Recover Your Balance

A podcast interview with Zoe Kennell, a teacher and somatic educator, about her experience of using somatics to support her through a particularly gruelling three years with a new head teacher. Includes tips for staying calm under pressure.

When you’re off balance as a result of workplace bullying or anything else, what matters is that you take responsibility for your own state of mind and your own future. Often we can’t change our circumstances, but we can choose how we respond to them. And we can examine and map what we need in order to recover our wellbeing and to flourish again. That’s what Recover Your Balance is there to support.

When the level of negative events in life overtakes the positive in our minds, it can be a bit difficult to see how to move on. That’s why Recover Your Balance starts from what you want to be different.

When distressing things happen at work – bullying, work overload, being in a toxic workplace, redundancy – they can knock you right off balance. Here’s how you can start to recover and move on from their negative impact.

When you’re off balance, getting in touch with what helps you smile, laugh, feel in touch with yourself, enjoy life, is a key part of getting a sense of where you are in the grand scheme of things.

When we’re off balance, it shows, even though we may be unaware of how we’re coming across. I’ve experienced clients saying they responded calmly to a situation, while their colleagues report observing a very strong negative reaction from them. It really does help to become self-aware.

I love doing radio. Today I was Ian Mac’s guest on the Vectis Radio daily phone-in, talking about bouncing back from bad times at work. Our callers, Lyn, Jean and Tony, were all courageous people who had picked themselves up from some emotionally and spiritually damaging experiences. I hope that in telling their stories, they were able to reinforce for our listeners that they are not alone.

it takes a huge amount of focused, intentional work to create great customer service, and it takes authentic, confident staff buy-in to keep the show on the road. And if you put in the work, the business stands a good chance of growing… I do know that when you have miserable customer service, it is often delivered by miserable staff. And vice-versa.

How do you talk to yourself when you make a mistake or do something that, in hindsight, you might describe as silly?

“If you met me in the street today, you wouldn’t have the faintest idea I’ve ever had a problem in my life. Some days, I can almost believe it. And that, my friends, takes a whole lot of work. It takes a whole lot of tough love.”