VWBF23 On Demand

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Each day of Virtual Wellbeing Festival week, we will be bringing you a different Get Active session to help you get moving and ready for the day ahead.

Join Jade Gooding and Lucy Mecklenburgh and relax and stretch with Monday Pilates!

This VWBF23 Get Active session is brought to you by RWL Fitness. Northamptonshire health and care colleagues can get 50% off a quarterly plan with RWL Fitness when you sign up using this link.

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Basics of meditation, focused breathing and mantra meditation technique practice

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Meditation and mindfulness practices can not only improve our mental wellbeing mood, quality of life and attention – it can also help in increased focus, resilience, and improved decision-making. The key benefits of meditation and mindfulness training are that it can help you stay focused, calm and organized; help you reduce distractions; and improve your resilience to challenges.

Satish Chadha is clinical lead for the diabetic eye screening program in Northamptonshire. Besides his ophthalmology skills, Mr. Chadha has an interest in neuro-linguistic programming (NLP), hypnosis, cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), wellbeing and personal development. He is a professionally trained mentor in health care organisations and is also a certified mindfulness teacher and meditation coach.

If you are interested in taking part in Satish's 21-Day Meditation Challenge, please email Satish.Chadha@nhft.nhs.uk by 31 July 2023.

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Debra Searle is a professional adventurer and serial entrepreneur. Her expeditions have taken her across the Atlantic, around Antarctica, up to the Arctic Circle and everywhere in between. She has also launched five companies, is a published author and has presented over 40 programmes for the BBC.

Debra first hit the headlines when she set out to row across the Atlantic with her husband. Unfortunately, he had to be rescued so Debra, a novice rower, continued alone without a support boat and rowed 3,000 miles from Tenerife to Barbados. It should have taken them six weeks, but Debra ended up spending three and a half months at sea alone, encountering 30-foot waves, sharks, and force-eight squalls in her 23-foot plywood boat. Since returning from this adventure, Debra has undertaken solo and team expeditions across the globe. She has also represented Great Britain at European and World Championship level in Dragon Boat Racing winning bronze, silver and gold medals.

Debra’s spirit of adventure gained her an MBE from Her Majesty The Queen and she was delighted to be appointed a Trustee of The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, spending a decade working alongside His Royal Highness Prince Philip and His Royal Highness Prince Edward. Debra has been appointed a Member of the Victorian Order (MVO) for her services to the Royal Family.

In 2022 Debra was ranked number three in the World’s Top 30 Motivational Speakers, after Simon Sinek and Tony Robbins, making her the highest ranking female motivational speaker in the world. The movie of Debra’s solo Atlantic row is currently in development in Hollywood.

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Harnaam Kaur is a TV personality, body positivity warrior, motivational speaker, Guinness World Record holder and activist.

Drawing upon her battle scars and struggles as a bullied teenager, she inspires people across the globe to embrace their beauty, no matter what form it may come in. Join Harnaam on her mission to change the world – starting with yourself.

Harnaam has polycystic ovarian syndrome. She spent a lot of her time during her youth removing body hair to avoid taunts from her peers. Facing many adversities, she decided, at age 16, to embrace her body in all its glory.

The resulting self-love brought a positive change to her life, which she now shares with the world in the form of education, public speaking, modelling and media.

Harnaam has spoken in the Houses of Parliament, the Human Rights Conference NYC, and in front of over 25,000 people at World Pride, New York.

She has taken centre stage for her own TEDx Talk and has been featured in publications all over the world, including front covers for Cosmopolitan India and Glamour magazine. You can also see Harnaam in Vogue, Teen Vogue, Vogue Singapore and Grazia.

Now with a social media reach of over 230K followers, Harnaam is connecting with many diverse people, changing lives worldwide every day!

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How many times have you said, or heard someone, say it: “I’ve just not really got a brain for languages.” The truth is that anybody can learn a second, third or fourth language – and they can do this at any age!

Join this session to take your first steps into learning a new language and a world that promises more adventures, new friends, plus plenty of benefits for health and wellbeing.

As Jack embarks on a new language journey, there are tips and tricks, fun anecdotes and a whole host of resources to get you started.

For a number of tips, links and resources that supplement this Virtual Wellbeing Festival 2023 session, a slide deck has been created. Now you've heard Jack's top ten generic tips for starting your language learning journey, read through this guide for specific resources that can set on your way to speaking with the world.

VWBF23 -Recorded Session - Anyone Can Learn a Language [pdf] 644KB

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This session offers a time to stop, pause and self-reflect before we learn and move onwards.

