Self-care (restoration)

Introduction

This involves skilful use of emotional data to restore yourself psychologically and physiologically, ie to handle the allostatic load. This

“…involves activating your parasympathetic nervous system……Your automatic nervous system has two pathways: sympathetic and parasympathetic. Your sympathetic pathway is activated during stress, and parasympathetic during the rest.

Slow breathing, exercise, time in nature and safe social connections stimulate your parasympathetic pathway, reducing arousal and supporting flexible response and recovery.

On the psychological side, simple skills like reframing your emotions……and cognitive reappraisal reduce the intensity of negative emotions and help return control to your brain’s prefrontal cortex…”

(Michelle Gibbings, 2025k)

Basic restoration question:

Does this action restore you, or does it merely remove you from what is uncomfortable?

NB Restoration it is active; it replenishes energy, focus on health. In contrast, distraction is passive; it avoids, numbs or delays.

Step-by-step method

1.      Move from autopilot to awareness (do this by asking:

• What are you feeling?
• Where do you feel it?
• What is it signalling about your needs or risks?

Language is important:

“…Swap ‘stressed’ for ‘overload and uncertain’ or ‘irritated and time-pressured’. Being precise enables you to identify and create more accurate options. Once you can identify the signal, you can decide what to do with…”

(Michelle Gibbings, 2025k)

2.      Put your feelings into words (in a few words describe the feeling:

“…’I feel anxious and unprepared because the client brief still vague’ or ‘I feel tired and foggy because I got up too early and slept badly last night’…”

(Michelle Gibbings, 2025k)

This can reduce the amygdala’s influence and encourage activity within the prefrontal cortex; this will reduce the intensity and encourage recovery, not relief.)

3.      Take action to aid recovery (focus on the need for non-work time in order to restore depleted cognitive, emotional and physiological resources so that you reduce strain and improve well-being and performance:

1. Psychological detachment (mentally switching off from work; disengage from work, ie have a break, eg go for a walk, no job-related thinking/rumination after hours, etc; low detachment predicts higher strain and burnout risk.)
2. Relaxation (do activities that reduce physiological arousal (rest, gentle leisure, low-effort hobbies, etc); deliberately chose activities that reduces stress stimulus and increase positive emotions, eg 5 minutes of slow breathing, gentle stretching, etc)
3. Mastery (engaging in challenging, absorbing non-work activities that build competence, eg learning a language, sport, hobby, etc); this replenishes different resources more than pure relaxation.
4. Control (assert your complete autonomy and choice over how to spend off-work time; this supports restoration; proactively schedule activities to pursue, in what way and for how long, etc).

4.      Regulation (it is about controlling your emotions, not suppressing them, ie understanding your emotions, delaying your response until you are ready:

“…Take six slow breaths with a longer exhale, place both feet flat on the ground, and if you're speaking, lower your speaking pace. This simple grounding interrupts the surge, quiets the body and gives the prefrontal cortex a chance to take the lead…”

(Michelle Gibbings, 2025k)

Be prepared to reframe your approach, with regard to meaning, consequences, issues at hand, etc to reduce the pull of irritation, anxiety or the urge to prove a point. Some examples;

 “…- if you notice a conversation escalating, you can, in advance, commit to pausing, take a deep breath and ask one clarify question

-          if you notice a conversation going off-track, you can commit to summarising, clarifying, understanding and opposing next step…”

(Michelle Gibbings, 2025k)

Be prepared to set boundaries, such as time limits, regular breaks, etc.

NB Recovery builds the base, and regulation keeps you on course,

Example (for use in a change workshop)

Ask participants to self-rate one item per dimension:

1. “After work, I can forget about work for a while.”
2. “I use my free time to relax.”
3. “I seek out activities that challenge me in a positive way.”
4. “I can decide for myself how I spend my leisure time.”

Then ask:

• Which one scores lowest for you right now?
• What small action could improve it this week?

This builds self-awareness and empowers employees to create their own recovery plan during change.

(main source: Sabine Sonnentag et al, 2015)