4 things every business can do to help staff relieve stress and build resilience

November 5th is National Stress Awareness Day.  Here are 4 wellbeing initiatives that really work when it comes to helping employees deal with pressure.

1. Resilience workshops

These workshops explain personal and professional strategies along with daily lifestyle choices that lead participants to their most effective, resourceful and stress free way of managing their routine and commitments.

2. Massage treatments

Always a popular initiative, short seated massage treatments relax and invigorate and provide a welcome moment in the day to recover and recharge.

3. Relaxation / mindfulness sessions

In a world where 'busyness' is the norm, learning a range of techniques to help you manage your focus, concentration, energy levels and state of mind can be invaluable in the quest for balance and ongoing effectiveness.

4. Wellbeing events

There's no better way to reduce stress than taking steps to minimise the likelihood of it becoming an issue.  Organising a wellbeing event during which staff can consult experts on their approach to healthy eating, sleep patterns, injury prevention and where they can also leave with some health and fitness KPIs as well as gathering ideas and resources and building motivation to take great care of themselves is an invaluable benefit organisations can offer their employees.

An additional step you can take in the quest to build a stress free environment is to contact us to request your free copy of our latest fact sheet to share with colleagues.  Email info@the-tonic.com and we'll send you 12 ways to challenge ‘stressful’ thoughts and perform at your best all day.

Contact us today to learn more about implementing wellness strategies that boost employee energy and performance.

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17 Ways to a Faster Recovery

When you exercise, it's vital that you recover well, and that means recovering quickly and thoroughly.

In the June edition of Men's Running Magazine we've listed the top 17 ways to ensure a speedy recovery so whether you prefer sports massage, an ice bath, yoga, foam rolling, Pilates, vegetables or stretching, read all the strategies that will help you recover most effectively and, in turn, get the most out of every training session.

You can click on the pages below to read the full article.

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Watch Out: Wellness Can Be Addictive

It's great when people take part in our wellness programmes, try new things and find activities that they enjoy and can welcome into their regular routine. 

Here's a note from someone who did just that recently.

'Just a few words to update you on a lasting impact from the fitness part of our wellness programme. 

Thanks to the introduction to yoga at the morning sessions I have become a little addicted to the wellness feeling after a yoga class and am now taking a yoga class every Sunday afternoon – I'm even contemplating a yoga trip to India… 

Well… before doing that, there is the half marathon taking place in Copenhagen at the end March that I have signed up for, so the running has to be stepped up a bit!'

That's what we call making the most of the opportunity to assess your wellness and make a few key changes.

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Taking Wellness to the Next Level

Last week we shared some simple lifestyle changes that recent participants in our wellbeing programmes have made, along with the immediate benefits they experienced.  You can remind yourself of these at:

Wellness changes working already in 2014

More wellness changes paying dividends in 2014

Today I thought I'd put the spotlight on the impact that a wellness programme can have on an individual.  It's easy to get caught up in how to make wellness as far reaching as possible and we agree that it's important to inspire as many people as you can, but it's also great to be reminded that what we're teaching has a deep and lasting effect on those we work with.  It's very satisfying to know that as well as reinvigorating those who may not have held wellness as a high priority for a while, it's great to be able to help those who are already in good shape take things to the next level.  Just like this chap:

I was already an active, fairly healthy person, however, the programme has opened my eyes to different types of activities and the benefits they bring...  

I have also become aware of the impact of food and drink and how this affects my energy levels throughout the day...

I'm now enjoying the benefits of stretching properly and including elements from a selection of activities such as yoga and Pilates as well as understanding the need to include a variety of techniques and approaches in my running training schedule.

Get in touch with us today if you'd like to design a wellness programme that takes the health and performance of your staff to the next level.

www.the-tonic.com

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Inspiring Wellness Success Stories 14

Our latest story of success during and following one of our corporate wellness programmes describes how a willingness to experiment with simple lifestyle changes has led to a virtuous circle of increased energy levels and decreased stress.

Yet another great example of how including wellbeing initiatives on a leadership programme can improve the professional and personal lives of participants for years.  In this case 5 years and counting of life simply being better.

Here’s how this was achieved.

