Keep Your Travel Documents Organised

Part of the stress of frequent travelling is managing travel documents. Keep all of your important documents filed together digitally, so you have one less thing to worry about before a trip. For example, you can save your travel information as PDFs on your iPad, so they’re easily accessible anywhere, whether or not you have wi-fi access. Follow these steps to saving a webpage as a PDF so you can save flight information, travel insurance policies, and hotel reservations with ease.

Use Travel Apps

Travel apps can also help you stay organised and avoid stress on the road. Travel + Leisure suggests a variety of apps, such as Citymapper for finding the quickest route to your destination based on bus and train schedules, PackPoint for creating customised packing lists, and Grab for checking which food selections are by your gate at the airport. These apps will help minimise the decisions you need to make on the road and free up your mental space for more important things.

Follow Smart Strategies for Eating Healthy

Believe it or not, it’s possible to prioritise nutrition when travelling. Study your meal options ahead of time and look for healthy menu items in airports and restaurants. You should be able to find salad bars almost anywhere! You can also bring your fruits and vegetables or visit a local grocery store when you arrive at your destination to stock up on some healthy snacks. 

Keep Yourself Hydrated

It’s easy to get dehydrated when travelling, particularly during long flights. The air inside a plane travelling at altitude is very low in humidity. As a result, the human body loses about 8 ounces of water every hour on an aircraft. Try to drink at least one glass of water per hour during your flight to prevent dehydration. Tea, fruit, and electrolyte drinks can help increase your water intake if you’re not used to drinking so much water.

Exercise in Your Hotel Room

While many hotels have gyms for guests, they can get busy during peak times. Learn how to exercise in your hotel room so you never have an excuse to skip a workout. For example, this full-body workout routine is a great option when all you have is a chair or the edge of a bed to work with.

Pilates is also perfect for on-the-go exercise. Not only is Pilates a fantastic form of movement for the body, but it can also be incredibly meditative for the mind. Practising Pilates will help relieve tension and improve your work performance!

Follow a Routine for Better Sleep

Travelling is terrible for our sleep quality. Messing with your circadian rhythm is bound to leave you with jet lag, even if you’re only flying a short distance. Use sleep techniques to protect your sleep quality on the road. HopkinsMedecine.org suggests sleeping strategically, moving your bedtime earlier or later a couple of days before your trip to give your body time to adjust. When you land, sync up with the local schedule instead of drawing the curtains and sleeping during the day. Exercising first thing in the morning can also help you adjust to a new schedule.

Whether you often travel for work or you are travelling during the holiday season, make a plan to prioritise your health. Keep your travel documents organised to reduce stress, establish a hotel-friendly workout routine, pack healthy snacks, and keep yourself hydrated on the plane. These healthy habits will help you feel your best when you’re always on the go. 

The post How to Stay Healthy When You’re Travelling for Work – By Optimist Performance appeared first on Optimist Performance.

The end of the year is definitely a marking point, both professionally and personally. With project deadlines, Christmas social events, Christmas shopping, goal setting and all the other things that the holiday brings with it, it’s no wonder it feels more stressful than magical. 

This is why we wanted to dedicate some time to thinking about how we can reduce the stress from the holiday season and make this time of the year as enjoyable as possible both at work and at home. 

5 tips to avoid holiday burnout:

Set realistic expectations

It’s the end of the year, not the end of the world. It’s totally normal to want to push ourselves a bit harder ahead of taking a break. However, we need to know how much we can healthily push ourselves. While a bit of pressure and stress can be beneficial, it’s essential to set realistic expectations about how much we can get over the line in just a few weeks. 

Take some time to plan and prioritise and also keep in mind that just as you are busier than usual, so is everyone else. 

Check our article about the Eustress or positive stress here. 

Looking ahead is great, but don’t forget to look back too

The end of the year is the time when we all start thinking about the new year and our new year’s resolutions, and that’s absolutely amazing, but sometimes it’s easier to forget about looking back at all we have accomplished and how far we have come. Take time to review and reflect and most importantly, take time to be grateful for all you have. 

Check out these questions to do some reflection on the past year and prepare for the future. 

Also, you can read this article to learn more about being grateful can reshape our brains. 

