Held during alert level orange

One of our goals for this year is to develop our existing wellbeing policies to ensure we promote and improve the health (and subsequently, productivity) of our team. Expecting the unexpected is part of life; we’re constantly facing new challenges, and uncertainties in particular surrounding COVID which has become part of our everyday life. Our mental and physical wellbeing should always be our priority but this is particularly true during periods of prolonged stress. We can't create a sustainable future if our own lives are not sustainable.

Last month we invited Elizabeth McNaughton and Jolie Wills from Hummingly to speak with us about navigating the ups and downs of the pandemic, as well as how to deal with stress in our personal and work lives.

The strategies we explored combined disaster and crisis research with neuroscience, giving us an intro to the how's and why's of the stress we feel, and most importantly, how to combat it. It's always good to be reminded that experiencing stress is not only normal, but can also be beneficial (in moderation).

In our session with Hummingly, we each received a pack of Doing Well cards, a tool designed to support wellbeing and performance under pressure. We used these cards to build our own individual wellbeing and resilience plans, tailored to what resonated most within our own lives and personal experiences.

Creating a wellbeing plan involves working with the entire team to identify what they want and need to get out of it.Everyone's experiences of mental health differ, but all can benefit from the support of good policy. We each now have a personal wellness plan and we aim to come together regularly to share what we’ve been working on. We know some people have already been implementing more tech free time and prioritising exercise, and several team members have pinned their cards to their wall or fridge to keep them top of mind. Creating spaces to have these conversations is so important and we love having such a practical tool to help us guide these conversations.