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We Must Move The Needle On Stress

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 14:39:52 GMT

April is an opportunity for organisations to raise awareness, reduce stigma, and actively support employee stress levels, before emerging issues escalate.

Do you have plans for your team, to support them in recognising and managing their stress?

Every April since 1992, National Stress Awareness Month has been observed, dedicated to increasing public awareness about the causes of stress and, crucially, how to manage the symptoms. This year, the focus is more critical than ever, with workplace stress reaching record levels, impacting employees across the globe.

The truth is, managing stress is no longer optional - it is a necessity because modern life is relentlessly stressful.

The research paints a stark picture of the key drivers fuelling workplace pressure:

Workload and time pressure remain the leading cause, affecting a massive 76% of UK employees. Among union safety representatives, 60% cite excessive workload as a major hazard driving stress to unprecedented levels.
Financial pressure has surged to become the top external stressor. It affects 41% of employees, a significant jump from 2025 statistics. Alarmingly, 52% of employees report that financial worries are negatively affecting their work performance, and 45% say it disrupts their sleep.
Lack of control and autonomy is also a significant driver, increasing stress levels when employees feel they have little influence over their working environment or decisions.

From Sabre-Tooth Tigers to Modern Day Notification Nightmares...
So, what exactly is stress? How can we recognise when it has become too much and is genuinely affecting our wellbeing? Our stress reaction is primarily a physical response, where our body activates the "fight, flight, or freeze" (FFF) mode because it thinks it’s under attack.

This reaction releases a rush of hormones and chemicals, namely adrenaline, cortisol, and norepinephrine that produce a burst of energy for physical action and increased focus. This mechanism is what allowed us to survive when sabre-tooth tigers and alike were roaming around. Today, however, our stressors are less tiger and more work-life balance, digital device overload and notification nightmares.

While a bit of pressure can help us perform, being under too much pressure for too long is where the danger lies. It leaves excess cortisol and adrenaline sloshing around in our systems.

The Danger of the "Stress Badge of Honour"...
Understanding the basics of stress, what it looks and feels like, is the first step toward managing it sooner and keeping everyone feeling, thinking, and doing well together.

We seem to often use the term ‘stress’ as a throwaway phrase or, worse, wear it as a badge of honour, meaning it gets normalised in its impact. Thus starts the problem of when we have been stressed for a while and no longer recognise what is going on. This continuous, high-level stress is not how we are supposed to feel all day, every day. If it continues, we risk doing ourselves significant damage.

Signs and symptoms that are frequently dismissed include:

Sleeping less well or waking up during the night.
Increased irritability towards others.
Feeling more emotional, perhaps having a disproportionate response to situations, or feeling that every small thing is an attack on you.
Inability to think clearly or make decisions, which results in procrastination.
Physical tension, such as your shoulders creeping up to your ears, gritting your teeth, or your tongue resting on the roof of your mouth.
Using phrases like, ‘I just need to get to the weekend’.

Turning Down The Thermostat - what can employers meaningfully do?
Organisations have a major role to play in tackling this epidemic. It isn't easy to simply remove the stressors from our modern lives, so we must learn to manage the stress. The most helpful approach is to think of it as ‘dialling it down like a thermostat’.

Here are some meaningful ways employers can actively manage and reduce stress for their teams:

Signpost Support & Intervention: Ensure support is easy for everyone to access. This includes promoting Employee Assistance Programmes (EAPs), peer networks, mentoring, or coaching.

Risk Assessments & Mental Health Policies: Although employers are legally required to assess the risk of stress at work, many are still not doing so, when they should be a priority.

Mental health training is also vital in the ‘suite’ of support and awareness, to equip managers in particular so they feel confident signposting support, rather than feeling anxious about having the answer or saying the wrong thing.

Talk About It: Simple check-ins, both individually and as a team, can prevent emerging issues from becoming prolonged problems. A gentle opening like, "I've noticed you don't seem yourself lately, is everything okay?" can make a huge difference. Managers and Mental Health advocates' roles are to listen, signpost, and support—not diagnose or offer medical advice. This dialogue also helps normalise the fact that stress affects everyone.

Managing Workload: Proactively manage workload to prevent overload. Encourage your team to take their annual leave throughout the year. Ensure they are appropriately trained for their roles, and offer opportunities for two-way feedback. In 1:1 meetings, actively enquire about working relationships and whether workloads feel manageable, offering flexibility where needed.

Communication: Stress often spikes when people feel kept in the dark, especially during periods of change or disruption where rumours and anxiety can spread. Keep teams updated on what's happening and, critically, how it affects them—decoding high-level organisational changes into tangible impacts for your team.

Don't Underestimate Recognition: Recognition is an overlooked but high-impact tool. Research shows that most managers don't give effective or frequent enough recognition. Yet it can increase morale and productivity by 10–20%.

Fitting Your Own Oxygen Mask First - The Bit Managers Often Skip

While nearly one in three workers report that their employer raises awareness about stress and mental health, there's a troubling disconnect: managers often lack the time, training, and resources to provide truly meaningful support.

This disparity erodes trust, creates cynicism, and, ultimately, burns managers out in the process. As a manager, you cannot pour from an empty cup. If you are to lead successfully, supporting yourself must be a priority.

Practical things managers should be proactively encouraged to do for themselves:

Leadership Skills: Model the healthy behaviours you want your team to adopt. This includes setting boundaries, taking breaks, and actively managing your own stress. This signalling makes it acceptable, and expected, for your team to do the same.