Use the holiday to build or strengthen your connections

Whether you celebrate Christmas or not, the holiday season is a great opportunity to build or strengthen our connections with colleagues, friends and family. While it may be cold and rainy, there are lots of ways to connect during the holiday season  – wrap up and get out, do something different, ice skating, Christmas markets, or a show. Make sure you take some time to be with your colleagues, friends and family, and more importantly, make sure you are present. 

Choose wisely

Even though it’s the perfect time to connect with people, it’s important to be conscious of how much we can deal with. As mentioned above, you need to be really present, so don’t feel pressure to attend every single social activity. Christmas can be a beautiful time to enjoy friends, colleagues and family, but it can also be an exhausting holiday if we don’t manage our time wisely. 

This is also an important thing to consider when organising Christmas parties at work. Make sure the events are optional and easily accessible in case people want to go just for a while. You should also think about being inclusive when organising Christmas parties, not everyone will celebrate Christmas, and definitely, not everyone will celebrate in the same way.

Don’t forget to take care of yourself

With so much going on, it’s easy to use our personal time for other commitments. However, as they say on planes, “make sure you put on your own mask before you help someone else”. 

It’s when we are busier than we need relaxing time the most. Taking breaks during the day, keeping your exercise routine and don’t overindulge during the holidays seem like small things, but they can go a long way to ensure that your body, mind and energy are ready for the holiday season and beyond. 

The Optimist View….

We can definitely relate to the feeling of wanting to do everything, all the time, for everyone. But no matter how optimistic we are, we know that we are only human and we can’t do it all. 

This is why it’s so crucial for us to take time to reflect, plan and realistically manage what we want to achieve and how and with whom we are investing our time during the festive season. 

It might seem like stating the obvious, but setting out simple intentions for the holiday season and seeing these through means you’re more likely to enjoy the benefits of some downtime and feel recharged and rejuvenated for the return to work.

We hope you all have a fantastic holiday!!

The post Avoid holiday burnout at the end of the year – By Optimist Performance appeared first on Optimist Performance.

For our ancient ancestors, the stress response was very useful to flee predators as it releases adrenaline and cortisol. Furthermore, these are still highly beneficial for us now that we have swapped the prairies for the office with deadlines and showstopper presentations. Without these hormones, we wouldn’t be as sharp and on point. However, the benefits do not outweigh the risks when we become stuck in the stress response. 

Weight gain, high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, insomnia or difficulty sleeping, mood irregularities, and low energy levels are some symptoms of being stuck in an acute stress response. To get out of it, we need to lessen our stress stimulation, quieten down and relax to allow our rest digest mode to kick in (our nervous system’s antidote to fight or flight). This is where Pilates and its effective breathing techniques can be a game-changer. 

Pilates is a wonderful form of mindful movement, which can also be extremely meditative. The focus is all on your alignment and breathing, meaning that you can mentally disconnect and escape as you follow the instructions – thinking deeply about how your body is moving, leaving little room to think about anything else. 

The breath work, which involves deep breaths, allows your nervous system to quieten down, lowering cortisol and releasing tension and stress. This brings calm and clarity, and many people say how well they sleep after a session. Pilates goes even further as it allows you to undo all the aches and pains you get from sitting at a desk all day long, so it is a win-win situation for you. 

The more you move, the more fluid your body becomes and, in turn, the less stressed and rigid you are. The more you switch on your rest and digest mode, the better you are able to regulate your fight or flight. But you can’t do that if the scales are tipping more towards fight or flight and you aren’t doing enough to disconnect and relax. 

Breathing Technique

Here is a quick breathing technique, which can help you when you feel your fist clenching and your heart racing. You can also check out these free videos. 

(Get a 20% discount to the Men Do Pilates platform by filling up the form at the bottom)

Try spending 3 minutes of your day sitting using the following technique: 

• Sitting comfortably on your sit bones lengthen the spine with your arms resting on your lap. Contemplate how you breathe and where you usually breathe (up in the shoulders, or are you a breath holder?).
• Try to breathe downwards towards your pelvis, letting your belly expand. You can even place your hands on your belly. There is no need for any core engagement here.
• Imagine the breath now surrounding your organs travelling to your brain like a mist fuelling your body. Choose the colour of the mist to signify vitality and sense the breath in mist form enveloping your whole body, expanding your ribcage 360 degrees – like a balloon expanding from within. Let the mist travel to your brain and up and down your spine.
• Pause in any areas of your body where you feel tension and let the mist hover in that area, bringing warmth and release. Keep allowing the mist to circulate through your body.

