Workplace wellness tips

South West Londoner and ‘Corporate Clown Coach’ Em Stroud uses techniques mastered from the art of clowning to help people improve their wellbeing at work and in life by learning tools that stop stress from taking hold.

Here, she shares her top seven tips for workplace wellness, which when combined can help you connect to yourself with kindness, respond instead of react and feel a sense of accomplishment after the end of the working day.

Breathe

Instead of rushing through your day, it’s more important than ever to find a few minutes to breathe before you click ‘join’ on your next online meeting or walk into a room. This will help ground you throughout the day cultivating moments of calm.

The 45 minute rule

There is no reason why any meeting needs to be longer than 45 minutes. By capping meeting time in this way, you gain at least 15 minutes in every hour to create vital space for you to proactively plan breaks and priorities that will help focus on work tasks plotted in around calls.

Find little pockets of joy

We’ve all heard of the notion around what ‘sparks joy’ however, how we interpret this is very different for each one of us. When it comes to the working day, allow yourself ‘little pockets of joy’ to take place. Whether that’s taking five minutes to go outside and look up at the sky, watching cat videos or a clip of your favourite comedian on YouTube, building joy into your day is a guaranteed boost to wellbeing.

Make technology work for you

Do you find the constant buzz of notifications and emails can make the day whizz by and you feel stressed or even guilty about how little you’ve ticked off your to-do list? We’re often faced with interruptions from technology, so why not try a practical approach by switching off all notifications and see how much better you feel. When you respond -instead of react- to the day’s requests, you’ll notice how much more space you have to stop stress taking hold.

Be kind to yourself

We are all working out who we are in this new world, and it is only by taking some time out each day that we can ask ourselves ‘what do I need and what do I want’, which is an act of kindness to self. Without this crucial step, we can become more stressed, saying yes to things we later realise we can’t fulfil, with the negative cycle of being a ‘people pleaser’ accelerating stress levels and feeling overwhelmed.

It’s OK to say no

An extension of being kind to yourself, having a mechanism to decline work can also include ‘creating a longer yes’, which you might find easier in the first instance if you find it hard to say ‘no’.Giving yourself permission to consider the cost to yourself can include having responses at-the-ready such as ‘If I can’t help you with this, have you got other people that can help you?’ or ‘I’d love to help you with this but I’ll come back to you tomorrow, if that’s OK?’ will create space for you to understand where you’re at and what capacity you have or don’t have.

Prioritise you

In order to show-up for colleagues in this new working world, you have to focus on yourself. Taking five to ten minutes at the start of each day to write down the work you have to do for you each day will allow you to better accommodate colleagues, taking the focus of your day into proactive not reactive mode where you feel happier and more fulfilled.

‘Lessons from a Clown’ and ‘Lessons from a Clown – ThePlaybook’ by Em Stroud are available to purchase in paperback from Amazon and includes 5 key lessons towards a happier life. Em also hosts the ‘Clowning around’ podcast. For more information visit https://emmastroud.london

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