Alan, Simon, and guest Katie Coombes discuss the actions they are taking to look after their wellbeing and mental health when working from home and being in self-isolation.
Note: This transcription has been generated with AI and there may be errors present.
Let’s go into the into the well being sort of area. So the world’s crashing around us, our businesses are in a pickle. There’s all sorts of mischief happening outside. And I think in the first few days, I think many of us are still in shock. And haven’t quite got our heads around how to behave and how to be and what the routine is, and all that kind of stuff. And, and I’m sure many of the many of us would, will acknowledge that a routine is really going to help. But what would be your tips for staying in a good place, especially as we get past week one, week two, week three, week four, I’ve experienced a bit of a roller coaster and there’s good days and bad days and good moments and bad moments. I think last Monday, I stared at the wall for about two hours trying to figure out what Earth was going on. But what would be your top tips? What’s the process that you go through in order to stay mentally in good shape, when all of this stuff is happening around us? What’s on your mind?
Well, the first, the first thing I’ve done is, is trying to accept. Now, for me, it’s I don’t know if that resonates everybody else, but for me is accepting we’re in this position. Rather than trying to fight it and not believe it’s happening. It is happening. I am getting the answers. It’s changing daily. But if I accept it, and then notice how I’m feeling. So if I want to change I’m feeling that’s a separate thing. But first of all have to accept how I’m feeling. And notice how I’m feeling. So that’s that’s my start really, I love that I will build on that. Actually, what I wanted to say is about presence focus. So building on what Casey said about acknowledging it’s about presence focus. So when I’m sat here in the house, we’ve got my laptop, and a cup of coffee. Like in that moment, what is wrong? Nothing. I have everything I need, I can write, I can think I can create, I’m having a wonderful time and all of that different stuff. And it’s about present moment focus. So if you’re going for a walk around the neighbourhood, in the sunshine and the produce guys, in that moment, life is magical. And actually, what I would recommend for all of us, is for the next few weeks, we need to become more presence more in the moments more right here right now. So starting to be thinking about the future. But in the present moment, like if you’re in that present moment with a pad of paper, and you’re writing, if you’re talking to people, I think that’s an incredible tool to keep you feeling happy. Something that’s been happening to me a little bit and which I have to draw myself back from so I mentioned being aware and acknowledging how I feel is, is I keep forgetting. So a couple days ago called I don’t know if you’ve had this, and it’s, if you’ve ever experienced this after somebody died. So it’s kind of a grief thing, I think that is you wake up and for the first few moments you’ve forgotten, and then you remember, and it kind of hits you. So you wake up, please, oh, oh God, we’ve got the world’s gone mad, it’s never gonna be the same again, and all kind of accelerates for me. So I have to pull myself back. And so there’s a thing that I’ve learned quite a bit is this anchoring. And that’s something I got from proper business school, which is there, I focus on some details and lovely details of my life. And that can be as you said, like a cup of coffee, or one of the kids or something real at that moment, just to bring me back to reality and the here and now and the fantastic things in my life. It doesn’t mean I’m not going to face or deal with the stuff that’s going to happen to me or I’m not kind of aware that I’ve got lots of pressures about cash and what’s going to happen, and health mood of things. I’m aware of those not pretending they’re not there. But I am going to focus on the good stuff. Because that again, it anchors me and senses me, because I keep forgetting as well. Nobody’s get used to it.
I think, you know, many of us know this stuff. But we’re in the busyness and the craziness. We forget it, don’t we? And I think hearing people’s different approaches to this, I think will certainly done it for me. It’s just made me go. Yes, that the presence thing. That’s the thing that I need to do more or for, you know, there’s some things here that we’ve probably forgotten that actually if we did a little bit more of it, it could make a huge difference on our well being day to day. What’s on your mind element you did you’ve got more to share. As always, I love
it, your daily diet that you’re feeding your brain. And I think people diet has massively shifted over the last week or so. And they’re filling their brains with all sorts of media that they never would read all sorts of shock videos. online stuff. They’re home all the time and they’re filling their brain with a whole different diet. Of course, you’re going to get different results. If you eat cheeseburgers everyday, you’re going to get fat. You’ve got to change your diet, it will massively impact how you feel. And the second thing I want to say actually, that I truly believe I was walking down the street last night, late at night to get some exercise. And someone had chalk in bright yellow chalk on the pavement. You have magic inside you. And I stopped, and I paused. And I thought, there right there, right. And if there’s one thing I wanted everyone here to realise you have magic inside you, you just need to let it out and share it. And that was one of the most random things I came across. But I think it’s a really important message. Nice nice than I like that.
I’m a bit speechless on that one. I like that one.