Bringing Your Heart to Work

A book to help you reconnect back to your purpose as you learn to work in alignment with your values and choose a healthier approach to success. Written by a global mental health specialist with professional and personal experience of working with burnout. Hazel Hyslop’s seven-step method will bring clarity and positive transformatio

Bringing your Heart to Work: A Seven-Step Journey to Mental Health and Wellbeing is based on Hazel Hyslop’s experience of working as a mental health specialist locally and globally. It gives an account of her personal experience of burnout and her witnessing of burnout among her colleagues and clients. In her own journey to self-care, Hazel kept journals of her experiences and noticed a pattern in what worked. She started using some of these principles in her work as she began to see a parallel process with many of her clients and colleagues. For example, most of her clients were women, most high achievers, had great careers, but secretly harboured passions that they were not pursuing. The drive to succeed led to increased stress and burnout, as well as questioning their identity and purpose in life. What was becoming clearer with each client was that their story was mirroring her own story. Hazel too had been on the hamster wheel for many years trying to achieve success. She reached a point in her life where she no longer knew who she was. She had become lost, confused, scared. Hazel had no professionals to emulate in her family. Her parents, their parents, and the generations before had completed only basic elementary schooling. Her determination to do well coupled with expectations from others, led her to push herself to get to the top as quickly as she could. She had to beat all odds to become the first one in her family to go to secondary school, to university, to become a professional. As newborns we come into the world as pure beings. However, by the age of seven years, we are influenced by those around us and our beliefs systems are formed. We are programmed for success based on who we are, what we have or what we do, and what others think of us. However, over time, we start to recognise that this is not enough. The more we strive, the more we become dissatisfied. A familiar story from clients is: “I feel lost, I have no purpose, or I feel stuck. I don’t know who I am anymore.” With the help of Hazel’s Seven-Step Journey model, clients are able to facilitate a transformation to help regain purpose and a sense of self. The model uses the metaphor of a journey: the book asks the reader to take a voyage through their lives, offering tools to gain clarity and find better solutions. This journey is illustrated with client stories to demonstrate how the model helped them to transform and to give hope to the reader for their own metamorphosis. At a time when so many are experiencing overwork, overwhelm, and overthinking, Bringing your Heart to Work: A Seven-Step Journey to Mental Health and Wellbeingis the ideal book to quieten the noise and recapture you are and who you want to be.

About the author Acknowledgements Introduction Step 1: PAST - Starting out 1: Looking through the rear-view mirror 2: A different kind of success 3: A frame for success 4: Working from the heart Step 2: POSITION - Current location 5: Where are you now? 6: Psyche of the current system 7: Creating boundaries 8: Process of change Step 3: PURPOSE - Who am I? 9. Time to recalibrate 10: Your values and beliefs Step 4: PROBLEMS - Getting clear 11: Obstacles and roadblocks 12: Effects on our well-being Step 5: POSSIBILITIES - Creating alternative stories 13: Creating new stories 14: Holding the hope 15: The wise warrior Step 6: PLAN - A way forward 16: Choose one path and the rest will follow 17: Curiosity and trust 18: Leaping forward 19: Your intuition is your inner tutor 20: Take up space Step 7: PROMISE - Commit to your journey 21: Your relationship with commitment 22: Vulnerability, trust, and commitment 23: Play and creativity 24: Intentionality, determination, and discipline Notes,

About the author

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Step 1: PAST – Starting out

1: Looking through the rear-view mirror

2: A different kind of success

3: A frame for success

4: Working from the heart

Step 2: POSITION – Current location

5: Where are you now?

6: Psyche of the current system

7: Creating boundaries

8: Process of change

Step 3: PURPOSE – Who am I?

9: Time to recalibrate 

10: Your values and beliefs

Step 4: PROBLEMS – Getting clear

11: Obstacles and roadblocks

12: Effects on our well-being

Step 5: POSSIBILITIES – Creating alternative stories

13: Creating new stories

14: Holding the hope

15: The wise warrior

Step 6: PLAN – A way forward

16: Choose one path and the rest will follow

17: Curiosity and trust

18: Leaping forward

19: Your intuition is your inner tutor

20: Take up space

Step 7: PROMISE – Commit to your journey

21: Your relationship with commitment

22: Vulnerability, trust, and commitment

23: Play and creativity

24: Intentionality, determination, and discipline

Notes

• By (author) Hazel Hyslop

‘This is an impressive book, transformative and making a valuable contribution to current narratives on work and wellbeing. Hazel Hyslop draws on her own and her clients’ experiences as she takes us on a journey through her seven-step model. In so doing, she challenges us to review and rethink our values about success.’

— Lynne Heseltine, systemic therapist and supervisor

‘This book is a gem for those of us who work, whether it be in public, private, or corporate organisations or for and within our own families ... This book inspires hope. Whereas we may see roadblocks, Hazel helps us to see opportunities for growth and transformation. The book enables us to reset our personal compass to align with our values, thereby fostering wellbeing for ourselves and those we work with.’

— Glenda Fredman, PhD, clinical psychologist and systemic psychotherapist

‘A page-turning account of her journey to wellbeing, this is a must-read for any psychologically minded professional. Hazel Hyslop is as generous with her own story as she is keenly interested in yours. This book takes you on a metaphorical journey, ideal for anyone facing a personal or professional dilemma. She writes as though speaking to a friend, guiding you skilfully through her many years of experience, and always gently, powerfully, bringing it back to you: to your heart and your values. A beautiful and unique addition to the self-help genre.’

— Kiran Flynn, BEM, psychotherapist and social worker

‘Bringing Your Heart to Work introduces a seven-step approach to mental health and wellbeing that is brimming with clarity, warmth, and candour. An engaging read, Hazel Hyslop writes in a way that draws the reader in. This is a book that serves as a powerful guide to achieving personal transformation and success.’

— Ngozi Anuforo, executive coach, management consultant and trainer, NOA Coaching and Consultancy Services Ltd, UK