Summary

It is important to consider ways to look after our wellbeing. Looking after yourself is a skill that needs practice, it can take time. It requires you to be proactive. It is your own personal responsibility, nobody else can do it for you. Subsequently it is important to think about different strategies and ways to improve your wellbeing.

It is not possible to feel good and function well all of the time. Everybody experiences ups and downs in their day to day life, this is normal.

Feeling good is how we feel physically, mentally and emotionally. Everyone will have times where they do not feel good. You may feel physically poorly, or mentally and emotionally drained and struggling. There will be times when you may not feel good or function well and at these times, it is important to have a toolkit that you can use to help yourself and to make positive changes. The more you practice these skills, the more you will understand what works best for you. Subsequently it is important to promote these strategies and focal points to colleagues and students.

Theory

A well-being approach is important because it enables us to do the following:

• Move beyond a narrow focus on what can go wrong in people’s lives, to look also at what makes people’s lives go well.
• Move beyond looking only at what people lack or need, and look at the positive things people bring to situations and communities – their assets. This in turn can help us think about the ways that people can be empowered to contribute to improvements in their own lives.
• Move beyond just focusing on economic circumstances to include the important areas of people’s emotional and social needs. When we understand what makes people’s lives go well, see the positive things people bring to situations, and understand people’s emotional and social needs, projects and services can be better designed to respond to the many aspects that make up people’s lives. There is growing interest among political leaders, local statutory agencies and others in measuring something that really matters – people’s wellbeing. This is reflected most clearly in the Coalition Government’s 2010 commitment to measuring national well-being, which has led to the Office for National Statistics’ (ONS) Measuring National Well-being programme.

There is not just one way or one strategy that one can adopt or focus on in order to improve one’s wellbeing. Subsequently there needs to be a holistic approach adopted which includes focusing on physical, mental and emotional wellbeing. This is likely to include the foundations of wellbeing with focuses on sleep, exercise, diet, connecting with others and taking time out to engage in other activities outside work and study.

Different strategies can be adopted suggest as understanding the stress curve, using a worry diary, focusing on sleep tips to improve the quality of sleep, taking regular breaks from work as this can increase productivity as well as improve sense of wellbeing and many more.

Measurable Benefits

1. By adopting a variety of wellbeing strategies – can increase one’s general wellbeing (physically, mentally and emotionally). These may include using a worry diary, breathing techniques, sleep tips, scheduling or planning your tip throughout the week.
2. Using the Pomodoro technique should improve one’s wellbeing but also help increase productivity. For example – for a 2 hour work cycle – work for 25 minutes and have a 5 minute break, work for 25 minutes and have a 5 minute break and repeat. In those breaks try to get up walk around, stretch and also have something to eat or drink.
3. Focus on the Five ways to Wellbeing – Give, Keep Learning, Be Active, Take Notice and Connect.

How it Works

1. Promote and assist colleagues and students to consider their own wellbeing needs.
2. Direct them to sources of support and resources where they can explore different strategies and focal points – i.e. Wellbeing Support Services
3. Departments to consider inviting members of the Wellbeing Support Services to present advice and strategies to assist colleagues and students to improve their overall wellbeing. This could involve asking a wellbeing adviser to provide 2 minute wellbeing tips before a lecture/ seminar, show a brief wellbeing video at the beginning of a lecture, build in a masterclass or wellbeing skills session into the teach timetables.

Practical Example

Teaching staff/ academics to either invite wellbeing advisers to attend the beginning of lectures and present 2 minute wellbeing tips on a fairly regular or sporadic basis. Alternatively the Wellbeing Support Services are looking at producing two minute wellbeing tips in video format and these could be shown at the beginning of lectures.

Individual Perspective

Some wellbeing advisers have been working closely with their linked departments to introduce two minute tips at the beginning of some lectures in order to get students to think about ways they can improve their own wellbeing. The response from departments has been varied however efforts continue to roll these sessions out. It is hoped that with digital/ recorded two minute tips that this will make the process easier and less time consuming.

Supporting Example: Ms Michaela Octigan

Focal Awareness Techniques

Take a 3 minute breathing space to pause in between presentation or other learning activity

This mindfulness practice helps facilitate an opportunity to check in with thoughts, feelings and body sensations and to anchor attention deliberately on the sensations of breath (or another anchor like the feet on the floor) and then to reset attention to a wider focus. In this way we can bring awareness to what is needed (ie a stretch or cup of tea or refocussing on the task in hand) and a pause from the driven doing mode of conceptual habitual patterns which enables access to creativity and bringing in a broader perspective.

How it Works

1. Consult with group around whether this would be welcome. Invitation and choice are very important and of people do not wish to participate offer other options for brief self care (standing and stretching or having a glass of water).
2. Play the recording on the link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amX1IuYFv8A
3. If it is helpful offer the option for people to briefly feedback before returning to the task.

Practical Example

Beginning teaching with a brief mindful check in to fully arrive and settle attention for learning and wellbeing. Cultivating the attitudinal qualities for mindfulness in threads throughout teaching and learning in the service of wellbeing and learning. https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/contemplative-pedagogy/

Additional Information

Great resource for integrating contemplative approaches into the learning environment: https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/contemplative-pedagogy/

Supporting Example:
Dr Nattavudh Powdthavee

Mental Accounting

The idea is to break down long-term, ‘big picture’ goals that are hard to achieve into small, daily achievable goals. The reason behind this is because people often lose motivation in trying to complete big goals like finishing a PhD. However, most of us find it easier to complete long-term goals by being able to complete small but achievable goals each day.

How it Works

1. Find a big goal that we want to achieve, e.g., finishing a PhD or a dissertation.
2. Calculate what a daily short-term goal would be and how many days we need to complete to be able to achieve the long-term goal. For example, if a PhD requires as to write 80,000 words in four years, how many words a day will we need to write to be able to complete our PhD within four years (answer: 55 words a day).
3. This process allows us to break down big problems into small yet achievable chunks, which in turn makes it easier for us to achieve our long-term goals.