How to Know When You've Maxed Out Your Surge Capacity

Good morning, welcome to Mindset RX. I am your host, Dr. Robyn McKay, and this is the place to be if you are an emotionally intelligent leader who is ready to set the tone for your week to make it a positive, purposeful and productive week for all of us. And today I'm talking about something new, but it's not really new, it just is a new word that I came across recently called surge capacity. I guess that's actually a phrase. Before we get started today with the major topic, which is surge capacity, I do wanna take just a couple of minutes to welcome you, whether you're watching live, say hello please. Or you're watching the recording, please reach out to me and let me know how you're doing, what's going on in your life, what you're taking away from this time that we're spending every week for about 15-20 minutes talking about these things that maybe not too many other people are talking about in your world.

But I am here to tell you that times have changed and the old ways of doing work and life, and money and time, and all the things has really shifted, and there's an opening right now for those of us who are emotionally intelligent, those of us who are connected with our creativity, with our intuition, to really come forward as leaders, even in the corporate space, and I would say especially in the corporate space, that is why I am here with you, to give you some encouragement, to teach us some things and to maybe help clear out some of the interference you might be experiencing as you continue your work in the corporate space.

So as we get started today, I wanna encourage you, as I always do, set aside everything else, set aside your text messages and your emails and all of the other screens on your... On your device that you're watching this on, and give yourself the gift of this time that we have together, when I say set the tone, what that really means is that we're coming into a space of just alignment with your breath and your heartbeat, and with the here and now, the here and now, of course, is where your point of power is, so when you're not thinking about the future and you're not worried about the past, you can just be here now, and this is where you can access your intuition, this is where you can access your creativity, your innovation, we've gotta be here, so let's just clear some space out, I like to imagine my brain going.

And coming into this present moment, so breathe in and breathe out just a couple of times, and the key to breathing in and breathing out of course is knowing, when am I breathing in? And when am I breathing out? And just do that a couple of times.

Notice your hips in the chair, or if you're walking and listening or driving and listening, just notice where you are right now in this present moment, and once we arrive fully, that's when we can bring our whole attention to this important topic that not too many people are talking about right now, which is surge capacity.

See, I started looking at surge capacity about a year ago, that's when it really started showing up in the Internet from people like me, actually, Brene Brown has written about and spoken about surge capacity and some other people. Search capacity is usually used in the context of how many patients can a hospital withstand before the system gets stressed or even collapses. In hurricanes, we look at the surge capacity of the dams and the dykes, and the barriers that keep the water from flooding the cities, and with humans, we have surge capacity too, and our surge capacity is the mental, emotional and even physical resources that we have available to us for times of stress, but this will come as no surprise to you, the human body isn't meant to sustain long periods of stress, our human body requires rest, it requires resets.

It requires relief from the stressors, and as you and I both know, in the last 18 or so months, we already had a lot of stress going into the pandemic, and then add on top of it all of the uncertainty, and the health worries and the social and political unrest that we've gone through globally, actually at this point, and the people who are continuing to be in stay-at-home orders and really socially distancing still and worried about all of the things that they're worried about and also feeling very contained by that as well, I might add, that's a lot of stress for a human body to go through, for a human spirit to experience actually, body not withstanding.

So the surge capacity is how much mental, emotional and physical resources do I have available to me for any given major stressor? But we've had to be able to... Yes, we've had to be able to withstand a lot of things, and so what I wanna do today is give you some tools and some practices that you can bring to your own life as you are continuing in this journey that we're in at this time. And one of the things I always like to look at is where are you getting your fuel, where is your fuel coming from? 

And a lot of us run on adrenaline, caffeine, fear, anger, frustration, sugar, carbohydrate, a lot of our bodies run on that kind of energy, and that kind of energy is fine, it's not very refined, but it's okay for a short period of time, for the longer haul though, we need something different to run on, and that's what I wanna talk with you about today, so rather than continuing to run on the fear, adrenaline, caffeine, sugar cycle, what I'm going to invite you to think about doing is to run on things like play and gratitude and hope.

And when you're in it and you've got the stressor, you're right up against the stressor, that can be a really tough challenge, and that is an opportunity for you to go inside and to find something else to look for, to find something else besides fear, besides frustration. Besides anger, find something else. Is there a way, is there a way that you can find to be grateful for what you're experiencing right now in this moment? And listen, I'm not talking about emergency situations at all, I'm talking about the prolonged stress that many people are undergoing in the corporate space as they're having to maintain high performance goals and raise their kids and take care of everything else at home and endure the other pandemic situations that we've had to encounter in the last year, so when you're in that position of just that prolonged stress, what I want you to do is to start looking at how can I unplug for a little bit.

