Wellbeing Week helps staff press the mental reset button…

Mindfulness in the workplace is about allowing employees the opportunity to evaluate how they view themselves, their life and work and make positive changes to achieve mental wellbeing. That’s why I am always delighted to work with a forward thinking business that values their staff and take personal and professional development seriously.

Last week I ran a ‘Wellbeing Week’ workshop for an organisation looking for new ways to support their senior management team’s leadership development programme and for staff requiring help with relaxation techniques and stress management.
What I think is great, is that my client recognised the importance of allowing staff the time to focus some attention on themselves; allowing staff one hour out of their day to reconnect with their mind, body and emotions and learn a little of what mindfulness is and engage in guided meditation.

One group member commented “how relaxed” they had felt, but also how they had felt “guilty for taking time out”. Isn’t it funny how people can sit down when their body is tired but really struggle to let their ‘mind’ rest for five minutes without feeling they should be ‘doing’ something. This is where I feel my Wellbeing Week workshop has been most effective as it has taught staff how to press a mental reset button and spend a small amount of time of just ‘being’ rather than feeling they always have to be ‘doing’.

I helped the staff recognise there are two methods of functioning; Doing and Being, which are useful at different times for different reasons.

The Doing method is goal-oriented and focuses on reaching outcomes. It helps create awareness of how things ‘are’ and how they ‘should be’ and highlights how many actions happen on ‘automatic pilot’ and how individuals often lack conscious awareness in the present moment.

Having understood the affects of the Doing modes the workshop group were ready to learn about how the Being method will help them; by connecting with the present moment, accepting situations or circumstances without the need for change, develop openness and recognise all emotional states whether positive, neutral or negative and ultimately achieve a sense of calm and wellbeing.

I find I also feel the benefits of using mindfulness when I am running my professional and personal development workshops or Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) and Transactional Analysis (TA) open courses, as it keeps me on track, enables me to pay attention, stay focussed and not sweat the small stuff!

I am really looking forward to continuing the mindfulness journey with the senior team during their six month leadership development programme and look forward to working with more like-minded forward thinking organisations.