Doing Pilates gives you head space and the ability to listen to and read the signals when your body is on high alert. You don’t need an hour of Pilates a day; think more simply 10-15 minutes. That’s all you need to start making real, long-lasting changes to your stress levels and, in turn, overall well-being, productivity and performance. 

About the author

Anaya has over 15 years of experience teaching Pilates to a wide range of people –  from professional athletes and teams who want to prevent injuries and increase performance to everyday folk who want to simply decrease pain and have better posture.

Coming to Pilates through a serious back injury, she knows first-hand the power of Pilates and how it can complement those in rehabilitation. This personal experience has given her a thirst for learning about anatomy, rehabilitation and movement. It has led her to further her knowledge in other movement practices and anatomical courses, such as human dissection – keeping abreast of the latest and most relevant scientific papers.

In 2021, she set up Men Do Pilates (the first online Pilates Platform solely dedicated to men) to make Pilates more accessible to men with her effective, enjoyable and expertly taught Pilates.

Find out more about Anaya Grover and Men Do Pilates here:

Website: Men Do Pilates

Instagram: @Men_do_pilates

Twitter: @mendopilates

Facebook: @menpilates

The post What does Pilates have to do with performance? – By Anaya Grover (Founder of Men Do Pilates) appeared first on Optimist Performance.

Productivity is different for each individual, so even when we implement new ways of working with the best of intentions, we may wind up obstructing rather than helping.

Is it really about productivity or is it workload?

It doesn’t matter how many tactics, tips, or benefits people have to boost productivity if they are overworked. Even if the project is completed, which it usually is, two things happen: first, the quality of the job is not as good as it could be, and second, employees are working extra, which leads to dissatisfaction, stress, and burnout. Furthermore, continued overworking can lead to serious health problems. 

First and foremost, we must consider how much we are asking of people. We can’t always control how much work we have, and even when we can, there are a lot of other factors that might influence it. People quitting their jobs, vacations, sick days, and so on… we’re all sure to feel like we’ve got too much to do and not enough time to do it, at some point. However, as leaders, we must consider long-term situations, and while we may need to ask members of our team to put in extra effort on occasion, we must ensure that this does not become the norm.

Having clear processes and timings for how long each task takes can be a good place to start. We have a tendency to underestimate the amount of time it takes to complete particular tasks. So, while we may assume it will be a simple process, it could take hours. We also need to prioritise more and make sure that everyone understands what the individual, team, and organisation’s priorities are so that we can all work together to complete projects and assignments on time.

As leaders, we also need to keep thinking about how the team feels and what we can do about it. It’s not the same to ask your team for a push to meet a deadline when they know they will be appreciated and even compensated in the end. Giving people an extra day off for example. More importantly, we need to make sure people feel comfortable voicing concerns. Having a safe space where people can speak up if they feel overwhelmed or if they need extra support is not easy, but it’s definitely a must-have to ensure satisfaction and wellbeing. 

Flexibility: The Where, the When and the How

We mentioned above that productivity is something really personal, what works great for one person, may not necessarily work for another. So, how can leaders ensure that everyone takes ownership of their productivity? By being flexible.

The Where 

The debate around working from home or at the office doesn’t seem to have an end or a clear answer, and while some may misinterpret the motivations for working from home, the majority of individuals consider it as a tool to increase productivity.

However, it’s not only about home or office, there are many other options. Some people may think better in busy spaces while others may need the quiet. Some people may even like to work outside. Even more, the same person can prefer different workplaces depending on the type of work they are doing.

Working from home can be great when doing something that requires our full attention, but being in the office can work magic when it comes to creative tasks.

The When

The When can be even more overwhelming than the where. According to studies, productivity levels are different depending on personality (night owls, lurks, nappers, etc…). Obviously, allowing individuals to work whenever they want isn’t always realistic, and it’s certainly never easy. However, flexibility is becoming essential in order to retain people.

According to research, 40% of Brits believe working traditional hours in an office environment would hinder their performance. 