Set boundaries around workload: If your demands are unmanageable, you must escalate that upwards rather than silently absorbing it.

Use available support: Remember that support systems like Employee Assistance Programmes (EAPs), peer networks, supervision and occupational health referrals apply to managers as well, not just the ‘rest of the team’.

Get trained: Mental health training, such as that delivered by MHFA can be crucial. It ensures you feel confident and equipped to support others and clear in your part to play, rather than anxious about saying the wrong thing.

If you’d like some support during Stress Awareness Month, I’ve got sessions, physical or virtual, ready to go that can support your team .

Clare is an executive coach, facilitator and endurance athlete who is passionate about enabling ambitious business owners and leaders to really understand their wellbeing as a part of their development and a fundamental for their life and work. Email: hello@auburnconsultancy.co.uk

5 Years Of Connection, Clarity & Creativity!

Sat, 03 Jan 2026 10:54:51 GMT

Driven by my passion for the outdoors, we celebrated five years of Working Wanders in December! Welcoming the largest group to date for a bright, frosty and festive walk in Leamington Spa.

My passion for the outdoors coupled with the benefits of walking to support our wellbeing, boost creativity and create real connection, was the driving force behind creating Working Wanders.

First and foremost they’ve always been about my commitment to get people outside - of their offices, the spaces keeping them stuck and into some fresh air...for fresh perspective.

They offer a commitment to yourself, as someone who is self employed or able to work flexibly as a people leader or business owner.

They are not specifically ‘netwalking’ but.. do you get to meet and connect with new people ... yes!

You also get to re-connect with yourself and the world around you, unplugged from your repeating thoughts, challenges and screens.

We walk in accessible outdoor spaces in Warwickshire and surrounding areas, for up to 90 minutes in a structured but relaxed environment, providing quality time away from the desk .

Making sure we move daily is also a powerful mechanism for managing stress, helping to reduce excess cortisol and adrenaline. By offering accessible walking routes, Working Wanders aim to raise awareness of ensuring time outdoors and movement, as a vital coping mechanism against the constant life stressors and attentional fatigue of modern day living.

I recognise the temptation to say "I don't have time"... but I can always see the difference when people take a moment to come along, they take a breath and leave feeling refreshed.

Free to attend, Working Wanders start at 08.30 so they can be integrated into a work day, much like attending a networking event, booking them into the diary enables you to make that commitment to your wellbeing.

The next event in 2026 will be on March 20th at Ryton Pools starting at 08.30, but plans are afoot to offer different times, durations and venues in the coming year, so watch this space!

Clare is an executive coach and facilitator who is passionate about enabling ambitious business owners and leaders to really understand their wellbeing as a part of their development and the benefits of being outdoors as a fundamental in life and work. Email: hello@auburnconsultancy.co.uk

Feel Less 'Sideways' This Spring!

Thu, 14 Mar 2024 14:37:45 GMT

Using Spring, the time of renewal and regeneration, to emerge energised and maintain motivation.

Spring is traditionally the time of renewal and regeneration as green shoots appear, blossoms flourish, and animals emerge from their slumber.

After what feels like the longest side of Winter, it’s the chance we’ve all been waiting for to move towards what we may have been thinking on and planning during the darker, colder and often quieter time of the year in business.

I notice as we come into Spring, a time when the body is naturally waking up, that business owners and leaders in particular are often now feeling more tired, rather than energised, due to the increasing daily demands of life.

For many it feels like a treadmill, that now longer has lower speeds and you're nearly always running.

Often I hear people say ‘everything is moving so fast’ or ‘we are all just running at full capacity' and even ‘I just need to stand still for a minute and breathe’. Sound familiar?

How do we begin to think differently, to recognise when we need to pause and how we use that space?

Chronos, the linear measurement of time, which we literally set our watch by, is held in importance to us in the modern western world; we allocate specific amounts of time to tasks, some professionals specifically charge by it, set deadlines and Zoom calls against it, in search of what we are looking to achieve.

However, when we do this, we create barriers and we we call 'arrival falicy'. These aspects can prevent us from getting where we really want to be and potentially also simply enjoying the moment when we do get there.

Have you ever heard yourself say ‘I just need to get to the weekend’ or 'I just need to get this project finished’ or perhaps ' I just need to get through this meeting’ only to simply bounce straight into the next task, without pausing for breath or recognition of what you might have achieved?

The free and endless feeling time, so many of us are desperately in need of experiencing in the moment, is known as Kairos; a time that we simply don’t access enough.

Kairos comes from an ancient Greek term meaning: “a fleeting opportunity that needs to be grasped before it passes”.

Most notable Kairos is a time that carries a quality with it. How often do you feel you are getting through tasks and to-do lists ...but in reality letting those opportunities that really feel most relevant slip away?

Children, yet to be conditioned to Chronos, are the masters of Kairos. They don’t understand why they have to hurry up and get ready for school, they are fully engaged and are living in the moment (or muddy puddle) they are in!

How do we begin to recreate that “child state” and a feeling of time that is a bit more endless, with the quality to recognise the real opportunities?

We can use the new beginnings of Spring and the world opening up to plan, explore, learn and begin to take actions towards developing more Kairos in our lives.

The benefits of walking, not just for health, have been recognised by many in research but also those who rediscovered it during the pandemic.

Walking cultivates mindfulness and the benefits of being in nature have never been more evident, with 45% of people during the pandemic recognising that being in green spaces became vital for their mental health.

Pausing to take in the views and details of nature, gives your mind a break from the constant scenarios it’s trying to resolve (often against a deadline), enabling thoughts to become clearer, more logical, decisive, evidenced and even more creative.

