When you’ve finished facilitating and your mind is racing, sometimes your usual grounding techniques don’t work to transition you back to everyday life. That’s what happened to me today.

I finished teaching an online class, kept sitting at my computer, and soon my body did not feel well. I was flooded with regret and thoughts of what I did wrong. Then my mind bounced to ideas for how I could fix things next time. I was stuck in a cycle of negative thoughts.

Ending a process is important. When creating rituals, beginnings and endings get lots of attention, especially for those leading the ritual. And what is a group of people gathering together to learn together if not a ritual you’ve participated in since childhood? So pay attention to the boundaries of your facilitation experience, and you will increase the effectiveness of the whole process.

To create an ending for myself, I turned to gratitude. I made a list of 3 things I did well in the class as a counter to my brain’s negativity bias. Then I said all 3 outloud, which shifted something in my head. I could see, oh wow this wasn’t a train wreck. I’m ready to take a break and celebrate. So I logged off the computer and moved on.