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This session features three bite-sized sessions including interviews with specialists in key areas to support wellbeing during menopause.

Session 1 – Psychological Wellbeing Through Menopause
Amy Culshaw of NHFT interviews Dr Jo Brown, Principal Clinical Psychologist at NGH, about recognising and supporting psychological wellbeing, including anxiety, through menopause.

Session 2 – Menopause Specialist GP
Anne-Marie Dunkley of NGH in discussion with Dr Katie Barber, Menopause Specialist GP Dr Katie Barber.

Session 3 – Menopause and Nutrition
Sarah Fereday of KGH speaks with Nigel Denby, Registered Dietitian and Menopause Dietitian

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Each day of Virtual Wellbeing Festival week, we will be bringing you a different Get Active session to help you get moving and ready for the day ahead.

On Tuesday morning it's time to step up the energy levels with a high intensity interval training (HIIT) session in just 20 minutes, courtesy of Nancy Eagle.

This VWBF23 Get Active session is brought to you by RWL Fitness. Northamptonshire health and care colleagues can get 50% off a quarterly plan with RWL Fitness when you sign up using this link.

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Mindfulness and body scan meditation technique practice

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Meditation and mindfulness practices can not only improve our mental wellbeing mood, quality of life and attention – it can also help in increased focus, resilience, and improved decision-making. The key benefits of meditation and mindfulness training are that it can help you stay focused, calm and organized; help you reduce distractions; and improve your resilience to challenges.

Satish Chadha is clinical lead for the diabetic eye screening program in Northamptonshire. Besides his ophthalmology skills, Mr. Chadha has an interest in neuro-linguistic programming (NLP), hypnosis, cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), wellbeing and personal development. He is a professionally trained mentor in health care organisations and is also a certified mindfulness teacher and meditation coach.

If you are interested in taking part in Satish's 21-Day Meditation Challenge, please email Satish.Chadha@nhft.nhs.uk by 31 July 2023.

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Keeping Autistic Need in Mind

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Personal stories offer members of our local health and care community the chance to share their wellbeing experiences and tell their own stories on video.

This year's theme for Virtual Wellbeing Festival personal stories is neurodiversity, and in this session, Louise Kirby provides an insight into Northamptonshire's autism networks and advisory panel, and the work they do to enable colleagues to be their best selves. You can read more about this subject by reading Louise's paper about autism networks. To find out more you can email autismchampionnetwork@nhft.nhs.uk

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Do Organisations Think and Behave Like People When Under Pressure?

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Organisations, like people, experience challenges, difficulties and “golden times”. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, this session discusses the ways in which our health and social care organisations have reacted and respond to the challenges of recovering and growing from the trauma of the pandemic experiences.

Do organisations show trauma like individuals do? What does this look like and how does it impact on staff and the system they work in? How can we help our staff, teams and organisations to grow and thrive in the future? 

This session is being delivered by Dr Claire Hallas, Consultant Psychologist and Group Head of Health and Wellbeing at University Hospitals of Northamptonshire NHS Group, and Dr Jo Brown, Principal Lead Psychologist for Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust's Staff Psychological Wellbeing Service.

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Paul Merson is a former professional footballer with Arsenal, Middlesbrough, Aston Villa, Portsmouth and Walsall, playing for some of the game’s most well-known managers including George Graham, Bryan Robson, Graham Taylor, Harry Redknapp, Glenn Hoddle and Arsene Wenger.

The most successful part of his playing career was during his time at Arsenal where he won two Football League titles, the FA Cup, the League Cup and the European Cup Winners' Cup. He was also capped 21 times by England, making his debut in 1991 against Germany and playing in both the 1992 European Championship and 1998 World Cup.

Paul lived life to the full during his football career, had highs and lows, good times and bad times – however, all the battles he faced on the pitch were nothing compared to those off it. His many achievements in the game were accomplished despite a long battle with alcohol, drug and gambling addictions.

When he retired from football Paul carved out a successful career in the media with Sky television as a pundit on the Soccer Saturday show and also has become a very popular after dinner speaker.

In 2019 while appearing on the documentary Harry's Heroes: The Full English, Paul opened up about how his gambling addiction had affected his life, and his continued struggles with the addiction. He received praise for his candid discussion of the topic. He has also spoken about how his drink, drug and gambling habits also fuelled his struggles with his mental health.

If you think you may need support for addictions you can find out more about Alcoholics Anonymous and Gamblers Anonymous.

