Tag Archives: corporate mindfulness

Mindful May- Create A Resilient Workplace

Mindful May is approaching fast. Have you made plans yet?

This May we are committed to building mentally healthy, resilient workplaces throughout Melbourne and regional Victoria. Join Engage Health as we deliver a 4 Week Psychological Resilience program in your workplace.

Course Overview

This 4- week program will teach employees practical tools and techniques for stress reduction, emotional regulation and psychological resilience. With themes and evidence-based practices from our signature eight week attention training program, participants will learn effective strategies for improved mental health, coping with stress, remaining composed during times of difficulty and how to be fully present in their work and home life.

*One workshop will be held each week in May at your office/site. Each workshop is approximately one hour in duration.

Week 1

Introduction to Attention Training

  • What is mindfulness?
  • Creating a self-awareness.
  • Using the breath as an anchor to calm the mind.
  • Minimising internal distractions.

Week 2

Neuroplasticity & Habits

  • The science behind attention training and mindful practice.
  • Hard-wiring happiness. (The brain that changes itself).
  • The importance of pleasant awareness, positivity and gratitude.

Week 3

The Stress Response

  • Learning to self-regulate and reduce reactivity.
  • Understanding the role of the amygdala.
  • Identifying early warning signs of stress, anxiety and mental illness.
  • Neurobiology of emotions.

Week 4

Self-Care & Resilience Tools

  • Outsmarting the stress response.
  • Eliciting the relaxation response.
  • Dealing with stress & difficult emotions/ pain/ sensations.
  • Mindful eating

Booking are now open for all organisations. Please email sally.cumming@engagehealth.com.au or call 0401358309 for more information.

Eliciting the Relaxation Response to Reduce Stress

 

Employees are constantly “on”. There is very little escape from the constantly frantic 24/7 world. The result can be burnout – both physically and mentally. Long term activation of our sympathetic nervous system (or ‘fight, flight, freeze’ stress response) can be detrimental to our health. This sympathetic drive can take its toll on the body causing adrenal fatigue, systemic inflammation in the body and chronic disease. Sympathetic overdrive for employees can manifest itself as lack of energy, increased conflict, lack of job satisfaction, poor morale, decreased ability to handle stress, a compromised immune system and memory lapses.

Challenges and difficulties in the workplace cannot be avoided, but we can build our resilience to them. A successful way to build resilience in the workplace is to teach employees the skills and tools they need to identify and maintain healthy levels of stress and self-regulate in order to quickly recover from challenging situations when they arise. Teaching staff how to anchor themselves amidst the pull of turbulence in their lives helps them build the capacity to accept, tolerate and transform painful mind and body states without reacting so intensely to them.

Through combined mindfulness-based stress reduction and cognitive therapy practices, employees can learn how to elicit the relaxation response. This is a key component of our programs, not only for reducing stress, but also for reducing blood pressure, pain, tension and muscle tightness. Suppression of the sympathetic nervous system and physiological stress response is very effective in improving focus, productivity, digestion, increasing energy levels, and improving flexibility, blood flow and circulation.

Here is an example outline of our 4 Week Stress Resilience Program.

*Each workshop will be approximately 1-1.15 hours in duration.

Week 1

Introduction to Attention Training

  • What is mindfulness?
  • Awareness- how to create self-awareness.
  • Using the breath as an anchor to calm the mind.
  • Minimising internal distractions.

Week 2

Neuroplasticity & Habits

  • The brain & the science behind mindfulness practice.
  • Hard-wiring happiness.
  • The importance of pleasant awareness, kindness, positivity and gratitude.

Week 3

The Stress Response

  • Learning how to self-regulate and reduce reactivity.
  • Understanding the role of the amygdala.
  • Identifying early warning signs of stress & anxiety.
  • Neurobiology of emotions.

Week 4

Self-Care & Resilience Tools

  • Outsmarting the stress response.
  • Eliciting the relaxation response.
  • Dealing with difficult emotions/ pain/ sensations.

Bookings are available now for 2019. Please contact Engage Health for further information https://www.engagehealth.com.au/contact-us/

The New Integrative Approach For Improving Mental Health & Resilience in the Workplace

As an organisation we are constantly seeking new and innovative ways to improve staff wellness, reduce psychological distress and prevent injuries. We have set ourselves ambitious targets to increase the number of Victorians reporting high levels of resilience, and of course the workplace is a key setting for this.

We needed to find an effective formula that produced beneficial results for staff, as well as tangible business outcomes.

