Newsletter 83 -Dec 15/Jan 16 features an Ask the Expert, Resources & more

 

Welcome to the Christmas 2015 edition of In Equilibrium

We took a moment to think about the year and rather than making a to-do list of outstanding tasks for 2016, thought we’d appreciate and share with you some of our year’s highlights, both professional and personal.

As a company, In Equilibrium are celebrating a year which saw us work with many new customers; welcome 4 new trainers to our established team of experts; introduce our first e-learning course on Personal Resilience and a 16 hour face-to-face Mindfulness Programme; and continue to regularly add free resources to our blog.

We’ve saved our personal highlights for the end of this newsletter in which you’ll also find:

• Details of our new resources pages on Mental Health Awareness and Bullying Awareness
• A seasonal stress tip offering a solution to a behaviour trait many of us will recognise at this time of the year
• A valuable answer by Sara Rawstron to an Ask the Expert question from a reader who’s reassessing his work/life balance following a recent bereavement
• Links to some valuable resources and articles from external sources

Details about all our courses and Resources are available on our website.

In Equilibrium News​

 NEW – Mental Health Awareness Resources

We recently added a new mental health awareness resources page to our website to offer our readers links to resources on topics such as mental health – workplace adjustments, mental health statistics, stigma and anxiety.

NEW – Bullying Awareness Resources

Another new page on our website offers resources on all aspects of bullying with links to articles on raising awareness, different types of bullying behaviour, the effects of bullying both on the individual and the organisation, myths about bullying, legal support and the Equality Act, and suggested alternative management styles and behaviours.​​

NEW – Bullying at Work Behaviours

This recent addition to our video channel looks at typical bullying behaviours, both obvious and obscure.

View our Video Channel here

Employee Excellence Awards 2015

In Equilibrium were delighted to be a sponsor of Argyll and Bute Council’s 2015 Employee Excellence Awards and would like to congratulate all the recipients.

Recent Articles Added To Our Blog Include:

Are mindfulness teachers accredited?
Currently in the UK mindfulness teachers are not regulated, in this article we provide details about the qualifications and experience our mindfulness trainers’ offer.

​Five short articles to our series on aspects of resilience:

How regulating our emotions can transform our relationships
How do you build self-awareness?
Six tips to help improve your self-esteem
Is self-care an indulgence or an essential part of resilience?
Where does your self-efficacy come from?

​Stress Management Tip

Don’t sweat the small stuff this Christmas​

Read our Stress Management Tip here …
Read our tips archive here …

Ask the Expert

​In this edition, Executive Coach and HR Specialist on Employee Wellbeing, Sara Rawstron, helps a reader to consider all his options following a bereavement which led him to reassess his role at work and the demands it places on him.

The Question

“I have recently lost a good friend who died suddenly in his early fifties. The grieving process has made me reassess my own life and I realise that my work is placing too high a burden on me and, as a consequence, on those dear to me. The company I have worked for for many years has an accepted long hour’s culture which demands much of my time and energy and has the obvious knock-on effect on my personal life. I don’t feel there is anything I can do to change things at work so am considering handing in my notice and leaving. My wife thinks I’m crazy as I have nothing to go to and my age may count against me in finding another position but I feel there must be more to life than driving myself into an early grave. I would welcome your thoughts.”

Read our Ask the Expert Q & A here …

If you found Sara’s answer helpful you may be interested in the following courses:
Developing Personal Resilience
Stress Management Techniques

You can read our previous Ask the Expert Questions and Answers here …

Amanda’s Column

Amanda considers the news which has thrown Scotland into turmoil and finds there are some positives to recent events.

Read Amanda’s Column

The archive of Amanda’s column is available here …

Resources

An All-Party Parliamentary Group’s report into the benefits of mindfulness and a policy discussion paper on workplace bullying and harassment are featured.

Click here to see this edition’s resources

Quotations

“Time is what we want most, but what we use worst.”
William Penn, English Quaker leader and colonist
1644  – 1718

 

“There  are only two days in the year that nothing can be done. One is called Yesterday and the other is called Tomorrow. Today is the right day to Love, Believe, Do and mostly Live.”
H.Dalai Lama XIV
born 1935

News from the Outside

Click here to see the following selection of articles:

• Easy Ways to Manage Anxiety
• National Stress Awareness Day: Mind tips target three in four employees suffering workplace stress
• The effects of nutrition on health and wellbeing
• 3 strategies for success under stress
• Everything you do to fight stress is wrong

 

… and finally …

It’s always easy to think of things you haven’t done or achieved this year so, to finish on a positive note, we thought we’d end with a little insight into our team’s personal highlights of the year:

• Jan finally realised her dream of a family holiday touring the North of Scotland in their Bongo. She’s left with many happy memories but also discovered the pitfalls of those exciting roof-beds when a young one is not so well during the night!
• Jet-setting Fiona‘s trip to LA was her highlight and, despite misgivings about missing her kids, she found packing for herself, travelling by herself, being able to drink gin on the plane and then spend two weeks pottering about with her husband, going for great food, waking up in a beach house overlooking the sea and enjoying the luxury of lie-ins listening to the waves more than made up for it. And then she came home to her kids and her cat, that same cat she wasn’t keen on them getting last year but whose advent calendar she bought before the kids’ this year!
• Amanda‘s daughter graduated with a law degree from Edinburgh University and during the graduation ceremony she found herself wondering, not for the first time, if she’d spent too long chatting in the toilets whilst a baby swap had taken place in the maternity ward 22 years ago!
• After missing out on seeing the Lion King after ankle surgery, Ellie finally made it to see ‘The Bodyguard’ becoming so engrossed in the music she forgot about her dodgy ankle and was up singing and dancing in the aisles by the end of the night to ‘Queen of the Night’!
• The time was 10.40pm on the 25th June 2015.  Normally, Alastair would have just brushed his teeth and be getting into bed but on this occasion he was about to hit his first shot in a golf tournament.  The venue was Akureyri, Iceland’s most Northerly city and the golf tournament was the Arctic Open, which hundreds of golfers come to each year to play under the midnight sun!  Akureyri Golf Club is recognised by the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews as the most northerly 18 hole golf course in the world.
  By the 3rd hole the sun was slipping behind the mountains but not the horizon. So, although the temperature had dropped to below zero, it was still as bright as a Scottish summer day.  If the golf was disappointing he never tired of the spectacular landscape with snowy peaks and the combination of sunset and sunrise colours reflecting off distant glaciers.  Plus there was the tweeting of the birds as they prepared for sunset and then as they welcomed the dawn.  This was an experience not to be forgotten and to cap it all Alastair won an i-pad for having the best score in the geriatric section!

 

Thank you for taking the time to read our newsletter.  We are always delighted to hear from our readers, so if you would like to share your comments or suggestions with us, please don’t hesitate to contact us at: [email protected].