It started with a cough. And then another one. And a third and a sniffle. It seemed surreal, had Corona (this is before we all called it Covid-19) snuck into our office?
Without knowing, we acted as if the virus had come for a visit and we literally fled the office and became remote workers almost instantly. The IT team did their piece and off we went to a new reality.
Initially our focus was monitoring physical health with a daily morning and late afternoon call to see if everyone was still healthy or if work had to be handed over. We took a sigh of relief after two weeks when we knew that noone had been infected by our First Cougher.
Weeks later it became clear that living in a pandemic is hard, nervewracking and we all read too much news and became obsessed with statistics, epidemology and speculation.
It was time to focus on mental health, routines and positivity.
As always, Pamela Wilson, our holistic wellness guru had the answer.
Her Monday Motivation Zoom sessions (what else?) became something we longed for and it pulled us together nicely. A presentation and comforting talk was just the right way to start the week. The openness and heartfelt talks we had will stay with us for years to come.
We covered;
How to Support one another
Staying positive, healthy and productive in a pandemic
Three ways to buld resilience
Eat for Energy
How to keep team spirit in spite of not seeing each other
Self-Leadership
After a few months we moved on to
Focus
Hacks for productivity
Daily Rituals for Wellbeing
What would Seneca do?
The Importance of Sleep
There were silver linings!
– The team started sharing food recipes and there were some really yummie ones and they were all healthy.
– A step counter challenge was initiated between a few team members and it got us outside.
– Walking meetings allowed us to kill two birds with one stone.
The Zoom meetings gave us some more familiarity with each others’ homes, who has a cat, flower arrangements, spouses bathrobes, and kids playing in the background. It fostered closeness, understanding and we learned to be patient with one another. Everyone had some sort of added stress ranging from old parents that needed help, close ones that were in riskgroups or living far from their original home.
It was easy for us to set this up since we have worked on holistic programs, presentations and online services called Healthy Relocation for many years already. We are, simply put, interested in this and talking about meditation and yoga is a low hanging fruit in our office.
Happiness is a decision – you can be inspired or why not give this away!
Sharing is caring and we have invited others to join our Monday Motivation calls and you can be part of this too!