Lifebooster’s Blog

Today is Remembrance Day.

I don’t know about you, but I always feel quite emotional when I watch the wreath laying service at The Cenotaph in London on Remembrance Sunday.

Besides the tragedy of loss of life, I think the other aspect that makes tears well up in my eyes is watching hundreds and thousands of people stood in total quiet, paying their respects to the brave during the 2 minutes of silence at 11.00am. Totally connecting with each other and being completely “in the moment” You can hear a pin drop on a street in London on which you wouldn’t normally be able to hear yourself think. The power of likeminded feeling from all those people and thousands more besides is incredible. Despite what we read about in the press; human spirit and goodness is very much alive.

It is right and fitting to pay our respects to the brave who have lost their lives and indeed those that continue to face battle. But besides Remembrance Day and maybe occasional times when 2 minutes silence is appropriate for other events, how often do you take your own 2 minutes, to stand, sit, lie down, walk and think of nothing other than what is? Just like a busy London street our lives (particularly our working lives) are generally run at a frenetically fast pace. WE NEVER STOP. We rush from task to task, appointment to appointment, phone call to phone call.

Today’s exercise is to give yourself some metaphorical space and take some slow time. Take your own 2 minutes, 10 minutes, half an hour or even one hour…

When you choose to put aside time to connect with yourself you will find yourself calmer and more relaxed.

Find somewhere you know you won’t be distracted or disturbed. And just do whatever feels good for you. I find colouring in really peaceful!! my friend, a high flying exec takes her “2 minutes” from walking her dog. Others I know like to take their lunch to the park.

Do anything at all and simply let your mind drift. There is great power in stilling you mind and slowing down your thoughts. You will be able to hear your intuition more clearly when you take the time to tune in.

Put all worries aside and just focus as best you can on being in the present moment. The more you practice being still the more time you will want to spend. It really does feel that good. Things you were worried about before won’t seem so daunting.

Practice makes perfect, build up to regularly taking one SLOW hour a day (at least!)

National Stress Awareness Day – Wednesday 4^th November 2009

How stressed are you?

We have been aware for many years now that stress and emotional attitudes have a massive effect on our overall health and wellbeing. Despite this however, illness caused by stress continues to dominate newspaper headlines and doctors waiting rooms.

According to the Labour Force Survey an estimated 442,000 individuals in Britain, who worked in 2007/2008 believed that they were experiencing work related stress at a level that was making them ill. In addition the survey suggests that self-reported work-related stress, depression or anxiety accounted for an estimated 13.5 million lost working days in Britain in 2007/08. The HSE estimates that the cost to the UK of workplace stress is £530million.

As the name suggests National Stress Awareness Day has been designed to highlight the symptoms of stress and educate us to reduce its impact on our lives. This year its theme is “Stressing the Positives.” You can get more information about the campaign here

But here are 5 LifeBooster Stress Busters tips to help you cope.

1. Look at the bigger picture of life. As the saying goes “Don’t sweat the small stuff” Decide if the things that upset you now will matter in a year, six months from now, or even next week or tomorrow.
2. Take 3 DEEP slow breaths – this will help you to relax and slow your heart rate down.
3. Don’t dance to the “should” tune. i.e. I should work harder, I should earn more money …..Change those shoulds to the things that bring joy to your life.
4. Get more sleep – relaxing sleep. Spend time preparing for bed e.g. have a warm bath, read a book – switch off the phone and your TV. A good night’s sleep will help you cope with what’s thrown at you during the day.
5. Say “cheese!” Give a smile, Smiling and laughing releases endorphins and makes us feel better.Try it and see what sort of reaction you get back – monitor how that feels.

The English Poet, John Donne wrote that “No man is an Island, entire of itself…“  As such, we all need friends and contacts to be happy and successful in both life and business.

In response to my email asking you to tell me what you loved about work many of you said, “the people I work with” “my clients,” “working in a team,” versus what some of you said you hated “ being isolated,” “working on my own,”

Your responses reinforced scientific research which tells us that connecting with other people is critical for promoting wellbeing and also acting as a deterrent against mental ill health such as stress. Indeed studies of “very happy” people have shown that they nearly always have excellent relationships. A work buddy can act as a sounding board or provide a helping hand. If you work on your own, connecting with a friend by phone will work just as well – its having the support of someone “being there” that’s most important. Being able to verbalise frustrations to a friendly ear can prove tremendously cathartic.

• We need to build relationships that help us work happier. In order to do this; Ask yourself and write down “What are the 5 most important things I look for in a friendship?” e.g. loyalty, fun and laughter, support etc.

Now try fulfilling those needs for the people in your working life and notice your happiness levels intensify. When we give people the things that are important to us we fulfil our own needs at the same time. We connect with each other through our feelings.

• I recently read Julia Cameron’s book, The Artists Way. In the book there are many exercises where you are encouraged to write about things, people or places that we appreciate and or are grateful for in our lives. It is always an uplifting exercise and indeed studies have shown that expressing gratitude is a lasting way of experiencing feelings of happiness. So try this exercise; take 10 minutes and write a compliment for every person in your department/organisation/office. YES – everyone – even that office layabout and the skiving boss who leaves you to carry the can. I will guarantee it will lift your spirits! Let me know how it goes…..

Have a Happy week at Work and watch out for Work LifeBooster number 2 next Wednesday!!

Four years ago I escaped….. from jail……… No! No! No! Its ok I’m not writing this from a UK non extradition hot spot in the deepest Amazon rainforest. I can walk around the UK quite unafraid of getting arrested (well most of the time!) When I talk of jail I mean the metaphorical type. To get an accurate picture, instead of “jail” read “corporate world”

I was a business manager for a high street bank, worked 12 hour days and juggled sales targets, customers and 2 young children. I went from home to work to home again, jumping through ever changing manager’s hoops, exhausted, I drank too much, ate too much and shopped too much – all in an attempt to try to feel better. It was a life on a miserable hamster wheel, a personnel number tattooed on my forehead, at the beck and call of a bullying leadership.

 As happens with so many people it took death and bereavement to shock me out of my robotic life. It was the death of my father and a serious health scare suffered by my brother that enabled to me say out loud “there must be more to life than this.”

Over the following few months the voice of freedom got louder and louder inside my head and my work got more and more unbearable until one day I quit, resigned from my job after over 20 years service with the organisation. With no job to go to and only vague ideas of other avenues to explore I left.

I walked out of jail.

Drastic action I know. Some called it brave, many called it stupid – but fast forward four years and here I am still standing and happier than I’ve ever been.

That’s my story AND I do realise that quitting and changing careers is not an option available to everyone.

 Indeed many people enjoy the work they do but are frustrated by poor management, shed loads of paperwork and a lack of control they feel about their working lives. But as we spend nearly 25% of our lives at work, it seems an awful shame if we spend this time – approximately 99,177 precious hours unhappy.

Work LifeBooster – 5 ways to a happier working life is about building actions into our daily working lives to improve our emotional wellbeing. It’s about making our working lives better from the inside – not dependant on job promotions or salary increases. I’ll send you one new daily action each week for the next 5 weeks. If your working life can be improved by incorporating these 5 suggestions into it – then that’s got to be a good thing hasn’t it?

Look out for your first Work LifeBooster next Wednesday.