HEALTH & WELBEINGme to do some of the best thinking
once I remove myself from the office.
The common concern of any business
leader is that they can’t disconnect, but
as Jim Moffat, CEO and Chair of
Deloitte Consulting, identifies: “A true
leader steps back, trusts his or her
people, and allows them to succeed.
By taking a break from the day-to-day
operations, not only was I spending
some much-needed time with my
family, but also I was able to focus on
the bigger picture of where we were and
where our business was heading”.Often people return from holidays
feeling like they need a holiday. The
key is to set some structure to
completely recharge.- WALK AND EXPLORE EVERY
MORNING FOR 60 MINUTES
Want to be revitalised? Get outdoors.
Nothing beats exercising in the great
outdoors with the fresh air, open
spaces, and warm sunshine. Studies
have shown individuals who train
outdoors when compared to training
indoors report greater feelings of
revitalisation, increased energy and
positive engagement, along with
decreases in tension, confusion, anger
and depression. I also use this as time
to journal my thoughts and plan out
upcoming strategies.- ORGANISE A MASSAGE
Everyone carries stress in different
ways, and studies have found that a
single 45-minute massage can lead to
a reduction in the level of cortisol,
a stress hormone in the blood, a
decrease in cytokine proteins related
to inflammation and allergic reactions,
and a boost in white blood cells that
fight infection. Another study found
that even a 10-minute massage
reduced proteins associated with
inflammation in muscles that had
been exercised to exhaustion, speeding
up the recovery of athletes. Everyonehas different needs, so find a masseur
whose style suits you. You want to feel
loose, refreshed and relaxed after your
massage, not like you have just gone
ten rounds with Mike Tyson. I prefer
a deep tissue style of massage, whereas
my wife prefers the Swedish
aromatherapy type of massage.- GET SOME WATER THERAPY
For centuries, water has been used as a
therapy for improving psychological
and physical disorders. According to
Hippocrates, water therapy ‘allays
lassitude’ (releases physical or mental
weakness). When humans take a cold
swim, once over the initial shock of the
cold, it is usually very invigorating.
This is because wet and cold causes
our surface vessels to vasoconstrict
(tighten up) making blood move from
the surface of your body to the core, as
a means to conserve heat. Not only
does it conserve heat, it also reflexively
bathes the brain and vital organs in
fresh blood. This movement will bring
nutrition, oxygen, and also help gently
detoxify the area. Warm water will
make the vessels vasodilate (relax),
and that will bring blood up to the
surface. This helps blood move back,
away from the core, cleaning out the
core. Medical research also supports
the use of hot and cold baths.
Decreases in stress hormones (like
cortisol) have been reported
with bathing. It has also been shown
that bathing may also help the
balance of levels of the feel-good
neurotransmitter, serotonin.As American high performance coach
and author Mark Verstegen says, “For
you, every day is game day!”“Often people return from holidays feeling like they need a holiday.
The key is to set some structure to completely recharge.”