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insium's newsletter on leadership: March, 2016
Written by geoff Thursday, 10 March 2016 00:00
There are a number of apps that are readily available that will support you in building and maintaining your well-being; these apps focus on:
- Meditation
- Mindfulness
- Brain training
- Breathing
- Tracking moods
- Yoga
- Mindset
- Positive practices
- Physical fitness and more
When choosing an app to support your well-being, consider its fit*; that is:
- Fit with your key well-being goal(s)
- Fit with your strengths and motivations
- Fit with your lifestyle
- Fit with what seems natural to you
- Fit with having some fun
Apps that we use regularly, which fit for us, include:
Buddhify 2 – a targeted mindfulness app which provides suggested exercises based on asking you “What are you doing?”; www.buddhify.com
Lumosity – designed to provide your brain with a workout; it’s a lot of fun and can get somewhat competitive in our household!; www.lumosity.com
Mood Meter – helps to identify emotions, thereby building emotional vocabulary which in turn helps in emotional self management/self regulation; www.moodmeterapp.com
Run Keeper – designed to track your physical activities; www.runkeeper.com
If you’d like to see a list of apps that we recommend, please click here
* Adapted from Sonja Lyubomirsky, 2010. “The How of Happiness,” Piatkus, London.
P.S. Does your team/organisation need assistance to build or maintain well-being? If yes, let’s discuss my Melbourne University Master of Applied Positive Psychology Capstone project. I may be able to help!
If you'd like to download a copy of this newsletter, you can do so via this link: insium newsletter March 2016. If you'd like to join our mailing list and receive our newsletter regularly, click on the "News" link in the "About" section of our website and complete the form.
Originally filmed in 2009, I cannot begin to tell you just how relevant “Starting with Why” still is today, and how many conversations I have with leaders, marketers and sales people about the impact of starting with why.
This reminds me of a story told by Stephen Covey in his book "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People". He tells the story of a NASA employee who is asked by a visitor what his job is. His reply, “I help send man to the moon.” His job: janitor. Now’s there’s a clear and inspiring example of why.
A few questions that you might like to consider as you watch Simon’s talk:
§ What is your purpose? Why do you get out of bed in the morning? What is your why?
§ What impact does knowing your why have on your well-being?
§ What is the impact of you operating from the inside?
My why is to open doors. I invite you to step through these doorways with me and soak up the other side.
The 5 minute, edited version of Simon’s talk can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPYeCltXpxw
Simon Senek's full TedTalk of around 18 minutes entitled "How Great Leaders Inspire Action" can be found here:
https://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action?language=en
Shawn Achor defines happiness as “the joy you feel moving towards your potential.” It is not pleasure which is short-lived; joy invests more deeply. In fact, you may feel joy even in those moments that are not pleasurable. For example, have you felt joy at the conclusion of a tough, nail-biting team sport? Whether you were watching or playing? Have you felt joy at the end of robust workplace conversations that have resulted in growth, development and other positive outcomes for the parties involved?
A couple of reflection questions for you:
- How do you define happiness?
- What moments have you experienced that were not pleasurable but have brought you joy?
If you’d like to see Shawn’s talk, you can find it here; it runs for less than 1.5 minutes:
- What are the "interconnections" for you?
- What memories and stories are you reminded of?
- Where do these photos take your imagination?
- What are the emotions that are evoked for you? Why these emotions?
Attached is a link to a short TedTalks (~4 mins) that we thought you might enjoy. Amongst other messages, Camille Seaman talks about "we're all interconnected" ... as I watched this talk, I thought about collaboration amongst teams/departments and more;
http://www.ted.com/talks/camille_seaman_haunting_photos_of_ice
Additional thoughts and ideas that came up for me included:
- "continuation of the past" ... honouring the work that has been done before and building upon it
- "some icebergs are 1,000s of years old, some 100's of years old" ... regardless of the amount of time in an organisation/team, we all bring new skills, knowledge, experiences and strengths
- "a different side of its' personality" ... we are all different and we all adapt
What comes up for you as you watch and listen?
There are awesome photos and an amazing video of an iceberg rolling. Enjoy!
An offer from insium for your wellbeing! Newsletter January 2016 Featured
Written by geoff Wednesday, 27 January 2016 00:00
We're at the end of January and I hope you've had a great start to 2016 ... however you define great!
This great start may have been serendipitous for you or may have been planned. We know that if we plan and have goals, we are more likely to achieve these and celebrate success ... however success is defined for you.
So what plans and goals do you have for your success in 2016?
The start of a new year often sees people considering what lies ahead for the upcoming 12 months. At insium, we'd like to see people consider their own well-being and how they can look after "self" in 2016. With this in mind, we'd like to share some Wellbeing apps (available on both iOS and Android) that we find useful:
- Values Ink helps identify values; if we live to values we are more aligned, authentic and hence, more resilient
- Buddhify 2: this is a quite targeted mindfulness app
- Mood Meter: helps identify emotions, thereby building emotional vocabulary which helps in emotional management
- Smiling Mind: a meditation app
Check them out - we hope that they may be of use to you.
Santa's helpers are another twelve months older!
We wish you all the best for a successful and fun-filled 2016.
Dina & Geoff
This year, insium chooses to make a donation to the Lort Smith Animal Hospital. Lort Smith is the largest not-for-profit animal hospital in Australia with over 60 vets and 80 nurses. Built on its current site in North Melbourne in 1936, its founder Louisa Lort Smith was passionately committed to caring for the animals of poor and disadvantaged people. The hospital has 11 wards including an Exotic and Native Wildlife Unit. Its Adoption Centre cares for animals undergoing medical treatment and also provides shelter, adoption and fostering services for abandoned and relinquished animals.
Gratitude: What went well today …
Every night, for 1 week, before you go to sleep, write down 3 things that went well that day and why they went well (and the writing down is important; whether in a journal/on laptop/other). These things don't have to be earth-shattering - may be as simple as "my partner cooked my favourite meal tonight"; or may be as important as "my sister had a baby today." The writing of why the instances went well is important too and may be as simple as "I happened to be talking to my partner about dinner and my favourite food" or "my partner is thoughtful and looks out for me."
Writing about positive events will help maintain positive mood; it will make you happier ... and you might even like doing this exercise!
Adapted from “Flourish,” by Martin E.P. Seligman
Unconditional positive regard is primarily associated with Carl Rogers (1902 – 1987), American psychologist and one of the founders of the humanistic approach/client-centred approach to psychology. Rogers believed that unconditional positive regard is essential to healthy development.
It is:
About valuing a person as doing their best; about respecting that person
Basic acceptance and support of a person regardless of what he says or does (as long as it does not cause harm)
The belief that everyone has the potential to improve, to change
Consciously seeking to find the best in others
It does not mean:
You need to like the person nor approve of what they do
You just smile and nod
“Just putting up with him”
Unconditional positive regard:
Provides the best possible conditions for personal growth
Needs to be genuine … “if you are not genuine, your conditional regard will always leak out”
Brings out the best in others and the best in self
Adapted from the work of Carl Rogers, David Myers, Alex Lickerman, Stephen Joseph
