Stepping Back into the Office with Resilience

By Pete Lavery Head of Program Development at GoVida

The easing of restrictions with the potential return to the office and face to face social interactions may be daunting to some.

The initial lockdown, over 12 months ago, provided many with the sudden challenge of remote working, home schooling and restricted social contact. The ability to adapt to the new circumstances required resilience and its strange to think that the easing of restrictions will also challenge our resilience and ability to re-adapt.

What is resilience?

“Resilience is not just your ability to bounce back, but also your capacity to adapt in the face of challenging circumstances, whilst maintaining a stable mental wellbeing.”

Mind UK – mental health charity

The good news is that resilience is not something we either have or do not have. Resilience can be developed and improved and with it our capacity to adapt in the face of challenges increases.

Post lockdown workplace

How will the workplace change post lockdown? Will there still be flexibility in working from home? How will we cope with the commute to work? Will productivity be impacted?

It is hard to accurately predict what will happen but our resilience and ability to adapt will play a part.

Here are 5 top tools to boost resilience:

• Healthy body, healthy mind!

Physical activity improves our mental wellbeing and our resilience. Get active and do something you enjoy. It doesn’t need to be a marathon or a 100 mile bike ride, walking for 20-30 minutes per day can do wonders for boosting the release of our feel good hormones like Serotonin that also helps regulate our mood and improve cognitive function.

• Strong relationships = Strong team

Empathy and by taking time to help and understand each other makes such a difference when times are challenging. The best teams in business, life and sport look after each other through the good and the bad and knowing your colleagues “have your back” and are there to support is the foundation of winning teams.

“The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team.” ― Phil Jackson

• Speak a positive language

Positive self-talk works. Observe your own language and thoughts and look to reframe them if necessary. For example the voice that says “this is going to be difficult” pivot to “I am going to enjoy seeing how I complete this” is a great way of building resilience by redefining the challenge. By talking to yourself in a positive, instructional way you can make decisions based on moving forwards and not dwelling in negativity or fixating on mistakes.

• Be kind to yourself

Make life fun and treat yourself! We can often be our own worst critic but become your own best friend, your biggest fan. Recognise and reward yourself after completing a task before moving on to the next one. If you make a mistake or an error, view it as a lesson learned and an opportunity for growth.

• Take a breath

Our bodies need oxygen to survive and by focusing on your breath you demonstrate to yourself that you are in control of life. Regular focused breathing helps bring calmness and clarity in stressful moments enhancing your capacity to handle challenges.

GoVida provides your team with tools and content to help build resilience as well as promoting positive wellbeing behaviours that enable us to perform at our best.