EDITOR’S NOTE: PETS+ is the media partner for GROOM’D, the annual grooming-focused pet trade show presented by World Pet Association. The PETS+ team will be reporting live from Atlanta, GA, Friday through Sunday. To not miss any of the action, like our Facebook page and sign up for the daily GROOM’D ebulletin at petsplusmag.com/subscribe.
GROOM’D Seminar Snippets: Melissa Jepson, CEO of Pupscale Pet Salon, tackled a topic important not only at work but in every aspect of our lives: mental health. She explained that we are taught from a young age to suppress our emotions, which is unhealthy and unrealistic. Pets are highly sensitive to the feelings we project, so learning how to deal with them properly is so crucial to your health and to your business.
Jepson touched on the “Myth of Happiness” and toxic positivity, which is when you suppress your true feelings to act like you are in a “positive” mindset. She reminded attendees, “You can’t pretend to live only in happiness; it is not reality.” An example of this is when someone asks how you are doing and instead of saying “I’m tired/angry/frustrated/depressed,” you instead say, “I’m fine” or “Doing well and you?”
We are also told that how we feel or what we think we are feeling is “all in our heads,” though feelings flood through and effect our entire bodies. She offered helpful tips on how to learn to keep feelings and emotions in check at work:
- Set boundaries but also enforce them. Boundaries are simply expectations; you must tell people what you will and won’t accept from them. Setting and managing boundaries becomes more natural over time. But if you set a boundary, you also have to follow through with it. She used the example of a coworker yelling at you. If you tell them you’re uncomfortable with how they’re speaking, and if they can’t talk calmly, you’ll remove yourself from the conversation. That’s what you have to do. By staying and continuing the conversation in the same manner, you’re teaching them that they can talk to you that way.
- Pay attention to your body and learn how it reacts to various feelings and emotions. Learn how to deal with emotions, both positive and negative. She recommends therapy for everybody, not just those who have experienced trauma. Therapy teaches you the tools you need to deal with emotions.
- Find a community of people that you feel safe and comfortable with so you can share your feelings with them.