Consider the case of a creative writer who is extremely prolific late at night. Couldn’t we allow them to write at night and work fewer hours during the day if we’ve prioritised and committed to a deadline? Another great example is parents who prefer to spend time with their children in the afternoon and early evening hours, then work in the evening to maximise productivity and life (this is certainly what some of our team does).

A few weeks ago, on LinkedIn, there was an interesting survey asking if people work on weekends. The majority, predictably, say yes, but what’s interesting is that they do it because it’s a calm time when they don’t have to check emails or know they won’t be interrupted.

The How

Following the interruption point, there are numerous methods in which we may provide flexibility in the How. To decrease interruptions and boost productivity, several firms are introducing meeting-free days or attempting to reduce the number of meetings or emails. However, we must always keep in mind that there is no one-size-fits-all solution while developing new ways of working.

Did you know that a company loses 6.2 hours every day due to interruptions? Or that, even if the interruption is brief, it takes us 23 minutes or more to refocus?

Furthermore, interruptions aren’t always associated with meetings; they can be as simple as responding to a quick slack message or checking our emails to ensure we don’t miss anything important. Did you know that the average employee is interrupted every 10 minutes, or 56 times each day? On top of that, we need to consider all the notifications we receive daily from different sources. If we start summing everything up, it’s a wonder how we get anything done at all. 

Fortunately, there are things we all can do to reduce interruptions, but as leaders, we have the opportunity to provide even better solutions. Allowing people to schedule time for deep work where they are completely off the radar can be a great way to deal with interruptions. However, we need to be conscious of what that means for the team and the organisation because, in the end, it all comes down to trust and transparency. Are you, as a leader, willing to relinquish some control in order to increase productivity? Do you trust people enough to know that they are working to the best of their ability? Allowing flexibility is a matter of trust, without trust, there will never be real flexibility. 

The Optimist view…

The leader’s job is not to tell people how to do their job, but to create a safe and great environment where people can shine. As leaders, we must recognise that each individual is unique and we need to allow them to be themselves. Because it’s only when people are at their best, that they do their best work. 

Are you ready to give your team the freedom to be the best they can be? If you are, you will need to focus on trust, which, while not the easiest thing to do, is the greatest option in the long run.

At Optimist Performance, we help leaders and organisations to build a culture of trust where everyone can bring their best selves to work. Get in touch with us and learn more about how we can help your organisation. 

The post Are you allowing productivity within your team? – By Optimist Performance appeared first on Optimist Performance.

The topic of mental health and stress should not be taboo. We should feel empowered to be open when it comes to verbalising issues surrounding our mental health – particularly if it occurs in the workplace. In 2021, there were an estimated 882,000 workers affected by mental health within the workplace in the UK. 

Often, change can be the corkscrew for stress to arise. I found that when I retired from a professional rugby career at the age of 29, it seemed to leave a big old mark!

Quitting rugby has a big impact on my mental health 

Rugby had been my life since I could walk. It had consumed so much of me, and I am grateful for every experience. Much of what I knew was training, playing and thankfully a lot of the time…winning! Don’t get me wrong, playing sport at any level is stressful, let alone internationally! 

Stepping away from the sport left me feeling as if I was lost and I soon realised that the way I dealt with issues in rugby, did not translate to the corporate world. 

After entering the workforce and being faced with intense imposter syndrome, I too, along with many other workers developed an immense amount of stress with my new job. I felt as if I had no purpose, and I was uncomfortable with the way my life was panning out. Yet – I knew I couldn’t just let this get the better of me. I knew I had to better understand myself and be more productive if I wanted to stop feeling like this. 

Here, I have also penned some thoughts on how leaders can help with work-related stress: https://www.optimistperformance.com/captains-blog/news/how-can-leaders-help-with-work-related-stress-by-optimist-performance/ 

“When I realised, I was struggling, I decided to seek therapy.”

I understand that the way to work with mental health issues is to address them head-on – and understand where these issues derive from. When I realised, I was struggling, I decided to seek therapy. This would be one of the best decisions I would ever make. 

Just as walking away from rugby felt like it left a major hold in my life, you too may also in your life feel as if you are searching for a purpose. Struggling with mental health is something many of us will struggle with and we can all benefit from seeking to improve it. 