 

 

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Paul Meadows, founder of SENDS 4 Dads, shares the story of his mental health journey and how he set up the support group for dads and male carers who have a child of any age with special educational needs and/or a disability, whether or not this has been diagnosed.

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With the cost of living increasing, this Stronger Together session will discuss some tools and techniques that can help us manage anxiety and stress around finances.

Yasmin Bailey will touch on how to manage worry, reduce anxiety and challenge our unhelpful behaviours!

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Reducing Loneliness: Reconnecting You to Your Community

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Discover how Age UK helps to reduce feelings of loneliness and its impact on older people, their families and carers.

This session follows a client's journey through services that contribute to reducing loneliness and explores the impact they have.

It also looks at the impact those client stories have on staff wellbeing, and how we endeavour to alleviate that.

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Each day of Virtual Wellbeing Festival week, we will be bringing you a different Get Active session to help you get moving and ready for the day ahead.

This is a full body chair yoga practice for beginners, presented by Raj Rajani of Yogada Studios 

Raj will guide you through a gentle flow of poses, using a chair, to help release tension in the neck, shoulders, back and hips, often developed as a result of long days sat at the computer.  

She will lead you to experience the benefits of simple breathing techniques to help release stress built up during a busy, deadline-driven day and stimulate the vagus nerve.

The practice will end with a guided meditation/visualisation for self-confidence and inner peace and contentment.

https://www.yogadastudios.com

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Grounding and golden sun technique of meditation practice

Meditation and mindfulness practices can not only improve our mental wellbeing mood, quality of life and attention – it can also help in increased focus, resilience, and improved decision-making. The key benefits of meditation and mindfulness training are that it can help you stay focused, calm and organized; help you reduce distractions; and improve your resilience to challenges.

Satish Chadha is clinical lead for the diabetic eye screening program in Northamptonshire. Besides his ophthalmology skills, Mr. Chadha has an interest in neuro-linguistic programming (NLP), hypnosis, cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), wellbeing and personal development. He is a professionally trained mentor in health care organisations and is also a certified mindfulness teacher and meditation coach.

If you are interested in taking part in Satish's 21-Day Meditation Challenge, please email Satish.Chadha@nhft.nhs.uk by 31 July 2023.

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Personal stories offer members of our local health and care community the chance to share their wellbeing experiences and tell their own stories on video.

This year's theme for Virtual Wellbeing Festival personal stories is neurodiversity.

In this session Paul Sheldon, Group Chief Finance Officer for Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (NHFT), and Julie Shepherd, NHFT Chief Nurse, share their personal stories and a number of tips and tricks on how they manage their neurodiversity.

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CHIME Out: Using the CHIME Model to Face Life's Difficulties

Life is full of changes and challenges.

The CHIME recovery model states that there are five factors that are important during these times: Connectedness, Hope, Identity, Meaning and Empowerment.

In this session, presented by the NHFT Community Recovery Team, we’ll be talking about what the CHIME model is and how it can help us to tackle whatever life throws at us.

If you would like to receive copies of the presentation and accompanying worksheet from this session, please email Community.RecoveryTeam@nhft.nhs.uk

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Vex King is a million-copy bestselling author and mind coach. He is the author of two #1 Sunday Times #1 bestsellers: ‘Good Vibes, Good Life’, which has been translated into 39 languages, and ‘Healing is the New High’. His third book, ‘Closer to Love’, debuted at #2 on the Sunday Times list.

Vex is a mind coach who came to fame on Instagram and is now much in demand as a writer and speaker. He had a difficult childhood but did well at school, then went on to take a degree in Business Information Systems.

After working as a Systems Analyst, he moved into music production where he worked with stars including Tinie Tempah, Wretch 32 and Big Narstie. His work brought him into contact with people who started asking him for life advice, including major sporting stars, and he gradually built up a life coaching / mind coaching business. On the back of this, he went online to share his ideas with the world and was astonished by the response. He is now leading a revolution for the next generation of spiritual seekers.

As a major voice in the world of personal development, Vex shares deep spiritual knowledge in a way that's easy to understand, with stories from his own life, great inspirational quotes and practical solutions.

Read Vex’s reflections from his Virtual Wellbeing Festival session

Taking care of staff

CARE Model:

Communication : Create open lines of communication for feedback, concerns, and ideas.

Achievement : Show ways in which people can achieve a work-life balance. Prioritize and support a healthy balance between work responsibilities and personal life.

Resources: Offer resources and services that prioritize mental well-being and destigmatize mental health conversations.

