Summer Sky

E98: Rest & Recap 14 - Poetry

There are significant benefits to rest and recovery: Besides being good for our physical and mental health, it improves our memory, propels our productivity, and supercharges our creativity.

Happy Birthday

Latham Turner

! This edition celebrates all the joy and critical thinking you bring to our community.

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Summer Sky

"Welcome," the sun smiled,  shyly peeking out from behind the clouds
She was wearing her best and brightest ... and she knew it
But she was still a little private, a flight of birds perched as a brooch in her bosom.

The nascent summer sky unravelled itself before me with its promise of a new day
Blue. And pillowy white clouds 
Leaving ruffles embroidered with purple and gold 
Like yards and yards of my mother's softest silk sari
Puddling, folding and spilling out
Embracing me. 

She leaned over, her light kissing my hand 
"How will you fill the rest of this day?" she murmured through the casual ripple of the waves lathering the shoreline at low tide.

I slowed down to the speed of the sandpipers on their spindly legs
And the family of tiny fish washing in and out with each lap of the waves 
I walked for a mile, dipping my feet in the cool water
Watching pelicans swoop
My footprints leaving a light imprint in the sand
Enough to know I'd been there 
But not deep enough to mark time.

"With gratitude for these precious memories," I whispered back.

There is a special space in my heart for a dawn that breaks
into the bold beauty of a summer sky.

REST IDEA 14: Challenging myself to write poetry, inspired by a beautiful beach, and “Summer Sky” by HENRY

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What is a “Rest” edition?

Welcome to the 14th REST Edition. The Rest editions started as a natural break in my publishing cycle. It allows opportunities for learning consolidation — we can go back, consider the past six weeks of essays, study how they tie together, and how they build on prior editions (The “Colisseum of Ideas” concept from WoP). It also allows us to zoom out, look to the broader horizon, take a breath, and rest.

Our Mental Wellness series exposes the importance of slowing down. As the world gets more 24/7, we need to stop periodically, take stock, process the information we have learned, and declutter what we do not need. This rest edition is consistent with my focus on developing this 21st-century skill.

Head to the bottom of this message for a recap of what we have learned from various sources about the different ways to approach rest and recovery in the past 13 rest editions.

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Reflect: Digest of issues 92-97

Mental Wellness dominated this cycle of seven. I know how rapidly these states can descend upon us. I am not taking this conversation lightly.

CTA: If there is one thing I can ask of Tribe Tilt, it is to help de-stigmatize seeking help for mental wellness. More Talk.

As you see these essays altogether, what other thoughts and solutions can we co-create? If we do not address this with attention, it could be GenZ’s diabetes epidemic of 2050.

My key takeaways:

• Mental fitness is important for our personal, community and economic health as a nation. Mental health issues are on the rise, and the time is right for us to preempt them where we can.

• The simplest thing I can do is to de-stigmatize accessing our mental health practitioners and resources by talking about it.

• Tribe Tilt members have been so willing to engage on this topic, sharing ideas through comments, private conversations and writing on other channels too.

It started with the invitation to moderate an Empire Club of Canada panel on ADDRESSING MENTAL HEALTH IN YOUNG ADULTS: Implications for Workplace Leaders. My pre-calls with the panelists fed me with information that I just had to share broadly. These, and the subsequent conversations with so many people across all segments of my life - including Tribe Tilt members, inspired a 3+1 sequence of essays.

FUTURE OF WORK (FoW) and 21st-century skills life strategies - with a particular focus on Mental Wellness:

This is a three-part series focused on mental health. We discussed the stigma, the causes, and suggested solutions (aiming to be proactive and preemptive).

• E93: What’s in Your Mental Health Tool Box More young adults are experiencing mental health issues. What can we do to be prepared ahead of feeling that way? The three panelists raised great suggestions and concerns. One, in particular, captured my attention: Build a Mental Health Tool Box. Familiarize yourself. Learn to navigate your mental health when you least need it. Get a baseline experience with your support system.

  • Dr. Lyssa Menard
    responded on TwitterX to that last idea:

    Brilliant suggestion! I often suggest this to people regarding neuropsych evals. Having a baseline for comparison and knowing where to go for help makes everything easier in a crisis. Never thought about recommending this for a general mental health visit. Thanks!

• E94: Retention & Recruiting: Mental Health is a “We” problem. Why should business care? Mental health has a direct effect on retention and productivity. It hits the bottom line - economically. Every dollar invested in mental healthcare is money well spent. I learned that as our personal Window of Tolerance shifts, our capacity to handle complexity shifts too. This edition included what Managers and Leaders can do: Talk More. De-stigmatize.

  • From Joann Malone (Author of Awake to Racism): Sometimes that bottom line seems to be all that corporations care about - hit 'em where it gets their attention!

• E96: Boundaries & Frameworks: The Future of Work effect? This brings my FoW personal lens to the problem. As we move out of the industrial era, we are losing our boundaries, mental guideposts, and frameworks adding to the confusion and stress. Add Covid to the mix and this first cohort of digital natives are operating without maps, navigating a work environment new to all of us.
  We learned that we can keep an eye on our fellow humans by implementing the ALEC framework (Ask, Listen, Encourage Action and Check-in)

  • Dekera Greene Rodriguez
    : I love that you are having this important conversation in the context of the future of work. Everyone accuses Gen Z of emoting all over the place but you offer helpful reminders, principally that the start of their careers offers less economic stability and boundaries. Who wouldn’t find a perkless, endless state of responsibility unsettling? (she writes more, worth reading)

PAIRING with our mental health series, I’d like to bring your attention to Charlotte Grysolle’s latest edition of Stretch: She eloquently uses neuroscience to make the case for interventions “The Mental Resilience Toolkit” to pre-empt a state of despondence and despair.

