The Power of Wellness

As someone who has been dealing with mental health issues for most of her adult life, (and likely her whole childhood without even realizing it) I am a big fan of the new wellness trend in the event industry.

I always make comments about how much event planners work and how stressful this job can be when you combine it with corporate America, but to be honest, every job in every sector is stressful in its own way. I think the everyone is burnt out to varying degrees because life is hard right now. Everything is too expensive, retirement is getting pushed back more and more, expectations are growing, and resources aren’t – and quite frankly, the world kind of sucks right now.

The majority of that is out of our control and while we can all do our part to try and make a difference, and we should, the only thing we can really control is our own well-being. Or at least how we tend to our own well-being.

The problem is, most people don’t, or can’t, or don’t know how. It’s easier to just flow with the increasing demands of the world and get sucked into the “hustle” than it is to go upstream and try to slow it down.

Having been in corporate America for the past 17 years, and recently adding the title of mom to my resume, I can see how it gets lost in people’s day to day. There is always too much else to do. Built in excuses for days.

Some folks need it to be integrated into the day-to-day grind to feel ok doing it. Disguise it as part of the hustle and maybe people will consider it permission? Ugh even saying that proves how badly we all need this.

As an event planner, I take that concept to heart. Events are a platform that we use for a lot of things; relationship building, brand awareness, sales, education, etc. So why can’t we also make it a space for people to take a breath.

Not only can it help your attendees experience the event in a better mindset, but they will leave with a positive association to your event. When people leave with that positive association, they become your best marketers.

So how do you incorporate wellness? Great question.

I am going to start with giving you the 8 dimensions of wellness that you can choose to focus on.

• Emotional - understanding and managing your feelings, coping effectively with stress, and maintaining satisfying relationships.

• Physical - Maintaining a healthy body through exercise, nutrition, and sleep.

• Intellectual - Engaging in creative and stimulating activities to expand knowledge and skills.

• Occupational - Ability to achieve a balance between work and leisure in a way that promotes health and a sense of personal satisfaction.

• Spiritual - Having a sense of purpose and meaning in life, which may or may not involve religious beliefs.

• Social - Developing a sense of connection, belonging, and a well-developed support system.

• Financial - Managing your economic life to reduce stress and increase security.

• Environmental - Living a lifestyle that is respectful of and in harmony with your surroundings, promoting a healthy environment.

The area you choose to focus on will depend on your event. I will leave that up to you and your stakeholders to determine what makes the most sense.

If you can seamlessly integrate all 8, DO IT, and please call me and teach me your ways because that would be #goals.  

Speaking of seamless integration, I am going to give you some examples of activities that you could implement to help your brainstorming, but first I want to talk about the most important part of that, the seamless part.

I must give some credit here; I had my outline for this post, and I was all ready to just pump out the examples I had in one giant list and hit send. Then I went on LinkedIn and as I was scrolling, I came across a post by Victoria Matey where she wrote this “You can install dozens of wellness lounges at your event, but without a compelling culture of wellness and a strategy to nudge people towards being more intentional about well-being and self-care, they won’t help.” That one sentence hit me because, she is right. I have seen it. Without context these activities don’t add any value to the event or the attendee – they are just confusing and even off-putting.

You can’t just add a goat yoga session in the middle of the day and call it done. Your attendees will need to understand WHY you added it and HOW it can benefit them to take advantage of it.

I took some time after reading Victoria’s comments and tried to think back on some of the successful wellness integrations I’ve seen and why they were successful. I also read way too many blogs and posts on the subject, and here is what I have to share.

Make it part of the program. If you are hosting a seminar or corporate sessions of some kind, have a speaker who can speak to the importance of managing your well-being. Use the activities you are providing to emphasize what they are speaking to.

Example: If the speaker is focusing on the importance of incorporating mindfulness and meditation into the workday, make your activity a way to build the skills and tools to incorporate them into a workday.

Maybe it’s a station where people share journaling prompts on post-its. Provide your attendees with the post-its and an empty journal (budget allowing), this way they can leave prompt ideas on the board and write some left by others into their journal to use later.

Or have someone leading some 5-minute meditation sessions so people can experience it and take that back to their desks.

Example again: If your speaker is talking about how physical health is directly linked to your mental health and vice versa, maybe then you incorporate the yoga mentioned above.

My only caution here would be to make sure your activities are diverse. If you are going to add a physical option, make sure you include some other options for all levels and abilities. Like me for example, I cannot touch my toes to save my life, so I would pass on the yoga without even a second thought. But if there were also an option on thoughtful breathing techniques, now I’m in. That hits on the physical, but in a way that I can do without embarrassing myself.

If your event doesn’t have the option for a speaker to talk about the importance, you still need to educate the attendees.

If it’s a big public community event where you are gathering stakeholders in celebration or brand awareness you can still promote well-being, it would just look a little different. At your activations you could include signage, handouts, volunteer hosts – however makes sense at your event, you just need to find a way to tell them WHY and HOW. 

If you can execute that part, your wellness sessions can be a true value add to your event and give people a reason to keep coming back!

I love when my thoughts are challenged like Victoria did for me here. I always end up learning and growing!

And now, the examples, in case anyone wants to incorporate some wellness but needs a little help starting the brainstorm. But remember, think about your specific event.

The ones I have already mentioned:

1.     Yoga sessions

2.     Journaling stations

3.     5-minute meditation and mindfulness techniques

4.     Thoughtful breathing sessions

Some others I have either seen, read about, or have been on my brainstorm lists:

5.     Stretching sessions or stations (with modified options)

6.     Group walks outdoors (fresh air is good, weather permitting)

7.     Sensory rooms (lights and sounds can be incredibly overwhelming)

8.     Sessions with no technology allowed, just a pen and some paper.

9.     Massage stations (people love these, but have chair massagers and not just humans as some people don’t like to be touched – Hi, I’m some people)

10.  Giving back – Set up a station where people can give back to a local charity right there at your event.

11.  This one is probably the most common, a networking and/or social option.

12.  Art, have a place where people can create something, Painting, bracelets, coloring, poetry writing, etc.

13.  Sustainability. Almost anyone can relate this to their event, and people are interested in knowing how they can be more “green.”

I could go on and on, but I am going to stick with lucky number 13 for now.

I encourage you to do some research on this topic and consider incorporating it into your planning. We can all use a little help with our well-being these days, and sometimes all we need is a platform or an opportunity.

And go follow people like Victoria and Event Minds Matter!