How is the Japan Disaster Affecting You and Your Staff? : 5 Tips for Helping Them and Not Hurting You.

Many folks worldwide are personally struggling with the devastation, large loss of lives and possible nuclear meltdowns happening in Japan.

It’s hard not to feel horror, sadness, anger and more while watching other members of our global family suffering without water, looking for loved ones and living in the firing range of a nuclear meltdown.

What’s also important is to find ways to make sure you and your staff do not over stress your bodies, families,  and work while watching it. It’s a fine balancing act to focus on what we can do to help the Japanese people and their families abroad and take care of ourselves too. You getting sick, depressed and inactive not only is of no help to them but it can hurt you and those around you too.

These five tips are for you to share and have dialogues with your team about. I am finding that many people are distracted, depressed and lethargic from all of the input they are getting frozen in front of their TV’s and CNN.com. Checking in with your team can help you and your organization feel like you are doing something proactive and stay useful for the good of all.

1) Stop Over Thinking What May Happen to You.

Letting your mind take you through a house of horrors about if the radiation will reach you or how this might happen to you next only keeps you frozen in fear but  spreads that fear to your children, friends and co-workers. The best way to sort out too many thoughts is to separate what is fact from fiction. FACT is that they need our prayers, money and positive thoughts now. FICTION is that you will get sick or have a disaster happen to you next.

2) Scan your Body.

Detect and release tension in your body from head to toe especially while watching the news, and talking and thinking about it endlessly with co-workers etc. Many people are getting sick from worrying and sitting by the news all day plus wondering what to buy like Iodine tablets. Instantly calm your anxiety and gain focus through conscious breathing and loosening a tight jaw, clenched fists or raised shoulders, especially when watching, reading or talking about it.

3) Exercise and Move.

Staying frozen in front of the TV will add to obsessive mental activity and built up tension, instead of releasing anxiety. Get out and walk or do some stretching on coffee breaks.

4) Communicate What You Are Feeling.

Get your concerns and grief off your chest and ask for support from friends, family or a professional coach or counselor. Holding your fears and grief inside builds anxiety to proportions that can make you sick, depressed, paranoid or immobilized.

5) Stay Proactive.

Stopping your life, your relationships and work helps no one. Too often I find people will unconsciously obsess on and use disasters as a way to ignore and divert what is needed in their home and work life. Make money and donate. Volunteer for the Red Cross or a fund raising event. Discuss this with your children and co-workers and check in with their emotional state instead of having them see you depressed all day. Spend time each day in prayer, visualization and creative thought to see how you can help the situation versus shutting life down or putting important personal or professional issues on hold.

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