And I'm not talking about taking a vacation, you've heard me say this before, my goodness, going on vacation doesn't cure burnout and it's not going to restore your surge capacity either, but taking periodic breaks and with intention, with intention, and saying, "I'm gonna restore. I'm gonna replenish, I'm gonna drink some water. I'm gonna go out in the sunshine and go for a walk. I'm gonna take a nap." That's a novel experience. Take a nap. There are all kinds of things that you can do on a daily basis that shore up... That shore up your energy field so that when the next stressor, when the next surge comes, you are withstanding that as well.

And I'm not saying... I don't wanna turn people into punching bags either, we want to start creating the future that we most want to experience, and yet, there is something to be said for shoring up and fortifying your physical being and your inner being as well as we move through this stage of life, Lana says, "Your new mantra is, I get my energy from gratitude." Gratitude is actually a state of being, to find things to be grateful for, is to acknowledge that something good is happening even if you're not the immediate cause of it, and if you can find... This is an advanced practice. But if you can find a way to be grateful for everything in your life and change your perspective from why is this happening to me, to how is this happening for me? Your perspective is gonna change enough that your body, your system is gonna respond to that change and you'll feel better.

How is this happening for me? So it's really going from a perspective of being a victim of circumstances to a creator or a co-creator of your circumstances, and isn't that refreshing? When we really get into this feeling of gratitude in the sense of being grateful in the frequency of gratitude, there are a host of things that open up to us, a host of possibilities that we weren't able to see simply because our mindsets and our eyes were narrowly focused on what was right in front of us and the problems that we're having right in front of us. Instead, when you have a problem, just ask, just try this, ask the question, how is this happening for me? And wonder about it. The wondering actually accesses your intuition, your inner knowing, you come up with some solutions that are quite remarkable, I find.

So surge capacity is related to burnout, because once you run out of resources, your physical body, your mental and emotional body, even your spirit starts to feel burned out, you start to feel frustrated with what's going on in your life, and as well you should be, probably, hut you start looking at other ways of engaging in the world, hopefully. You start feeling a little bit frustrated with other people's experiences and decisions because they're not the ones that you would make, you might have some compassion fatigue, you might have some overwhelm, you might even start bumping up against some glass ceilings and that seems to be secondary at this point, but there is that career... The career kind of stalls out when you get into burnout as well, so there are a bunch of reasons to take care of yourself before burnout happens but if you are experiencing burnout, I want you to remember what I said before, wherever you go, there you are.

So a new job is gonna help in the short-term, but not in the long-term, unless you change your relationship with how you're working and how you understand time, and how you understand work, and how you understand money, and your relationship with those... And I've talked about those on earlier episodes.

So for today, for surge, for surge control, what I want us to do is to just really start looking at how can I every hour take a break to restore, to fuel up again and maybe not fuel up on caffeine or sugar or fear, you know, the doomscrolling that we do sometimes, that feeds fear, and fear is an energy source, it generates adrenaline and then your body runs on adrenaline, which then contributes actually even more to the burnout, so rather than running on fear, adrenaline, sugar, caffeine, let's look at other things that you can run on today, like gratitude, walking into your colleague or your friend or your partner's work space and saying, "I'm grateful for you, thank you."

Going out in the sunshine, taking a walk with your dog or just by yourself if you want to, if you don't have a dog, finding some constructive ways to replenish and restore your energy, and this is one that I think get's a little bit underrated, but it's really important, and that is to play, dance, play, color. You know those mindful coloring books that are out there in the world right now? Maybe one of those. Maybe write a children's book. May go out and take some pictures, do something creative, do something that your creative spirit loves to do, and that's gonna restore you way more quickly and sustain you way longer than something like doomscrolling, than something like fear or adrenaline or caffeine or sugar.

That is my two cents for today on your Mindset RX. I'm Dr. Robyn McKay. If you loved what you heard today, I would love it if you would just post a comment and let me know what your number one takeaway was, and I will see you next week, rain or shine, Mindset RX, Tuesdays at 8:15. Tell your friends and colleagues about this, if you're benefiting from this, this is a grassroots movement that is building steam, and we are really gathering as emotionally intelligent leaders to talk about not just now how to survive the now, but how to create and thrive a future that we most want to experience. I'm Dr. Robyn McKay, and I will see you next week.