Women Who Code - Empowering women to excel in tech careers

Welcome to the latest installment of “Code of Balance” – your monthly guide to emotional well-being as a diverse technologist. This carefully crafted toolkit aims to guide you through thought-provoking self-reflection exercises, offer valuable support resources, present affirmations to enrich your emotional landscape, and curate an invigorating Spotify playlist to accompany you throughout the month. Let’s dive into an exploration for the month: Emotional Awareness — centered around the impact of looking after our emotions and those of others. Join us on this journey of self-discovery!

Acknowledging and respecting the diversity of emotional expression allows for a more inclusive understanding of emotional needs across different neurodivergent profiles, genders, race, socioeconomic backgrounds, and more. Emotional awareness in the workplace is the ability of individuals to recognize, understand, and manage their own emotions, as well as being attuned to the emotions of others. This practice creates a safe space to create better communication, shared understanding, collaboration, and relationships both in the workplace and beyond.

Being aware of your emotions or those of others can be challenging for several reasons, including cultural or social stigma, especially in the workplace, of expressing or discussing emotions, stress, neurodivergence, personal trauma, or lack of EQ (emotional intelligence) education. Below, you’ll find some tools that you can lean on to help you address these barriers. This toolkit is not exhaustive, but it’s a positive start to help you cultivate emotional awareness.

❣️Just a reminder, we are not mental health professionals – just your techie besties sharing what works for us! If you are experiencing any health issues or mental health crises in the workplace, please contact your People Team/HR or a mental health professional.

Wellness Toolkit: Emotional Awareness

🎧 We encourage to start with this month’s December’s Emotional Awareness Playlist as you go through the rest of the toolkit.

Tools for Emotional Awareness

Self-awareness: Being conscious of your own emotions, triggers, and reactions. Self-awareness is effective for self-regulation, allowing you to respond to challenging situations with composure rather than reacting impulsively.

Empathy: Empathetic understanding enables you to form better communication, collaboration, and team dynamics. It allows you to navigate conflicts more constructively and with more sensitivity.

Adaptability: Emotional awareness helps you navigate transitions and challenges by acknowledging and managing the emotions that arise during such times.

Curiosity: A strong desire to know or learn something. Differentiate between responding or asking vs. reacting. Reactions are often impulsive and driven by emotions, while constructive questioning is more thoughtful and intentional. Be curious about why your colleague navigated a situation differently than you.

Listening: Not to be confused with hearing! Listening — through reading, hearing, or however you can communicate — is a proactive effort to truly receive information from someone without the need to respond, judge, critique, or relate.

Embracing emotional awareness involves recognizing and respecting the unique ways in which emotions are experienced and expressed by individuals with diverse neurological profiles. It creates a foundation for understanding, empathy, and collaboration that enhances the well-being of all individuals in various aspects of life.

Have you practiced enough emotional awareness?

These questions emphasize the importance of self-awareness, empathy, adaptability, curiosity, and active listening in fostering emotional intelligence and positive interpersonal relationships. How do they resonate with you?

Tools we love for emotional awareness

Check out some tools you might love for learning more about your own emotional awareness and finding balance! Below, you’ll find some great examples of apps, books, podcasts, and more to empower you each month to thrive on your wellness journey!

📱 Apps

Mindset | daily self-care and wellness platform with a library of authentic and intimate audio collections from your favorite artists.

😎 Cool Things

Greeting Cards & Stationery | Send a friend a letter and ask them how they are doing, bring back snail mail! Check out some of these stationery and greeting card stores: Greer Chicago, Greenwich Letter Press, Sesame Letterpress & Design, Archer Paper Goods
Headspace x Poketo Calendar | Created in collaboration with Headspace App, this calendar infuses mindfulness & reflection into daily life with inspirational & educational affirmations. (PS. There is actually an entire collection of other cool things with Headspace x Poketo)
5 Minute Journal | You only need 5 minutes and a pen with this easy to follow guided journal.

📺Media

🧘🏼‍♀️ WWCode Content

Affirmations for cultivating emotional awareness

An affirmation is a positive statement you say or think that reinforces self-belief or personal goals. Research tells us that affirmations work because of neuroplasticity — the brain’s ability to reorganize itself by forming new neural connections in response to learning. You can change your brain by changing your thinking, which can support a more constructive mindset.

Take a few minutes, find a quiet place, and read or listen to this month’s WWCode affirmations on emotional wellness for diverse technologists.

I create a space for open communication and collaboration, fostering a positive team environment.
Through active listening, I build connections that go beyond code, creating a workplace where everyone’s diverse voice is received and respected.
I approach challenges with a curious mindset, seeking innovative solutions and welcoming the diverse ideas that fuel progress.
I celebrate the diversity of thought in tech, staying curious about how different backgrounds and experiences shape our industry.
In the face of uncertainty, I remain flexible and open-minded, bringing an adaptive spirit to my work as a technologist.
I am a technologist who embraces change, understanding adaptability is a powerful force for innovation.
In collaborative projects, I prioritize empathy, building connections beyond the screen, and ensuring that the human element is considered alongside technical excellence.
I am self-aware, recognizing the impact of my emotions on my work and interactions within the tech community.
Through self-reflection, I continuously grow as a technologist, understanding my strengths and areas for development.
My self-awareness is a guiding light, leading me to make conscious choices that contribute to the well-being of myself and my tech colleagues.

📚Wellness Resources

If you or someone you know is in crisis, free and confidential 24-hour support is available. Call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), or call or text 988.

Previous Wellness Toolkits

Check out our previous toolkits to help you thrive in your personal life and your career!

Code of Balance Wellness Toolkit: Emotional Awareness | December