• On Mental Resilience Toolkits: Music, Breathwork and Self-Awareness

21ST CENTURY SKILLS and ALGORITHMS (aka 21st-century problems)

• E96: High Quality Connections: Three Circles, Three Learnings = Robust Social Support + Flow This was an aha essay for me. Social circles not only help deal with the loneliness epidemic. If we curate communities that support and challenge us intellectually, it also helps with mentoring, aging, creativity, productivity and mental wellness. Wow!

  • Effortless Thursdays
    ’s Eric Ho: I loved what you shared about the wisdom of the circles we immerse ourselves in - learning from those older and sharing with those a few steps behind.

    That spoke to me about how those ideas and life experiences move from one group to another. And how growing up with a moral compass in a Chinese family that respects elders (almost - to a fault - without question) allows us to learn, and help others along the way.

• E92: How I Landed a Job on Wall Street When I Really Wasn't Looking For One This lighter read had the highest readership and engagement this cycle. Lower the stakes and change your perspective.

  • Randy Garman
    : “Treat it like a warm-up” - I love this mindset. This is something I need to practice more. You are so right, though. When we take the pressure off ourselves, it's so much easier to perform

CLIMATE: Just one entry during this cycle when we recorded some of the hottest temperatures on Earth.

• E93: When the Water is Gone - my July Call to Arms, told through the most reminiscent words of Rudy Francisco’s heart-wrenching poem. It is the poem that finally galvanized me into climate-activism.

  • James Bailey
    : This tugged at and then captured my heart: “wonder if my grandkids will ever throw a penny in a fountain. And hear it splash.”

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“THE ONE WHERE…” REST RECAP

As we approach the hundredth edition of this newsletter I wrote this as a Twitter thread, and liked the way it presented:

You are DONE giving 110% at work; 223% at home; 80% to parents & projects; 2% to yourself. It happens suddenly.

If you have ever experienced burnout you will understand how these moments creep up on you.

Let's take a break … and talk rest, recovery, and reset.

In an era of Information Abundance, it can be hard to find the moment to pause and reflect. Yet that's where creativity & learning comes from …

Reflecting on what I’ve learned from publishing 14 Rest editions in my newsletter:

• THE ONE WHERE ...

  we paused in our learning to consolidate what we have learned about rest across the previous editions.

  Sleep. Pacing. Community. Creativity. Recharge. Mental wellness.

• THE ONE WHERE ...

  we learned the importance of pausing, pondering, and reflecting. It is a very necessary future skill as the world around us speeds up. Like good sleep habits, good hygiene, and good eating, we should pass along the message to our youth

• THE ONE WHERE ...

  we learned that there is an appetite for a digital detox in our community. Recovery and gratitude are shown to have a tremendous impact on resilience, a key 21st-century skill for our children, and for ourselves.

• THE ONE WHERE ...

  we were reminded of the need to build "slack time" into our schedules. h/t @ThisIsSethsBlog. Systems built with slack time are more resilient. Thanks to Bill Tomoff for that link.

  The ability to rest, restore, and recover is so central to a healthy set of 21st-century living skills.

• THE ONE WHERE ...

  we were reminded that the brain revels in downtime.

  h/t to @JamesClear share "The most valuable thing one can do for the psyche, occasionally, is to let it rest, wander, live in the changing light of a room." — May Sarton

• THE ONE WHERE ...

  we realized that we will burn out if we wait to recharge when running on empty.

  "You’ll find that taking your foot off the pedal can be the best way to accelerate." -- Ozan Varol

• THE ONE WHERE ...

  we learned that taking a moment out of our schedule to mentor some can have a ripple effect. It is also where we reminded ourselves to use our vacation time.

• THE ONE WHERE ...

  we learned that gathering with loved ones is a form of recuperation. A reminder to give the best of ourselves to our loved ones … not the dregs after work and life have wrung everything out of us. h/t @nireyal

• THE ONE WHERE ...

  we learned from @sleepdiplomat Matt Walker that REM sleep seeks out specific connections between recent info & past experiences. Allowing us to "divine creative solutions to impenetrable problems that we couldn't solve while awake.”

• THE ONE WHERE ...

  we learned that we need to pace ourselves and replenish our own energy, particularly on large-scale projects like Climate Action. It does us and our mission no good if we are ourselves depleted. Thank you

  Lisa Bennett

• THE ONE WHERE ...

  we explored learning rest lessons from Mother Nature, who instilled dormant cycles between the seasons to encourage new growth.

• THE ONE WHERE ...

  we learned that stillness is the incubator of creativity. Inspired by a @SahilBloom video, this one invites us to allow our subconscious to “wrestle with the ideas in our mind.”

• THE ONE WHERE ...

  we learned the importance of robust social circles for our mental wellness. "A good range of “well nurtured” interpersonal connections was as - or more - important than exercise and good nutrition"

Which has been the most interesting Rest edition and message for you?

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Dear Tribe Tilt

So wonderful to see you again! And a warm welcome to the 19 subscribers who joined since the last Rest edition. Please DM me and introduce yourself. I often write my newsletter as a conversation with one Tilt member or another, so it helps to know you and your interests.

The Rest editions are a great way to share this newsletter with a friend as they get a six-edition bundle!

We are approaching the 100th edition. Should we mark it, or is it just another number? DM with suggestions.

See you again next week, Tribe Tilt. Till then, stay safe and healthy. From there all else becomes possible.

Karena