This week, we're talking about the effects the pandemic has had on our work lives.
Mentioned in the episode:
Welcome to Inner Warmup where your inner work begins. My name is Taylor Elyse Morrison. I'm the founder of Inner Workout. And you, as always our expert guest. Thanks for being here today. So normally, I've been doing this check in question at the beginning of episodes, I want to try something different. I want to do a little exercise to bring you into the virtual room, bring you into the interview. So if you'd like, place a hand over your heart, and find your heartbeat. Find that internal rhythm, then take a deep breath into your nose and out through your mouth. Do that a couple more times and allow yourself to fully arrive.
I don't know about you, but I needed that. I actually am recording in a rather loud windbreaker. So I didn't do that with you in real time. I did it right before I started recording. And I needed that. I needed just a simple way to get back into my body, to be here in this present moment. And now we get to start. Let's do the interview!
So the question on the table today is how has your work life shifted?
Dang. That is a pretty loaded question, isn't it? As I was reflecting, it was like, wow. I was reminded that before the pandemic, so March of 2020, I was already planning to have some pretty major shifts in my work life. I quit my part time job after having already quit my full time job a year-ish before. And in February, I was headed into this month of travel. So COVID was just starting to be a blip on the American radar. As I was coming back from a conference, I was supposed to be in town for a week, and then headed into Portugal for a business trip. It was supposed to be this month of like extraversion and travel and marking this new part of my life as doing corporate facilitation and growing Inner Workout. That's where I was headed. And then the pandemic hit. And suddenly everything was virtual. I had to learn all of these different skill sets. I joke around with my husband, we have like a studio now. We have lights and microphones and camera equipment and audio equipment, all these different things to produce good outputs. And I didn't know how to use all of that before. And now it's a part of my regular day to day.
Virtual also opened up so many possibilities for Inner Workout, like people are listening from around the world now. Isn't that wild? And it's because we're a self care company in a pandemic. And I also will be frank and say we're a black owned company in a time where people are realizing that maybe they need to diversify who they're listening to when it comes to wellness. And so there are all these things that happened in place, that allowed Inner Workout to grow quite a bit and in ways that I didn't even imagine over the course of the past year. And that caused a shift where I needed more support. At the beginning of the pandemic, I had a different podcast, I had a podcast editor and that was the only support I had. And now I have a team of two part time folks who work within Inner Workout, as well as other collaborators who support in different parts of the business. I've had to learn how to delegate and how to lead in the way that I would want to be led, in the type of company that I would want to work at, in the type of world that I want to live in. It's been a lot of thought.
It's also shifted in the sense that when the world has felt very crazy, I've seen myself want to over identify with my work. So I can't control when the world is going to fully open up again. I can't control what is happening in the news. And so my response, for better or for worse, often for worse, is to put my head down into work and say "Okay, well I can control this, I can help this one person. I can launch this new thing." That could be helpful for the person who is on the receiving end of that but that's not healthy or sustainable for me. So a lot of the shifts that have had to happen in my work life, and I'm honestly still working on, is separating myself from the work. I'm so grateful that I get to work with a team with Inner Workout now, because I'm not Inner Workout. That was never the intention. I actually built the company in the way that I did, because I didn't want it to be just about me. And now I'm seeing that start to come true. And also feeling myself wanting to rush back into identifying with it as a way of regaining some control in a world that I feel like I don't have control over.
I've had to do a lot of work to remind myself that I am a whole person. I am a valuable person. Regardless of anything, if I stopped this podcast, if I stopped operations of Inner Workout, if I stopped volunteering, I would still be a person who matters, who is worthy of rest and joy. And that's huge. So my work life, it shifted quite a bit on a tactical side, figuring out all this virtual stuff, but also in creating new rhythms that decenter work in my life so that I can show up and do really well. But I also know that I have so much to offer and to experience outside of work. That's me. That's my story. And now I want to give you some time to reflect.
You might have been listening to that, in my answer to the question and been nodding along and like yes, I resonate with this, you might have been listening in like rolling your eyes or wanting to just fast forward until I posed the question to you because it didn't resonate at all. All of that is valid. And that's what I love about the show is because I want you to center your expertise. My answer might be interesting, but the thing that is going to unlock your own growth is your answer to the question.
So how has your work life shifted, especially when you think about this context of the pandemic?
I really appreciate you sharing and know that there is more space for you to continue your reflection if you'd like in your journal or whatever you're using to reflect right now or in our free online community. You can continue the conversation there. Last thing I'll add is that we are doing a pretty sweet Self Care Support Giveaway in partnership with a bunch of like minded brands. We'll include the link in the show notes for you to be able to enter that giveaway.
Well, I will let you get to the rest of your day, but thank you as always for your time and for your expertise. Take care.