Wellness & The Bottom Line
Regardless if my coaching client’s main goals center around setting a vision and strategy for their organization, communication effectiveness, or other professional improvement, one thing we always find ourselves touching on is stress and its effects on performance and behavior. Too much stress has an array of effects on our health and productivity which is one main reason that wellness is such an important topic in our society today. In my view, wellness is a healthy mind, body and spirit achieved through self-care that focuses on nutrition, exercise and emotional well-being.
Nutrition – I am not a nutritionist though having children, being a coach as well as a bit of a health nut, I do understand the incredible effects that whole foods, fruits and vegetables have on our well-being. How is your nutrition on scale of 1-5 (1 being not great and 5 being excellent)? What two changes can you make to increase your score by one point?
Exercise and Movement – It doesn’t matter if you are a hard core athlete or someone that prefers walking and gardening, what matters is that you incorporate movement into your routine. It is proven that movement curtails many health issues, makes us feel better and keeps us cognitively healthy. I sometimes take my clients on walking meetings or encourage them to get out and walk or hike when stuck on any type of strategic issue. It is amazing the results that are achieved through movement. How many ways do you incorporate movement into your day? How might you add a few more minutes per session or one more day of movement to your schedule?
Emotional Well-Being – Emotional well-being is complex and has many approaches depending on what a person may be dealing with in their life. However, some common things I work on with my clients are building self-awareness through activities such as journaling, meditation, creative play and other similar techniques. We also strive to ensure we are working from a place of strength and using the tenets of positive psychology in their approach to creating solutions and making improvements in themselves and their organizations.
Wellness Impacts Results – Organizations are recognizing more and more the importance of wellness and incorporating many techniques into the workplace such as wellness tests that reduce insurance rates, paying for gym memberships, bringing in activities such as yoga, incorporating walking meetings into their array of meetings and encouraging other similar techniques. The reason? An energetic, healthy, low-stressed employee engages better with others, has higher productivity and helps to improve the bottom line and overall organizational results. Wellness is a win-win for organizations and individuals. What are you doing to improve your own wellness and that of your team?
“It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver.”
– Mahatma Ghandi