I launched my first online course this week! It’s called Grounded. Trauma-Informed Aid & Development and is my offering back the Australian Aid Sector that I worked in for nearly 17 years.
It’s about working in trauma-informed ways with overseas partners while also tending to our own wellbeing, which doesn’t really seem like a strong enough work. We can lost in our work, and often need to reclaim our sense of self.
Grounded is permission to breathe, to pause and reflect on roles that may need to be looked at again in creative ways. When we’re burnout in any role, we can start to see the world differently, and, we set up the potential to hurt others.
Doing good can end up causing harm.
A technique I shared in Grounded that anyone can use for centring and grounding is box breathing. The quickest ways to shift big, uncomfortable survival responses are through the breath, intentional movement and temperature change.
Box breathing helps us slow down, bring our parasympathetic nervous system on line (the part of us that controls our mood) and allow us to take a beat.
Breathe in for 4
Hold it for 4
Breathe out for 4
Then hold for 4
And go around again for up to a few minutes until you notice a shift.
If you work in the Aid & Dev sector or know anyone who does, check out Grounded. It may help.
We are made for the same flourishing we seek for people we serve.
