Building healthy habits for mental health and wellbeing
POINT3S OF VIEW BY CO-FOUNDER Sion Stansfield
“You only know a good sailor in rough seas”
I find this metaphor for life to be so true and impactful. Rough seas are sadly something that at different points in our lives we will all face, whether that’s on a global scale or on an individual level, whether that’s in the workplace or in our home lives.
So, what can we do to be the best version of ourselves, the sailor that is able to navigate choppy waters?
We’re huge believers at POINT3 in taking small steps to cultivate health and wellbeing. Those small steps – or habits – that when carried out as a standalone action will have very little impact, but when repeated consistently and mixed with other equally small steps (habits) they combine together to have a much larger impact. Our philosophy since we founded the business back in 2018 was “to be a little bit better today than yesterday and a little bit better tomorrow than today”.
And we caveat this philosophy knowing that it won’t always go to plan, and that’s okay. If we are consistent more often than not, those days when it doesn’t go to plan, when the waters get a bit choppy, we’ll be more effective skippers, able to successfully negotiate the rough seas of life.
And the science and research also supports this approach, of little and often, to be the most effective way to build sustainable healthy habits into our lives.
This is why we created our Building Healthy Habits mindset training session and 30 day programme… it was born during the first lock-down in June 2020, primarily as a basis to support ourselves through the uncertainty of the pandemic. I, as many of us did, found my mental wellbeing slipping and I knew I had to build in little habits and routines to support me through the lock-down days.
I started to build in a little bit of reading every night to help me switch off before bed. That’s when I started researching all the different habit creation books out there. And that’s when a plan for our own proprietary habit creation programme started taking shape – distilling all the research into our 5-step programme designed to help habits stick.
Without giving it all away (we’re happy to talk you through it if you’d like more information!) – but here’s an overview to our Building Healthy Habits programme:
- It’s backed by science and research
- It includes a 5 step process taking theories from a collection of the world’s most renowned behavioural scientists and habit experts
- It focuses on the 4 pillars of sleep, nutrition, movement and mindfulness
- Why the big 4? Well, it’s no secret that the world’s leaders and top athletes all have healthy habits in these areas, building their resilience and performance
So, why might this programme help your people in workplace:
- This is a powerful way to bring the team together – to connect and learn about each other beyond the day job
- We hear that people know what they should be doing but they find it hard to put into practice… by going through this programme together everyone will become more accountable to themselves and each other
- And science backs this – all the evidence shows that it’s hard to build sustainable healthy habits into our lives
- But if you can, all the evidence shows you will be more productive if you have a routine of healthy habits in the 4 areas of sleep, nutrition, movement and mindfulness
- This will give your people permission to prioritise their mental health and wellbeing – and then to take individual responsibility to support themselves going forward so that they can reach their highest potential
The reality of life is that we will all face choppy waters – in the workplace and beyond. When individuals within your organisation have a routine of healthy habits in place they will be more resilient to the waves and the wind, navigating the challenges as they come as individuals and teams.
What our clients say about our Building Healthy Habits programme;
James Bell, Managing Director, Michael Bell Communications said:
“It was brilliant… a perfectly planned course that brought my team together once a week to help us all gain a better appreciation on what we can all do to improve our wellbeing physically and emotionally… the 45 mins sessions were just right and the information bite-sized and well presented to be able to take away and implement into our daily routines.”
If you’d like to find out more about our Building Healthy Habits programme or our other mental health and mindset training sessions, get in touch here.