workplace wellbeing challenge
England
Hannah entered the field of wellbeing by default after having her own personal
experience of hitting ‘rock bottom’. She had spent 9 years being owner/operator
of a couple of NZ’s top hospitality businesses, during which time she worked
extremely hard and at times played pretty hard too. Hannah burnt out as did her
relationship with her partner, who was also her business partner. It didn’t end
well, she lost everything – businesses, income, house, relationship and
experienced anxiety and depression for a period of time as a single Mum with two
very young children. For Hannah, she only had one choice and that was to change
the way she thought. Learning how the body worked in relation to the mind and
how to activate primal resources we all have inside ourselves was what lead
Hannah to start the first holistic workplace wellbeing company in New Zealand so
she could inspire, motivate and share tools to support others. Along the way
Hannah trained with leaders in their fields when it came to studying mind/body
exercise, the importance of the breath, our hormones (the feel good and stress
ones) and that the simple and powerful choices we can make. She has trained with
Wim Hof, founder of the Wim Hof Method, Dr Kataria, founder of Laughter Yoga and
Nic Marks, founder of the Five Ways to Wellbeing. After reconnecting with Hannah
in 2017, there was a real synergy in the direction Jo was going with a high
focus on personal coaching which frequently turned into wellbeing type
conversations. She introduced Hannah to HBDI and she was hooked! Together they
developed a Whole Brain Wellbeing plan and workshops to match. It was very clear
that taking a whole brain approach to developing workshops and wellbeing itself,
would ensure that everyone is accounted for. One size doesn’t fit all for
learning or wellbeing. By understanding thinking preferences and taking a whole
brain approach: varying initiatives and content would appeal to everyone, no
matter who they are strategies and programmes would engage more people people
would learn how to communicate better, how to understand their colleagues and
how to feel more empathy and respect for each other Their varying skills led
them to go into business together and very quickly they developed The Wellbeing
Challenge web app based on the Five Ways to Wellbeing which has had great
results. A wellbeing platform, Your Wellbeing Matters is to be launched in 2020.
Her business partner, Jo Fife, entered the business a number of years later when
the two of them re-connected after many years and started having a conversation
about a neurometric measuring tool Jo had been using for many years, which is
based on how people prefer to think (not their skills and capabilities). The
Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument (HBDI) is a holistic tool based on
neuroscience.
