The focus of the January Wellness Moonshot Calendar is Awareness, the foundation from which positive change can take root and ultimately succeed. The following ideas and information are designed to help you engage and inspire your colleagues, employees and community to become Wellness Aware. They are curated with the support of Renee Moorefield, chair of the GWI Wellness at Work Initiative and CEO of Wisdom Works.

Becoming Wellness Aware

To continually innovate and compete, organizations large and small are reinventing work and workplaces by putting people at the center. Happiness, shared leadership, human dignity, trust, care and love are no longer considered soft concepts as in the past; they are potent strategies to build exceptional relationships and teams. Wellness and work have become partners in fostering healthier people, better organizations and a well world.

When we are healthy, well-rested, and motivated, we bring a higher level of energy to our work. Our minds are sharp, we are positive, we make better decisions, and we are more effective and productive at our jobs.

Work can be a source of wellness and joy. At its best, work gives us a positive social setting and a sense of purpose or accomplishment, such as when we feel appreciated by customers, when we experience camaraderie with others, or when our work makes a positive impact. In this way, work contributes to our emotional and mental well¬ness as well as our physical health in key well-researched areas, such as lower rates of hypertension, diabetes and other chronic diseases.

When we take the time to be wellness aware, our organizations will thrive. Managers who take the lead in the health and wellness of people reduce suffering, increase human vitality, and help create a world free of preventable disease.

Turn Awareness into New Possibilities for Action

On your journey to wellness, turn awareness into new wellness possibilities for your organization by considering these questions and adopting these wellness actions:

  1. How can you reinvent work to empower wellbeing? Everything about work—relationships between people, your organizational structure and culture, the physical environment, technologies, communications—and the very act of working itself—is an avenue to empower people to bring physical, mental and emotional wellbeing to their jobs every day. Consider what shifts you can make that will give your organization and people the greatest return on wellness.
  2. How can you create the conditions where people bring their best to work and leave work more capable and well than when they came? As a start, invite team members to create a wellness moonshot, an inspiring wellbeing vision and goals to motivate the team.

Encourage team members to connect to a meaningful purpose with these activities:

  • Build wellness into your team’s routines. For example, have team members integrate wellness goals into their work objectives. Or, integrate wellness-raising activities into getting work done—do a walking meeting, block an email-free time to set priorities for the week, or purposely schedule space for “nothing” to give your team much-needed time to think.
  • Focus together. Use a simple mindfulness practice to kick off team meetings to encourage everyone’s full presence. Become more mindful of wellness by starting a team mindfulness practice. Invite a meditation expert to lead the exercise and move from scattered to focused.

Share Your Inspiration
Take a picture of you and others doing an action to cultivate wellness awareness. Then, post it on social media with #wellnessmoonshot. We’ll spread your inspiration to others!

Resources

 

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