Empowering Your Team: 5 Tips for “Holding Space”

In honor of Mental Health Awareness Month, Peloton for Business produced Holding Space—a virtual event on the significance of movement, mindfulness, and community within and beyond the workplace. The panel featured Peloton instructor Anna Greenberg, Peloton Chief Marketing Officer Lauren Weinberg, Peloton Sr. Director of Social Impact Alia McCants, and psychologist Dr. Alfiee Breland-Noble—and explored what it means to hold space for ourselves and others, and how to put it into practice for improved mental well-being. 

Discover five key takeaways from this event that you (and your team) won’t want to miss. 

1. Set Boundaries 

Setting boundaries is critical in order to hold space for mental wellness. However, doing so in the workplace can feel daunting, even in a supportive work environment. Peloton’s Chief Marketing Officer Lauren Weinberg encouraged people to decide what works for them, communicate those boundaries, and stick with them. 

“Set expectations. If you have a team and you’re changing the way you're going to be working or what you're going to do, let everybody know what that looks like and what they can expect from you, and stick to it. Don't apologize and just own it,” Weinberg said.

Creating rituals around mental wellness—like meditation, an exercise practice, or a daily routine—can be a helpful entry point to setting boundaries. Weinberg shared that she dedicates time every morning to set herself up for a positive mindset for the day ahead.  

2. Be Intentional With Self-Care 

Setting boundaries demands intentionality, another key theme of the discussion. Holding space requires work and effort, and your permission to take care of yourself. Scheduling time for self-care activities—a workout, a walk outside, or time to simply unwind—can be an effective strategy for intentional boundary-setting. 

“If you don't take a moment for yourself, no one's going to give you a moment for yourself—and aren't you worthy of 60 seconds?” said psychologist Dr. Alfiee. “Each of us has to prioritize taking that time.” 

Peloton Instructor Anna Greenberg echoed this sentiment, adding that intentional consistency is what creates the change. This self-care practice doesn’t have to be big, and in fact, starting small is often the key. 

“It's so important to not start at the top of the mountain, but just [with] one breath, one step, one little chip away, and eventually those little steps create a whole new path,” Greenberg said. 

3. Give Yourself Grace & Kindness 

The panelists emphasized the role of grace and kindness in the journey toward mental well-being. “I read this definition once of grace being patient, loving kindness,” Dr. Alfiee said. “Treat yourself as kindly and lovingly as you do the person you love most in the world.” One strategy Dr. Alfiee uses to give herself grace is through a mantra: “I am enough exactly as I am.” 

Similarly, Greenberg reminds herself, “Okay, it wasn't perfect today, but I did my best.” Allowing yourself to be where you are and holding the space for that, too, is part of this ongoing practice. 

4. Find Mindfulness in Any Moment 

The panelists discussed mindfulness as the act of being present, and of bringing your full self to whatever it is you’re doing. Mindfulness could involve setting aside moments for quiet reflection, encouraging yourself to be more observant, or practicing a new self-care routine. Opportunities for mindfulness exist in every moment, allowing us to return to the present. 

Greenberg said that when she notices that her full presence isn’t in what she’s doing, it’s a signal that she needs to reset. She often goes for a walk in order to recenter herself.

“Our society is designed to pull us out and make us think that everything we need is out [there], but it's not. We have that power to really reclaim our presence and our lives in that way,” Greenberg said. 

5. Know your baseline 

Burnout is a hot topic in workforce mental well-being, but as Dr. Alfiee pointed out, the science hasn’t caught up to people’s lived experience. There are many ways that people experience burnout, and many individual factors can contribute to it. 

To find your baseline, you need to get clear on what burnout means to you. Dr. Alfiee described this as “understanding what are those things that detract from your ability to care for yourself, that detract from your ability to just be in an equilibrium or a neutral heart space.” 

Baseline depends on the various aspects of a person’s identity. Whether they are parents or caregivers, their background or the way they were raised, their generation—all these elements make up how someone handles and responds to stress. By finding their baseline, people can better learn how to recognize when they are overstressed, helping to create the boundaries that keep us from burning out. 

Hold Space Beyond Mental Health Awareness Month 

Self-care and mental wellness are part of an ongoing practice. Holding space might not come easily, but by giving yourself grace, being intentional, and striving for mindfulness, you can make small strides that lead to positive change. 

Holding space goes far beyond Mental Health Awareness Month: for more mental wellness resources, explore our Mental Health collection on The Output, including topics like self care ideas, mindfulness during exercise, and how to be more present. 

As a benefits leader, you can support your team’s mental wellness all year long by offering the Peloton corporate wellness benefit. You’ll gain access to exclusive programming and special events—like our “Holding Space” virtual panel—that will help your team find an entry point into wellness that meets them where they are. 

To learn more about the Peloton benefit, visit our corporate wellness page.