WOMENS HEALTH DO YOU KNOW HOW TO BE HEALTHY AND SAFE IN THE WORKPLACE? To mark World Day for <strong>Health</strong> and Safety at Work, we spoke with the head of the empowering organization How Women Work, Evridiki Iliaki, about the challenges that women face in business, and how she coaches them to overcome these difficulties. 28 HEALTH AND LIFE
H ow can women can be more successful in the workplace; how can they develop peace and health in their lives? This year we hosted a program entitled “Success in Wellness” where we tried to give the recipe for success. We focused on the three most important ingredients: • Connection with body and soul (physical and mental health) • Posture/ fitness • <strong>Health</strong>y diet Connection with Body and Soul It is important to listen to your intuition, and become connected with your inner feelings as well as your body. A work out regime that incorporates some breathing exercises helps to increase both energy and confidence, which are vital, especially in the workplace. Posture/Fitness It is very important to take care your body, to keep it healthy and fit. There is a whole science behind how posture affects your work and your body. Practicing different types of exercises can get your blood circulating and boost your energy, but more importantly can create good, strong posture. <strong>Health</strong>y Diet Eating a diet full of fresh, vibrant, healthy food is essential for wellbeing. This will ensure your levels of serotonin, dopamine and oxytocin are high, which creates feelings of happiness, energy and inner peace. Basically, these three aspects need to be balanced for physical and emotional health. The relaxation provided by a proper diet, exercise and connection with yourself will help you face the difficulties of everyday life, in and out of the workplace. This is important because work is often a difficult place for women, and this stress can be felt even more acutely if you also have a family to look after. You need energy to cope with your work, household, and self-care – a woman’s life is very demanding, so we need to find a healthy balance. As a life coach, what do you think are the main aspects to having a healthy work and family relationship? My consulting company, Elite Consulting, offers corporate coaching—we get into organizations and offer workshops, seminars and motivational talks to show people how to be healthy at work. Firstly, it is about information: for example, letting people know how dangerous it can be to sit for 8 hours a day. I know some women who sit in a chair for work between 8 and 16 hours a day, which can lead to a damaged spine. We cannot sacrifice everything just for work and making money—it is easy to forget about work health and safety, but doing so can be dangerous to our health. It’s World Day for <strong>Health</strong> and Safety at Work, can you tell us a bit about how women can stay safe and healthy in the workplace? So, for example, you can stand up and take a short walk around the office every hour. Another option is to have an office treadmill or a standing desk, or chairs that offer proper back support. Our Consulting Service offers specialized advice fitting to the needs of each organization.- There’s a recession going on and companies are less interested in investing in health, but think: employees who are unhealthy have less energy and are less productive. Another thing we teach is team-building. This is particularly important because there seems to be a lot of employee friction going on, which definitely has something to do with lack of health/emotional balance. We help women to realize that we’re all in it together, and to work together and support each other in the workplace. This creates a much better working environment. Can you give us some tips on how women can achieve health and safety at work? From my experience, health and safety is basically about what feels right to you • Be mindful of your posture and adjust it when necessary. • Watch your breathing and every now and then take a deep breath and exhale slowly. • Notice where tension occurs, massage that area to allow the blood to flow. • Get professional training for health and safety at work with us or another professional. • Take a walk around the office every hour to move your body and improve circulation. • Drink plenty of water. • Praying and meditation helps to connect with yourself and have a few minutes to silence your mind. • Make sure you have healthy snacks and a healthy lunch. • Exercise while you are working, maybe stand up while on the computer, and take the stairs instead of the elevator. • Organize your time and structure your workload. • If you feel you can’t handle the workload, talk to your boss and communicate your concerns. Another thing to focus on is diet. The high rates of diabetes and obesity are alarming. Not cooking and relying on take-out food means we are eating too much sugar and processed foods. I advise women to find time to cook some food and prepare fresh food to take to work. Reducing junk food and animal products, and replacing them with natural, healthy, fresh food will also help improve health and energy levels. If you feel eating healthy is possible, go vegetarian or vegan, there are more and more restaurants offering healthy menus. The best place I go to is Evergreen Organics. What workshops do you offer at the moment? After doing surveys, we discovered that many women, especially professional women face difficulty with emotional over-eating. So that will be the topic for one of our workshops this year, helping women to understand why they go through this and how they can overcome emotional over-eating. This year we completely focused our monthly workshops and sessions on health. Now we are announcing our special Summer Retreat for 25th June. <strong>Health</strong> is important in all aspects of life, but especially at work. Keeping yourself well balanced, both physically and emotionally, helps you to be more productive, more relaxed, more energized, and better able to cope with work and family life. Take charge of your health and slowly build your own balanced lifestyle, you won’t believe the difference it will bring to your life: whether it’s a new exercise regime, a new diet, or even a short vacation, you’ll be glad you did! 29 APRIL <strong>2017</strong>
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