Courtesy of Danika Kelly, Co-Founder and CEO of Studio D
So, you’re headed back to the office.
Maintaining personal health and wellness practices while working from home has been, in and of itself, a wild ride for the last year and a half — And now it’s going to change again.
As we re-enter, not only the workplace, but also our “third places” (the places that aren’t work or home that we go to, to create wellness), there is a reckoning with the “new normal” that we will all experience in some way or another. Here are three major ways your health and wellness are going to be impacted, and what you can do about it:
Going Back To The Office
Means commute time, switching up the order in which you execute the morning routine (anyone else spend an hour in their inbox drinking coffee before showering and brushing their teeth?), and new ergonomic realities.
Whether you’re doing a slow transition back to the office or jumping in all at once, this is a great opportunity to create habits that set you up for emotional and physical success. Consider “commuting to work” once you’re fully prepared to start the day by taking a brisk walk around the block or popping out to your favourite coffee shop and back. This will help your mind and body switch from home mode to office mode and make your transition easier when you actually head back to the office full time (and you get some steps in!).
Going Back To The Gym
Gyms and boutique fitness studios have been scaling operations back up for the last month in many provinces to varying degrees of success. If you’re still a little anxious about heading into a dark, closed, room full of other people sweating and exhaling all over each other… that’s pretty normal. Try classes like Yoga, Pilates, Lagree, or Tai Chi where classes are typically smaller, spread out, and less cardiovascular-focused to break your group fitness fears.
If you’re not ready for the gym at all, we’ve still got a beautiful summer and autumn ahead to get outside and enjoy the Canadian landscape around us. Hiking, running, canoeing, kayaking, walking, yard work (yard work is hard!), whatever meets you where you are and gets you moving is a win.
Using Your Benefits
Sedentary lifestyles are rough on the body — home office or not. And if you’re on this mailing list, chances are you’ve got a pretty stellar benefits package waiting for use. At Studio D, we work with you to create a plan for using your benefits so that you can skip the back pain, neck stiffness and tight hips so that, no matter where you’re working from, you’re living your healthiest, most successful, life.
Be kind to yourself while your ergonomics shift as we head back to the office. Changes in the status quo are tough on the body but you don’t need to tough it out.
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