Workplace Wellness

Workplace Wellness

Ways to wellness (some of the most popular wellness programs / interventions companies and individuals can use):

  • Stress solutions: Practical stress management tools and techniques, as well as stress courses
  • Work-life balance
  • Management of chronic lifestyle diseases: e.g. ischaemic heart disease, hypertension, high cholesterol, depression, HIV/Aids, chronic obstructive lung disease, diabetes mellitus
  • Positive mental attitude
  • Complementary health care advice
  • High cholesterol, high stress, what now?
  • Heart, immune system (incl. HIV/Aids, TB), nervous system, hormone system health
  • Executive health
  • Health education and employee assistance: nutrition, HIV/Aids, family planning, hygiene, sexuality, responsibility
  • Sleep restoration
  • Workplace enhancement: Ergonomics, colour, chill rooms, private space, mini breaks
  • Thriving during times of change
  • Difficult relationships and illness as guides and teachers
  • Anger management

A working definition of wellness

Wellness is a pro-active, dynamic process whereby the individual and the group become aware of the life choices and \’response-ability\’ they have and then taking the decision to make the right choices toward a life of quality and wellness. Deciding on a wellness lifestyle, would require everyone to become self-responsible, self-aware and actively involved in their own health and wellbeing, by gaining more knowledge and insight into the workings of their own body-mind. Wellness is a conscious and continuous integrative process that, with the help, facilitation and support of wellness and health consultants or professionals, will,in the long-term, restore organisational, individual, family and community health.

The dimensions of wellness include the physical, mental / intellectual, emotional, spiritual, occupational, social and environmental aspects of human life. All of these should be taken into consideration for workplace wellness interventions. Wellness programs or interventions should not only include awareness of health compromising behaviour and existing health risk appraisals or assessments, with some information provided, but also behaviour change models and a supportive work environment or workplace culture.

Life constantly presents us with opportunities to learn and grow, for our own good, but also for the benefit of our families and communities (including our work community) – this is the fountainhead of wellness. The true professional is someone involved in and responsive to life, rather than one who just does a job.

What is work-life balance?

It’s the eternal striving for balance between work and the rest of your life. Is 100% balance possible? No! But you can try to the best of your ability to get as close to perfect balance as possible. The top stress complaints I see regularly both in the workplace and at my Centres, are family or marital problems, deadlines, work related stress, fatigue and a sense that life seems unsatisfactory and unbalanced, sort of ‘is this all there is?’. Of course, all of these are often closely related. We simply feel that there’s never enough time and energy or we don’t know what to do to ‘fix’ things. Short of having oneself cloned, something’s bound to draw the shortest end of the stick. Usually it’s personal or family life. Work is the easy winner. The good news is that radical lifestyle changes aren’t required. Standing back, trying to see the bigger picture, then making one or two small, personally strategic changes, are often all that’s necessary.

Why do we need this balance?

If we consider the dimensions of our ideal lives, we have to include the physical body, the mental body or intellect (related to left brain function), the emotional body (related to the limbic system and right side of the brain), the soul body (related to life meaning & purpose, also right brain function), the occupational or work dimension; the social dimension of interaction with others and groups and also the environmental dimension, where we form part of a bigger picture, from communities, to the natural, global and universal environment. To remain in balance: healthy, happy and joyfully alive, we have to allocate enough time to each of these dimensions. As soon as one is out of balance, the scale tips and we become unbalanced energy conductors.

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