Adding a simple breathing exercise can help to manage your stress levels further, lowering heart rate and turning the threat response down, to manage excess levels of cortisol and adrenaline in the body.

“The psychological effect of being in the dark before dawn and then hearing the chorus swell as the sun comes up is just incomparable.” McGeeney 2016

Using some gentle reflection whilst you are feeling in a calmer place can help you to untangle thoughts and bring clarity (and evidence) to what's really going on.

Try using the simple three way technique or choosing an aspect (just one!) and asking yourself:

What: What happened, what was it that made a particular impact or your mood or energy.
So What: What was the impact of the above, how did you feel or behave and what else might it have impacted.
Now What: What will you do next in order to move past and feel better about aspects, what are the possibilities that will move towards action.

You may also want to use the outdoors to support you in your reflection more widely:

What are my goals for this year?
What seeds shall I sow?
What shoots are showing promise
What is not growing so well and may (or may not) need attention?

In Spring, if we afford ourselves the moment, we may be able to smell the sweetness of fresh blossom, notice the lambs gambolling in the fields, hear birds calling their special songs amongst the greening branches, while the weak sunshine warms the face.

When you have the sensation that that time is slipping away, I encourage you to get outside - of your office and your mind - to reap the benefits of “slowing down to speed up” in life and business.

Immerse yourself and allow yourself to be fully present in the moment and listen with every inch of your body.

How does it feel…better?

Clare is a development coach, consultant and facilitator who is passionate about enabling ambitious business owners and leaders to really understand their wellbeing and the benefits of being outdoors as a fundamental in life and work. Email: hello@auburnconsultancy.co.uk

Where The Growth Lives

Fri, 19 Jan 2024 12:00:34 GMT

Cultivating an endurance mindset for life and business

Taken from my LinkedIn post following Mountains of The Merfynion (MOTM) 2023

Ultra Cycling, especially the adventure side, is so often so little to do with cycling - there are always challenges and MOTM was no exception.

At points I thought I was heading for a #scratch due to technical complications and with an ever increasingly frustrated narrative in my mind, threatening to remove any enjoyment.

Much like life and running a business, ultra sport is a puzzle... with pieces that change shape.

Pushing the wrong pieces in will only increase the discomfort. You might be able to pacify yourself for a while that they are the right pieces and that they fit OK, but eventually you wont be able to ignore it and it will give you another problem to solve.

On that discomfort, know that it will come and you will have to sit with it. Acknowledge it, manage it as best you can and make sure you celebrate the moments you get relief, as you can be pretty sure it's going to show up again.

The discomfort however is where growth lives. On the way to that growth you sometimes lose your s*** (luckily there's often only sheep to see me do this...) and it's not the end of the world.

Sometimes losing your s*** needs to happen, just don't stay there.

Be careful what you're practising and what that voice in your head has been telling you.

What you practice is what you learn, so learn well and it will support you the next time the discomfort comes.

�� Take a breath
��Accept where you are
��Take another breath
��Revisit the plan
��Eyes forward, move forward.

It's just a moment, the next one will be different... but you have to be brave and risk taking another step to experience it.

Be grateful that you had the choice to suffer.

Look up at what's around you and be rewarded with the moments of absolute awe that nature delievers you ... and that will fuel you for far longer than this particular ride will require.

#istillzoomed #keepmovingforward #endurancemindset #momentum

See you out there, Clare

Why Wellbeing Isnt My Side Hustle

Fri, 01 Sep 2023 13:09:22 GMT

Wellbeing is the foundation in life and business...

So your 'wellbeing stuff' is a side project to your consultancy and facilitation work? Is something I often hear.

I understand why, but the answer is very definitely, no.
Whilst I do deliver specific wellbeing sessions across a range of core aspects, I also weave wellbeing into all my consultancy, coaching and at times..it very definitely falls out as a part of facilitation.

Why?

�� In environments of high pressure, stress, change and particularly in the not for profit sector, I often see challenge in communications and fractures in communicating.

��The reaction is to apply another process, protocol or (at worst) another task list.

The problem however is not in doing, the problem is in the knowing that...

As a team you've stopped hearing each other.
There's no bandwidth to actively listen.
You’re seeing mission drift as creativity and collaboration grinds to a halt.
Witnessing and dealing with challenging behaviour as frustration around not feeling heard or understood grows.
Teams don’t have faith in leadership as they can see they are drawn in all directions - and modelling unhelpful behaviours.

✅ If we want to cultivate a culture of communicating well, alongside organisational growth and development, we have to be in a place where we are well, present and resilient.

❌ Wellbeing isn't a bolt on, a nice to have or another policy in a drawer.

It's fundamental. It underpins how you and your people are able to feel well and function effectively, individually and together both now and into the future.

Are you seeing some of these behaviors in your organisation?
Have your team ground to a halt.
As a leader are you feeling wiped out and not sure which way to turn?

Drop me a line and let’s see what I can offer to support you: hello@auburnconsultancy.co.uk

Good Luck, Bad Luck...Who Knows?

Tue, 31 Aug 2021 08:01:04 GMT

Some of the most immediate thoughts that have stayed with me a few weeks on from the biggest event of my life... so far

I have so much to say about GBDuro, so… to prevent me rambling on far too long in the first hit, I thought I'd pull together the most immediate thoughts that have stayed with me.

Good Luck, Bad Luck, Who Knows?

