Hustle culture is alive and well in many industries, particularly in tech and startups.

This idea that we should “power through”: that we can forgo sleep, food and all basic body related needs, while churning out stellar work product.

Well the truth is that “hustle culture” works for a very narrow prototype of person: usually a male between the ages of 18-35, and often times one who has led a relatively privileged life free from experiences of trauma, whether that be childhood, generational or more recent.

I would argue that neurodivergents and people who have experienced significant are not the only ones who suffer at the hands of hustle culture, but they have the most extreme experiences.

Let’s zoom back for a second to examine the nervous system for people who are neurodivergent or who have trauma. Many such people wake up at the start of the day with a chronically over engaged nervous system. Their ‘baseline’ includes elevated states of cortisol, which puts their nervous system into a state of “fight or flight” mode.

For that reason, I am passionate about helping people learn to bring their body out of that state each day by doing an “active” guided meditation (you may keep your eyes open and allow your body to move if it wishes).

This is the number one tool I used to make every day go better than the last. By starting the day with a guided meditation, you are able to prime your subconscious to be present and positive, allowing yourself to let go of a lifetime of negative experiences that might otherwise be playing on repeat in your brain.

There are a range of tools one can use to ground yourself and to remain productive at work. All of these tools are about reconnecting to your body, figuring out what it needs and honoring that.

When you’re working and you feel your productivity slipping or you start making mistakes, instead of powering through, try doing one of these things:

5 Minute Guided Meditation
Go for a walk around the block
Eat a fruit, vegetable or seed/nut
Drink some water
Listen to a favorite song
Stretch
Smell an essential oil
Watch a funny video
Listen to nature sounds
Open the window
Go to the bathroom
Wash your face

Don’t be afraid to let your conscious mind be completely blank. Because it is in that quietude that you can connect more deeply to your subconscious mind. Our subconscious mind is a powerfully underused tool, and it has much more powerful and wise instincts than our conscious mind.

In that quiet space, when you are honoring your body and giving it what it’s asking for, the answer to the problem you’ve been hemming over just might come to you.

Try it and let me know how it goes!