The date of the programme you attended

•       Autumn 2008 

The lifestyle changes you made during programme :

•       I attended yoga classes for the first time
•       I changed my habit for breakfast
•       I drank more water and fewer fizzy drinks
•       I ate nuts, fruits during the breaks
•       I did some meditation
•       I took care about myself by having some fun with friends, by going out, I let go of some stress

The lifestyle changes you made following programme

•       I have attended yoga classes, once a week ever since the programme
•       I found the energy to address stress levels
•       I am jogging twice a week
•       I drink more water and green tea
•       I eat more fruit, vegetable and fish
•       I eat more times during the day but eat smaller portions
•       I eat less chocolate and drink less cola
•       I have a healthy breakfast
•       I pay attention to getting to bed on time and relax before
•       I manage some free time to do sport, music, read, relax 

The secrets of your success with wellbeing

•       The willingness to apply changes and experiment with wellbeing 

The biggest benefits of making your lifestyle changes?

•       Getting more energy to act and make change happen (a virtuous circle)
•       I am now able to manage my stress and balance private and professional life 

Read the previousinstallment of our Inspiring Wellness Success Stories here

Order your copy of “Successful Corporate Wellbeing Programmes: How to create a dynamic, energised and engaged workforce and boost business results” from our website today.

Image by Flickr: Oscar D

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25 Ways to Improve Your Running

Get up to speed quickly with these top tips we wrote for Women's Running Magazine.

Read our simple top tips on how to:

• Run faster
• Revive your running routine
• Shake up your regular running routes
• Set targets
• Run hard, rest well
• Devise effective cross training techniques

And a whole lot more.

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Back Pain? 3 Moves to Release Tension Immediately

I come across too many people suffering with painful backs from spending hours at their desk or traveling in cars, trains or planes.  All that sitting can cause your back to tighten up and can become really uncomfortable.

Here are three moves guaranteed to keep your back flexible and prevent any long-term pain or injury and they only take a few minutes each day.

1) Curving the Spine 
Start with a flat back, inhale, as you exhale pull up pelvic floor muscle, navel to spine, lower head and tailbone and curve spine. 

Added Benefits – this move strengthens and tones abdominal muscles and massages internal organs.




2) Arching the Spine 
Return to a flat back, inhale, as you exhale raise head and tailbone. 

Added Benefits – this move strengthens spine and relaxes the neck and shoulders helping to combat stress



3) Hip Rolls 
Arms out at shoulder level, knees bent with feet flat on floor. Inhale, then exhale while lowering your knees to the right and turning your head to the left. Return to the centre and repeat on other side. 

Added Benefits – this move aids digestion and relieves tension in your neck

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How to Run an Amazing Wellbeing Event

'We had an amazing day thank you, please pass on our thanks to the whole team.'

It's great to get positive feedback from the events we run.  Last Thursday's wellbeing day was based in a particularly challenging environment for the staff who work there.  Faced with a remote location and long working hours, eating well, fitting in exercise and sleeping well were all challenges they faced.

I thought it would be useful to share how we tackled some of these challenges on the day so you can use the information yourself or pass it on to colleagues.

If your office would benefit for a wellbeing day please get in touch with us and we can help you design an event that would suit your needs.

The secret to a successful event is to be able to give staff practical and realistic advice that makes a difference quickly. Here are some examples.

Wellbeing challenge 1
Our office is so far away from anywhere that we struggle to eat well.  The closest thing is a petrol station which is where most of us tend to go for lunch or snacks
Our nutritionist was able to provide a selection of simple snacks that can be prepared at home, as well as suggesting simple meals and encouraging people to cook extra at mealtimes and bring leftovers.  We also had a fitness expert on site conducting health assessments and providing staff with key performance indicators they can use to judge the benefits of eating more healthily as they monitor these numbers in the future.

Wellbeing challenge 2
I used to like running / gardening / walking but I've got a bad knee / back / shoulder so I've had to stop
At the event we had a physiotherapist and an osteopath who were able to provide advice on the stretches, strengthening exercises and postural adjustments required to fix injuries and get people back to the exercise they enjoy.

Wellbeing challenge 3
We're all pretty busy at the moment so it can be quite hard to unwind and relax at the end of the day
Thankfully our team of massage therapists were on hand to iron out any physical tension and also demonstrate that even short breaks pay dividends over the course of a long day when it comes to maintaining energy and focus.

Get the design right at your wellbeing day and the results will be amazing for you too.

Image by ontheflyrecipes Flickr

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Inspiring Wellness Success Stories 2

Continuing our series highlighting the amazing results that are possible with a wellness programme, we hear from Helen who begins the summary of her journey by saying,

'I was "Executive –pretend Fit". Fit on the outside – ticked the image boxes (went to gym, good BMI) but I was not well.