Distractions can be a haven, climbing Mount Kilimanjaro and Everest, and raising money for charity in the process was something I enjoyed outside of rugby – thus keeping my mind at ease. These were major factors in the founding of my leadership and behavioural change business. 

But when we talk about stress, everyone views it as a negative. I recently wrote about Eustress and the ability to use stress positively. I was able to do that throughout my playing career, and even now professionally, a large part down to my mindset. I didn’t always get it right, but when I did, stress was such a powerful tool!

Take a look at my blog on Eustress here: https://www.optimistperformance.com/captains-blog/news/why-you-shouldnt-completely-avoid-stress-by-optimist-performance/ 

 An attitude of Gratitude

I have spoken previously about the idea of the eternal optimist. This idea stems from a serious attitude of taking gratitude for everything life throws your way.

Good days, we make memories from. Bad days – we learn and take experience from. Being appreciative of life itself, using the days that often leave us stressed or anxious as lessons. Also, understanding that living the ‘perfect life’ is virtually impossible. This way of thinking set out the idea of my company ‘Optimist Performance’.

Looking back, I learned a lot from change and transition – despite that being the same thing that kickstarted my struggles. Yet – I see that as the lesson, as I said – taking gratitude in everything.

“Attitude of Gratitude” as a mantra has really helped me. It offers perspective on everything and has helped me deal with much of the stress I have had to deal with. 

The post What I have learned about stress & mental health since quitting rugby – By Ollie Phillips appeared first on Optimist Performance.

The role of a leader has many different elements and varies depending on many factors. Nonetheless, people’s well-being should always be a top priority for any leader in any industry. So, what can leaders do in order to help reduce work-related stress?

A big challenge of work-related stress

As mentioned above, work-related stress is increasingly prevalent, yet there is still a stigma associated with revealing it to co-workers and managers. According to research, 93 per cent of people who called in sick due to stress lied about this being the reason.

As leaders, we should continually work towards creating a healthy and honest culture where people feel safe and comfortable discussing their concerns. A greater emphasis on open, honest and ongoing communication will enable us to know the people we work with better, allowing us to identify changes in mood and behaviours, which are good indicators of stress. Also, we need to be better at being vulnerable. If we want others to confide in us, we need to show that it’s ok to do so ourselves.

Furthermore, when we’re under stress, our bodies release oxytocin, a hormone that makes us crave social interaction. As a result, creating a supportive environment among co-workers can serve as an antidote to stress. Additionally, helping others can also alleviate stress.

Altruism is beneficial for stress

Helping others has been demonstrated to be beneficial to stress. Having a mutually supportive workplace community can have clear and tangible benefits. Leaders can also provide opportunities for workers to help others outside of work.

Some businesses, for example, allow employees to volunteer with various organisations and causes during working hours. Companies are increasingly forging meaningful and sustainable links with local initiatives and charities, providing a valuable opportunity to ‘give back’ to the local community. 

This also has the potential to positively affect stress levels because it taps into people’s sense of purpose and meaning in life.

Meaningful lives and stress

Living a meaningful life, according to studies, helps as a stress buffer. Furthermore, having a job that matches our beliefs and purpose has been mentioned as one of the primary motivations for people shifting occupations.

It’s critical, if somewhat idealistic some cynics might argue, to aim for a job that is both meaningful and attainable. Proactively enabling and encouraging employees to take on demanding yet fulfilling projects that also stimulate and inspire them can be a powerful strategy to help alleviate work-related stress and relieve the mundanity of working life.

Again, communication is critical because we need to know and understand people’s values and aspirations in order to create a sense of purpose for them at work. Taking into account people’s strengths and enthusiasms can also ensure  ‘best fit’ for new work tasks or collaborative projects. If someone excels at communicating and teaching others, we could look for opportunities for them to use these skills, for example, to upskill colleagues in a particular process or as part of onboarding new colleagues.

The Optimist view…

Any job will have stressful times, but there are things we can all do to reduce stress or change how our bodies react to it. While work-related stress is a significant issue for many businesses, concentrating on culture, and engendering a sense of belonging and purpose can be effective strategies for combating it.

Being a great leader is not straightforward, and it becomes even more difficult in certain situations. The challenge is to harness the drive and motivation to succeed in combination with channelling a sense of purpose and a strong desire to serve others.

