Self-care In The Workplace. The Importance of Our Meaning and Purpose.

Way back in 2018, I remember saying that workers’ rights would be the issue of the decade for the 20s.  While there are many other social issues at play right now, nearly 4 years into that decade; we are seeing a huge surge of worker strikes, a re-engagement in unions, and a general feeling that working conditions need to improve dramatically in our current climate. 

So why are workers’ rights so important, what does it mean to be “at work” and how can we care for ourselves deeply while working? 

This seems to be a critical question we need to ask ourselves as we struggle with burnout, not only in American culture but worldwide.  A fact that I will always have in my head is that Japan had to pass a law to limit the number of overtime hours to 99 per week, which is about 25 extra hours a week for people to potentially spend working.  That’s the limit—meaning there were people working well over that amount in their culture, and “death by overwork” was a country-wide concern. 

Why do so many people work in this way?

Are we all cogs to a capitalist machine?

Do we all need to uplevel our income to keep pace with our ever-increasing economic requirements?

Something else?

Like all good discussions, I think it is more complicated than a “this is why” reason, and I would like to add an important element to the discussion that we don’t often discuss: meaning and purpose.

What is ‘meaning and purpose’?

I will start by saying that four years ago I was lucky enough to enter a yoga therapy conference and sign up for a workshop with the well-known yoga therapist Matthew Taylor.  His work at the time, and the workshop itself, was on defining how we use the term “spiritual” in professional settings that would allow yoga therapy to be covered under traditional medical models like healthcare coverage. 

And after a lot of discussions, and me raising my hand and saying (the embarrassing) “Why can’t we say spiritual?”, he said that in order to be accepted by Western medical science, we needed to call ‘spiritual’ by the phrase meaning and purpose.

That sent me on a trajectory to discover what I thought meaning and purpose were for me as a wellness professional, and I realized that so much of the meaning and purpose any of us create in our lives is through the activity we call “work”.

For the use of this blog, we say that “Work” is both unpaid and paid labor that we engage in for the reason of improvement of our lives in some way.  This work can be child care, serving at a restaurant, working in a C-suite level position, middle management, wellness professionals, etc.  You get it, anything that you labor at is considered work.  And very often, that work gives our lives meaning.

 You might argue that a person who makes fast food doesn’t engage in meaning or meaningful work, and to that, I would say b*llsh*t.  Fast food workers and factory workers are often the most picked-upon of our labor positions, but I would challenge you to go into a Wendy’s and ask those folks if they find meaning in working with their colleagues and co-workers and if they find satisfaction in moving their bodies and feeling like there is a ‘job well done’ at the end of the day; and if taking home a paycheck so they can pay the bills they need to pay in order to live their lives doesn’t have any meaning.

Just because you might not find a deep connection with a French fry does not mean that a workplace is void of meaning and purpose. 

You might also note, that meaning and purpose get us up in the morning.  And that counts for something too.

Shared Meaning and Purpose Create Connections That Keep Us Vital.

Workplace bestie.

Happy Hours.

Long lunches.

We understand that workplace connections have an important role to play in our lives.  Often times our co-workers are there for really vital and deep moments in our lives, because a lot of those moments happen while at work.  Even if you don’t have co-workers per se, like a lot of stay-at-home moms; there are the connections those mothers make with each other that can impact their lives (and the lives of their children) for years to come. 

So let’s appreciate the connections and communities that are made a work.  I, for one, have underestimated this for years.  Not inviting my own team of yoga teachers out to connect in a more casual way very often—or assuming, falsely, that they wouldn’t want to get together is a great example of how I have done this in my own life.  But as I started to do some deeper work on the connections we make at work, and how work creates meaning and purpose in our lives, I realized that I was wrong.  Our co-workers matter, our connections at work matter, and those connections help us make meaning in our lives that is valuable.

So how do we care for ourselves at work?

We first need to revisit relationship care.  Are our co-workers in the correct relationship garden bed?  (Don’t know this analogy?  Read more here.)  Have we dove into connecting with the people who make us feel good, and giving less time and attention to those who feel like an energy drain?

I find that this is the first step in a care-oriented workplace.  Learning how to manage those relationships at work is key. 

We also need to know when it is time to rest.  I have said it in previous blogs, but if you feel like you are suffering from burnout, you need to lie down.  You don’t need self-care rest, you need sick rest.  The kind of rest that takes you to bed and forces you to watch Netflix until you are so bored you could just die of that boredom.

If you aren’t to that point of burnout, then start by diving deep into how you feel on a day-to-day basis and work, and make micro-adjustments to improve how you feel and how you are caring for yourself. This is the first crucial step in workplace care. Asking yourself regularly—”how do I feel today?”. Then make changes accordingly.

And finally—give words to your personal meaning and purpose.  Write down why you find meaning in your work, and remember that meaning and purpose when things feel complicated.  It can change a mindset for a moment, as you work to improve those parts of your work that aren’t now in alignment with who you are.

Taking time to define your meaning and purpose and is the beginning of creating a care strategy at work, that could be the most important assignment you do all day.

Want to know more about our self-care strategy? Read more at our blog.