Gene Mitchell invites a pause and shares a candid check-in about sudden anxiety, how his team supported him, and ways to notice and move the energy in the body through breath, community, and gentle movement.
Gene Mitchell: My invitation to you right now is to simply pause. He says today, he was so anxious, his hands were shaking and his heart was racing fast. But his team showed up for him. Communities lift each other up, he says.
Sometimes we feel a lot. How do you feel today? What energy are you feeling that you can use as fuel? And maybe that fuel needs movement. Movement doesn't have to be taking a spin class, walking a dog, going for a run.
Hey, everybody. Happy Sunday. Gene Mitchell's here in Minneapolis, Minnesota, calling in on a beautiful, beautiful Sunday. And I'm not gonna lie, I'm having a day. But we're here. We're here right now. So as you pop in or you listen on replay, just take a breath. My invitation to you right now is to simply pause. Pause your mind, pause your body, pause your breath. Don't pause your breath for too long. Hey, Jules, how you doing? Happy Sunday. So I gotta tell you, this is my second try doing my live stream today, and here's what's funny about it.
This. I'm just gonna give you a little tidbit about my day, and I'm gonna offer it as an invitation for you to check in on yours. So this morning, I taught a spin class. I love Sunday morning spin classes. The group is fun. The energy is exciting and relaxing, kind of a little bit of both. But today, there was energy I was feeling all around me, and my hands were shaking. My heart was racing fast. And what I usually do is when I come in. Yeah, Jules. Hanging in there. Here. Yeah. Usually when I come into the studio, since I am one of the bosses, I try to just help the team.
I try to hold space to the team, be there for them, get ready for my classes, answer any questions, help out however I can. But today, I needed them, and they were there for me. And that's what teams do, right? They lift each other up. Communities lift each other up. They meet you exactly where you're at, and they don't question because they know how you show up on a regular day. They know how you show up every other day. So on the days that you're frantic and they see it and experience it, they get the gift of showing up for you.
And I see it's a gift because we're not good as humans asking for help. But when we need it, it gives somebody else an opportunity to open the door from whatever they're going through and step through that door so they can pull you through it. My team did that for me today. Like, I was so anxious, and I don't even know why. Like, I don't know what I was feeling. I don't know where it came from. It just all of a sudden happened in my body, and I had to step out of the studio before I could teach class.
Come up to the front desk, and my hand was shaking, and I took some water, and one of the guys on the team looked at me, and he goes, gene, you got this. And that's all he Said, I took a breath and I walked in the room and I did the thing and I led a class. I had so much energy. You would think I had 10 cans of Dr. Pepper straight sugar because I had so much energy. But I was just trying to use the energy to calm down my body, and it wasn't happening. So I just used whatever I had. And at the end of class, people walked out and they were like, that was amazing.
It was so much fun. Where do you get all that energy? And I was like, I don't know. I don't know. And I got my car and I drove home, and I was like, what happened? And then I walked my dog and I still felt a lot of energy. And then I came home and I decided I needed to go for a run, just to try to get a little more out because I was still feeling so big. And I'll tell you what happened in between all of that. I thought my time for my livestream was at some random time. So I got online and I started my livestream and I did a really great message.
You would have loved it. I hit submit, I hit send, and then nothing happened. And then I got a notification 20 minutes later that I just missed my time. And so something I did, technology wise, didn't work right. So we're trying it again now. What I want to offer up to you is sometimes we feel a lot. So my invitation is to check in. How do you feel today? What energy are you feeling that you can use as fuel? And maybe that fuel needs movement. Movement doesn't have to be taking a spin class, walking a dog, going for a run.
Movement can be as simple as stretching. Movement can be as simple as standing up and walking out your front door, walking around your house or building that you live and then coming right back inside. Movement can be playing a handpan, a drum, an instrument. Movement could be reading a book and feeling the tactileness of the paper and flipping, flipping the pages. Movement can be writing in your journal to set your mind free, to let out all the things you're thinking or feeling. So on my run today, if you've ever run a race at all, or if you've ever watched one, there will often be times people will hold up signs and they might hold, like, draw a little bullseye.
