We wanted to provide our team members with some tools that help us to focus on the positive things, do away with negative thoughts, and make us feel relaxed and relieved, in order to face our day with more lightness, joy and ease, create nice experiences together, and contribute to our company goal which is a positive and fun team spirit!
The last two years may have been quite challenging and stressful for some of us. Remote work and pandemic obligations have made it more difficult to remain fully socially connected and to share more than just work related topics. Easy daily interactions with each other like informal chats at the coffee machine or going for lunch together have not been possible for a while. As a result, the lack of social interaction also made us spend more time by ourselves than we did before.
We noticed that self-care is even more important now because we cannot adequately take care of relationships and be there for each other if we do not take care or be there for ourselves.
In order to create more awareness for this topic, we offered our team our very own bespoke healthy minds training series:
We started a healthy minds digital workshop that took place over a course of 3 months together with a professional trainer. Not only could our team members openly share their thoughts and issues within the sessions, but also were provided with concrete strategies and exercises that support them in overcoming challenges. We especially liked that the workshop-esque sessions were interactive and included short motivational keynote speeches as well as exercises and exchange in small groups.
The topics revolved around both psycho-social and mental health (e.g. optimism, resilience, openness and social exchange, and solution orientation). Impulses were given, for example how to free oneself from brooding and over-analyzing, how to master difficult situations of change, how to take on new perspectives, etc.
It was particularly important to us to offer a training that will be interactive, personal and a trustful exchange.
Here is what we learnt:
- How to implement short relaxation exercises into our daily work routine
- How to start with autogenic training
- How to use a thought-stopping technique that can help us to interrupt a carousel of thoughts
- How to apply the technique of systematically deactivating energy-draining routines in everyday life
- How to do affirmation exercises
- How to focus on positive things
And these are our top 6 recommendations that we want to share with you:
- Identify routines in everyday life and change them so that they might feel different
- You may consider sitting down and writing down your own model of an “energy balance”: What are the activities that give you energy? What drains your energy? The things that give a person energy are more likely to be a source of stress for another person. The goal is to remain in balance by taking in enough things / activities that give you energy like a hobby, quality time, a good sleep, creative and sports exercises, family time, gardening, being outside, delicious food, etc.
- If you notice any negative thoughts, interrupt them by saying “Stop” and imagine a stop sign. Then formulate a positive self-instruction, which replaces possible negatives thoughts
- Write down a list of 15 or more things that generally make you happy and every time you feel down you can come back to this list and see if you can apply one of those things. Maybe there are things you haven't done for a long time?
- Make virtual coffee breaks together
- Take some time for meditation breaks, this can be done in a group as well