My friend Zelda taught me about the above Chinese saying when I first entered an Ironman in 2013. Being a complete novice, I made a mess of the training… on reflection I'd done the best with what I had at the time, but that meant I got injured. I got on the plane and went to Ironman Austria knowing that it wouldn't be a blaze of glory and planned to just do the swim and bike, but it didn't stop me having hope for another outcome and that even if I did some of it could change everything.

I finished IM Austria, walking pretty much the entire run, with over an hour and a half in hand.

“Because when nothing is certain, anything is possible”

And so, I found myself in a similar position following GBDuro.

I entered GBDuro in much the same way I entered that first IM in 2013, in blind faith and in search of the next part of my journey. The thought of it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up and I knew it was probably a bit too soon and a little bit bigger than me. Not least it meant learning to ride a bike in an entirely new way and, because of that, a whole new bike, a whole new set up and a whole different way of training (and a lot of falling off).

I’d had a very light year during the pandemic as I saw it as an opportunity to build my business and for the first time in a while I didn't really train, which was probably a break I needed, but it also meant a fitness base I no longer had.

I spent weekends and evenings trying to ride on terrain that was not intuitive to me, falling off more than I have ever done since I started riding a bike and, in a situation, I wasn’t so used to either – the racing element. I tried to shrug it off, but I did find the pressure tricky, knowing that I would always be at the back of the pack for various reasons.

Happily my business had really taken off because of my Covid year efforts, but it meant the balance of what I talk so much about as a coach was firmly on the tilt.

I don't want this to be a story of “and then I did this and then I did that”, but I guess I do want to give some context and to say, for my own sanity, that it's really easy when we come home from these events and they haven't gone as we planned or hoped to say things like “I didn't try hard enough” and “if only I had” and “I wish that I had done this”.

I really feel, just like that first Ironman, I did the very best with what I had at the time. I have hope there will another time because I want to go back and do it all again! It was an amazing adventure, it delivered in spades some of the things I'll talk about next, that I want to stay a part of my life. It truly was an incredible experience.

GBDuro, and the journey towards it, has brought me these things:

A whole new way to ride – And it’s awesome! I mean, don’t get me wrong it hasn’t been the cheapest year I’ve had either (that’s for another blog), but I now have a set of kit and skills that enables me to simply wander off for an adventure on my bike or otherwise in the outdoors. That feels extremely joyful, and it makes me smile every time I think about it and what it makes possible for the future for myself and my coaching!

Spectacular disregard for where my limits lie - Whilst I practised hard, I think you are always contained by time or the knowledge that at some point you will go home whilst you’re training. GBDuro forced me to repeat all the stuff that was scary, uncomfortable, and new to me relentlessly for five days. I literally still cannot comprehend some of what I rode on, across, though, up and down… and I can’t wait to do more of it. I also wasn’t eaten by wolves, contrary to many of my previous beliefs… #nowolves.

A recalibration of the senses – Which was something I was very much hoping for. When I entered it was as much about riding as it was my passion as a coach for being and getting others outdoors to reconnect with themselves and the world around them. I will forever be grateful from the sun rise on Tan Hill during TransEngland that moved me to tears. GBDuro brought me the ability to really see and notice, I felt so wholly connected to myself with a feeling that was so on frequency with the world around me I could almost feel it humming in my veins. I wish I could have bottled it…but the thing is, I know where to find it.

The willingness to keep trying requires resilience – Training for big events is much like starting and running your own business – if it goes to plan it’s wonderful, but you learn quickly that the likelihood of that doesn’t always play out as you might like. Managing those feelings of expectation, failure and disappointment for myself, as well as what my mind sometimes wants me to wrongly perceive (e.g., that I’m doing it wrong, or that I should be feel shame about the outcome) has been the same experience during GBDuro. Living with a growing business in the pandemic has taught be to choose new routes, try them and have the ability to pause, rest and reflect when it doesn’t go right. When it hasn’t gone right, I’ve learned how to figure the problem out, re-build and find the energy to get back up, take the lessons I’ve learnt and try again.

Knowing when to let it go, in life and business – I knew I needed to let go a couple of hours before I #scratched (I also knew I needed to get off the hill!) I also wanted to give myself just a little more space to be sure. When I did let go there was a huge amount of emotion, I sobbed in fact as if I was grieving for the loss of what I had worked so hard to create, but then the decision was made and everything was calm. GBDuro forced me to make a decision that was huge and, whilst it’s only a bike ride in that moment, it was nearly a year of blood, sweat and tears in the making. When I got back, the decision felt so big that I made some other decisions in life and business I’d been holding off on for a while. It shined a great big torchlight on what really needs to change if you want to get to where you REALLY want to be. I feel all the better for it.

On recognising (and allowing yourself) to have incredible people in your life – I haven’t always said too much to everyone about when I am doing stuff, probably due to past experiences with people in my life, but this time I put it out there. I won’t lie, that did also make the outcome feel harder and was another aspect to deal with – having to constantly remind myself that I didn’t let anyone down, if they were disappointed it was for me and not in me. More so, somehow since I made some changes in the past few years, I have collected the most extraordinary group of friends, colleagues and just generally wonderful people – I’m still overwhelmed by it. I will be forever grateful for the emotional support they gave me before, during and after GBDuro, the lending of kit and knowledge and in the end the space they gave me whilst knowing when to ‘check-in’.

I didn't know how my GBDuro was going to end. I didn’t know I was going to get injured, in fact I taken many steps to prevent injury rather than winging it as I've done in other years the irony being I injured in a completely different place.

So – good luck, bad luck, who knows? Maybe the universe felt that was all I needed this time, because there will be a next time.