At Optimist Performance, we understand the challenges leaders face, which is why our Executive Coaching programme acts as practical and proven support and guide system for those who want to exceed their potential and become the best version of themselves. Get in touch today to learn more about our Executive Coaching programme. 

The post How can leaders help with work-related stress? – By Optimist Performance appeared first on Optimist Performance.

Last week we talked about the importance of self-reflection and taking time for yourself. This week we spoke to Zoe Williams, executive leadership coach. She explained what mindfulness is and how to start practising both in your personal and professional life. 

What’s mindfulness?

“Mindfulness is focusing on fewer things, one thing or nothing, depending on how much you practise it.”

The majority of us rarely focus on just one thing; on the contrary, we are always carrying a lot of thoughts at the same time in our minds. This can lead to exhaustion and stress. 

“Mindfulness is about reducing the number of things that we focus on at a time.”

We are not our thoughts

The first thing to understand is that we are not our thoughts. As Zoe explains, we can think about our thoughts as a radio station. It’s something separate from us, and we can decide whether we listen to it or not and when. 

“Sometimes, at the end of the day, I talk to my friends, and we joke about the wild radio station we had in our minds that day. But then the next day, you will tune in to a different radio station, and your thoughts will be different.” 

And the beauty of it all is that you can always decide how much attention you pay to the “radio”. 

Mindfulness and meditation

Meditation is one of the techniques to practice mindfulness, but it’s not the only one. (More about this below)

When meditating, you usually try to sit very still and slow down the number of nervous system responses being sent to your body. This is why we should preferably sit on the floor, in silence and with our eyes closed. This way, we reduce the amount of sensory input we send to our brains. We also focus on our breathing. 

What meditation does is help slow our nervous systems down and allow our brains to relax. It’s about getting our minds into a restful state without going to sleep. 

“It’s actually better than sleep because you are conscious, and your nervous system is still alert.”

Our nervous system is the one that causes our minds to race, and through our breathing, we can regulate that response. (We talk more about breathing below)

What are the benefits of Mindfulness?

The main benefit of mindfulness is that we allow our nervous system to calm and rest. This is essential because it’s in this calm state that our nervous system focuses on healing.

Our bodies are constantly in a state of restore and repair. If our nervous system continually focuses on the outside and not on healing our bodies, we will suffer from more illnesses and diseases.

Therefore it makes sense that the more we allow our nervous system to focus on the inside, the better we will feel. 

“Practising mindfulness helps to slow our ageing too. I certainly look younger now than in my twenties.”

How can we start?

As mentioned above, meditation is not the only technique we can use to practise mindfulness.

Mindfulness practice is any activity that helps you focus on one thing and stop paying attention to your thoughts. This can be reading, gardening, sudoku, crosswords, baking, sewing, knitting, in essence, anything that helps you turn the volume of the “radio” down. 

Zoe recommends starting with an activity that we already enjoy. “It’s really difficult to create new habits and break old ones, so do something you already enjoy.”

Even going for a walk while listening to a podcast can be a way of practising mindfulness. 

Another great thing about Mindfulness is that once we have mastered it, we can practice it with other people. For example, many people practice it with their kids. You can use any activity and do it together while in silence.

She explains how beautiful and memorable her experience was, living in Tibet with Buddhist monks who practise mindfulness almost all day long. The great thing is that they do it as a community and thrive off of each other, as well as themselves.

Breathing Exercises

We asked Zoe to gives us some advice and exercises to help with our breathing. She mentioned “the box breathing technique”. 

The ideal way to practice this breathing technique is by lying down with your back flat on the floor and your hands on your stomach. The main focus point is that you start centring your breathing from the belly instead of the chest.

We breathe in through our nose and count to 4, hold in for 4, exhale through our mouths for 4, and wait for 4 until the next breath. 

This can make us feel lightheaded initially, which is another reason why it’s good to be lying down. 

We need to understand that the more oxygen we can get into our nervous systems, the safer and calmer we will feel. When we only do diaphragmatic breathing, which is breathing from our chest, we only fill 30 to 40 % of the capacity of our lungs.

This is a shallow type of breathing, usually the one we use when in a fight or flight situation. This sends a signal to our brains that tells it we are in danger and need to be alert. 

