During the course of our busy and stressful work lives, if our mental and physical health is not attended-to with both physical and mental health preventative measures  many health issues can start to accumulate.

You and your staff should be content and as healthy as possible within the work environment - work well-being, being more happy at work means much more productive work, not just another statistic like the information below shows:

Stress at Work

To say we are suffering form a stress epidemic is an understatement. Today's working environment is ever more stressful.

• In 2017/18 stress, depression or anxiety accounted for 44% of all work-related ill health cases and 57% of all working days lost due to ill health*1.
• “Mental Illness Cost UK Economy £94 Billion per year…”*2.
• “More than 1.2 million people die prematurely in Europe every year. Of those deaths 790,000 are linked to tobacco smoking, alcohol consumption, unhealthy diets and lack of physical activity.” (Often the result of stress and depression not being prevented)*2.

In addition to this a truly frightening fact: in 2015 across Europe, over 84,000 deaths due to suicide were caused by stress and depression*2 – it is literally a massive problem that we need to address and prevent before problems tumble out of control.

Work Related Muscular-skeletal Problems

The UK Health & Safety Regulation of 1992 require employers to:

• plan work activities to include breaks or changes of activity
• provide information and training

The UK Health & Safety Executive website states that for employers it is far more cost effective and efficient to provide preventative measures for your staff rather than have the cost and long term absenteeism of stress, depression and work related musculoskeletal problems such as back pain and “Text Neck”…

The total cost of ill health and self reported injuries in the uk was £15.2 Billion in 2015/2016*3. Take action now and adhere to your responsibilities as an employer to prevent ijuries and ill health from computer use and sitting far too long at desks which result in long term back and neck injuries..

I've also spent many years working in high pressure sales and marketing offices in London. I understand the challenges. I have tried many different forms of relaxation, focusing and physical health techniques. I have now refined the practice to the best tools to achieve better results through tried and tested methods. 

Benefit from my over 30 years' experience as a meditation practitioner with over 10 years active facilitation of meditative movement and mindful work: take a one on one or group class to improve you and your personnel's wellbeing in the workspace and learn the following techniques to potentially improve general wellbeing:

Learn & practice The Following Exercises:

1. Concentration - remain relaxed & focused

Techniques to improve concentration in a relaxed manner help you to be more effective within shorter timescales. The techniques also helps prevent mistakes from rushing through actions and cultivates more awareness of the job at hand to enable more thorough optimised process of activity.

1. Relaxing shoulders in the office - Preventing "hunched up" emotions

Stiff shoulders are a sign of stress, suppressed anger and other emotional issues. Let alone bad posture while working with desktop computers and other devices. A Cultivating realxed shoulders release tension, help blood flow and can help prevent work-place illnesses in the upper body and arms. This means that you and your staff can remain calmer in the office with a better posture with a reduced "fight or flight" mentality.

1. Relaxing the neck - preventing painful "text neck"

I mis-alinged neck can contribute to high blood pressure, dizziness, serious pain, numbness, stress and misalignment throughout your body. It can be caused by long periods of time staring at computer screens, looking down at keyboards and devices and also emotional stress. Ever heard of the phrase "they're a real pain in the neck!" - well according to Chinese medicine and modern holistic therapy, neck pain is related thinking about someone that you feel is a real pain in the neck! Releasing this tension is essential as is correct positioning of the neck so that it carries our most heaviest organ - our brains! If your neck is misaligned while you work you could be straining your whole body using unnecceasy muscles to hold your head up. This alone can add a lot of stress and potential long term injuries and a knock on affect contributing to other seriosu health issues. When correct alignment and relaxing stretches are employed we can think better with better blood and oxygen flow to the brain, not requiring to strain or use too many muscles, and feel lighter all round. 

1. Relief from lower back pain - learn easy stretches 

Lower back pain is one of the most common causes to be off work. This costs time and money as well as effecting the employees ability to function well while sitting down. Simple daily exercises while sitting or standing can remove lower back pain and improve core muscles and posture. A bad posture while sitting for long periods can cause many problems long term, you end up putting pressure on your organs by not sitting correctly, possibly another major cause of serious conditions on a long term basis.

Correct posture, a strong core muscles group and quick tools to release tension in the lower back can improve alignment and help enable sitting for periods of time without pain or discomfort.

1. Relax and re-focus the eyes

Eye strain is a massive issue, causing employers and staff immense problems. If only we could learn simple remedial exercises and practices to keep our eyes fit we would be able to concentrate far better and have robust eyes to continue with stressful work with the right relaxation techniques.

1. Relax the Jaw - a major cause of anger and tension

A tight Jaw and clenching/grinding teeth can be hereditary, even so, there are many exercises and practices that could mitigate it. If you're jaw is tight you are more likely to be stressed. Clenching teeth and jaw can also cause neck, ear problems let alone headaches and many other problems associated with it. We can offer holistic therapies to practice for this ailment. A relaxed jaw leads to a more relaxed mind.

1. Guarding The One - like mindfulness but easier to learn and more effective by simply being present while sitting, standing and walking.

We teach how to sit, stand and walk in the most relaxed way possible while keeping correct posture for optimum function and wellbeing. Its surprising how incorrect posture can affect our body and mind, especially long term. With this we incorporate "Guarding The One" - practicing concentrating on what we are doing at the present moment. This can be very liberating and also improve work effectiveness.

1. Fast and effective breathing exercises recommended by Cardiac specialists for relaxation and learning to respond rather than react.

The breath often controls the state of mind.Basic breathing techniques help to slow the heart rate, take some time out to get a more objective perspective and remain focused within stressful environments.

"Being" present in the moment at work can be a real challenge, but with practice and the benefit of my 30 years experience  you can learn quick and easy techniques to start letting go and developing better optimal performance and improved wellbeing in the office. This can be the case even in highly fast paced and stressful environments.

Most importantly, its working on being in the "Flow State" while you work. You can learn how to "be" (not not to be!) in the "Flow State" while sitting, standing or walking. Once you have mastered this practice you can be in the Flow State whatever you are doing and wherever you are more frequently.

Get in touch now for an informal discussion of your goals and objectives for you and your staff and take the first steps to a better more enjoyable work-life balance.

Telephone Caspar on +44(0)7849 890975 for more information or fill in our enquiry form for more information.

References:

*1: Health & Safety Executive – “Work related stress depression or anxiety statistics in Great Britain, 2018”.

*2: OECD

*3: Health & Safety Executive Statisitcis 2015/2016 http://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/cost.htm