How not to cry!

[Helpmyhair2019]

Hello
I am an emotional person at the best of times. My go to reaction when worried, frustrated or scared is to cry. I have some pretty major things happening at work at the moment that I’m having lots of meetings with management. How can I get through these meetings without crying? Although my management know I react like this when under stress, I really would like to get through one meeting without having to stop to cry! My management are very non judgemental but I want to be able to describe any frustrations or worries (related to at risk students) without crying about it! Thank you in advance 😊

Thats really interesting, and that must be a lot of stress you are carrying. I have cried once in a meeting and it was about releasing some pent up feelings, some of them current, some of them related to events in the past. It was helpful to have validation as I had a lovely manager.

I guess you can't share details with friends for confidentiality. Do you have reflective supervision, if the student issues are complex, rather than just management?

I would guess doing more positive self care things and finding creative ways of expressing feelings and thoughts outside of work.

Before meetings, having bullet points of key points you want to focus on but also allowing a little bit of time at the start for checking in with how you are.

I do empathise, it’s annoying when this happens. I have got better at not crying as I’ve got older. Can you try and get yourself mentally prepared before you go into a difficult work situation?

All good ideas thanks. Bullet points would be good even if I don’t actually follow them during the meeting as it will mean that I can focus on what I want to say before the meeting starts. Also, I think maybe I haven’t been able to switch off outside of work so by the time I’m in the meeting I am emotionally exhausted already. Thanks for your helpful replies x