Tag: bandwidth

I’m drained. I’m done. I am empty.

These are words you say when you are physically, emotionally or socially exhausted. You have limited capacity to contribute.

I’ve said this myself and have most definitely have heard it amongst my peers. Overwhelm. Fatigue. Burnout. The reality of servant leadership is when you spend your energy caring for others, it often leads to physical, emotional or mental fatigue. The degree upon which you feel this fatigue is based on frequency and duration of the support you provide as well as receive. Therefore, its incredibly important to stay connected with others and honest in our self-reflection of our well-being.

With this, I was having a great conversation with a great friend and mentor of mine. When we were debriefing about the heightened stress in teachers and students, she re-explained the “flipped lid” theory from Daniel Siegel. Let me explain this reimagined model.

Using the “hand model,” of the brain, imagine this:

• Make a fist with your hand by putting your thumb in your palm and closing your fingers over your thumb
• Move your fingers up in the fist so your fingers are only bent at second knuckle (barely covering your thumb but still a closed fist)

This now represents a modified “hand model” of the brain where the amygdala (represented by the thumb) is more exposed and less protected by our cortex (represented by our fingers).

When your stress response is active, similar to the modified ‘hand model,’ it doesn’t take much stimulus for your stress response to activate. A pencil drop, an unexpected sound or situation, your nervous system goes into fight, flight or freeze automated response.

With this, I want you to notice something.. do you find yourself ‘managing’ your ‘bandwidth’ until it’s fried or burnt out? A lot of us do. And this ‘bandwidth management’ is clearly or invisibly impacting our health and relationships. And this is why it is so incredibly important for you to understand our nervous system so you can be more attune to body signals when managing your ‘bandwidth.’

Let’s be honest. We’ve been recovering from collective community trauma (aka world pandemic and more), so our ‘bandwidth’ has been constricted and our stress response system has been highly active. Therefore, your nervous system has been in overdrive on a daily basis. Again, another reason why it’s important for you to understand healthy ways to manage your bandwidth.

So, what should you do? How can you balance your daily energy withdrawls?

Let me provide some short and sweet suggestions (as time is a deposit AND a withdrawl):

1. Sensation Self -Check: Are you feeling tense? Are you feeling tired? Are you feeling cold? These body signals are indicators that your nervous system is actively managing your stress and is signaling a slow down for your mind and body. You don’t need to do anything drastic to pause- simply stop and reconnect with your body through breath and grounding techniques.
2. Name it to Tame it: No need to go tell someone, but if you have a safe person- you can go to them to share your ‘bandwidth’ support need. Yet, you can also use self-talk and tell yourself to pause and tell yourself “my bandwidth needs some support, so I could… (insert strategy here).”
3. Distract your energy with a low-level or engaging task: Turn on music, go to the bathroom, tidy up your desk, go for a mini-walk. Something that takes little to no cognitive energy. This will give you a mini boost to your bandwidth. When you can take 90 seconds- 2 minutes to shift and settle your energy use, it provides you enough endorphins to reset and return to the more demanding tasks of your day.

When you take care of your emotional, cognitive and relational energy, you will find yourself responding more effectively in stressful situations. You’re working from the reasoning part of your brain (cortex) rather than your fight or flight (amygdala) part of your brain.

With this, I want to encourage you to not feel the pressure of having to do a lifestyle change in order to restore your bandwidth. It truly is a mini-moment investment and awareness of restorative experiences. Taking the two minutes to disconnect from a stressful circumstance can empower you far more than you expect. You manage stress to varying levels throughout your day. May you find the moments to restore your bandwidth to build your capacity to do all of the great things you can do!