Health & Life Magazine April 2017

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
• Healthy 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.
Healthy 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 Health 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.
Health 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!
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APRIL 2017