In this world of hybrid and remote work, the ongoing pandemic, and the great resignation, work can be a stressful place. It certainly looks very different than it did a year ago, and many of your elders might not even recognize the workplace as you know it today. In the modern workplace, it’s easy to become stressed, and hard to find your work-life balance. If this is the case, look to your Native traditions to help ground you, and bring some calm back into your life.
Connect with Mother Earth
Mother Earth has long been a source of strength, respite, and peace for Indigenous individuals. Many feel the connection to Mother Earth is so strong that there is no separation between them. In times of great stress, take a walk outside, sit in a park or by the water, and truly take time to appreciate Mother Earth and all she gives you. Whether you take 10 minutes or an hour, allowing yourself the opportunity to connect with nature and Mother Earth can help to calm and center you. Taking this time away from your computer or a difficult conversation can help you reset, refocus, and regenerate the energy you need to tackle stress and work issues waiting for you back at the office.
Come Together with Your Tribe
At a time when you can feel separated, coming together with your tribe can help counteract those feelings, alleviate stress, and create more balance. Attend a powwow or tribal ceremony, such as a drum circle. These practices are ways for tribes to celebrate success, connection, and life. With singing, dancing, music, and the opportunity to truly be a part of your Native tradition, these events are energizing and can bring you joy.
Seek Help from a Spiritual or Traditional Healer
With the stress of work, your personal life, and everything in between, you may find that your mental and/or physical health are suffering. For many, mental health has been significantly affected over the past few years. If you find yourself needing physical or mental support, seek out help. If you are not comfortable asking for help from a medical professional such as a doctor or a psychologist, turn to your spiritual or traditional healers.
Healers often focus on the entire system or whole body. Many also believe that traditional-based healing practices can help to address and alleviate mental health issues. Seeking support for your physical and mental health will help you alleviate stress and create more work-life balance.
Practice Smudging
The ancient ritual of smudging focuses on cleansing an area, blessing individuals, and bringing out good energy. During this process, many people practice silence and introspection. Smudging can be used as a form of meditation, and a way to welcome positive energy, which can help you relax, decrease stress, and achieve more balance.
Celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day
Indigenous Peoples Day provides an opportunity to remove yourself from work and focus on your Native traditions and culture. If your company does not provide this day off, request the day off. It is a great day for you to unplug and celebrate your ancestry and Native culture with family and friends. Allowing yourself time and space to celebrate who you are and your Native history can help you feel more connected to your tribe and culture, and thus alleviate stress.
For many of today’s professionals, the line between work life and home life has become blurred. Working in hybrid or fully remote environments can create high levels of stress and anxiety. Keep in touch with yourself and monitor how you are feeling. When you do feel stressed or lacking work-life balance, consider turning to your Native traditions to get back on track.
On Topic
Willow Blythe-Carroll, an enrolled citizen of Muscogee (Creek) Nation, is an award-winning corporate communicator and storyteller among both nonprofit and Fortune 500 global corporations. Inspired by her vision of uplifting and empowering youth and emerging leaders to become a generation of hope and healing, Blythe-Carroll is using her influence and experience to breathe life into that vision through her own company, Weaving Wisdom, LLC. She is dedicated to serving Indigenous and diverse communities in taking steps toward unleashing their leadership potential and beyond to weave opportunities into the fabric of the future.
How can professionals incorporate Native traditions into their daily routines to establish a
sense of balance?
Distractions and imbalance will always show up in our lives — especially as professionals. The key to finding balance and quieting the noise of distractions is embracing self-honoring actions as part of our daily routines. When seeking balance, we're essentially looking to weave more meaningful experiences into our lives. What better way to reclaim balance than strengthening a connection to the deeply rooted stability and strengths found in our Native culture, traditions, and communities of support. Practicing the power of being in tune with our needs and surroundings — a sacred concept of our Native traditions — is something we must choose to do. We deserve to take time for ourselves every day to become aware of — and pinpoint — the areas of our lives that need our attention.
Being intentional in this time to pause and reflect often reveals those parched areas that need to be replenished and renewed. Whether that means reconnecting with friends or loved ones, or strengthening our mind, body, and spirit alignment through meditative practices, we’re gifted with choice in how we show up for ourselves. Even if we can dedicate only five or 10 minutes every day in the ways that are most healing and restorative to us, it’s one step closer to the connection and balance we seek. It’s through the smallest steps that we can make the biggest changes in our lives.
What specific Native traditions can help to provide calm and balance?
Among the many sacred traditions that are near and dear to us as Native people is the medicine wheel. Looking to the medicine wheel is one way we can begin our practice of being in tune with our needs and surroundings is by looking to the Medicine Wheel. This serves as a guide to help pinpoint the areas in our lives, such as mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual that need our attention. Each of these areas is connected and intertwined. We must seek those areas in need of support and pour into them in the restorative ways that best serve us.
Through self-care practices, we can begin to restore those connections to achieve calm and balance. Pausing and reconnecting with ourselves through mindfulness techniques creates calming experiences that are readily available to us. We can tap into our five basic senses in many ways, including burning sage, tasting a traditional meal, listening to cultural music, moving our body, creating through weaving and beadwork, or sharing special moments with our loved ones. These are examples of healing medicine that can help soothe us and revitalize our connection within ourselves and with our culture and communities.
While we may interpret the medicine wheel, as well as healing practices and traditions, uniquely and individually, we can use them as a starting point for self-reflection to reclaim balance and positively transform our lives.
