Employee Wellbeing Hub News#2
On the Hub this week – Positive Wellbeing
Welcome to Health Breaks 2022
#2 - POSITIVITY
Over the past month we have been conducting our Hit Refresh Program. We developed this program as we, like many others, just wanted to move on from the last two years of the pandemic. We want to shine the torch to help people out of the shadows and into the next positive chapter of life.
Hit Refresh has as its foundation the PERMA Model of positive psychology (1). PERMA identifies the 5 characteristics that work together to bring positivity and happiness into people’s lives.
P stands for Positive Emotions. The concept here is that if we can add humour, joy, excitement, and pleasure into our daily lives at work or at home we will feel more positive. This may entail reflecting on the things that bring you these positive emotions and doing them more often. Or it may involve adding new things into your daily life that involve positive emotions. This can include playing with your pet, sharing a joke, dancing or singing, walking in the sun or simply smiling at someone else.
E represents Engagement. When you do something you enjoy, like a hobby, you may participate purely for the sake of doing it rather than for the outcome it may achieve. You may do something that absorbs you in the moment and gives you a sense of ‘flow’. This happens easily when it comes to our hobbies, but it can also be achieved in the workplace. If you apply your key strengths to the things you do, you are more likely to be positively engaged. For instance, if one of your strengths is creativity, think of creative ways to do the task at hand. Perhaps be creative in the way you decorate your work space or change the colour background on your desktop. We encourage Hit Refresh participants to discover what their key strengths are through a range of activities we have developed on the app. However, a good starting point is the VIA Character Strengths surveys.
R is for Positive Relationships. We ask our participants to think of ways they can make their interactions with others more positive. This could include things like performing acts of kindness, showing gratitude or simply showing enthusiasm for others (for instance, when they arrive or call you or when something goes well for them).
M stands for Meaning. Having a purpose and finding a meaning to make sense of what you do leads to improved happiness. An activity that we ask our participants to complete is to set goals, whether big or small, daily or long term.
A -represents Achievement. If goals are set as per above, then having a way to both measure your performance and celebrate your big and small successes is important. We provide tools for goal setting, action planning and performance check lists to facilitate this.
In addition to PERMA, positive psychologists recognise the importance of healthy behaviours in daily life and how these contribute to happiness. Therefore, we added SEW to our Hit Refresh Program. SEW stands for Sleep, Exercise and Water Intake. Participants are encouraged to reach set targets and record if they gained 8 hours of sleep, performed some exercise (on our app) and drank 8 glasses of water.
The program also encourages participants to support each other by sending positive messages of support and motivation. We also provoke a sense of togetherness by encouraging and rewarding the sharing of photos and messages for display in the gallery on the app. As we have learned over the past 2 years, social support and interaction is a vital part of achieving happiness and maintaining a positive mindset.
We look forward to sharing our statistics and findings from our program evaluations over the next month.
(References:
- Seligman, M. E. (2012). Flourish: A visionary new understanding of happiness and well-being. New Y0rk, NY: Atria Paperback.
- https://positivepsychology.com/perma-model/
- https://www.viacharacter.org/
The Hit Refresh Program is centered around developing and sustaining a positivity mindset. As a starting point, it’s worthwhile looking at what happiness is and how we achieve it. Is happiness simply the absence of negative emotions?
For instance, if we rid ourselves of anger, guit, envy and even stress, does it automatically make us feel happiness instead? Removing negative emotions is uesful in moving us from -5 to 0. But moving from 0 to 5 requires more.
If we explore how we can feel more positive emotions, be engaged in what we do, nurture good relationships, find meaning in our life and achieve our goals, we can move into more of a flourishing state.
This is enhanced through adopting healthy behaviours like sleep, exercise and drinking adequate water.
A daily activity that our Hit Refresh participants do is to get together and spin the Positivity Wheel. The spinner has activities and tasks that relate to elements of PERMA. By spending 5 minutes spinning the wheel and doing their daily activity, participants make a commitment to thinking and acting in a positive way that sets them up for the day. A simple touch point such as this, if performed on a daily basis, has the capacity to compound and create positive change for wellbeing.
Repeating daily habits:
The 4 week Hit Refresh Program finishes with the start line. In other words, the 4 weeks of spinning the Positivity Wheel and ensuring your sleep, exercise and water intake is attended to consolidates by becoming your ‘new normal’. Continuing these habits independently will help you maintain positive wellbeing.
This is why we continue with challenging you to maintain your Streak of 22+ on the Health Breaks app dashboard. Login daily with the QR code below.
Your Health and Wellbeing Calendar – This month – Kindness
Acts of kindness can incorporate many elements of PERMA. For a start, the kind act makes the recipient feel great and you also ‘walk away’ feeling fulfilled and wonderful (positive emotions). Performing a kind act involves being present (engaged) and involves positive interactions (relationships). Completing this act is also an achievement and helps you to feel a sense of meaningfulness.
Download the full calendar here.
Health Coaching
For members of Health Breaks:
Your organisation aims to support your health and wellbeing any way they can. Sometimes having a private and confidential talk with a Health Coach can help you with any problems you are facing, at work and beyond.
Book in for a 15min chat to start with and we can work on a plan together.
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