Elizabeth Day, in her awesome podcast series, “How to fail”, laments that “learning how to fail in life actually means how to succeed better”.

I’ve failed before, in life and business. Doing GBDuro I remembered what it’s like to fail, harder than ever, and with that came all the knowledge and lessons that I could have only learnt from going out there and being in it. I will take them all with me next time.

The oddest thing is that this time it doesn’t feel like failure at all. It just feels like part of the journey.

See you out there, Clare

Be Here, Prepared To Be Nowhere Else

Mon, 13 Apr 2020 13:43:48 GMT

What endurance sport has taught me, so far, about resilience

There have been so many occasions where I have been out cycling and mused on how endurance sport has changed my life - physically and mentally. Now, more than ever, we need to build a mindset that can sit in the discomfort we might be feeling, and I cannot think of a better time to share with you what endurance sport has taught me about resilience.

When I say *endurance sport, it always sounds quite grand and I’ve always struggled with thinking of myself as an athlete, but to give context I have dabbled in a mix of endurance sport (running, triathlon and cycling for a number of years. I have completed events of all lengths, including ultra-distance cycling and running events and several Iron Distance triathlons.

During these times I have often turned to one of my favourite phrases (borrowed, as many are, from Susan Scott, Fierce Conversations) and it is the same reply I give when people have asked me how I have got better or faster…

“Be here, prepared to be nowhere else”

Never has this seemed more applicable in life and business – not least if like me you are a business owner, a sole trader and on a journey, which is often far from linear despite best preparations.

As I have evolved in my coaching journey, I’ve come to realise and be grateful for what endurance sport has taught me about resilience . I’ve pulled out the key aspects that have come to me, usually whilst cycling, and hope they will be of benefit to others in these challenging times in life and business.

Back To Basics: When I go cycling for any distance there are always certain basics I need (such as spares and a pump). A 30 mile or so route is fairly easy to get home from if there is a difficulty. If I am out for longer, or in a more remote setting, where I can’t live out of my pockets so easily, I need to know that I have certain items that may be necessary if there are any problems. Now, this slightly flies in the face of the phrase “start before you are ready” taking a bit of risk, but I think this falls into the category of being prepared and having certain core aspects in place for your own piece of mind .

What I often find is that I don’t use many of the items that I take with me – the ‘emergency banana’ always being a favourite! Mentally knowing I’m prepared gives huge benefit, and at the time you do have to reach for them they provide great comfort and relief; having them helps you mentally feel prepared. In business these are aspects such as insurance, good technology, and processes; hopefully most of the time they tick along and you don’t have to think about them but when you do need them, you need them quickly and you need them to be robust… like a decent rain jacket in a downpour!

Be Agile: Even with the best plan, things sometimes just don’t go quite right.

A puncture, a closed road or finding yourself face down on the tarmac in another country in the middle of the ride you’ve spent all year preparing for (more details later!) – so what happens next?

In the case of a big problem (like the one involving the tarmac) don’t move too quickly…let the adrenalin subside and hurry slowly. Sometimes these things are emotional and that’s OK, let it out and acknowledge the feeling ( frustration, disappointment, anger, hurt ) and then find a way to reframe it. Disappointment, I think, is one of the worst feelings in the world so don’t carry it around with you as it will drag you down further. What’s done is done, the question is what you can now do, how does that feel and look towards that new outcome. Which leads me to my next point…

Control What You Can: I particularly like the phrase “ let go of the illusion it could have been any different ” because there is nothing more stifling than the self-limiting beliefs and constructs you conjure up if you allow your mind to wander down those pathways. And trust me, those pathways lead nowhere. Our minds don’t like uncertainty (as we are finding out collectively as a nation currently) so help yourself feel that you are in control by identifying what is possible and re-framing.

Last year I took part in an event called Paris-Brest-Paris, an event where you cycle from Paris to Brest and back again, in one go (just over 1000km). On the return leg I had a crash and landed face down on the tarmac. When I set off I had a plan for how long it was going to take to complete the ride, Plan A, B &C. I had to reframe quickly after my crash, with two hours lost to being in an ambulance I knew I was no longer on plan A, barely near plan B but that if I could continue and take care plan C was still doable. I had to lose the immediate thought process of “everything I have worked for is lost” and turn it into “I came here to complete within the time and that is possible” and it was.

Sit With The Discomfort: Possibly the most important lesson I’ve learnt, and it took a while. People used to ask me how they should train, what plan they should use etc; I’m not a sports coach, so I’ve never been the person to ask on that one technically but the one piece of advice I always give is to know yourself .

In the middle of a long ride where I will have been awake for over 24 hours or perhaps riding for three days with only a couple of hours of sleep, my body will begin to give me warnings – hot, cold, clammy, hungry, not hungry, pain here, pain there… Please stop! You need to go through a period of discomfort to get to the end goal, but you also need to be able to understand why it’s happening, if it’s usual for you and what can you do about it.

For example, after about 36 hrs of cycling I begin to stop digesting food and I know from experience the best way to handle this is to not panic, understand what I have eaten and what the calorie content is and start to sip plain water– even if it makes me feel sick. This means I will recover reasonably quickly, but I will have to sit with feeling quite uncomfortable to get back to where I want to be.

The bigger the task and the goal at the end, the more the discomfort there’s going to be. So be ready to expect a little bit of that along the way when you start a business or make a big life change and be honest with yourself about whether that is something you are in the right place for.

