Managing Tough Situations

In the midst of one of the busiest weeks in GFM’s 10-year history, I attended what I called an “ill-timed” yoga festival in Boulder. And as it turned out, the timing couldn’t have been better…

The Hanuman Festival celebrates the Hindu deity, Hanuman, who is “…symbolic of the perfect mind, and embodies the highest potential it can achieve,” according to exoticindiaart.com. This reminded me of the teachings I learned as a Heart Math instructor during my days at Swedish Medical Center.

When you’re faced with busy, stressful situations, it all boils down to this: We cannot control what happens around us, but we can control how we react to the things that happen around us. When faced with countless hours of work to do, ever-changing demands and moving deadlines, you can choose to get frustrated, throw a tantrum and complain about the situation OR you can choose to take a deep breath, remember that “we’re not curing cancer here” and find something in the situation to laugh about.

I’m so proud of the team at GFM and how our teammates tend to take the latter approach. Sure, change is frustrating, but why let it ruin your day? I truly believe that we’re honored to work with extremely talented team members and clients, who tend to keep things in perspective and do amazing work.

So, as we helped The Colorado Health Foundation announce that they had signed a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding to sell their approximately 40 percent equity share of the HCA-HealthONE LLC joint venture to HCA; worked closely with the St. Anthony Hospital team to manage the media relations and social media surrounding their historic move to a new campus; prepared to launch USA Swimming Foundation’s six-city Make a Splash tour; guided a few clients through challenging issues in the media; and kept more than a dozen other clients’ PR programs afloat, it was calming to remember that we couldn’t control the situations, but we could control how we reacted to them.

Next time you feel your blood pressure rising because of the demands of the day, take a deep breath and take control of the situation. You’ll feel a lot better!

Namaste,

Ramonna