Wellbeing and Work

© Lifehack

Today, I attended a very interesting conference in Norwich called 'Five Ways to Wellbeing', which, in my opinion, links up with a lot of things I've learned during the Indigo Project. Here are the five 'ways' they suggest (and here I'm picking out excerpts):

1. Connect... with the people around you. Invest time in developing relationships with family, friends, colleagues and neighbours. Building these connections will support and enrich you every day


2. Be Active... exercising makes you feel good and is good for cognitive function. Discover a physical activity you enjoy and one that suits your level of mobility and fitness


3. Take notice... actively extend your curiosity. Catch site of the beautiful. Savour the moment. Be aware of the world around you and what you are feeling.


4. Keep learning... try something new. Learning new things will make you more confident as well as being fun and/or fulfilling


5. Give... indulge in random acts of kindness - share a smile, help someone. Do it because it helps you feel better about yourself. Seeing yourself, and your happiness, as being linked to the wider community can be incredibly rewarding and creates connections with the people around you

I suppose, really, it's about whole person development; the kind of development which encourages achievement and contentment. Ultimately, if more of us are to flourish - and we have some catching up to do with, say, Denmark! -, then we need to be active participants in changing our work culture. For instance, in 2003 I was gravely ill, and upon returning to work I decided to experiment a bit. Thus, I started to buy flowers and leave them in the communal space used by my work colleagues. When a colleague did something which impressed me, I told them there and then. I also made sure that I made time to step outside several times a day, and savoured some wide sky and 'the moment' I was in. For more ideas click on the live link ('Five Ways to Wellbeing') at the start of this post.

<*((((><(