The College Magazine Summer 2022

Live Worldwise
Live Worldwise
Dulwich College Beijing Takes Staff Wellbeing at Heart
By Dr Tabitha Healey
When the world became aware
of COVID-19, the feeling was
this was going to be a short-lived
inconvenience. Little did any of us
predict the extraordinary marathon
of uncertainty that this would
become. A sector particularly hard
hit has been education, as schools
grapple with constantly changing circumstances, fear, isolation
from friends, family and the familiar all whilst trying to ensure
a consistent schooling experience for their students.
My background is 20 years as a Medical Oncologist,
specialising in the care of young women with breast and
ovarian cancers. Caring for the terminally ill provides
extraordinary insights into how people respond to incredible
challenges. This led to my passion for wellbeing and a career
shift to Executive and Personal Coaching, assisting people in
living their best lives, whatever is thrown at them.
Dulwich School Beijing has been acutely aware of the
importance of prioritising and supporting staff wellbeing,
recognising that the positive reverberations of this would
be felt throughout the broader school community.
Wellbeing is defined as not merely the absence of disease
but optimisation of a person’s physical, mental, emotional
and social health. It is undeniable that stress levels have
soared in recent years: time pressure, pressure to compete
and perform, erosion of work/life boundaries and now,
the addition of a pandemic. We are seeing soaring rates of
burnout and compassion fatigue in the caring professions.
Whilst some stressors can be addressed by reviewing
priorities and adjusting expectations, many are fixed.
The response in this setting needs to be an investment in
wellbeing, which then resets how an individual responds to
the stressors they are exposed to.
The body of research for boosting wellbeing and enhancing
stress resilience is vast. To streamline this for Dulwich College
Beijing, we created the S.P.A.C.E program based on the five
pillars of:
• Sleep
• Pause (mindfulness meditation and digital
detoxification)
• Appreciation
• Compassion and Connection
• Energy (Exercise and Eat)
A series of lectures on each of these pillars allows staff
to learn the science behind why the investment in each
of these simple strategies is achievable and worthwhile.
Behavioural change is then encouraged by participation
in follow-up activities, all whilst strengthening community
through group participation.
Each of these pillars has been demonstrated to
downregulate stress hormones, improve the way our brain
functions and reduce long term wear and tear on our DNA,
thus reducing ageing and illness. They are all free, simple
and readily accessible: it simply comes down to whether we
make them a priority or not.
So, what are the shifts that you can make to overhaul your
wellbeing and strengthen your ability to tolerate stress and
uncertainty? Sleep is vital and a routine essential. Where
possible going to sleep and getting up at the same time
each day, aiming for 7-9 hours and exposing yourself to 10
minutes of natural light in the morning will transform the
quality of your sleep and set you up for the day.
Pausing to take 10-15 minutes to sit quietly with your
thoughts, allowing them to pass and then return to
focussing on your breath, has been demonstrated to reduce
stress, anxiety and depression, increase concentration
and creativity and remarkably improve immune function
and reduce pain. The greatest barrier to achieving quiet
is our relationship with technology, and I implore you to
review how you interact with your devices. Are you actively
engaged online or simply mindlessly scrolling? Research
reports that we check our phones every 12 minutes. We
spend 5 minutes sorting a task, it then takes 23 minutes to
return to our previous level of productivity. So, in fact, we
are never actually achieving optimal performance.
Appreciation of what we have rather than what we don’t,
and expressing gratitude for this, increases life satisfaction,
improves relationships and reduces toxic emotions and
stress. Write down three things for which you are grateful
before bed, share gratitude with family and friends or take a
photo each day that allows you to savour the simple things
for which we are all grateful. As you practice gratitude, you
will find that, like exercising a muscle, it becomes easier,
stronger and your natural state.
We are all hardwired for connection, love and belonging.
Shockingly, loneliness (a lack of meaningful relationships)
has been estimated to shorten life span by 15 years and
has higher mortality than smoking, diabetes or obesity
due to the release of the stress hormone cortisol and the
impact this has on the body. When we are overwhelmed
and stressed, the first thing we do is often to withdraw
from human interaction, which sadly only exacerbates
our distress. Rewarding human connections requires
a foundation of compassion: understanding another’s
experience and providing assistance. Compassion makes
the unbearable bearable, so look at your week and
build in opportunities to be kind to yourself and connect
compassionately with others.
Finally, we turn to energy. We all know what it feels like to
let our batteries run low, and yet I am reasonably confident
that you would not allow that to happen to your phone.
In order to thrive, we need to replenish our energy, which
requires regular exercise and appropriate fuel. Schedule
moderate-intensity exercise at least three times per week
for 45 minutes or 3 x 15-minute sessions of high intensity,
interval training. If you can, take your exercise outdoors as
connecting with nature amplifies the benefits. Fuel your
body with real food, preferably whole grain and plant-based,
full of colour and variety.
Congratulations must be given to the Dulwich College Beijing
Wellbeing Committee, which has embraced the program
and has already provided extraordinary opportunities for the
staff to expand their minds, connect with others and invest
in themselves.
12 beijing.dulwich.org
The College Magazine (Beijing)
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