Look up, Look How Far You’ve Come: When pain comes on a long ride it’s easy to start staring at the handlebars, your mind consumed with, “this hurts, I can’t do this”. It’s important to tell yourself to look up and this will bring more oxygen as you lift your diaphragm and engage your core. It reminds me of presence based coach Doug Silsbee (Silsbee, D 2016) and his ”bell jar” as a descriptor for the limiting self-beliefs and constructs that people can live within. As a coach I love the moment where the conversation creates just a small step forward and the bell jar lifts, the oxygen rushes in and the, ”oh I see!” moment arrives. Remember to look up and it’s OK to look back, just to see how far you’ve come… but then look ahead at where you’re heading.

You’re Not There Now, But It Doesn’t Mean You Can’t Be…Or Better: I was cycling in Wales recently and I rode some significant climbs. I particularly remembered these short but steep 20% climbs because they appeared on a ride I did last year when I was training for Paris-Brest-Paris. I cried on these climbs in 2019 because I thought they would defeat me. When reflecting on this I realised it wasn’t about my fitness, because I was fitter and lighter than I am now, but my mental resilience was so low that I had told myself I couldn’t defeat them from the moment I saw the 20% sign.

This time round, I’m heavier and less fit but my mind-set is healthy again, I listen to my myself saying “this is how this feels, you still have one gear left, your legs are turning well, you’re hot but it’s ok”; what I had this time around was my presence . I could step outside my bell jar, see the reality and the possibilities . I saw the climb and, although it was a substantial effort, I knew it was just that and that I would defeat it.

Beware The Comparison Monster: ‘ Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind – the race is long and in the end it’s only with yourself ’ (Baz Luhrmann). At times I have let the comparison monster in, in sport, in life and in business. Social media is the perfect platform for posting all those achievements and we should celebrate the wins but beware making comparisons with others . I’ve learned that just because I can see the outcome of another’s event , I can’t see anyone else’s map – I don’t know what it felt like for them, what the journey was or what home or business life they are going back to.

My best advice is that the minute you find yourself making comparisons for yourself or your business, step away from social media and spend time with people who lift you up. The time and energy social media comparison wastes and the feelings it can evoke leads to nothing positive. Currently I feel we are in a time of possibility, but there is also quite a lot of noise around what you could or should be achieving during lockdown; it feels even more important to make sure that you do what is right for you and not what others are using this challenging time to achieve.

Child State: When we are in our happy place, we have a freeness that makes us feel like we can do anything. When I’m fit and spinning up hills, keeping up with the boys and feeling great on my bike it’s the best feeling in the world; but it doesn’t always come easily. “ Talent you have naturally, skill is only built from hours and hours of beating on your craft ” (Will Smith), and it’s the same with your business. At the beginning of each season I come out, trying to do the things I have done before and some days I can do them, but some days I can’t. There’s only one way to make it work and give me that feeling I am looking for and that’s consistency ; it’s the same with your business and that includes rest days !

Practice Presence: Being present comes from several aspects of what I have written about in this blog, that build a consciousness about your place in the world for yourself and others. In 2019 I suffered from burnout , not from sport but from work for several reasons. I no longer knew myself or my emotions, every defence was down, my creativity and ability to retain information or make decisions (however small) was gone. It was incredibly frightening. I plan to write about burnout another time because I am passionate about helping others recognise it and seek to avoid it happening. It is a truly a horrible mental and physical state.

My experience of endurance sport and the people in it held me during this time when it had begun to feel as though nothing was possible. So if “ what we practice grows stronger ” (Shopira, S. 2017) then for me coaching people in life and business to understand how to access and build presence is at the core of creating resilience . If you are going to try anything new in this period I would suggest that practicising presence with be as beneficial for yourself and your business as anything; with better awareness, communication and wellbeing bringing about improved creativity, thinking and solutions as a mimimum.

So where am I going with all this? Well firstly, I just feel immensely grateful for the above lessons in so many ways and, let me be honest, I quite often trip over my own advice...but I truly believe my endurance experiences have taught and continue to teach me daily.

My endurance sport experiences have given me a resilience in life, an ability that a friend recently described as being like bamboo.

Bamboo, much like resilience can bend, stretch and be compressed but is very hard to break. It can withstand stress and pressure and go back to where it was. However, I have also learnt that things don’t always go back to where they were and that in many cases that’s not so bad either, because with change comes growth .

If you are an individual, athlete or business who would like to find out more about how I can help you, please visit my coaching page: https://www.auburnconsultancy.co.uk/coaching

*In the past decade, as a part of my own journey, I have completed endurance events in triathlon, running and ultra-cycling, the most notable including:

Triathlon:
IronMan Austria 2013 &2015
IronMan Lanza 2014
The Brutal Extreme Iron Distance 2017: First Female

Running:
London Marathon 2010
A Coventry Way Ultra (40 miles) 2018

Cycling:
Numerous Audax rides between 300-600k
London – Edinburgh – London (1200km) 2017
Mille Cymru (1000km) 2018
Paris-Brest-Paris (1000km) 2019

References
Shopira, S. The Power of Mindfulness: What You Practice Grows Stronger https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeblJdB2-Vo
Silsbee, D. Presence Based Coaching: 2014 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5V5cGPx1UDw

Wait...How Did We Get Here?

Wed, 01 Apr 2020 12:55:03 GMT

One week on from lockdown and a HUGE amount of change.

In the run up to the 'lockdown' announcement we saw and experienced huge amounts of change.

