Stress Awareness Month 2022 runs throughout April and this year’s theme is very poignantly Community. WellGiving was set up during the pandemic to bridge the gap between hybrid/remote workers so this year’s theme is very close to our hearts.
Stress Awareness Month started in 1982 to raise awareness of the stresses and causes of modern stress issues. This has been ever increasingly needed over the past two years whilst people have been dealing with the Covid Pandemic and the impact on their wellbeing.
Feeling stressed for too long can have a negative impact on our bodies and wellbeing. It is important to identify stress patterns and then manage your stress. Ways that you can manage stress are to understand what triggers your stress, take a walk, get outside or take regular breaks throughout the day.
The pandemic has made some of these methods challenging and has had a huge impact on people’s mental health due to isolation from working at home, cancellation of large gatherings, sports centres being closed and outdoor sports activities cancelled.
More than 9 million people in the UK say they often, or always feel lonely at some point in their life, and since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, feelings of loneliness have only got worse. The feeling of separation from one’s community can induce isolation and loneliness, which in turn has a detrimental impact on mental health and wellbeing.
How community supports wellbeing.
Community is more than a group of people living in the local area, it is about bringing people together who share a sense of belonging and support one another. They can be found in a variety of places – work, the area they live in, clubs, even pubs.
Community gives us a sense of belonging and connection. Those who are socially connected to others are happier, and physically healthier and their mental health is stronger than those who are less connected. A community can motivate and encourage each other to reach goals and achieve results.
How does WellgivingGiving bring workplace communities together?
Bringing communities together whether through local, charity or workplace events will help to support those who have suffered and need to be supported.
The WellGiving platform enables Wellbeing/HR Managers to organise and run team challenges that bring everyone together, wherever they are, to work towards a common goal and raise money for a charity of their choice. They can run, skip or hop their way to the finish line – it doesn’t matter what they do, as long as they move regularly each day and build their points, which are then added to the group total. The points can also be turned into charitable donations.
The company challenge could be to travel the distance from Worcester to Washington or London to Paris – each team member will contribute to the distance through their preferred method of movement. The challenge might be to cover 500 minutes of movement in a month, again all team participants work together to achieve the goal, they might like to lift weights or practise yoga – what is important is that they move and work together, and the beauty of the WellGiivng platform is that this can be done remotely to achieve the shared goal.
Bringing hybrid and remote teams together to work towards a common goal not only builds a workplace community but also gets sedentary workers moving, both are known to hugely benefit employee wellness and reduce stress. After all, incorporating physical activity into your day is an important aspect of a healthy lifestyle.
How to get involved.
Head to our website to find out more and book a demo with Paul, who will show you how we have successfully run over 50 challenges in the past year to build workplace communities.
