My new 'Wellness @ Work' sessions
I am lucky enough to be a self-employed person with a portfolio career. Not a day goes by when I am not grateful or consider how lucky I am to be able to do two things I love as a job: teach yoga and be a fundraising consultant.
Although this does come with a few worries: occasional cash flow issues, moments of self-doubt etc. having spent many years ‘at the coal face’ before taking this leap, I realise that my current status has many more advantages and one of the greatest is the ability to have a flexible lifestyle (no pun intended!). Although I travel a lot in both my jobs, it is not the daily commute with all the stress that this brings. I work from an office a great deal, but it’s my home office, so it is set up exactly how I need it to be for maximum efficiency and comfort, with the right amount of light, air, and Radio 3 on in the background and the opportunity to get up and do quick chores on a regular basis. The picture above goes some way to illustrate a typical ‘office’ day in my world. The usual technology, documents, notebooks and reference materials dominate, but also a readily-available source of water and healthy snacks, some elements of nature (these are pebbles from one of my favourite beaches, which I just enjoy holding, as well as making excellent hand stretchers after lots of typing! ) and the ability to fit in lots of gym, yoga and running sessions around my working day.
No two days are the same. I bang my own drum and my time is my own. I no longer have to conform to a specific office culture, manage a big team, sit in endless unproductive meetings, meet other people’s deadlines or deal with office politics…bliss! But I CAN sympathise with all these every-day pressures having lived them for many years, with plenty of anxiety and stress generated, not helped by quite a lot of exposure to bullying both of me and some of my staff.
However, a client, in a conversation over the summer placed a seed of an idea in my head and asked me whether I would be able to deliver a ‘Wellness @ Work’ session as part of their team away-day, using a combination of my yoga training, my healthy living regime and my 15+ years management experience. Utilising my knowledge, experience and research, I delivered a session that addressed some of the key issues facing organisations and staff, such as managing stress, working effectively as a team and being more mindful, healthy and emotionally intelligent in the workplace. We ran through these topics using a series of brainstorming discussions, group work, individual Q&A and some sharing of practical ideas on how to be physically and mentally healthier in the workplace. We also went through a simple, yet effective desk yoga sequence, which anyone could do, to target those areas of stress and tension and relieve common desk-bound ailments such as back ache and wrist issues.
I am now excited to announce that after this successful pilot, I am going to be offering these sessions more regularly, hopefully to both my current clients and to new audiences. So if you are running an away-day or feel that you could benefit from one of these ‘Wellness @ Work’ sessions with your team, I can adapt and tailor each workshop to a client’s needs, in terms of both content and time frame. If you would like more information or to book a session, please go to the ‘Workshop’ page on my website. I am happy to travel within a reasonable radius of Oxfordshire or can tag it onto a larger yoga or fundraising consultancy project further afield.