It seems an apposite time to pause and review how I have been doing with the resolutions that I made at the start of 2020 and how I may try to carry these on in light of the current Covid 19 public health crisis and the move to remote working.
Last year I was introduced to The Wheel of Wellbeing by Colin Beesting from Creative Freedom. Colin had come to Déda deliver a training session to staff on raising awareness of mental health. Colin referenced the WoW in his session and it led me to wanting to find out more about it.
In January of 2020 myself and other colleagues made pledges that we would carry out our chosen new year resolutions. So here I am sitting in the spare room, which is now set up for remote working, contemplating whether or not I have managed to honour my pledges.
People – Connect
I said that I would get more sociable this year, which I have started to do. Funnily though, it has been through greater online connecting than in person. I have really started to engage with new people through social media and am loving finding out about the various cultural communities, organisations and individuals online. This is great as I am now working remotely, so I have got into a new way of connecting, which will help reduce the isolation that may have happened to me otherwise. As most of the Déda team are working remotely, we are planning to use digital tools such as Microsoft Teams to connect with each other for meetings and tea breaks in the virtual realm.
Mind – Learn
I also said that I would learn something new in 2020 by attending yoga classes at Déda. Where we could, my 14 year old daughter and I have attended Déda's Yoga for Wellbeing classes with Anna Heary (Wednesday's 6.15pm - 7.15pm). We have learned several new poses and I feel mentally stimulated during and after each class. When we have not been able to attend, we have done a yoga session at home, which is lots of fun, especially when the dog wants to join in! We are hoping to bring some of our class programme to you soon via the Déda YouTube channel.
Spirit – Give
This one is all about giving and how good it makes you feel. I continue in my role as chair of Hubbub Theatre Company and have recently led an away day with the trustees and management team during which we had fabulous walking meeting in a park. Helping Hubbub to grow and develop definitely improves my wellbeing, as does my role at Déda, which nourishes my spirit on a daily basis and especially during difficult times like now when we all work together as a team to find creative solutions to enriching people’s lives through dance and the arts.
Place – Take Notice
I have generally taken more notice of things around me but could definitely do it more. Whenever I speak to Déda Trustee Pam Sidhu from Learn2Rest she reminds me of the absolute importance of mindfulness in our day to day lives. I have been walking to and from work most days to my car and have paused in a small park on most days to admire the green of the grass and to see the trees grow small buds on them. Our weekly runs around the green spaces in the city have meant that I have had a chance to notice spring coming and I have particularly enjoyed seeing the daffodils come out at the front of my house.
Planet – Care
I pledged to use my car less. This has been the hardest thing to achieve. A busy family and work life has meant that my car use has not gone down in the last three months. However as I am entering a time of remote working, I am hopeful that I will form some new habits. I hope to get on my bike (which is now fixed) soon. I also did Veganuary and enjoyed some fantastic vegan food from the Cube Café. I have carried on eating a mainly plant-based diet since.
Body – Be Active
I pledged to run the Derby 10K organised by our friends at DCCT as part of the Business Team Challenge with colleagues from Déda. We created the Run Deda Run Team and pledged to raise £500 for our #LittleStepsBigChange campaign. The training has been going really well for this with the five of us increasing our distances ran each week in our mid-week lunch time run. We have kept connected via a light heartedly supportive WhatsApp group. Last week we were close to the 10km mark and will be on target to achieve the distance by 29th March. The actual event has had to be postponed but we are all very keen to honour our pledge to make the distance, so I will be running my own 10km on 29th March. We hope to run the actual Derby 10k event when it is rescheduled, so its key that I keep up my training and posting my runs on our Whatsapp group!
What we are all experiencing at this moment in time is unprecedented, I hope that the Wheel of Wellbeing and what it embodies can help some of you as much as it is helping me recently and during this period of significant change and challenge going forward.
#WheelOfWellbeing
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