When we breathe through our stomach, we take in more oxygen into our lungs, which sends a message to our brains that it’s safe to relax and focus on healing. 

Doing this exercise just ten times has a tremendous effect on our nervous systems and the number of stress hormones that we get rushing through our bodies.

What are some of the biggest challenges when starting with Mindfulness?

“The biggest challenge is getting used to the discomfort of the brain not being able to switch off.”

Actually, when we start practising mindfulness, it’s pretty normal to have more thoughts and find it even more difficult to relax. According to Zoe, this is one of the reasons many people quit mindfulness at the beginning. But this is just the resistance from our brains because they don’t want to be without a job. 

If we think of our brains as a tool, it’s easy to understand that it wants to be helpful. Our brains are designed to solve problems, but most of us, in our everyday lives, have covered the main issues our brains are designed to solve; finding food, for example. So our brains create problems, issues and things to think about. 

“We are addicted to thinking.” 

The most important thing is accepting the fact that our thoughts will always be there, but we don’t need to focus on them. Instead, we can practise mindfulness and focus on something else. 

If we think about watching TV, our thoughts are still there, but we are just not engaging with them. They are running in the background. Our thoughts are there even when we sleep, which is why we dream. 

Zoe uses the example of the “parents filter”. “When you are in a birthday party with many kids shouting and screaming around you, parents can turn down the volume. It’s the same with our thoughts.”

Another big challenge for some people is to set boundaries. It’s quite normal for parents, for example, to feel guilty or selfish if they take time for themselves. Nonetheless, we all need our time just to relax and heal; this will also make us be better in our connections and relationships with others. 

Mindfulness in the workplace

Zoe works with many companies where she implements mindfulness practices. This can be very beneficial for innovation, creating psychological safety and deeper connections between team members. 

The first thing Zoe recommends for companies that want to implement some of these practices is to think about when it’s appropriate to practice mindfulness. 

There are many moments where we need to be reactive, fast in our thinking. This varies depending on the industry too. 

A good time to practice mindfulness within your team is before starting a meeting when you need people to be ready to listen and communicate effectively or when they need to be innovative, creative or feel safe. 

Some of the companies she works for use the box breathing exercise before starting a meeting. She calls it “setting the tone or intention”. As a leader, you need to set the tone and communicate to the rest of the team that now it’s the time to feel safe, relax, and be comfortable in bringing your best ideas and the best version of yourself. This simple exercise can have a dramatic impact on our team members, their confidence and their outputs.

It’s also a good idea for people to use this technique when they have back to back meetings. Taking the time to do 10 or 20 deep breaths between meetings can help our concentration and focus. 

The Optimist View…

Whatever activity feels comfortable for you, there is no doubt that practising mindfulness is beneficial and available to every one of us. 

We should never forget to take care of ourselves. Think about the instructions on the plane “put your mask on first”. The reason is that we need to be safe to help others. 

We can extrapolate the example to our daily lives. If we want to serve others, do our jobs properly and have a fulfilling life, we need to first focus on ourselves. 

Unfortunately, this is not an easy task because the majority of us are hectic and busy.

At Optimist Performance, we help people to overcome their challenges and achieve their full potential. Learn more about how our executive coaching programmes can help you readjust the balance and focus on you and how you fulfil your potential by clicking here. Alternatively, get in touch today and find out how we can help.

About Zoe Williams

Zoe Williams is the Founder of Luminary Mindset where she helps leaders to elevate the Emotional Intelligence (EI) culture of their organisations.

Learn more about Zoe and Luminary Mindset here.

The post How to start practising Mindfulness – Interview with Zoe Williams appeared first on Optimist Performance.

Breaking the harmony between our work and personal lives negatively impacts both the individual and the team. According to statistics, it can decrease employee morale by 68%, reduce productivity by 36% and significantly reduce turnover. It will also make us feel stressed, overwhelmed and frustrated. Furthermore, it will impact our personal lives and relationships. 

It is important for us to accept that there is no one size that fits all when it comes to work-life balance and many factors will impact the amount of time each individual spends at work. 

The critical part is to understand your circumstances and how you feel about them. For example, if you’re constantly putting work first or working longer hours, and this makes you feel stressed, overwhelmed, and burnt-out, then you need to re-evaluate your situation. 