It started with growing concern for the spread of Covid-19 and an instinct to panic buy, then some people were working from home, then most people were working from home; alongside this the talk of children not being at school began, and soon enough schools were closed. In between, our hospitality industry suffered a major blow with the suggestion that people should no longer visit them and soon, along with other businesses, they were shutting. The UK began to realise it really did have a problem.

The world started glitching and the ripple effect began. Firstly, the employed were sent home and the government had to work out how they would be paid, then the secondary blow to the self-employed and how they would be supported. How would anyone’s business survive if it went into hibernation? Finally, we entered lockdown and the Prime Minister contracted coronavirus.

This happened in the space of a week.

Now we live in the #newnormal , which in itself is bringing phenomenal acts of togetherness, kindness, agility and resilienc e . But I can’t help wondering what happens when you start a process of change, repeatedly, with no clear outcome?

When we consider the Kubler-Ross curve, used to help organisations understand change and how it shapes and affects those involved, we know that it mirrors the grief curve and the emotions that come with it. We also know that we often see people skip sections of the curve, leading them to jump across from where change begins to where change is affected and that all too quickly they can become unnerved and go back; they slide down into the bell curve or start the Tarzan swing as they explore new territory, briefly, before retreating back to a place that’s feels more familiar.

What I have been pondering on whilst observing how people are feeling this week, is that the change curve we have been on has restarted several times in different ways for different segments of people. There wasn’t the opportunity to jump across the curve because the initial part of the curve started, stopped, went back and restarted.

I have been considering the points of the curve and what they have possibly looked and felt like, from my horizon in the time period:

Shock: I wonder how the effect of this is settling as people adopted fight mode repeatedly last week and how much that will have taken already for some people’s resilience, not least if they were already depleted. I have spoken to lots of people as we have started the week, existing friends and colleagues and new, many of whom have expressed a low washing over them. They have expressed how the #newnormal whilst fast becoming a routine lacks joy, perhaps due to being unable to exercise much spontaneity and complete simple acts that would normally cheer us, such as buying a coffee.

Denial: Unsurprisingly we saw huge amounts of denial at the outset with people not taking the government measures seriously and “evidence” was gathered and shared around social media as people tried to prove or disprove the need for change.

Frustration: We definitely saw a period of huge frustration. Whilst social media has undoubtedly provided us with an incredible tool for communicating and sharing knowledge, it also provided a platform with the ability to heighten and put out fear, spreading it and in some cases developing it further. Perhaps the greatest expression of frustration is the rise of the conspiracy theory.

Depression: I feel as noted earlier that this is beginning to take more of a hold now. A week into isolation and we are realising that the small things that bring comfort are not easily available and there is no way to know when they may become so. People are beginning to grieve for the little things.

Experiment: There was simply no time for this. We were in the #newnormal and feeling our way before we knew it, moving straight into Integration.

Decision: In this case, decisions have generally been made for us and, in many cases, by law. There doesn’t feel like there has been any opportunity for ownership.

Integration: Normally when we reach integration, we’ve had the chance to explore, to grieve. But again there simply hasn’t been time and in many cases not a lot of choice.

Now, I don’t want to the above to sound like a list of doom and gloom. I’m a small business owner, a sole trader and in some respects a start-up. I’ve been a part of some amazing discussions in the past week with colleagues old and new showing incredible abilities to live into what is possible, flexing, learning and growing with the change.

More so, what has led me to think about this is around those who may have entered this process in a less resilient place. What will increased isolation, uncertainty and inevitably greater change mean for them? Most importantly, as coaches how do we help them?

And so, my last point, whilst we see a difference in the mid-section on the curve perhaps the sting in the tail is that we do not, yet, truly know what the outcome of that change is. The end goal is moving, it is going to continue to move and we have no control over its timing. Normally what we are trying to facilitate is the unrest in the middle of change. However, whether we are presenting organizational change, life change, death, divorce or career pathways we understand more clearly the outcome. What is the outcome of Covid-19? Where does it end, will a vaccine be created soon enough and what does that end mean?

The point on my ponder as a Coach is ‘what do we need to do differently to support people’?

I’d love to hear your thoughts!

I feel that this whole process must be supported in a very humanistic way. The basics of just being there and listening will be more important than ever. Those basics will become necessary for people at different times with everyone’s life’s being changed differently.

What supports this is equipping and ensuring that the people (employees, family members, loved ones and others) in our world have as much mental resilience as we can help them to build. So that they can feel safe to communicate what they feel, f eel congruent with their emotions and those around them in life and business, that there really is a true sense that we are all in this together, moving together and that no one will be left behind .

To help support those going through change I am currently offering 30 Minute Coaching sessions free of charge , to help with anixiety, overwhelm, stress, self management - or for those who would just like someone to listen .

You can book a 30 Minutes session free of charge here: https://www.auburnconsultancy.co.uk/contact

If you would like to talk to me about Coaching for individuals or witinh organisations and business, drop me a line at hello@auburnconsultancy.co.uk or 07920400988

Walking...It's The Way Forward

Fri, 24 Jan 2020 12:51:48 GMT

Step outside....walk with me, talk to me, let’s move forward together

“All truly great thoughts are conceived by walking”
Friedrich Nietzsche (1889)

Steve Jobs, the late co-founder of Apple, was known for his walking meetings and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg has also been seen holding his meetings on foot; you’ve probably even found yourself at times pacing up and down to drum up ideas and there is good reason for this.

Walking changes the brain waves from a beta state of wakefulness, quick-thinking and multi-tasking, to a slower alpha state, more akin to deep relaxation, which allows for clearer thinking, problem solving and creativity.

