Finding Daily Work Peace: Lessons From Therapy

Friday had me in my head.
A ticket came through that I just didn’t get. The customer was waiting, the person I reached out to had questions of their own, and I was stuck in the middle — feeling that old pressure creep up.
That voice that says, “You should already know this.”
“They’re gonna think you don’t belong.”
“You’re messing this up.”

That’s the part of me therapy’s been helping me calm down — the part that panics when I don’t have instant answers. I kept working through it, handling other tickets, just trying to prove to myself that I still knew what I was doing. But that noise in my head? It stayed loud.

So I brought it up in therapy.

Breaking It Down

My therapist didn’t tell me what to do right away. She just asked questions.
What did you feel?
What were you afraid of?
What was really going on underneath?

And once I slowed down enough to answer, I realized — it wasn’t about the ticket.
It was about me not wanting to look unqualified.
I’m the IT guy. People come to me for answers. When I don’t have one, I feel like I’m letting everyone down.
That pressure makes me tense up. It makes me talk less, second-guess more.
She told me something that stuck:

“Peace isn’t about everything going right. It’s about you staying centered when it doesn’t.”

That hit hard.
Because I already know what peace feels like.
I feel it every morning when I stick to my routine — my daily therapy work, my 15 minutes of creativity, that structure that keeps me grounded.
The problem wasn’t that I didn’t have peace.
It’s that I wasn’t bringing it to work with me.

Daily Work Peace

So we came up with something simple — my Daily Work Peace Routine.
Nothing fancy. Just structure that travels with me.

Step 1 – Morning Intent (2 min)
Before I open a single ticket, I take a breath and tell myself,

“I’m staying grounded no matter how messy today gets.”

Step 2 – Learning 15
I set aside 15 minutes during the day to review something I don’t fully understand — a process, a note, a fix from yesterday.
It keeps me learning instead of overthinking.

Step 3 – Midday Reset (5 min)
Step away. Stretch. Breathe. Even just walk outside.
Sometimes peace is a five-minute reset, not a vacation.

Step 4 – End-of-Day Reflection (3 min)
Before logging off, I write down one thing I learned and one moment I stayed calm when I could’ve snapped.
That’s growth you can actually see.

What I Learned

Therapy didn’t just teach me how to manage emotions — it taught me how to build structure around peace.
Work will always bring pressure, but I don’t have to bring panic with it.
Peace at work isn’t about having every answer.
It’s about trusting that I can learn, adapt, and breathe through every question.

So now, when frustration hits, I don’t try to escape it — I work through it with rhythm.
Because peace isn’t something you find.
It’s something you build — one breath, one ticket, one calm response at a time.