Finding Equilibrium
2020 has been a year of disruption, a year of change and a year of transformation. Every individual, community and organisation has been impacted. As we approach the end of 2020, it’s time to reflect, to learn and to evolve our individualised resilience and wellbeing toolkit to support us as we travel rapidly towards next year. To do this, we need to find balance and progress our lifestyle to improve our overall wellbeing.
Work, what we do every day, is a key part of our personal wellbeing, but research and data show that there’s a big opportunity for improvement in our engagement, resilience and performance in the workplace.
Many of us, our colleagues, and our employees are out of balance. We are living at work, rather than working at home. We are wearing multiple hats and feeling overwhelmed, worried, anxious and depressed. This common state is costing our health, happiness and productivity.
On average, we spend around 40 hours a week at work, 5 days a week, 48 weeks a year. So how do we make the most out of our career in this time and still find time to look after our overall wellbeing?
There are five dimensions we need to look at to find equilibrium:
PHYSICAL
Looking after your physical wellbeing has never been more important and is 100% your responsibility. Improving our physical health comes down to focusing on your foundational habits:
- Sleeping habits, eating habits, movement habits, cleansing habits – Check out our ‘Happy Body = Happy Mind’ blog for tips on improving these habits.
MINDSET AND EMOTIONS
Mindset is the foundation of wellbeing and resilience. It is the lens that we look at life through. Your mind is not separate from your body. Your thoughts impact your feelings, and your feelings impact your physical body. When we are stressed, chemicals that are released can suppress the effectiveness of the immune system by lowering the number of disease-fighting white cells available in the blood, making us more susceptible to infections. It’s more important than ever that we take control of our thoughts, and recognise and channel the energy of our emotions, to keep ourselves physically healthy.
We all enjoy feeling positive emotions like joy, love and excitement, but anger, fear, shame, grief – who needs them? Emotions are essential for our survival, so we have to learn to accept them. The good news is, we can avoid much of the suffering that negative emotions cause by using emotion regulation skills.
Regulating emotions doesn’t mean ignoring them; we do just the opposite. We acknowledge both the presence of the emotion and its validity. Then, we listen to what the emotional message is, and decide on the best way to include this message into our actions. Mindfulness is a fantastic way of regulating your emotions. Simply noticing what we are feeling allows us to change our reactions.
CONNECTION
- Relationships: The connection we have with ourselves and with other people play a huge role in finding balance in our lives and our total wellbeing. Building positive relationships with people that we can connect with allow us to expand our mindset and develop positive feelings, improving our wellbeing.
- Work: While money is a main motivator for work, we make a connection to our job by learning new skills, engaging with different people, gaining a sense of worth and challenging our ways of thinking.
- Purpose: Finding your purpose and aligning your daily habits with it is a key factor in leading a balanced life and feeling connected with yourself. Many people struggle with this clarity based on a number of social factors. Try thinking about what you are drawn to and what your ideal life looks like. If it is not the path you are currently on, identify what is keeping you stuck and how you can overcome this to take action.
MONEY
Your financial health should be just as much of a priority as your physical or emotional wellbeing. Stress is the hidden killer in modern society, and financial stress has been further brought to mind during the pandemic.
Just like when it comes to improving your diet or exercise routines, getting on top of your money comes down to developing healthy micro-habits. Firstly, think about where money currently sits in your overall wellbeing.
A good way to look at your habits is to write down how much you spend every day for a month. What sort of items are you buying? What is your total cost for each day? Look at any trends you may have and next identify 3 places you think you can change your habits and make a saving.
TIME
The way we use our time is essential to creating balance in our lives. The more productive we are in our work, the more we can take proactive steps to find equilibrium. Here are some tips to improve your time management skills:
- Write down a schedule for each day – Make sure you put time aside for things like emails and unexpected tasks that may come up. Ensure you know what is important and urgent on your list and prioritise these.
- Think creatively – Are you doing things just because they have always been done that way? Coming up with new ways of working can save you time and increase your overall productivity and wellbeing.
- Know what lights up your brain – Understanding what makes you passionate at work can allow you to build on this and increase your mental capacity and fit more in.
While it is ideal that we use our time effectively and value the activities we fill our day with, it is also important we set aside time slots for our lazy time or time guzzlers like social media.
What else is happening this month?
Join our Finding Equilibrium Masterclass.
Free Virtual Masterclass
Powered by Springday
Finding Equilibrium
With Lawrence Mitchell
Wellbeing coach, psychologist & certified nutritionist from RAW Energy
Grab a cup of tea and join us: 10.30 am, Wednesday, 11th November.
- Are you living at work rather than working at home?
- Not sleeping?
- Concerned about the future?
Did you know current lives are geared toward being in balance? Our bodies and minds are intrinsically linked to enable a state of equilibrium, but everything we’re doing is preventing it with:
- 52% of us sleep-deprived
- 70% rarely getting enough physical activity
- 60% consuming more than 20 teaspoons of sugar per day
- 33% living with extreme stress
- 68% struggling to focus at work
As we approach the end of 2020, it’s time to evolve our wellbeing toolkit to support us as we travel rapidly towards a new year.