In addition, due to remote working, many people have seen their work-life balance threatened. However, working from home shouldn’t be an excuse to forget about work-life balance. On the contrary, it should be used as a way to achieve a better one. 

Remember that we are working from home, not living at the office.

Having a work-life balance can be challenging when we identify too much with our job. This is a bigger problem for Millenials. According to a study, 68% admit they suffer from “workism” or identify themselves through their jobs.

While our careers and professional growth are important; our personal lives, relationships and health must always be top priorities. 

Tips to achieve a better work-life balance:

Protect yours and other’s time

We all know that we shouldn’t look at our emails when we are not working and switching our notifications off should be a no brainer.

Still, many of us look at work-related messages in our free time and once we see them, our minds automatically go back to work mode, disrupting our rest time. 

Changing this is ultimately up to each one of us. However, trying to leave your phone in a different room, or at least switching off your notifications, can be a good start. 

Although the ultimate decision is personal, we should avoid invading someone else’s personal time. This is even more important for company leaders and managers. 

According to research, due to remote working, 53% of the people feel they have to be available at all times.

So, we need to be conscious of other people’s time—no emails or messages after working hours. If you work at different times, you can always schedule your emails to send when you know other people are working.

Or at least you should make your expectations clear and let people know you’re not expecting them to answer or even read your email at those times. 

Use communication to identify and enhance work-life balance  

Sometimes it can be difficult to realise or even admit that we feel stressed. But we can all look for the signs of burnout. For example, binge-watching can be a sign of burnout and stress. 

Also, leaders and managers need to be conscious of their non-verbal communication. Our actions always speak louder than our words. Showing that you value work-life balance is critical. Let people know it’s ok to disconnect and that they don’t need to be available 24/7. 

Use your data right

In the same way, we can find cues of burnout from our everyday life; we can also get them from our data. For example, many companies monitor people’s computers to make sure they are working when they have to, but are rarely concerned about if they are working in their free time.

40% of employees use their devices for work outside business hours.

If you tell your employees when they have to work, you should also see the other side of the coin and make sure they are not working when they are not supposed to.

Use transition activities 

A transition activity is a task that helps you switch to relax mode. For example, a person in our team uses a transition activity at the end of the day. It allows her to put her mind at ease by reassuring herself that she did everything and it’s ok to finish. 

You can also use these types of activities within your team to make sure people switch off on weekends. For example, organising a social activity during the last 15 or 30 minutes of the Friday shift can be a great idea. This way, people know that they should finish by that time. Also, playing something together can help shift their modes to off time. 

As much as our muscles need recovery times, so do our brains. So, disconnecting on weekends is essential for our mental health and work-life balance. 

Have set work hours 

If your job requires you to be available at certain hours, setting up a schedule can be pretty straightforward but for people who can do their jobs any time, it’s still important to have a plan and define working hours. 

You can distribute those hours any way you want and organise your time according to your needs whilst still managing to have a routine. Setting work hours is vital to ensure that you don’t end up working all day every day. 

Be realistic and prioritise yourself 

Ultimately, everyone is different and has different needs, so being self-aware and analysing the past can help you improve your work-life balance in the future. 

When you know your needs, it’s easier to prioritise them. Also, evaluating what impacted your work-life balance in the past can help you avoid making the same mistakes. 

Last but not least, we all need to learn to say no. Being truthful with your colleagues and knowing when you can’t afford to accept any more workload is key to achieve work-life balance. Leaders need to understand and set boundaries where people feel comfortable saying no when needed. 

Improve productivity 

Sometimes longer hours are due to an overload of work but it can also be due to a lack of productivity. So one way to stop overworking is to increase how productive you are. Check out our blog from last week, where we have 7 tips on how to improve productivity. 

The Optimist view…

We all need to find our balance, but we shouldn’t compare ourselves to others. We are all at different times in our lives, both personal and professional, which means our needs will vary. 

An essential take-home point when talking about work-life balance is finding the balance that works for you, even if people disagree. In the end, it’s your life, not theirs. 

What does work-life balance mean to you? And what do you do to ensure it?

The post 7 Tips To Have A Better Work-Life Balance – By Optimist Performance appeared first on Optimist Performance.