Pod launches Feelgood5 - the antidote to business gloom & doom

This a difficult time for business, many people are working long hours, yet productivity is often low because stress levels are very high. In response to this the International training company POD has launched the Feelgood5 series of business breakout sessions.

Feelgood5 is built around a number of evidence-based, practical solutions for building energy, calming stress and maintaining a feeling of well being whatever is happening. Consistently high stress levels can impact people in five key ways:

1. Loss of meaning
2. Feeling isolated
3. Feeling negative
4. Rumination (getting taken over by one thought)
5. Feeling low self esteem

Following are five examples of POD’s Feelgood5 proven, practical solutions to reduce and eliminate these.

1. The Barrel for loss of meaning.

This makes use of the secret of how to balance on a rolling barrel – by staring at a fixed point such as a tree or the side of a building. Look down at your feet and you fall. The metaphor is that our lives are like the rolling barrel; to stay in control we need a fixed reference point, or a goal. Set your goal. Now identify one thing that you can do towards the goal today and do it, and repeat each day.

2. Jamming for feeling isolated

We all want contact but can often remain glued to our desks. One solution is to get up and ‘jam’ with others. Find out about someone else, known or unknown to you. Overcome your reserve, and purposefully ‘jam’ - what have we got in common/ what are we most proud of/ what are our goals? Bring in something to share – chocolate/biscuits etc.

3. The Battery for feeling negative

Become like a car battery and flow from the negative into positive. Our brains can be trained to focus on whatever we tell it to (neuroscientists cite this as the Reticular Activating System). Nowadays particularly we can get into the habit of seeing the negative everywhere. Turn 180°. Choose to start registering the positive. It can feel artificial at first but after a while, it becomes a habit.

4. The summary trump thought for rumination

The sign of stress is when things get to you that normally you can let go. So here is how the trump thought works. When you catch an indignant thought going round and round in your brain, write it down. And then write down all the stuff that goes with it. Then ask ‘so what am I going to do about it?’ and ‘How do I want to leave it?’ Now write down a concluding statement such as ‘I am cross not to be consulted; however I have a good relationship with the client and I am going to build that.’ Now whenever the angry thought arises, go straight to your concluding statement and trump it!

5. The Mirror for feeling low self esteem

Low self esteem happens when we lose belief in our own self worth; some psychologists suggest we make contact with an earlier inner child memory of ourselves when we felt helpless and lacking all positive attributes. The Mirror is a technique where we imagine someone who loves us is looking at us and describing three positive attributes about us. Imagine you are looking at yourself and repeat the same words with the same conviction. If you have a physical mirror, make eye contact with yourself and repeat the words several times. Take in and feel the positive you that they see.

These exercises may feel strange at first, but when they become part of a routine their impact is profound. The inspiring thing is that individuals truly have the power to control how they feel if they take the time to focus on themselves for a few minutes each day.