8th February 2021
Global Balance Week
We held a week of virtual events across the network to help our physical and mental wellbeing including workouts, cooking, meditation, workshops, yoga and more.
The last year has been extremely challenging for all of us and it’s more important than ever to look after our wellbeing. We had a moment to check in with ourselves and take some time out of our day to join one of the sessions to move our body, look after our mind or try something new. Thank you to everyone who organized, hosted and participated in Global Balance Week. It takes a team who invest in each others success and we're proud to be unmistakably #TeamMindshare. Take a look at our summary of events from the USA.
Day 1
Mariel Cummins held a session called 'Green Your Routine', talking to us about what those ingredients are in your shampoo, soap, deodorants and cosmetics. We're so used to knowing what's in our food labels, but do she explains how read ingredients on personal care products. Mariel is passionate about finding easy ways to make better choices to protect health and teaches us some simple tricks to do the same.
Let's face it, we've all struggled with keeping a plant alive at some point in our lives! Elise Pierre-Louis hosts a tutorial series on how to help your plant thrive through the winter. Whether that's how best to repot a plant, propagate or learning about the best light options, she had us covered!
Day 2
Julie Freeman from CCA, our employee assistant program, joined us to discuss sleep disorders and their causes.
Approximately 70 million people suffer from sleeping difficulties and Julia explains the benefits of sleep studies and examines sleep's relationship to stress and the release of cortisol. In this insightful session, we learned about the emotional and physical benefits of a good night sleep, how to promote good sleep habits, identifying ways to improve our sleep environments, and much more.
Day 3
James Jaggard helped us kick-start our day by moving our bodies with an exercise routine targeted at energizing and strengthening our core. James also explains the importance of stretching, commenting on how he used to only stretch for 10-15 seconds, but realized that to get the full benefit, you should hold a stretch for 30-40 seconds.
In the afternoon, we were joined by NPR. Ever spent an hour or more doomscrolling? With the news cycle moving faster than ever, it's often hard to keep up without feeling fatigued. In this conversation, we discussed how to combat exhaustion from news, while still saying informed. We know it's hard, but finding ways to manage our news consumption was a great hump-day session!
Day 4
Thursday was all about finances and tea!
Ernie Simon did a deep dive into personal finance including savings, investing, 401K, financial planning and helpful resources. Ernie isn't a professional financial expert, however, he talks to us through the lens of everything he wishes he knew when he was young, and tips he's picked up along the way that benefit in the long run. An incredibly popular session, this is our opportunity to look our future.
Next up was all about tea. Black tea, green tea, oolong tea, white tea, purple tea, herbal teas. Are they even teas? The list goes on and on for the varieties of this natural product that has been around for thousands of years and consumed by various cultures. We learned about the different types of tea and adjacent products along with their health benefits... and had a little fun while doing it.
Day 5
We ended the week with a 45 minute yoga session, hosted by Julia Bayona. A class that was relaxing and restorative. We flowed through poses, stretches and breathing to help melt the work day away, and set us up for the weekend.
