Self-Care Tuesday- Resistance is Futile, Or Is it?

We've all been there.  It's Monday morning, you've managed to get into work on time, your clothing is right-side out, your jaw has just dropped at the sight of unread emails in your inbox....then the phone rings......  and all you can think of is...
No.
I'm not answering the phone.
No.
You can't make me.
No. No. No!

And then you pick up the phone "Good Morning....thank you for calling...."

Sometimes we let the call go to voice mail....sometimes we just hide in the breakroom, bathroom, car, or develop a highly sophisticated camouflage for our desk in the hopes that no one knows that we are there.  Having one or two days like this is fairly common....but if you feel like this every day....that's a sign of having a trauma exposure response at work.  According to Laura van Dernoot Lipsky, "when we refer to trauma exposure response, we are talking about the ways in which the world looks and feels like a different place to you as a result of you doing your work."

This begs the question: How exactly do we deal with those days where all we want to do is hide from our work?

Any scifi lover out there has heard the term "Resistance is Futile"; the catchphrase of the Borg collective on Star Trek the Next Generation.  The Borg is an alien race that assimilates other species to be drones in their collective hive.  And depending on your work environment, that can feel like many people's offices. Instead of focusing on feeling like a worker-drone, let's look at what resistance teaches us.  In yoga, resistance is a point that students come across all the time.  Its where you get into a pose and your body goes "nope, that's fine we don't need to go any further here".   Most people equate resistance with pain, but they aren't the same thing.  Pain is hot, sharp, stabbing, and your body is going to automatically react to it.  Resistance is uncomfortable, but not actively painful.   

Resistance is most often in your mind. 

In a yoga class when you come in contact with resistance, you aren't supposed to back out of it, you aren't supposed to push past it (cause you could hurt yourself), you ARE, however, supposed to just sit with it and breathe.  Once your mind settles out of its panic, your body relaxes and the resistance is gone.  How do we put this into the context of being at work and wanting to hide?  The exact same way you would with your body in a yoga class.  Don't force yourself to go ahead, especially if you interact with people on a daily basis, as your emotions will be projected and that always seems to spiral out into those around you.  Don't back out and hide.  Avoidance doesn't make the problem or your work day go away. 
Sit with it. 
Breathe. 
This is called being in the present moment. 

Sometimes the present moment sucks, sometimes it feels impossible... it is what it is.  Taking stock of what you are dealing with is the first step to letting yourself relax into that resistance.  We have both positive and negative emotions and we have to feel them all...no matter how much we don't want to.  Coming to terms with our resistance allows us to deal and react to it, it will give you space to move forward- in your body, your mind, and most importantly....tackling that awful email inbox.