Introducing the Wellbeing Lab
The intention of the Wellbeing Lab is to create space to pause and (re) connect with:
- What wellbeing means for you
- What you need to be well and resilient
- How wellbeing and inner work impacts you, your leadership, and your systems change work
Areas that Influence Wellbeing
Below you will find our proposed 10 Areas to Cultivate Wellbeing. While we list these aspects of wellbeing as separate dimensions, it is important to remember that these dimensions are interdependent and inter-connected. You can use the Wellbeing Wheel below for a quick self-assessment of your wellbeing and resilience (as a dimension of wellbeing).
Peer Coaching Conversations
Download the instructions on how to facilitate a coaching conversation with your one or more peers. This is a really helpful tool to support your peers in exploring a wellbeing or leadership challenge - to support them in surfacing their own wisdom and clarifying their next move.
Building Resilience as Leaders
Below you can find the recording of Session 2 where Suzanne accompanies us in exploring how we feel and experience danger and safety (which is something our bodies do before our minds). Make sure to also download the exercises to explore and acknowledge the functions of your own nervous system and how you can help yourself self-regulate and bring yourself from a triggered reactive state to a settled state.
Self-care as self-preservation
Below you can find the recording of Session 3 where Reggie shares his story on how he navigated extreme adversity by taking care of his wellbeing and how adopting practices to take care of his body and mind has saved his life and his ability to lead impressive social justice work.
It all starts with Awareness
Below you can find some resources to continue practice and deep dive into building and bringing more awareness to our inner, outer, and thoughts realms, so that we can shift from reacting to responding.
The three realms of awareness:
- Inner realm - sensations, embodied feelings, embodied emotions. Ask yourself, what am I noticing in my body? If I am experiencing an emotion, how does that show up in my body?
- Outer realm - five senses. What am I noticing in my environment?
- Thought realm - thoughts, images, memories.
Guided experience:
- Taking our seat - An awareness practice to support you to arrive
- Seat of support practice - An awareness practice to connect with the support you need for yourself. Note: We missed the first few seconds of the meditation, so we invite you to first centre yourself and connect to an experience, person, object that provides you support.
Some Resources shared by Sharon:
- More than 170 essential practices initiated by Sharon on SoundCloud
- Recommended readings
- Gestalt Therapy Verbatim by Frederick Perls
- The Wisdom of No Escape by Pema Chodron
Social Injustice
The first step to valuing diversity is to be open to recognizing new and different perspectives from which to see things, beyond what we consider normal. Below you can find a summary of what we covered during the session and a list of recommended readings.
Mindsets & Storytelling
Stories that shape our lives and identities. We looked at two ways to arrive with stories:
- the stories that we say to make meaning of the world in a way that makes most sense to us;
- the stories that are already existing in their own right – as their beings in their own right - old stories have been told over time and capture something of what it means to be human, that enter our world and hold a mirror to who we are.
Reflect on the story you say: What is the story you tell yourself? What is the story you constructed about yourself? How does it resource you or not? And how does it have a shadow side?
Listen to the following story that Giles shared during the session and reflect on the following: Are you listening to it with new ears? How is the story a mirror to yourself? What have you seen reflected back in as a result of the story arriving? You can do this reflection exercise with any of the stories that you hear.
Mission or Money?
Bringing awareness to the beliefs that influence our relationship with money is the first step towards building a healthier relationship with money, in letting them go and identifying our personal truths and more empowering beliefs.
Recommended readings:
- The Soul of Money: Reclaiming the Wealth of Our Inner Resources by Lynne Twist
- Changing the game by Luca Simons
- Happy Money by Elizabeth Dunn
Relationship Matters
To reflect on relationship and us as relational creatures (connected & differentiated)
Below are Insights from several different disciplines/ways of knowing:
* Social Science research study: Watch video (4 mins)
3 big lessons about relationships from the Harvard study: 1) Social connections are really good for us; 2) The quality of your close relationships matters; and 3) Good relationships protect our bodies and brains.
* Cultural and spiritual wisdom traditions. Watch Ubuntu video (2 mins)
Wisdom traditions recognize both universal connectedness & the wonder of diversity/differentiation.
* Interpersonal neurobiology. Watch “Mwe” video (2 mins)
"me + we" = "MWe". We are differentiated as a me and interconnected as a we.
Explore a relationship that matters & Learn a new practice for connection and differentiation
About the Imago Dialogue: it aims at creating understanding, empathy, and safety in a relationship. Through the four steps of mirroring, summary, validation, and empathy we reflected on one relationship that matters to us (a family member, friend, colleague, partner). The idea behind the Imago Dialogue is the one of the encounter, the visit. When we have a dialogue, we invite the other person to our world because we want to share something that is important and real to us and the visitor crosses a bridge to enter your world.
Recommended readings & Follow-up Resources:
- Getting the Love You Want: A Guide for Couples by Harville Hendrix
- https://safeconversations.com/
- https://imagorelationships.org/
Creativity & Changemakers
Art is a tool to promote the wellbeing of agents of change
The myth of creativity is our belief that creativity is something that only a few people can use/do. Instead, everyone is an artist. We are very creative since childhood but we often lose our creative drive as adults, overwhelmed by our lives and to-do lists. Creativity is something that anyone can do and use – to support their wellbeing. Aart and creativity can have a huge impact on ourselves: from initiating positive chemical changes to allow us to bring a different perspective to the things we do, opening up to alternatives, new possibilities, and new solutions to problems – and thus bringing more happiness and enjoyment to our life and work as social change leaders.
Group or Individual Exercise: Re-create the Journey
Create a Masterpiece (no pressure!) of your journey at the Wellbeing Lab (or any other journey):
* You can draw it..
* You can sign in..
* You can act it..
* But you can fake it..
Use your imagination and creative drive to create what the journey has been and represented for you. Then.. you can share it or keep it for yourself!
Individual Exercise: Self-portrait & Self-created-future
Create your self-portrait (there are so many ways to do it): how do you see yourself now that you reach the end of the journey? When drawing, try to reflect on the journey and the impact it had on you, on
* What you believe
* What you learn and live
* What you rethink
* What you think
You are in control and lead your own journey. What is your commitment to wellbeing going forward?
Desk Hacks for Mindfulness
Below you can find some quick meditations and grounding practices to help you ground and take a mindful moment.
Arriving exercise to (re)connect with the present moment and your intention for the day
Listen to the arriving exercise:
Tapping & Shaking exercise to help shift stress to focused energy
Arriving exercise to bring yourself to the here-and-now, focus on your wellbeing, self-care, and self-love
Offer your body an opportunity to balance and brighten up with some easy-at-your-desk body exercises
Rest is productive, and your mind will benefit from it. See below the practice outline.
- Shoulder shrugs and Wrist circles [00:00-00:57-2:25]
- Finger stretches and shoulder stretches [2:41-3:56]
- Face massage [3:57-5:12]
- Neck stretches [6:08-9:53]
- Basic Stretches while standing [9:54-15:26]
- Seated again, notice the shifts in the body & deep breathing [15:34-16:28]
- Eye massage [16:29-17:13]
Exercise to connect with the body and energise it