5 Things We Learned During Wellness Month

Last month at Remerge, we focused on wellness in the workplace. As we all know, there are many different aspects to wellness. Physical health, mental health, fitness, and spiritual well-being all combine to make up a general picture of our condition. Our HR team created a program of events which reflected this multifaceted nature - from fitness challenges to personal pledges - to stimulate important conversations about how we can take better care of ourselves and each other.

So what are the top five things we learned this month?

When it comes to health, you need to work from the inside out starting with a healthy, balanced diet. This is something we learned through the many events that centred around food. The month was kicked off with a smoothie party bonanza, which left us all feeling high and giddy on natural sugars. Later that week, we had a salad party and watched a video in which the easy-on-the-eye Dr. Mike told us about the powers of superfoods. Turns out goji berries contain the secret to everlasting life and we should all be brushing our teeth with coconut oil - who knew?

Every year, the Movember Foundation raises awareness of men’s health issues (such as testicular cancer) by encouraging men around the world to grow a moustache for a month. The Remerge team got involved with some pretty impressive fuzzy friends growing on faces across the office.

Of course we could only have one winner, and that simply had to go to the fantastic, handlebar-sporting Christian Eustermann!

Who needs expensive gym equipment? All you need to exercise is a body - so get moving! This was the idea behind our Remerge Step Challenge. Participants started by sharing their average weekly steps and encouraged each other to boost their numbers. Things got pretty competitive towards the end. One Remerger even booked a walking holiday with his wife to get his count up! But it wasn’t enough to beat the speedy step-taking extraordinaire Katherina Campana!

The first step to tackling a bad habit is admitting that you have one. This was the idea behind our Personal Pledges challenge, in which the team were invited to share personal pledges. These ranged from “I will walk to do more yoga” to “I will make more effort to practice my stand-up comedy routines”. Participants found that writing their pledge and sharing it with the team made them more likely to stick to them.

There were lots of opportunities for us to talk through personal experiences, including a women’s workshop (which was so successful that we’ve decided to make it a bi-monthly event). Throughout the whole office personal information was shared, advice was given, taboos were broken, and the entire experience brought us closer together. This taught us how powerful it can be when you talk openly and respectfully about health issues.

Want to work for a company that cares about your wellbeing? It’s your lucky day - We’re Hiring.