Workplace Wellness Whisperer – (Nov 5)
Hello Workplace Wellness Seeker,
Happy Saturday!
Happy Saturday! I’m super excited to be hosting online breathwork sessions every
New Moon to help optimize your breathing for better performance at work and in life. Check out the details on my Instagram or Facebook.
People that practice gratitude consistently report a host of physical benefits
including: stronger immune systems, less bothered by aches & pains, lower blood
pressure, better sleep, and so many more.
🙏Gratitude Practice🙏
Give a team member a small gift as a way to show your gratitude.
(i.e. Gift card, coffee, lunch, offer to pay for an Uber Eats order for them).
🌸===🌸
The pandemic was a period of self-evaluations and setting the right priorities for all of us! Isn’t it?
Labour market trends like the ‘Great Resignation’ resulted in employees leaving their companies in search of better opportunities. These opportunities were in the form of better job satisfaction, higher pay, and in many cases a result of prioritizing self-care. Moving towards 2023, wellness programs prioritising self-care would be important. For HR professionals, this means moving the marker of self-care from simple yoga and meditation sessions and encouraging breathwork. They need to be a partner in their employee’s health and well-being journey, helping them build the right habits and providing tools to take of themselves. By linking self-care with the larger trend of personal improvement, companies can ensure their employees get the best out of their wellness programs.
My Workplace Wellness Calendar can guide you with some ideas for implementing your wellness strategy.
In the process of coming up with wellness programs and meet the diverse needs of employees, interaction with different stakeholders, including employees, leaders, and clients is essential to help better understand the programs’ feedback and impact. Ensuring the success of wellness programs is a continuous process, and often the impact is only in the long term. Communication is a critical enabler to ensure wellness adoption. We must also focus on building a multi-pronged approach so that employees hear the message on wellness across multiple touchpoints. Wellness needs to be a business imperative that the individual, the team, leadership and HR jointly address.
I invite you to subscribe to my YouTube channel for amazing practical daily workplace wellness tips that can help in your wellness program.
Here’s a summary of this week’s 5 tips that can help you personally and professionally.
Read, Listen and Share!
Tip #1 – Are Your Habits Serving You or Working Against You?
Habits are automatic choices that influence the conscious decisions that follow. Once completed a habit can shape the actions that you take for minutes or hours afterward. According to James Clear, habits are like the entrance ramp to a highway. They lead you down a path and, before you know it, you’re speeding towards the next behaviour. How do you develop good work habits? It’s often best to start small with one or two areas you want to improve. If you try to change all of your work habits at once, you may feel overwhelmed. Focus on one area that can have a significant impact on your overall work. For example, if your disorganization is slowing you down, putting into place a few organizational strategies such as making a daily to-do list, may help you to be more productive overall. Every year The 24th of January is actually celebrated as clean your desk day. Organization is super important. Having good work habits does not mean keeping your eyes glued to your computer. It includes knowing how to take care of yourself. Getting proper sleep. Eating right. Taking time to relax and recharge. As Maya Angelou said, “Nothing will work unless you do.”
Download my FREE morning routine here and learn how to: Increase Energy, Improve Sleep and Decrease Mood Swings.
Tip #2 – Sleep Aid Breathing Technique: Quiet Your Busy Mind & Help with Sleep
Are you having trouble sleeping or quieting the mind? This is a powerful technique for engaging your parasympathetic response to help you quite your busy mind before sleep and for deep relaxation by extending the exhales. Take a breath in, then exhale through your mouth with a whoosh sound. Close the mouth and inhale through your nose to a mental count of 4, hold for 7, and extend the exhale for 8 with pursed lips. Repeat this cycle for at least four breaths.
I invite you to listen to episode #39 on the Self-Care Goddess Podcast, where I share with you 9 science backed tips for an effective morning routine to help you start your day for a healthier, happier and more productive life.
Tip #3. Choose Your Inner Circle Wisely
According to Jim Rohn “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” So who are the 5 people you hang around with the most from the office? The world’s longest-lived people choose, or are born into, social circles that support healthy behaviours. Okinawans create moais – groups of 5 friends that commit to each other for life & support each-other throughout the years, even financially. Research shows that smoking, obesity, happiness, & even loneliness are contagious. By contrast, social networks of long-lived people favourably shape their health behaviours. All but 5 of the 263 centenarians were interviewed during the Blue Zone research belonged to a faith-based community. Research shows that attending faith-based services four times per months will add 4 to 14 years of life expectancy. At the workplace I advise you to hang out with colleagues of similar life goals and urge you to participate with the community programs organized by your HR to nurture that sense of belonging and inclusion, not only will it add years to your life but also make you more productive.
Tip #4. Yoga is a Lifestyle
Yoga is a lifestyle. It is not to be performed, Yoga is to be lived. What is a Yogic Lifestyle? A yogic lifestyle involves shifting our attitudes, habits, diets, thoughts and general ways of life to be more congruent with the philosophies and ethics of yoga. Yogis make lifestyle choices that bring them towards a place of sattva, a state of equanimity and inner peace. I invite you to watch my amazing YouTube yoga demonstrations.
Check out my amazing ‘Purple Cabbage Soup’ recipe.
Tip #5. Authenticity Key To Happiness
Why being authentic is the key to happiness? If our fundamental psychological needs are fulfilled, then people naturally aspire to be the best or idealised version of themselves. Life is full of choices and decisions, from the mundane to the momentous. It is these choices, both the trivial and the significant, that reflect our authenticity. Authentic people take ownership and instead of ruminating over their missteps, they move forward by learning from them, and may even reframe their goals if required.
If you’re ready to leverage your workplace wellness strategy and explore how to optimize individual, team and your company’s performance, book your complimentary Workplace Wellness call here.
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