Let’s begin, shall we?  (A line from this wonderful, poignant, heartfelt show.)

You are not crazy to find what’s happening in our country to be deeply upsetting and intolerable.  You are sane.

If you are feeling overwhelmed and despairing and not functioning quite as well as you usually do, that makes total sense.

If you are feeling angry and frustrated but also helpless and don’t know what to do?  Natural.

If you are calling into question the value of your work given the events of the last four weeks?  Of course.  You’re a leader.  (And your work is valuable, quite so, we’ll get there in a minute.)

These are some of the questions and concerns clients have been sharing in the last weeks; if you are feeling and thinking similarly, you are not alone.

A menu of suggestions, for all of us:

• Make replenishing yourself a priority. Remember the chaos and distress during the pandemic?  Dial back to what most nourishes you.
• Find your pace of staying informed by the news while not being subsumed or poisoned by it.
• Create places and spaces of calm. Could be meditating on your own or with a group.  Could be a long walk in nature.  Could be playing a musical instrument.  Doesn’t matter.  Seek regular opportunity to find stillness within.
• Take action. It is an antidote to despair.  If you are looking for a manual of things to do, Professor Tim Snyder of Yale has written a tiny book with 20 suggestions.  He also writes a substack.  Robert Reich recently posted a list on his substack and here Anne Applebaum talks about what citizens can do.  This is a small sampling of what’s out there.  Find what resonates and begin.
• Find joy and beauty. Nature, fashion, art, music, all of it.  These, too, are antidotes to despair.
• Contribute to organizations that support and defend the rule of law and principled leadership.
• Get your news from multiple sources.
• Do something to help an organization whose mission you believe in.  Give.  Volunteer.
• Call your Senators! You don’t need a script.  Express your alarm at (fill in the blank, there are so many options) and what you would like them to do as your representative.
• Find other business leaders to bring together across industry and use your common voice for speaking up. As business leaders, your voices matter a great deal.
• Find friends and neighbors with whom you can come together to support one another and possibly take action as a group. Just talking with supportive fellow citizens (and international friends) will raise your morale.
• Look for opportunities to laugh.  We must.  A friend with a very dry and dark sense of humor had me in stiches the other day, and every time I think of our conversation, I laugh out loud just a bit.  First coaching mentor Martha Beck recently said something that I’m passing on to clients and keeping front and center for myself: “It is not disloyal to the truth for you to enter joy sometimes during the day.”
• Stay close to your peeps, those in your life who sustain and nourish you.

And, no, Ukraine did not start a land war with Russia.  

(You can find Jimmy Kimmel’s prescient words here at minute 8:12.)

We are long past the situation in our country being about politics.

It is about tragedy.

And if you see that, you’re absolutely sane.

For more on working with me directly, you can find most of my consulting and coaching offerings here and here.  If you don’t see what you’re looking for, drop me a note.