Stephen M. Hannemann

State of the Union

Monday, July 13th, 2020

This blog site was created for the purpose of encouraging and helping people to be happier in their personal lives and more effective their workplaces. I have purposely kept political commentary to a minimum. But these days I grieve for our nation. In these last few months, it is difficult to have a conversation that doesn’t become emotionally charged. When that happens fruitful communication ceases. This is my attempt at a fresh perspective for navigating our present time.  

I read much to keep myself immersed in ideas, principles, and philosophies that have been proven to improve peoples’ lives on all fronts. In these hyper times it is easy to get stressed in our workplace and carry the stress into our home life and diminish our leisure time. My lofty goal has always been to help people create daily memorable experiences.  

Over the past six months I believe our population has been emotionally hijacked. Emotional hijacking is not my term and must be credited to Shawn Achor, author of The Happiness Advantage, a book designed to guide people to be successful in the workplace. I believe those principles are equally applicable to our national condition today. I do not watch mainstream media news. From my viewpoint we no longer have news; we have edited partial facts and commentary, intentionally shaped to lead one’s perspective. It has worked remarkably well in shaking the core of our American Republic.

There is not room here to delve into the body chemistry that comprises emotional hijacking. But in a nutshell, when stresses build, the body builds up an abundance of cortisol, a chemical associated with stress. When this buildup occurs, we tend to react rather than logically think things through. If you consider the recent six months, first our COVID situation coupled with the unfortunate George Floyd incident and aftermath, we have a lot of stress in our national population.  So what do we do in these times?

The first step is to take inventory. What can we do to effectively change our level of stress and anxiety? Now be careful here before you say nothing. There several changes we can make:

1. Bring your emotions under control. Get out of reactive mode and put on your thinking cap. Turn off the news and instead seek out sources of truth. If you’re reading this, you’re on a computer and know how to use the internet. Accurate news is out there. Avoid “click bait,” the catchy headers that suck you in. Find bloggers that you feel you can trust. And above all avoid sources of hate commentary. You may take several days to calm yourself, but before moving on, get to a place of peace. An emotional state where you are no longer reacting and have clarity of thought. I have already highlighted one author that I love reading during these times – Shawn Achor. Another is Robert Glazer. Both can be followed on LinkedIn. These men are not news sources but great resources for coping during these turbulent times.

2. If you desire to make a difference, let someone know your view on a given subject. But that person must be an influencer whether at work or in your community, someone who can carry your message and effect change. Write, call or physically speak with, but when you engage someone, be respectful, be reasonable, be calm. Also be open to hearing. The key word here is hearing another perspective. I love this statement by Robert Glazer in a recent Friday post – We must be willing to evolve our perspectives and focus on getting it right rather than being right.  

3. Pray.  I have not been bashful about my belief in using the Holy Bible for my life’s compass. I love the BIBLE as an acronym – Basic Instruction Before Leaving Earth.  God knows I don’t have the answers for these complex times, but He does. Praying for the folks that I may disagree with, praying for our leaders, healing for our country and the world gives me peace that defies logic. I love the way our pastor ended last Sunday’s sermon – It’s better to love than to be right.

Create a memorable day.

Stephen

Stephen M. Hannamann –  © 07/2020. All rights reserved.

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