And they'll say, tap this to power up. It's a phrase to just try to help you as you're running, to feel like you just got a little extra energy. So today I needed a little something to carry me. And so I kept touching the bushes and the trees and just feeling the kindness of the earth energy and that tree energy as it filled my body. And one little leaf decided to stay in my hand, and it just fell into my hand. And I tried to set her down a couple of times, and she said, nope, I want to stay with you.
So I have a leaf friend today, and why I share that with you is sometimes the world around us will give us exactly what we need. Just if we ask today, I don't know what the energy is that I'm feeling. And that's okay. I don't have to know. I may never know what caused me to feel so amped up. Like, I don't drink caffeine. There's a reason for that. Sometimes I'll drink a little itty bitty soda, or I do have a drink that has a little bit of caffeine in it, but it's like 5mg or 20mg. It's nominal. Something amped me up today.
It didn't feel heavy. It didn't feel crazy. It just was a lot, a lot in my body that I needed to let go. And you might be feeling something similar. You might be feeling something heavier hanging in there. Jules said, right, so whatever you're feeling, it's your fuel. But what I invite you to do is decide what to do with that fuel. What do you need right now? Instead of packing that fuel down and squirreling it away like squirrels do with knots for the winter, what if we just allowed ourselves to feel whatever we feel now?
There's caveats, right? We might not be able to break down crying at work, or maybe we can because we're in a safe environment. Or maybe if you're feeling super angry, you don't want to take it out on the people around you or tell them that you feel angry and you're going to go do something, you know? But I invite you to just check in. How do you feel? What do you need right now in this moment? To embrace what you feel, to process what you feel, to let go of what you feel. And maybe you're not ready for an action, and that's okay.
And maybe you just feel it. Cool. I did that a lot with my team. The last few weeks. I've been checking in as we get on team meetings, whether I'm at the studio or I'm with my clients. And I get on all my calls at the beginning and I do a check, and I just say, how do you feel right now in this moment, how do you feel? And we check in and I've built a lot of trust in my team so they know that I'm going to ask them all the weird questions. Why is that a weird question? You know, it's just human. Human.
And when we work together, when we create space together, we're creating space with a bunch of humans. It doesn't matter what our titles are. All that matters is that we are living and breathing and we're having a dialogue and we're moving together, we're breathing together, we're sharing space together, sharing moments together. This is a moment. So if you're listening on replay or you're online right now, I'm simply just going to ask, name it one to three words, Max. How do you feel for me for the first time all day and it's 3:10 my time, I feel calm.
It's the first time I can say that today and I'm pretty excited about that feeling. I think it's because of my leap. Just know that having those moments, they're yours to have when go through them. You don't have to go through them alone. I have a team that lifted me up today. I had a community that lifted me up today. Some of them don't know the gift that they give me to just by showing up. And that's okay. They don't always have to know. But today was great because for once I didn't have to lead.
I just got to be lifted. And it was really cool. And I got responses from my team saying things like, jean, thanks for. Thanks for letting us help you today. And I was like, what? You're thanking me for that? And they're like, gene, you were great. And. And they just knew what I needed because there are many days where I try really hard to lift them, but they got the gift to lift me today. And it was really fantastic how it worked together. So for you, my friends that are out here on the other side of this two way conversation, I'm here for you.
I'm sending you good energy, good vibes and I invite you to just check in with how you feel. Put it out here, feel it together. We're in this one. We got it. Have the best day, Jules. Thanks for tuning in. And for all of you that missed my really great message earlier, I don't think it was any better than this one. We'll see you soon. Mondays 10:30, 11:30am Central Standard Time for professional development. I'll talk to you then.
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