Wellbeing on the Road
I had exactly thirty spare minutes in-between meetings running around New York City. I was in town from halfway across the world for only three days, and every day was jam-packed with appointments. But during those thirty minutes I legged it up to Midtown to make it to MoMa, the museum of modern art. I couldn’t stand the thought of being in New York and missing out on some of this world’s greatest piece of modern art.
I rushed into the admissions office, bought a ticket, and asked the salesman ‘Where can I find Starry Night?’. He sent me to the sixth floor and I made my way up to the gallery. I wandered around for the next twenty-five minutes, staring at Van Gogh’s Starry Night, and some of the finest works of Mondrian, Picasso, Pollock and Rothko. All stress from the previous days fell off me. I felt an overwhelming sense of calm, a centeredness that I had lacked over the last few days. Being in the silence of a museum in one of the most bustling cities of the world was what took me back to my centre of gravity and restored my sense of personal wellbeing.
—
This is Day 15 of a work trip.
My colleague and co-conspirator Chelsea and I have got a few more days to go before we launch into a friends of Enspiral gathering in San Francisco for a couple of days.
We’ve have been roaming around the United States and Canada on a research and conference trip. We’ve been to San Francisco, New York, Toronto and Montreal all within two weeks. The main reason we’re on this side of the world is a conference held by the International Association for Youth Mental Health, who invited us to run a workshop, and speak at the conference. But when travelling halfway around the world, we figured we might as well make use of the opportunity to connect with some of the brightest and much-admired minds in the fields of youth wellbeing, social labs, public innovation and social entrepreneurship.
Throughout this trip we’ve been trying to look after our wellbeing as much as possible — so that running around strange cities for meetings, being on our best behaviour during our meetings, and navigating transport halfway across the world wouldn’t take its toll. Much like we do ahead of running intense programmes, we had a conversation about our wellbeing strategies for this trip before we fully set off on our journey together.
Things that we focussed on were exercise, food, mental hygiene & sleep, and direct & open communication
Exercise — We’ve been going for (short) runs most days. There’s also a bit of ad-hoc yoga or stretching going on.
Food — Lots of vegetables keep both of us happy and healthy. We opted to stay in an apartment, as opposed to a hotel, so that we can cook ourselves — which in itself gives me a sense of normality, as opposed to eating out all the time.
Mental Hygiene & Sleep — Throughout past trips we’ve learnt that by talking about work before bed time, and strategy in particular, our sleep is affected. So we try not to engage in deep work-related chats before we go to sleep. We talk about other things in life (and yes, sometimes work too), do some mindfulness exercises (for example Stop, Breathe, Think). We’ve also been watching a couple of episodes of the TV shows or digest the day over an occasional glass of wine.
Also being in places that restores our feeling of wellbeing helps — for me, immersing myself in a place filled with art restores restores my faith in humanity. Same goes for a dose of sunshine, especially when most of what I see during the day is the inside of a conference venue.
Sleep is important. Where possible, I aim for eight hours. Not working on a computer right before bedtime helps me calm down, so I try to do that too. It also means that possibly paying a little more money for slightly less early flight can pay off in so many other ways.
Communication — it’s so important. Communication with one another, the team, loved ones. We try to have a shared understanding around what we’re hoping to achieve, how we want to be around one another, and what tasks need doing. Early on during this trip we had a conversation around this –and have continued to have that conversation– which resulted in a bunch of practical agreements. For example, Chelsea offered to take notes during our meetings if I made it my task to follow up every meeting with an email.
Everyone’s wellbeing needs are unique. Working on a wellbeing project like Lifehack has definitely raised my attention to what contributes to personal sense of wellbeing.
Here are a few questions that we ask ourselves regularly.
What is it that makes me be well?
Paying attention to what makes us feel good and be well is sometimes harder than it looks, and not as obvious as it seems. For example, my family live on the other side of the world, and at times I miss them terribly. Which, at first sight, seems negative — but I realised that only when my life is spacious enough do I have the cognitive ability to miss them. So I’ve taken to missing them as a positive.
Similarly, good food and regular exercise keep me balanced and happy.
What am I like when I feel like I’m about to lose it and what helps when I’m in that space?
I know for myself that I lose my humour when things get tough. What I would normally laugh at, I no longer consider funny. I’ve been sent on a run by my team on the odd occasion.
What are simple things I can try on a daily basis to experiment with my wellbeing?
For a while, I had trouble sleeping, and kept a sleep diary for a couple of weeks. I’d monitor my coffee intake, when and how long for I exercised, what I ate and drank — turns out a coffee after 4pm is a bad idea.
The crux of it?
Consciously thinking about the recipe for our wellbeing is probably good for everyone. The busier we perceive our life to be, the more important it probably is it look after ourselves.
I tried to finish this post by posting a quote on wellbeing — turns out there aren’t many nice ones. Perhaps, instead, a question: What was the most recent thing to make you feel well?
Note: This is a self-funded trip — none of the money spent on this has come out of the public money we receive to run Lifehack.
