
One of our clients has been working at home on his sofa with his laptop placed on the coffee table – he doesn’t have a kitchen or dining table or space to put one. After 5 months working long days in this position he now has back and neck problems. Another client has been sharing her kitchen table with her teenage children who have been home schooling while she works. She ends most days exhausted and with a headache. | People are now at a really low ebb. This is not normal. |
Finally, building and maintaining our own resilience is important too. Whilst it is not healthy or desirable to become self-obsessed it is important that we don’t ignore our own well-being. The PERMA model, a key component of positive psychology, provides a nice framework for building optimism and resilience:
P – positive emotions (fostering positive emotions such as cheerfulness)
E – engagement (spending time in activities in which we ‘lose’ ourselves – a state of flow)
R – relationships (connecting with other people)
M – meaning (connecting to a purpose greater than yourself)
A – achievement (mastering a skill, accomplishing things)
What could you do to enhance or develop one or more of these PERMA items in your life?