There are millions of us out there at senior executive levels – pretending we are doing the right things but feeling rubbish – especially after work when the day's stresses and poor nutrition catch up with us and we reach for a glass of wine.

I am a health professional who, despite a background in and understanding of, preventative health, still benefitted greatly from my time with you and the team'.

• The date of the wellness programme you attended

Sep/Oct 2011

• The lifestyle changes you made during programme

Better eating. I already was attending gym and doing yoga classes, my weight was fine but my nutrition was hopeless. 

• The lifestyle changes you made following your programme

I changed jobs. But I also stepped up from ordinary yoga to Bikram (hot) yoga. I try and attend 2-3 90 minute classes per week. It's been brilliant. I still do my weights resistance classes (Pump) at gym. The big change is that I seriously cut back my alcohol consumption from 1 1/2 glasses per night to maybe one glass a month. This is without doubt the best thing I have ever done.

• The secrets of your success with wellness

The Bikram yoga has really challenged my mindfulness and ability to de-stress with consciousness. The reduction in alcohol consumption was triggered by an event in Australia called "Dry July" where volunteers give up drinking for a month to support cancer research. This gave me the trigger (and the excuse with my friends and colleagues) to not drink for the month and then it was easy to keep going. It was far easier than I thought it would be.

• What advice that you received made the greatest impact on you?

Better nutrition.

• The biggest benefits of making your lifestyle changes?

Where to start? Transformational. Energy++, love the yoga and gym combination – neither one sufficient on their own for me.

• Anything that got in the way of success with wellness

I think the psychology of change is underestimated. The impact of Dry July was an important trigger for me to make the change. For example, if you say at a dinner party that you/re not drinking – you embarrass those who are or you seem a prima donna. If you have the trigger of a charity support or similar, it helps. This is just an example. But these triggers are significant enablers – or the lack of them serious impediments.

• When wellness is working for you, what are the key elements that make the difference?

Breakfast yes, no alcohol after work and a careful dinner - no snacking.

Professor Helen Chenery

The University of Queensland

Read the previous instalment of our Inspiring Success Stories series

Image by jhenryrose Flickr

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Stress? What Stress?

It's National Stress Awareness Day today and members of our team have been out in various businesses delivering a variety of yoga, relaxation and stress relieving wellbeing sessions.

It's been a really encouraging and rewarding day.

Many of the sessions were oversubscribed and we met loads of people who, rather than reporting that they feel weighed down with stress and are struggling to cope, arrived at the sessions fully appreciating that a certain level of stress is inevitable in an ambitious and fulfilling life, and looking to find new strategies to help them manage their stress levels to achieve a better overall balance in everything they do.

This positive mindset of those who took part seems to have a lot to do with how the sessions were communicated in advance, with the focus not being placed on coming along simply to understand more about a very common issue, but to take part in practical sessions and leave with solutions they can use every day from now on.

So the message is clear. When it comes to engaging your staff in any new initiatives, wellbeing or otherwise, focus as much attention on how you promote your ideas as you do on what initiatives you decide to implement in the first place. Most people are looking to improve their personal and professional situation to some degree, so communicating with messages that explain the individual and immediate benefits of taking part will ensure you get maximum sign up and the best return on your investment in your programmes and your people.

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Simple Steps To Successful & Profitable Health & Wellbeing at Work

Looking to get great results with health and wellbeing at your office and raise the performance levels?

Setting up effective health and wellbeing initiatives is a lot easier than you might imagine. There are three key questions you need to consider.
i) What are the primary wellbeing goals for the business?
It’s likely that you’ll be implementing a wellbeing programme to boost staff morale, reduce absenteeism, reduce staff turnover, increase productivity or increase staff satisfaction. Be very clear about your top priority and keep this in mind throughout your planning and implementation.

ii) How will you measure success?
You’ll be able to accurately calculate the impact of your wellbeing programme if you establish the key performance indicators in advance. Even if this is simply the number of positive comments you hear about the programme, you have to know what you’re looking for from the outset.

iii) Who is your target audience for the program? 

Are you aiming to involve specific groups, particular individuals or are you looking to get the whole company involved? When you know who you are appealing to you’ll be able to plan your initiatives more quickly and then promote them more easily for maximum involvement.

