Living & breathing wellbeing

Since the launch of our new strategy and refreshed vision, mission and values in 2019, our charity has been very much focused on wellbeing. But this work did not just focus externally on our services and support, we knew as an organisation that to truly function effectively and champion wellbeing we also needed to focus our attention inward – we needed to live and breathe wellbeing.  

Over these past few years, we have been on our own wellbeing journey as an organisation and as part of that we have invested in training and spending time together as a team. Our aim through these regular wellbeing sessions was to create a culture where everyone felt valued, felt able to speak up and where there were high levels of trust.  

The benefits have reached far beyond our professional working lives, as some of the Pharmacist Support team share here: 

Diana Chung | Volunteering Officer 

“As a busy working mum of two, it can be hard to prioritise yourself and make the time as there are always so many other demands. However, the techniques taught us, for example, the simple act of consciously noticing your posture and where you may be holding tension, breathing exercises and not engaging with unhelpful thoughts are things that I have incorporated into everyday life. Having the sessions with my colleagues also created a really supportive and open environment. Making these small changes have had such a big impact.” 

Shama Lakhani  |  Office Administrator  

“I valued the wellbeing sessions I attended at work, whether I learnt something new or was reminded of something I knew but had not thought about in a while. If I had to pick my go-to thing that helps me on a daily basis it would be to take 5 minutes to focus on calming deep breaths. The times where I feel I cannot possibly take 5 minutes away from my work is usually the time that I most need to do it! 

“Those 5 magical minutes will calm me down, curb my mind from going off in 4 different directions and make me feel more focused; the juice is so worth the squeeze! I don’t have to go anywhere, pay a subscription, wear different clothing, I can just sit at my desk and breathe!”  

Riven Seamarks | Service Delivery Officer – Information, Enquiries and Wellbeing 

“Our regular wellbeing sessions with our Wellbeing Development Manager Melissa have really helped ensure we don’t think of self-care as an afterthought. There are two tools in particular that have really helped me recently. Learning new breathing exercises and in particular box breathing has been very helpful for use during those hectic moments. Also our sessions on assuming the best intentions when communicating with people have been a great help in maintaining positive relationships with people in and out of work.  

“I feel very lucky to work for an organisation that wants to prioritise the wellbeing of its staff in the same way it prioritises the wellbeing of the people it supports.”  

Read more about our wellbeing journey