Why is this important? Well, when we are thinking about both your personal life and your business, if you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always got .

While research indicates that being outdoors has many cognitive benefits, walking has a very specific benefit - the improvement of creativity .

A study carried out by Stanford University found that a few minutes walking can increase our creativity by up to 60% and even when we sit down after walking, we get a residual creativity boost.

Walking opens up the free flow of ideas, it’s such a simple but also robust solution in increasing creativity and increasing physical activity and wellbeing.

If you want even more evidence of why walking works, here’s the science bit!

A little daily gentle exercise significantly reduces the stress hormone, cortisol, in our bodies. Cortisol, the primary stress hormone, increases sugars (glucose) in the bloodstream, it enhances your brain's use of glucose and increases the availability of substances that repair tissues.

Cortisol limits functions that are nonessential or detrimental in a fight-or-flight situation, it alters immune system responses and suppresses the digestive system, the reproductive system and growth processes. Think of it as your (complex) natural alarm system that also communicates with the brain regions that control mood, motivation and fear.

The body's stress-response system is usually self-limiting, so once a perceived threat has passed, hormone levels should return to normal. As adrenaline and cortisol levels drop, your heart rate and blood pressure return to normalised levels, and your bodies systems resume their regular activities. But when stressors are always present and you constantly feel under attack, that fight-or-flight reaction stays turned on.

The long-term activation of the stress-response system and the overexposure to cortisol and other stress hormones that follow can disrupt almost all your body's processes. This puts you at increased risk of many health problems, including:

- Anxiety

- Depression

- Digestive problems
- Headaches
- Heart disease
- Sleep problems
- Weight gain
- Memory and concentration impairment

This highlights why it’s so important to learn and build in healthy ways to cope with your life stressors and a little bit of walking goes a long way to helping that process.

"Walking is the best medicine"
Hypocrates

Here’s that buzz word… wellbeing

Now let’s get one thing straight, wellbeing doesn’t require you to reserve another slice of your, possibly already overloaded life; wellbeing is a way of life.

The Oxford dictionary describes wellbeing as “the state of comfortable, healthy or happy”.

Walking is easy for our minds. When we set the bar for exercise we need small steps towards the edge of the comfort zone - if we set the bar too high, then it can be tricky to keep motivated or even just start ( don’t get me started on the New Year Resolutions! ). A normal paced walk and talk with me will usually cover between 2-3 miles, that’s around 4000-5000 steps so there’s a good bit of exercise carried out for your day!

Evidence suggests that physical activity in natural environments is more beneficial to health than that undertaken in other environments because, quite simply, people enjoy it. There is also a body of evidence that shows the effect of a natural environment in helping to improve attentional fatigue, which is becoming more prevalent in a world that is suffering from so much content that we are beginning to be weighed down by what can be described as ‘infobesity’

But I don’t have time…
I know, it’s hard to carve out a piece of time from the day but trust me, if you make time you will feel better about a multitude of things.

We can start early, when your mind is fresh, first thing before the demands of work? Or we can do an extended coffee break or lunch time? It can just be you, or if it’s business we can include other colleagues. I’m flexible, I’m happy to walk with you at the weekend for some time to reflect on the week whilst we make the most of looking at what nature has to offer? There’s a way to make it work for you.

"Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better."

Albert Einstein

Find Out more about Auburn Coaching HERE

References:
The Positive Effect of Walking on Creative Thinking, Marily Oppezzo and Daniel L. Schwartz, (Stanford University).
Exposure to restorative environments helps restore attentional capacity, Rita Berto (Dipartimento Di Psicologia Générale, Italy)

Scream If You Want To Go Faster

Tue, 31 Dec 2019 10:33:48 GMT

The benefits of making presence your new practice.

The flight took off (eventually) and half of the cabin screamed with excitement and joy.

Most usually a commuter flight, the (delayed) 8.05am to Paris CDG was half full of children as they headed, with their already tired parents, in the direction of Euro Disney for Xmas.

Despite the delay there was an unusual air of peace and joy in the cabin, unlike the usual silence of the commuter train, plane or whatever method gets you to the daily grind. I confess that, even though I don’t consider myself a real-life full-bore commuter, I have at times joined the solemn march of Britishness as we go through the process.

Let’s face it lots of us have been there, with the occasional tut, eye roll or sigh when those clearly not in the game of work interrupt our progress. This morning was different, I was heading to Paris for pleasure but realised in that moment that I had begun to travel with a military order, learnt from my time on ‘turn around’ with two bags always packed moving seamlessly from one space to the next in the last year (although I do remember at one point simply opening the boot of the car and placing half my wardrobe on hangers in there in the hope at least two items matched, too tired and concerned with the task in hand to consider folding anything).

As all the children on the flight screamed with delight, a little part of me and several others went to sigh and then I laughed, out loud, and almost got a bit teary. How exciting life must be and how incredible is it that a plane takes off when you are still a little person?

We don’t all silently sit on a roller coaster…do we? So do we really need to be so reserved and underwhelmed that something the size of a small building hurtles down a strip of tarmac before catapulting itself into the air with a roar, whilst giving you that funny feeling inside your tummy and ears?

The kids had it right. They were celebrating this amazing thing they were part of today.

It made me wonder about all those other things we are taking for granted when we are going through the motions, not fully present; what snippets of joy do we miss out on daily when we are simply on autopilot?

So, why not give it a try. Just a little more presence, for just a little time, every day. Let’s just let a little more joy in, we might even find we like it.

If you would like to know more about what Auburn offers then drop me a line: hello@auburnconsultancy.co.uk