How does a Marketing Director handle stress?
In my heyday about to go to the 2015 Glamour Magazine Awards
It’s been six years since I left my role as Marketing Director for the global fashion brand Kate Spade and I remember, like yesterday, what it was like to be in that senior position. Every day was stimulating and I felt extremely lucky: I travelled the world, met incredible people, worked with best of the best on exciting inspirational projects. Whilst I loved my fabulous high-life, with more beautiful clothes, bags and shoes than I could wear, it was also extremely stressful. I was accustomed to daily high-pressure, expectations on me, deliverables and an always ‘on’ nervous system from working with different time-zones. Add in an Indian diligent work-ethic, desperately wanting to do well and be seen well by those above – it was a lot.
I can recall vividly the physical feelings of stress that would flare up for example when a deadline was brought forward, or project goalposts changed at short notice, an unplanned meeting with my boss popped up, or if an unhappy team member wanted a chat … all anxiety-inducing incidents that would happen on a regular basis and I’d just have to deal with them. Most of my peers also learned to self-medicate in the pub on the way home after work!
The thing about work stress is :-
1. Its unavoidable
2. It goes hand in hand with responsibilities
3. It comes because you care about your work
The problem is not the stress… it’s how we respond to it.
How did I cope? Well I had a secret wellness weapon, reiki energy healing, something I was taught in my 20’s which kept me sane throughout my 17 year corporate career. It became a personal passion and through this training, I also learned how to manage my energy. I would top it up by taking a regular breaks away from my laptop, getting a bit of air and eating outside of the office. My mini-breathing and self-healing “fag” breaks in the disabled toilet were the only way I could handle the heavy-duty daily pressure I was under and thanks to these methods, in my entire career, across several big brands, I was never signed off for stress.
Nowadays in my own business, The Calmery, a healing clinic on Harley Street, I help others in professional positions cope with stress. It’s much easier for me to support my clients, as I’m speaking from personal experience coupled with the techniques that I have trained in over the years. From shamanic energy medicine, reiki, meditation, mindfulness, EFT and breathwork, I’m able now to share and prescribe a helpful blend of healthy, non-pharmaceutical tools that can support the most frazzled of city-worker, to gracefully handle their high-pressured life. I even wrote a book about energy in 2020 “ Find Your Flow’ which got published by Penguin Ebury. It has a raft of stress-relief solutions in it.
It’s normal to feel stress, but it’s not normal to be stressed 24/7, operating like this will eventually make you sick. If you are a high-achieving professional, nodding as you read and would like some support in this area, then then book a complimentary call and let’s see how I can help you.
Sushma Sagar
Master Healer and Founder of The Calmery