etc....if the business impacts patient outcomes we want to be that matchmaker finding the best fit that makes both our candidates and clients thrive. I've always had a soft spot for the healthcare industry dating back to my intern Firefighter/EMT days and being a SpecialtyRx patient myself I've experienced first hand how life changing for the better some of these medications can be.

Last, anxiety and depression is a serious matter - don't feel like you have to combat it alone. There are a lot of free services out there (quick google search will list plenty) and many companies offer free resources as part of their healthcare benefits. Bottom line, talk to someone. It's ok to be vulnerable. There will be continued challenging days ahead and some sort of crisis again in the future but we all need to take a deep breath, possibly pivot where necessary, think outside the box and come out swinging stronger than we were before.