Self-soothing
It was one of my more popular LinkedIn posts* so far this year and, as can be the case, it was one which merged the personal with the professional.
I’m a great believer in the positive psychology idea of a ‘third place’. A truly simple idea and maybe all the more impactful precisely because of that.
My habit is to simplify matters, or to seek simplicity. In that context, my definition of a third place is one which is just for you. If the first and second places are home/family and work, then the third place is somewhere that you visit or something that you do which is your ‘special place’ - disconnected from home and work.
Some automatically think about the gym or a physical location. For me a ‘third place’ can be something you do which is self-soothing, which is designed to enhance your mood and have a positive impact on your mental health and well-being. And for me it’s photography. That will often lead to me wandering the streets of London seeking opportunities for street photography. What’s more, I can also be at my most content in hyper-focus mode, fiddling around with subtle post-production of my shots in Lightroom or Silver Efex Pro.
Boy, if ever we need to soothe ourselves it’s right now. And for the first time in a long time I have managed to get outside with my cameras. Mainly on the spectacular beaches of North Norfolk, to be precise. Here’s the screen grab of some of the resulting shots from my Instagram account below:
This isn’t, of course, about displaying my holiday snaps and I made this clear on LinkedIn having shared exactly this screenshot on my feed.
This is the point:
It’s about encouraging a focus on optimising your mental well-being. A focus which costs you and your business nothing financially.
As a coach, one who tries to take a holistic approach, this seems to be a top priority right now. Certainly a theme across my practice so far in 2021 is exhaustion & stress and I notice the significant, positive impact when someone decides to focus on themselves for a while. In their responses people referred to pottery, yoga, sitting by a stream, walking the dog and so on.
And so I ask you:
Have you managed to re-start that thing you do which is just for you? Or, if you never had one, what might it be and when will you go there?
And are you encouraging the people you lead to do the same?
Self-soothing as a business priority? There’s food for thought.
*Here’s the original post if you are in any way interested: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/tonycjackson_streetphotography-mentalhealth-positivepsychologycoaching-activity-6796063585354219521-hDMG