Health and Happiness at Source with Michelle Flynn
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When Annika de Friend founded Source, one of her biggest goals was to build a business that invested in its staff and was centred around a positive environment and culture. Annika understands that working in recruitment can be highly pressured and stressful, so is always looking at ways to support the wellbeing of Source consultants, including introducing weekly yoga sessions last year.
It was recently reported that in the past year 74% of people have felt so stressed they have been overwhelmed or unable to cope (Mental Health Foundation, 2018 study.) This statistic is bleak, however, Annika is on a mission to create an environment that encourages staff to thrive and support them by giving them tools to manage stress. Annika invited Michelle Flynn, Health Coach extraordinaire, into Source HQ to deliver a talk to the team on living a healthier, happier and stress-free lifestyle.
Michelle Flynn is not only an expert when it comes to living a healthier and happier lifestyle, but she also knows exactly what the Source team experience on a day-to-day basis, as she was once a recruiter herself.
It was during her career as a recruiter and career adviser that Michelle began to experience regular bouts of fatigue and sickness until she committed the time and energy to look after herself with the focus being on reducing stress. Since then, Michelle hasn’t been sick, is now 2.5 stone lighter, has significantly increased energy levels and is the happiest and healthiest she has ever been.
With a positive message and a mission to share her story and impart her wisdom, Michelle delivered a ‘learn and lunch’ session that had the Source team transfixed. Here are just a few highlights that the staff took away from Michelle's seminar.
"The session was really good, I didn't expect to come out of it with as many simple, small changes that could make such as difference straight away!
Michelle talked about the things that can attribute to stress, and therefore output in our personal and professional lives. One of those was how important getting ‘quality’ sleep is and how to change negative sleep patterns.
I'm going to be following some of the tips Michelle gave the group on how we can improve and increase our sleep– I am definitely going to be buying a lumie light, which wakes you up gently rather than an alarm suddenly breaking your sleep cycle. I'll also be putting the phone away in another room BEFORE I go to bed, the blue light emitted during screen time is one of the biggest culprits in delaying sleep.
Overall thoughts:
Michelle's ability to break things down into manageable chunks made things a lot more realistic – I am usually the person who plans to run a marathon before even increasing the amount I walk and then wonders why I struggle with it!
"Everything Michelle covered was informative and valuable, and I thoroughly enjoyed it!
Michelle's six principles to achieve an overall balance in life made complete sense. I was particularly drawn to the information on yoga and meditation. I'm a busy and energetic person, and in the past, I haven't enjoyed or got much out of meditating. However, Michelle explained that just with everything in life, you have to practise and give things time in order to get results.
Michelle told us that controlled breathing goes a long way in alleviating stress and suggested we could introduce meditation into our lives by taking ten deeps breaths before each of our meals throughout the day.
Another topic Michelle covered was the importance of knowing what we're putting into our body and the output they have. Over stimulating the nervous system with coffee is known for increasing anxiety, so going to focus on reducing my intake to one coffee a day, as well as, hydrate before I caffeinate!"
Overall thoughts:
“Sometimes feeling stressed can make me feel really out of control but today's talk left me feeling positive and armed with hints and tips on proactive things I can do to improve my quality of life.”
"Michelle was so engaging and passionate sharing health and wellness advice with us.
Before the talk, I hadn't realised that there were different types of stress and those can have different effects on not only our mental well-being but our physical health too. For example, I had no idea that stress can cause bodily inflammation! It made me want to understand better so that I could take the right steps in improving my lifestyle.
After listening to Michelle's advice, I'm going to start reframing my inner-monologue to be more positive! What we say to ourselves has a significant impact on our stress levels and mental health - it's all in the mindset. Included in this, is ensuring the people I have in my life are positive, negativity impacts our attitude, thoughts and actions.”
Overall thoughts:
“I would highly recommend Michelle to anyone I know! Spending an hour listening and taking on practical tips to help improve our lifestyles, was the best way to spend lunch on International Day of Happiness!”
“Recruitment is hard work, and I’m under no illusion that my staff will, at times, feel stressed out. However, when I launched Source, I was passionate about creating a business that celebrates and supports consultants in a healthy and positive environment.
I was excited to have Michelle come in and give her talk, offering the team value and proactive advice on living a healthier lifestyle. This event was not compulsory but had 99% attendance, better than some of our Prosecco Friday events!
Seeing the team walk out of the seminar with huge smiles and making plans to implement some of Michelle’s advice, was just amazing to see! I’ve received so many ‘Thank Yous’ from the staff, and I really couldn’t think of a better feeling than having a happy, confident and enthused team of fabulous people!
You can find more about Michelle Flynn and how she can help you by clicking
here. You can also follow her on
Instagram and
Facebook.