Mindfulness For Managers: Modeling Self-Care

As managers and leaders, we often encourage others to rest, recharge, and maintain healthy boundaries while quietly holding ourselves to a different standard. But the way we care for ourselves does more than affect our own well-being. It also shapes the unspoken expectations we create for the people around us.

In this brief meditation, you’ll practice four rounds of box breathing to help calm the nervous system, release accumulated stress, and reset in the middle of a busy day. Whether you’re navigating competing priorities, interpersonal challenges, or simply too much screen time, this practice offers a few moments to pause and reconnect with yourself.

You’ll leave with a simple breathing technique you can return to anytime, along with a gentle reminder: taking care of yourself is not separate from caring for the people you lead. It is one of the most meaningful ways you can support them.

Transcript

Hello and welcome. This is Jen, And I'm so glad you're here. There's a conversation I had in my early days as a manager that will stick with me forever. I had an employee who was planning a vacation with their family. And as they were telling me about their forthcoming time out of the office, They said, But don't worry, I'll take my laptop with me so that I can still check in on my emails and keep the ball rolling on that project we're working on. And I said, No, No, No, Please don't. Your time away is your time away. I really want you to be able to unplug. And recharge and enjoy that time with your family. So don't worry about it. Any tasks that you have, We can either delegate or I'll check in on them or they can just wait until you get back. And this person said to me. But I see what you do when you're out of the office. I notice that you still respond to our questions and you make yourself available if we need something. And you still stay in touch while you're on vacation. So I just want you to know that I'm okay doing that too, Really. It's okay, I'll bring my laptop. And I thought, Oh my gosh, What have I been signaling to the people that I care about and that I oversee at work about what the expectations are? You know, As supervisors, Managers, And leaders, People look to us as role models for Understanding the unwritten norms around work time, Time away, How we take care of ourselves or not. And I realized in that moment that it's really important to me to do a better job of taking care of myself in terms of work-life balance, Not that there is exactly such a thing, But work-life management, In terms of healthy behaviors at work, Both for myself and to be a better example to the people that I care about and who I want to see have a healthy working life. So this isn't just about how we are on vacation. This is also about everyday behaviors that we can incorporate. Allow us to feel a little bit more grounded, A little bit more balanced, And a little bit more at ease in the midst of our busy workdays. Today we're going to practice one strategy that can help us sort of reset and alleviate the effects of stress in our workday, And this is box breathing. Box breathing can help us get out of that fight, Flight, Or freeze response that sometimes we don't even experience consciously, But just sort of elevates our baseline level of stress during the day. And we might feel these stressors because of just the constant flux of demands or competing priorities or maybe interpersonal challenges at work or screen time, Right? There are so many things that affect our mind and body during work, And it can be helpful to have a bit a reset. Box breathing is helpful for calming the nervous system and reminding us that we are safe. So in this box breathing, We will breathe in for a count of four, Hold at the top for a count of four, Breathe out for a count of four, And hold at the bottom for a count of four. And we're going to go through this just four times. So to get started, Let's find ourselves in a comfortable posture, Either sitting or standing, Maybe switching up our posture from whatever we've been doing a lot of today. And then maybe closing the eyes or softening the gaze. Or just switching our focus. So if we've been looking at screens a lot today, Maybe looking instead outside a window, Just giving our eyes a bit of a break. So just being here. Feeling into what it's like now, Being in this posture. In this moment. And giving ourselves a bit of gratitude for taking these few minutes for our well-being. Let's begin our box breath. Breathing in for one. 4, Holding for 1. Four, Breathing out for one. 4 holding for 1. 3. 4, In for 1. 4, Holding for 1. 4 out for 1. 2, 3, 4, Holding for 1. 4. End for 1. 4, Holding for 1. 4 out for 1. 4, Holding for 1. 4. End for 1. 4, Holding for 1. 4 out for 1. 3, Four, Holding for one, Two, Three, Four. Thank you for joining me in that box breathing practice. So now as we resume our day, Just remembering that we can come back to this at any time. To give our mind and body a bit of a reset. We can also recharge and take care of ourselves in other ways. We can go for a short walk, Whether outside or down the hall. We can take a quick break from our screen. Maybe to have a quick conversation with a coworker in person. Or just to step away and take a few moments for ourselves. As managers, We take care of a lot of other people. And we need to also remember to take care of ourselves. Because as it turns out. . . It's actually one of the best ways. That we can help the people we care about. Thank you for taking the time out of your workday to breathe and reset with me. I appreciate your practice.

Reviews

I always bring my laptop & check in at least twice a day when I’m on vacation. It’s a difficult habit to break especially when I know I’ll be faced with an endless amount of emails when I am back. I do need to be better about letting go & recharging because I am not eliminating the stress while I am away.