How to take wellness to a whole new level

Article Re-Posted from Meetings & Conventions Asia

How to take wellness to a whole new level

Planners discuss how to avoid burnout pre-, during and post-event.

Taking a break outdoors in the grass, soaking up the sun and practising spiritual alignment can help event professionals maximise their mental wellness.

A recent SITE webinar, entitled Mindful Momentum: Prioritising mental wellness in the events industry, explored the importance of mental health and what planners can do to foster resilience, balance and self-care.

Panellists included Sarah Martin, CEO and founder of Experience Epic Events, Deanna Griffith-House, business event manager at EventMasters and Eli Walker, belonging and life experience consultant at The Uplift Center. Key takeaways included:

Consider different areas that can come under wellness

Wellness can relate to physical wellness, which is essentially movement, nutrition, rest and sleep support. It also refers to mental and emotional wellbeing, such as stress management and mindfulness, while social connection ensures that people are not operating in silos.

“We’re also looking at spiritual alignment,” said Martin. “This is where we’ll have purpose, intention setting, and values alignment, so that you’re making sure that whatever it is that you’re doing, it’s in the space or the pathway that benefits you the most.”

Create a sense of belonging

According to Walker, ‘belonging’ is knowing who you are, where you are, and then actively choosing to be there. It’s about holding yourself accountable for your own experiences.

At events, one way to create a sense of belonging is through play, by gamifying experiences and making participation optional.

“The quickest way to shut down voluntary participation is to make it mandatory,” suggested Martin. “It’s important to remind everyone that everything is always voluntary and when they don’t feel like they have to take part, it actually psychologically makes people want to participate more.”

Factor in intentional breaks

At Martin’s company, the events team is required to take the following working day off post-event, while breaks during events go far beyond the coffee machine.

“[Post-events] there is no logging in, no checking of emails and we have to plan that out within our event structures,” she said. “And within the event schedule itself, we take intentional breaks. This is not a 15-minute break for a cookie, it’s much more – where you are outside, sitting in sunlight or putting your feet on grass. You’re taking some deep breaths, you’re in a quiet space and that’s really important.”

Take accountability for self-care

Have a routine, whether that’s taking a bath in the morning, even if you don’t feel like you have time for it, or going for an evening walk after dinner. When everyone feels a sense of accountability, they can come together and get a lot more done.

“Sometimes people see accountability as a bad thing, but if you look at accountability in terms of how you take care of yourself, you can then take care of others in your work and your colleagues and clients,” said Griffith-House.

Make wellness part of your policy

Wellness doesn’t just start or end with an event, it should be an ongoing approach. Martin highlighted how Experience Epic Events has a mental health and physical health section in its operations manual. Having procedures and policies in place ensures the team is able to manage their own health and wellness in a way that’s effective, so that they can be productive and avoid burnout.

Games can restore balance

Playing games can help break through politeness and social grace and enable conversations around mental health. Walker suggests that at the beginning of a meeting, everyone could share an answer to ‘if their energy level was a television show, what would that show be?’, or ‘if their mental health felt like an animal, what animal would that be.’

“If you can get everyone in the same narrative, rather than out of their heads and over themselves, and into the same story, this will be really productive for mental health conversation,” she said.