It's time to Thrive

WorkLifePsych News 014

Hello and welcome to the October newsletter. 

I continue my focus on all things wellbeing, reminding you of the importance of self-care, the power of psychological flexibility when it comes to wellbeing, and the need to be cautious about myths and fads. 

Personally, my self-care activities are all about fighting off my urge to stay under the duvet until Spring arrives. The dark and cold months between now and then can seem particularly difficult for some of us. So everything I can do to invest in my wellbeing while I'm sun-starved is going to help. As long as these things are values-aligned and sustainable - see below for more on this. 

But it's not just about surviving experiences like this - I want to talk about thriving.

🤨 Are you thriving at work?

I called the latest wellbeing campaign 'Thriving at Work' because I want to nudge the narrative around workplace wellbeing on a number of fronts.

I think collectively, we need to move our focus on wellbeing at work:

• From an episodic event to an ongoing area of organisational focus. Do you only focus on IT or Finance for a week in the year?
• From a discrete project or goal, to a golden thread that runs through all organisational activities. Through recruitment, promotion, job design, change.
• From an emphasis on minimising illness, to actually promoting holistic human thriving. Wellbeing is far more than the absence of illness or injury.
• From adding layers of interventions, to getting the basics of good work in place. Design jobs with minimal stressors and cultivate a psychologically safe environment.
• From putting the onus solely on employees, to ensuring organisational leaders play their part. Invest in, and facilitate, evidence-based wellbeing change and watch your employees' wellbeing and performance improve.

Work doesn't have to detract from our wellbeing. If jobs are designed well, if managers are trained properly, work can contribute to our sense of meaning and purpose. It can allow us to use our skills effectively, derive a sense of satisfaction from solving problems, and contribute positively to our life when not at work. 

Wouldn't it be great if, instead of answering 'How are you?' with 'Busy!' you could authentically tell a colleague that you felt motivated, accomplished, excited or even thriving! 

What would that take for you? How could you get your core needs met at work? How can you put your values into action more frequently? How can you make best use of your skills and personal attributes? How can you establish and protect your personal boundaries? What can you do to invest in your wellbeing on an ongoing basis? 

Digging deeper, what kinds of conversations would you need to have to start moving things in this direction? What small changes to your routines could you make? From an emphasis on surviving work and recovering from it each evening and weekend, to realising more of the benefits of being in employment. 

Read on for some tips on what you can do to start that journey today. 

♥️ Taking care of you

While so much of what impacts our wellbeing at work is a function of organisational design and decisions, we can still have a powerful influence over this by making investments in ourselves.

'Self-care' is often dismissed as faddish, or seen as a panacea for all life's challenges. The truth is somewhere in between. 

In a recent blog post, I defined self-care as: 

"...the things we do intentionally to invest in our wellbeing. Either to increase or maintain levels of our physical, psychological or social wellbeing."

We can replenish our limited resources, find a sense of purpose and meaning, take care of our physical wellbeing and connect with those closest to us. We can also do the things that don't exactly spark joy, but will improve our situation: attending medical check-ups, addressing life admin we've been procrastinating about, having difficult (but important) conversations. 

It's not all bubble baths and glasses of wine! And over time, small habits can have an enormous impact. As long as those habits are aligned with our values and are sustainable over the longer term. This means avoiding leaning into food, alcohol, substances, avoidance and other unhelpful responses to difficulties. They ultimately cause more problems than they solve.

This Thursday is World Mental Heath Day and, while I'm not a huge fan of marking something as critical our mental health on just a single day, I'd like to challenge you to use it effectively this year. Take some time out to reflect on what you're doing to invest in, and improve, your wellbeing - in the form of self-care. 

• Do you regularly invest in your physical wellbeing? 
• How do you maintain your social connections and relationships?
• What do you do to contribute to your psychological health? 
• What small habits could you cultivate to reconnect with your wellbeing? 

While you're at it, check out this second blog post in the series, in which I flag up some of the most common mistakes we can make when it comes to self-care.

🧠 Make an investment in yourself! 

I'm incredibly excited to be launching a new wellbeing-focused open-access training course this month.

'Thriving with Psychological Flexibility' is all about taking the skills that boost our flexible responses to events and our ability to act in accordance with our values, and apply them to our wellbeing. 

The evidence is clear: increased psychological flexibility is associated with improved wellbeing. So rather than engaging in the latest fad, or doing nothing in the face of information overload, why not join us for an evidence-based and practical learning journey? 

It's a blended learning experience: you'll first complete some self-directed elearning and then attend three live and interactive workshops online. Don't worry about your schedule, because we'll be recording the workshops so you can catch up later. Cohort one of this brand new course commences in November, so you have plenty of time to get ready and get the workshops in your diary. 

The course is priced at £299 per person, but I'm offering a special discount for subscribers of this newsletter ("Finally, a benefit!" I hear you cry 😉).

By signing up via this unique link, you'll be able to access the course for just £199. This gives you twelve months of access to the learning materials, attendance at the upcoming workshops - plus attendance at next year's workshops. All of that, plus membership of our online community, WorklifePsych.club.

I'm aiming this course at individuals who want to make an impactful investment in their own wellbeing. But if you're also an organisational decision-maker and you're interested in providing this course for teams in your organisation, get in touch to find out how we can facilitate this for your employees. It's an incredibly scaleable solution. 

And did I forget to mention? I'll be co-facilitating this course with the fabulous Ross McIntosh, an expert in training for psychological flexibility and the host of the awesome People Soup podcast.

📅 Join us in London to find out what works in wellbeing

When it comes to fads and fashions, the wellbeing space is not short on contenders.

It can be very difficult to identify what works, either for us as individuals or if you have the responsibility, for your organisation. It sometimes seems like we're bombarded with messages, claims and counter-claims, which can leave us thoroughly confused, if not a little cynical. 

Join us in London on October 24th, for an in-person workshop all about how to find out what works when it comes to wellbeing. I'll be joined by Dr. Rachael Skews and we'll explore what it means to be evidence-based decision-makers - for our own wellbeing and for organisational initiatives. 

We'll explore some of the most common mistakes, explain how to spot a fad or myth, and how to notice when your own decision-making might be letting you down. Tickets are available here and we look forward to seeing you then. 

Thanks for reading - see you next month!

Richard