WISH Cumbria - Autumn Newsletter

Our Understanding Governance event with Liz Cross, Founder and Managing Director of The Connectives, was held in Kendal on the 20^th June.  South Lakes Housing kindly offered their venue for this incredibly popular event, with 25 attendees joining us to network and take away some excellent insights and information from Liz about what makes a good Board and strong governance.

Liz gave an outstanding presentation and shared her stories and personal experiences with us, which she has a wealth of from her extensive involvement in a number of health, education and housing boards.  The event was really helpful to those people on Boards, the executives currently working with Boards and also inspiring for those who would like to volunteer for a Board at some point in the future. 

It was an interactive session which stimulated some fantastic conversations around the room.  Liz really encouraged everyone to be ambitious about where we can all possibly sit and bring positive change to an organisation.  She also highlighted the importance of increasing diversity on Boards as a critical issue for businesses, for example, looking at age and gender in particular.    

We received some fantastic feedback from those who attended the event.

“It was all great – I now have much more of an in depth understanding of how Board’s should actually work opposed to how some do”

“It was interesting to learn what makes a good board member; recognising my own strengths and what I can offer”

“This was a really inspiring session, Liz was fantastic and thought provoking.  We have the power to shake things up and bring about extraordinary change as a board member.  It can be as simple as asking the big question, what are we here for and what are we trying to achieve?’

Forbes Solicitors very kindly provided sponsorship towards the event and a representative from Forbes came along to network and enjoy this wonderfully informative and insightful session.

Our October Event took place on Tuesday 8^th October, in the week that celebrated World Mental Health Day.  With mental health and wellbeing being highlighted across the world, we thought it would be a brilliant opportunity to find out more about mental health in the workplace from Carlisle Eden Mind and also learn some tools to help us all be the best versions of ourselves with an introduction to mindfulness session with Jessie from Happiness Brings Hope.

Carlisle Eden Mind is a local charity, affiliated to Mind, supporting people with mental health problems across Carlisle and Eden districts.  Michael and Sammy from the charity discussed Mental Health in the Workplace and explained the importance that emotional pain is as real as physical pain.  There are many ways to help ourselves and others with these emotions in the ‘5 Ways to Wellbeing’.

• Connect – connect with people around you: your family, friends, colleagues and neighbours.
• Active – find an activity that you enjoy and make it part of your life, it doesn’t have to be the gym just a walk is perfect.
• Keep Learning – learning new skills can give you a sense of achievements and a new confidence.
• Giving – even the smallest act can count, whether it’s a smile, a thank you or a kind word to your neighbour.  Volunteering can also improve your wellbeing and help build new social networks. 
• Take Notice – be more aware of the present moment, including your thoughts and feelings, your body and the world around you.

Michael played a brilliant video from the Time to Change, ‘Ask Twice’ campaign.  Sometimes we say we are fine when we’re not, so if your friend or colleague is acting differently, ask them twice, are you really ok?  We don’t need to be mental health experts, it’s about starting the conversations and knowing the 5 ways to Wellbeing to pass on.

https://www.time-to-change.org.uk/asktwice

Michael and Sammy then joined the rest of the group to learn some really amazing tools to help us take notice and be more mindful from Jessie at Happiness Brings Hope.  Jessie is a qualified mental health nurse and also Pilates instructor so we started off the session out of our chairs with some basic Pilate moves, it’s incredible how just moving, certain stretches and concentrating on our breathing can make us feel.  

Jessie helped the group understand the importance of taking notice and having gratitude in everyday things using a powerful exercise doing something as simple as eating an orange and taking notice about everything within that experience.  We can do this at 3 minute intervals throughout the day when we are boiling the kettle in our workplace or brushing our teeth.  It’s so simple yet so effective.