Creating a program that was embedded within a context of both Mind/Body and Integrative Medicine, was the winning formula. We combined themes from both our corporate mindfulness program, ‘Wise’, as well as our injury prevention program, ‘Engage’, to create the ‘Wise Worker’ program. For the first time in my career I was inspired to create a program that could draw on both qualifications as an exercise physiologist and a mindfulness practitioner. Teaching evidence-based injury prevention practices as well as well-researched mindfulness interventions meant we could achieve the holistic results we were looking for.

Over the last few months we trialled this exciting new program at the Department of Health and Human Services with the Disability Support Carers. Eight houses were selected throughout Victoria and we have now completed all eight departments. We are absolutely thrilled with the results, the testimonials and the self-reported feedback. The core purpose of the program was to inspire staff members to create personal health goals to see how good they could feel in four weeks. The goal setting and individual health screening was a key component that led to the cultivation of positive health behaviours.

Over the course of four weeks participants were taught how to integrate and apply mindfulness into their everyday lives, as well as how they can protect themselves from pain and injuries at home and at work.

Through combined mindfulness training and body awareness practices, staff learnt how to illicit the relaxation response. This was a key component of the program, not only for reducing injury risk but also for reducing pain, tension and muscle tightness. Suppression of the sympathetic nervous system and physiological stress response was also effective in improving digestion, increasing energy levels, and improving flexibility, blood flow and circulation. Mindful movement and guided injury prevention exercises were tailored specifically to assist in the prevention of wear and tear injuries due to postural dysfunction. Staff were encouraged to perform manual handling tasks with mindful awareness so they could slow down and perform the tasks correctly with proper posture and ergonomic equipment.

Disability support workers have a difficult and constant role. Work in helping professions can be incredibly rewarding, but also very challenging. Usually there is a focus on looking after others before themselves. For many support workers the idea of self-regulation and self-nourishment is a new concept, so this was a vital component of the program. Through mindfulness and breath work, staff were able to bring some calmness, clarity and appreciation back into their day. Teaching staff how to anchor themselves amidst the pull of turbulence in their lives helps them build the capacity to accept, tolerate and transform painful mind and body states without reacting so intensely to them.

When our body and our mind are working efficiently we feel great. Mood and workplace morale is improved and performance is enhanced. Educating staff using this combined approach to both mind and body training is one that we are pleased to say has been incredibly effective. We look forward to continuing this exciting new work with other professions in the near future.

Discover Proven Strategies to Reduce Stress & Increase Resilience (With FREE Corporate Massage)

Discover Proven Strategies to Reduce Stress & Increase Resilience (With FREE Corporate Massage!)

Introducing a workplace stress resilience program like no other… A program for both the mind and body that combines neuroplasticity training with massage.

We are delighted to announce our new partnership with Healthify and to celebrate we are offering our Wise mindfulness 8 Week program with the inclusion of FREE corporate massage for all participants!

Why are we doing this? We are passionate about inspiring employees, executives and senior management teams to be calmer, happier and more mindful because we’ve seen the results of burnout.

What is the Wise program? The Wise program is an 8 week mindfulness-based stress resilience program specifically tailored for the workplace. With mindfulness-based interventions and themes derived from the popular and well-researched Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program, it is the only program of its kind to be available in the workplace.

Having completed a recent pilot study, the Wise program has been proven to increase both physical and psychological well-being, focus and productivity. This holistic program teaches proven easy-to-implement strategies and tools to improve communication, cope with stress, deal with challenges and be more psychologically resilient.

5 reasons to run the Wise program at your workplace:

1.      Enhanced mental performance. Improved focus, memory, concentration, learning ability and creativity.

2.      Improve resilience and how employees cope with stress, change and challenges. Our recent pilot study of 120 staff resulted in 93% of participants coping better with difficult or stressful situations.

3.      Increased business productivity. After participating in our course executives and employees are better able to deal with challenges with grace, and learn how to be fully present and happy with a stable mind.

4.      Improved health. Reduce anxiety, high blood pressure, migraines, depression, heart conditions, and diabetes. Noticeable improvements were also seen in sleep.

5.      Increased confidence. Mindfulness practice has been shown to enhance resilience, emotional intelligence and inner wisdom, resulting in improved confidence.

To book the Wise Program with free massage call us on 0401358309 or email info@engagehealth.com.au. 

We look forward to helping you reduce stress and increase performance at your workplace.