A year-end reflection on capacity, courage, and making room for joy.

As we close out the year, this episode of Adaptive Humans offers a grounded reflection — not on resolutions, but on what this year asked of us emotionally, culturally, and physiologically. Beneath polished bios, many carried unseen stress, grief, and uncertainty. Jami explores why this wasn’t a talent problem but a capacity one, what it means to be brave enough before clarity arrives, and how making room for joy supports resilience. The episode closes with a gentle Just Be Reset to help listeners pause and enter the new year with more presence and care.

Change fatigue isn’t a motivation problem — it’s a human one. In this short episode, Jami de Lou offers a real-talk reflection on how leaders and teams can navigate capacity, grief, and growth without burning out. From nervous system overload to compounding grief and year-end burnout, learn how to recognize the signs, recalibrate expectations, and reset with a more human-centered approach. A must-listen for anyone navigating big transitions. All in under 15 minutes.

In this episode of Adaptive Humans, Leah Hairston, founder of Sweet Bee Services, joins Jami de Lou to unpack how trauma-informed doula care shifts birth outcomes — and what leaders can learn from it.

They explore cultural intelligence, systemic inequities, and how to build safety and trust in high-stakes spaces. This isn’t just about birth. It’s about leadership, healing, and how we care for one another.

🔗 Learn more about Leah Hairston and her team: https://sweetbeeservices.com

Holidays aren’t neutral. They hold memories, expectations, cultural rituals, and often the ache of who or what is missing. Jami shares personal stories about grief, disconnection, and the moment she learned to let joy and sorrow coexist without hiding one or performing the other. She shares three Brave Enough Moments for navigating the season with honesty, compassion, and boundaries, plus a simple grounding practice you can use anytime. A gentle holiday season includes space for everything you’re carrying, but without the guilt.

Caregiving is often a silent role—shaped by culture, emotion, family expectations, and the realities of aging across borders. In this episode, Jami de Lou shares the unseen labor of caregiving through her family’s recent loss and offers strategies to navigate it. She explores cross-cultural caregiving, the administrative and emotional load families hold, the rituals that protect dignity, shifting family roles, and why caregiving often stays invisible until you’re in it.

When change hits at work—a layoff, reorg, or new leadership—it doesn’t just shake your job. It shakes identity, belonging, and the body’s sense of safety.

In this episode of Adaptive Humans™, host Jami de Lou shares practical, compassionate tools for navigating those first few days after everything changes. You’ll learn how to spot your body’s stress patterns, build a 72-hour plan to find stability, and support others through uncertainty.

This episode is for anyone who’s been laid off, “survived” a reorg, or leads a team in transition.

In This Episode

• What fight, flight, freeze, and fawn look like at work — and how to move through them
• How to create a 72-hour plan for your first three days of transition
• Self-care cues, breathing resets, and short focus sprints to re-regulate
• Text and meeting scripts to set boundaries and ask for help
• Practical actions for managers supporting impacted teams

Flexibility isn’t a perk; it’s a culture shift. In this conversation, Manar Morales, CEO of the Diversity & Flexibility Alliance and author of The Flexibility Paradigm, joins Jami de Lou to explore what it really takes to Live Your All at work and beyond. We unpack how to move past command-and-control leadership and design systems where ambition and well-being sit at the same table.

You’ll hear:

• Why flexibility is a shared responsibility across orgs, leaders, and individuals
• The mindset shift from either/or to yes/and—and how it unlocks collaboration
• Practical ways to build return on experience (not just return to office)
• A simple reset: asking, “What do I need most right now?” to move from doing to being

If you lead people, or lead yourself, this episode offers clarity, language, and practices to support wholeness without burnout.

Resources & Links
• Diversity & Flexibility Alliance (consulting, research, events): Diversity and Flexibility Alliance
• The Flexibility Paradigm by Manar Morales (publisher page): Georgetown University Press

If today’s episode resonates, share it with a colleague who’s building a human-centered workplace. And remember: adaptability starts with presence.

In Part II of our cultural collisions series, we go deeper into how to build your Cultural Intelligence (CQ)—the ability to shift perspectives and adapt across differences.

You’ll hear:

• Why hidden codes at work create misunderstanding.
• The 4 dimensions of CQ: Drive, Knowledge, Strategy, Action.
• A Brave Enough Moment where I slipped into fawn mode—and what I learned.
• The ADAPT™ framework to reset when cultures collide.
• The Cultural Reframe: 4 steps to pause, breathe, name assumptions, and bridge with curiosity.

Because the truth is, culture and identity are always in the room. Pretending they’re not only deepens silos. Let’s practice choosing curiosity over reactivity.