I recently came across the word ‘permacrisis’, which the Oxford English Dictionary made its word-of-the-year in 2022. They define the word as ‘a situation characterised by constant and significant turmoil or instability’.
We know many of us feel this is an apt word to describe the time we have lived in at least since the Covid-19 pandemic.
We know this not just because of a never-ending stream of commentary on the state of the world (this TED talk is an excellent example – no doubt you have seen others). We also know it because Malcolm and I have both found ourselves being asked a version of the same question in recent weeks and months.
That question is this: how do I stay above the line, how do I remain emotionally healthy, when it feels as if the world around me is lurching from one crisis to another almost daily?
When someone asks this question we know that they are on the right track. They’re not asking us how they can singlehandedly fix the world (we don’t have that answer!) What they are doing is recognising that coping with a sense of permacrisis is something each of us needs to learn to do ourselves.
Taking personal responsibility for our responses (being above the line), as opposed to blaming, justifying, denying or defending our reactions (being below the line) is what emotional health allows us to do more often.
So, what is the answer? How do we stay above the line in these testing times?
The challenge in answering this question in a blog post is that, as we often say in our work, you can’t move up the emotional health levels simply by reading about them.
Increasing your level of emotional health requires ongoing commitment. It needs to be part of your practice, part of the way you live your life. It needs to be inherent in the way you approach these challenging situations, small and large, from one day to the next.
That said, there are some things I can introduce you to (or remind you of) here, that provide a starting point. I encourage you to investigate each of the following further, and to also look at the resources listed below that are all available on our website.
- Turn on your inner observer. This is about having awareness of our responses to the situations around us, on both micro and macro levels. In the context of permacrisis, it’s about ‘catching’ ourselves when we find ourselves starting to go below the line, that is, noticing what we’re thinking, how we are feeling and how our body is responding physically.
- Recognise your ‘line of choice’ moments. An extension of turning on your inner observer is really drilling down to the small things that – often subconsciously – signal that we are moving below the line. It may be that you tense your jaw. It may be that feel angry or anxious. It may be that you notice yourself unable to think with clarity. When you start to recognise these moments in yourself, you can reflect on how you might respond differently and create an ‘intent’ to support you in remaining above the line.
- Reconnect with the three centres. Learning to balance our head, heart and body centres (as opposed to relying on our preferred centre) is an important part of staying above the line. One way you can start doing this is to ask yourself three questions when you anticipate, or find yourself in, a challenging situation: What do I deeply need in this situation right now? What do I truly feel in this situation? What do I really think right now?
- Practice presence in small moments. Often when we talk about presence we do so in the context of finding ‘flow’, as an elite sportsperson does when they are at their peak. That can be a difficult thing for mere mortals to achieve, however we can all practice presence every day in a multitude of small ways. For instance, when having a morning coffee, work on doing only that … and nothing else. Just sit and drink your coffee. No phone. No podcast. No news. Just you, your coffee and your immediate environment. This is a powerful way of bringing yourself back to the present moment, appreciating what is ‘here and now’ and relaxing into it.
- Maintain your wellbeing. One of the characteristics of high levels of emotional health is an enhanced sense of wellbeing . At a fundamental level, this means focusing on three things that we’ll cover in more detail in a future post: sleep, movement and real connection. Each of these is restorative in its own way.
We always recommend that you work on one or two of these suggestions instead of trying to do all of them at once. As I said earlier, building your emotional health is a commitment, a practice and a journey. Any progress, no matter how small, is progress all the same. Remember, too, that we’re all in this together and can support each other in the turmoil and instability of the times.
Gayle
Resources to assist with your journey to improved emotional health:
- Explore our website, and especially the Resources and Insights pages.
- Our ‘Mastering Emotional Health’ app.
- Our free Emotional Health and Leadership booklet.
- Our book: Working with Emotional Health and the Enneagram.