Think & Be Well
The purpose of this informative and engaging article is for you to feel better and have a new thoughtful experience around being well. If you choose to read along and participate in this interactive experience, you will become calmer and clearer with less tension in your body and a practical understanding around the subject of Wellness at Work.
This article consists of a three tier interactive process, which incorporates the multiple intelligences and greater sense of mind body functioning. First we'll engage the present moment using our conscious minds through our senses. Next, we will enhance vitality using our breath. Lastly, we will create a new behavioral modification that serves as a reminder for ongoing results.
Learning to engage the present is profitable because it allows employees to be alert, awake and energetic, which results in increased levels of focus, productivity and overall health. In addition, employers and employees who are able to engage the present, have a greater capacity and tenacity towards creative problem solving and leadership. Albert Einstein best described the phenomena when he said; "you cannot solve a problem from the same consciousness that created it. You must learn to see the world anew."
Being able to engage the present is the prerequisite for a truly successful work day because it allows employees to access a deeper level of consciousness for problem solving. Companies with a present minded workforce team are empowered and healthy. Louise L. Hay the famous American author says it best "the point of power is always in the present moment." If the point of power is truly in the present moment, then the senses are the key. To engage the present, enjoy this simple exercise.
Follow along, keep your body perfectly still and do not move; we are about to shift our perspective. Notice the feeling of the clothes against your skin. Is the material loose or tight, smooth or textured, soft or coarse? What about the air and the temperature; is it cool or warm, stuffy or fresh? Notice the sounds around you are they noisy or calm, loud or quiet? In just a moment, you will close your eyes and imagine as though your ears are tape recorders. Allow the sound waves to enter your eardrums and record the noise around you.
Regardless if the sound is cacophonous or harmonic; simply listen with a neutral attitude. Move from sound to sound and then bring your awareness outwards to hear it all at once. Enjoy this sound listening exercise for several moments. One of the benefits of this exercise is that it teaches your team how to truly listen. Oftentimes, employees, colleagues or peers pretend to listen, when internally they are just waiting for their turn to speak.
Customer service employees, and individuals working with the general public, who are able to truly pay attention, serve their clients because it builds trusting relationships. In addition, coworkers who truly listen to one another generate connections that improve morale and working conditions. Engaging the present using the senses is a cost effective and inexpensive way to create a healthy working climate. Another free solution to being well at work is the breath.
Breathing exercises do not require any external support or conditions and are a cost effective way to increase energy and reduce health costs. In other words, employees who learn how to manipulate breathing patterns are able to do so at their desk, standing in line, in the car etc... The benefits of learning how to control the breath are that it can reduce high blood pressure, induce a euphoric state, and improve sleeping patterns.
Since we live in the information age, oftentimes it seems as though there is too much data to sort through or process in one day. As a result, employees shift into a fight or flight mode of behavior, which impacts the respiratory, digestive and nervous system. The body moves into a defense physiology and the overall system is weakened. All of these counterproductive symptoms can be prevented though the breath, which results in greater locus of control in and outside of work.
A practical way to use breathing techniques in the workplace is to begin and conclude meetings with an exercise which will improve attentiveness and memory retention. To experience the power of your breath follow along. Keep your body perfectly still and do not move. Through your nose take a deep breath and hold for five seconds. Through your nose exhale 5.
Now, sit up tall with both feet flat on the floor, head on straight, shoulders down and back, chest up, close your eyes and repeat the process of breathing in and out through the nose for three more rounds. When you finish, engage the sound listening exercise and notice how you feel. Engaging and vitalizing the present moment using the external senses and breathing capacities serve as free wellness tools.
However, unless employees are positively reinforced and reminded, the likeliness of preventive long-lasting sustainability is unlikely. Bottom line, if wellness becomes work, it gets thrown at the bottom of a laundry list of more important tasks. Therefore, if employers are truly interested in investing in a company wellness program for both profit and human energy enhancement, then the program requires a routine that is seamless and instantly gratifying.
Wellness is not a program, its every-bodies birthright. Corporations that initiate any kind of agenda should incorporate internal behavioral modification combined with external positive reinforcement through a multi tier system.
Every moment is an opportunity to engage being effective and present at work and the key ingredients involve the breath and consistency. Otherwise, all interventions will not last long-term, which then results in a waste of time, money and energy. The best way to make a difference is to keep it simple and fun.
About Inside Smiles
InsideSmiles, is an HR Benefits Consulting company that works with companies with 500 or more employees. Their unique three tier HRBC model complements any existing program. You customize and they design your corporate and Energy Wellness programs through various portals of constructive engagement with measurable results, which includes both on-site and off-site employees.
They then support your managers and employees with long term in house integrative organizational performance platforms. Their Long term Performance Platform for Productivity includes company vacations, out of office niche events, Insider online information, combined with powerful wellness technology and interventions.