2. What a great wellbeing program looks like
Wellbeing programmes usually fall into three broad categories:

• Wellbeing modules that feature as part of training, development and leadership programmes. This includes modules covering personal performance, nutrition, energy levels, stress management, relaxation, work-life balance, sleep and fitness. Modules can be included as part of existing training programmes or can be designed as free standing wellbeing training programme delivered as a single half day session or as a weekly program.

• Group or individual initiatives that are run on-site as part of an Employee benefits package. These initiatives include group fitness sessions, yoga classes, Pilates sessions, running club, fresh fruit deliveries, healthy cooking and individual lifestyle or nutrition coaching programs.

• Health Fairs on your premises. These events raise awareness of healthy living initiatives and can include health screenings, fitness measurements, competitions, cookery challenges and taster sessions for a variety of group or individual initiatives. Chances are that your wellbeing programme will be made up of a combination of the above elements with a flexible approach to rolling out each element so that you can put your time, effort and budget into the areas where it will have most impact and organically grow into the most effective wellbeing programme for your organisation over time.

3. It all sounds great but don’t these programmes cost a lot of money?
Not as much as you might think. If you plan your wellbeing programme correctly, every initiative will be carefully targeted and you’ll be certain that you’re getting maximum value for money from every pound you spend. It’s a good idea at this point to begin viewing expenditure on wellbeing as an investment rather than a cost. It’s only a cost if you don’t know how the money you spend will benefit your organisation in the long run but, like all successful business ventures, if you know your wellbeing programme is generating more value to the business than the cost of running it, you’ll know that every pound invested leads to a tangible return on investment. And that return on investment can be quite considerable. Research has shown that carefully targeted programmes can generate an ROI of up to £84.90 for every £1.00 spent on wellbeing.

4. Who pays for the services – the business or the employee? 

It’s up to you whether you’d like to ask staff for a contribution to the programs you’re implementing but in our experience the impact is much greater if the business covers the cost, as it would for any other form of training, education or employee benefit. This sends the message that your organisation values the health and mindset of its people and wants to help develop this aspect of their lives as much as it would any other area of their professional and personal development.


To read the FULL report on how to set up a successful and profitable wellness program, visit www.the-tonic.com for your download.

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How to stay fit when you travel with work

Many of the business people we work with travel a lot. Some can be away from home for up to 10-months in the year! Even for those who are on the move for a few weeks each year, keeping a healthy routine can be a challenge. Or at least that’s what they tell us. Others report that they actually find it easier to stay healthy when they’re on the road with hotel swimming pool and gym open 24 hours etc.

So how can it be easy for some and hard for others?

It's all about the way you look at it. Here’s a selection of top tips to keep busy executives sharp and energised while traveling for work.

1.Plan ahead
Always book hotels with fitness facilities or a swimming pool, or preferably both. Hotels in areas close to parks are also great. Keep a resistance band and a couple of ideas for hotel room workouts in your suitcase at all times and never leave home without your trainers. Simple truth is if you don’t plan for fitness it won’t happen. Business travel can be demanding and any obstacle to exercise can put you off. The best case scenario is that your trip provides you with some different options for exercise. That way you’re looking forward to trying something new – running or cycling in a new city for example. Safety first - always check with the concierge about the best running routes in cities you don't know.

2. Be experimental
While away you’ll be eating in hotels and restaurants but this needn’t be a problem. The great thing here is that someone else is doing your food shopping and cooking and you just have to make the right choices. So, while someone else is preparing your food for you, take the opportunity to try something new. It may be a completely new food or a familiar food cooked in a new way but any new dish will provide the chance for your body to experience some new tastes and nutrients.

3. Pace yourself
Busy executives have a habit of packing their schedule on every trip so they can fit in as much as possible. A difficulty with this is that trips will be tiring and you can return home feeling shattered. Every trip should have some rest and recovery time built into the schedule. This can include a massage or a yoga session, both of which can be booked in advance of your departure. Make these appointments that will recharge your batteries, and protect the slots as you would for your client meetings and you’ll find that your trip will feel more balanced.

4. Get creative with routines
People often think they can't plan routines and patterns when they are traveling. But chances are that business trips eventually fall into their own routine of location, hotel type, meeting schedule and eating patterns. As you get to know the patterns of your business travel, learn to plan around them and know when you’ll take exercise, what you’ll eat and when, how you’ll relax and how you can sleep best. The more you can follow tried and tested successful strategies for staying healthy on the road,, the easier every trip will be. You might even return home feeling better than when you left!

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