Environment: Create an environment that encourages self-care. Whether it’s a silent room for rest or self-care and wellness activities that people can easily join.

Encouraging people to speak about mental health

Normalize open discussions about mental health , self-care practices, and the challenges of balancing personal well-being with caregiving responsibilities. By normalizing these conversations, colleagues will feel more comfortable expressing their needs and seeking support.

Have seniors lead by example: As a leader, demonstrate self-care practices and openly discuss your own experiences with self-compassion. When others see you prioritize your well-being, it gives them permission to do the same. Modelling self-love and sharing personal stories can create a safe space for colleagues to open up about their own mental health.

Offer resources such as mental health awareness training , workshops on self-care techniques, or access to counselling services. Ensure that colleagues are aware of the available support systems and encourage them to utilize these resources when needed. This demonstrates that their mental health and well-being are valued and supported within the workplace.

Implement self-care strategies collectively: Encourage colleagues to practice self-care together as a team. This can include activities such as group mindfulness exercises, team-building activities focused on well-being, or designated breaks for relaxation. By incorporating self-care practices into the work routine, colleagues can collectively prioritize their mental health while still fulfilling their caregiving responsibilities. It will also show individuals different ways in which they can take care of themselves.

Dealing with stress, anxiety and burnout

RED: Relationship, Emptiness, Drain

Relationship

Especially where burnout is concerned, think of yourself as a professional athlete pushing through a very difficult season. Anxiety and stress could represent minor injuries or a lack of fitness. Without adequate care and rest, things will not only become far worse, such as a harsher injury, but end your career completely. By not healing, we only prolong the hurt.

Burnout is your mind and body saying rest, but many people push through the anxiety and stress and end up worse because they don’t know how to rest.

They’re the people who epitomise human-doingness instead of human-beingness. 

So how do we learn to rest? Well, we need to know what our relationship with rest looks like.

Often there’s some form of perfectionism, trauma or unhealthy conditioning that is driving the relentless behaviour leading to burnout.

It might be that as a child you only got praise and love if you achieved something.

You were told that rest was only for lazy people.

You developed people-pleasing tendencies as a result of fighting for love and attention.

Or you never saw the authority figures in your life taking time out.

Some people are able to do some adequate reflecting and figure it out, plus take initiative and implement more periods of rest.

Nevertheless, I highly recommend seeing a professional counsellor or therapist to understand your relationship with rest and how it can be strengthened.

Emptiness

In our fast-paced and information-saturated world, it is crucial to consciously make time for moments of non-thinking and schedule periods of emptiness in our daily lives. By creating space in our minds, we allow ourselves to detach from the constant stream of thoughts, worries, and external stimuli that can overwhelm us.

When we engage in non-thinking, we give our minds a chance to rest and rejuvenate. This practice can take various forms, such as meditation, mindfulness, deep breathing exercises, or simply finding a quiet spot to relax without any specific agenda. During these moments, we consciously let go of the mental clutter, allowing our minds to settle into a state of calm and stillness. As your mind begins calm, the breath follows suit. Suddenly, the anxiety dissipates. 

Regularly making time for emptiness is essential for maintaining mental well-being. It prevents our minds from becoming densely populated and chaotic, which can lead to increased stress levels. Embracing moments of emptiness helps us find balance, clarity, and a sense of inner peace.

Drain

Do some self-reflection and find out what’s draining you isn’t. In other words, what gives you energy and what doesn’t?

Analyse your relationships, your habits, your environment, your hobbies, etc.

Do more of the things that help you feel nourished and cut back or distance yourself from the things that don’t.

If it’s a working relationship which is draining you, perhaps there needs to be more communication, a boundary in place, reinforcement or even a third party to step in.

Building better relationships in the workplace

Empathy

My latest book, Closer to Love, speaks mainly of romantic love. Nevertheless, the essentials of relationship building remain the same.

One of the key messages in my book is that to get closer to another person, you must remain close to yourself. When you know yourself well, you can respond to the needs of others with more compassion and understanding.

This requires something called emotional intelligence – which is simply our ability to understand and manage our own emotions and effectively recognize and respond to the emotions of others.

Why is this important? Well, most people just want to be seen and understood. When they feel like they have, they feel closer to that person. It’s like someone gets them.

A good way we can show people we understand them is by empathizing with them. Empathy is a feeling of awareness toward other people's emotions and an attempt to understand how they feel. We can only do this if we have emotional intelligence, and we can only develop emotional intelligence if we have self-awareness. The simplest way of enhancing self-awareness is by recording your thoughts and feelings on paper – like in a journal.

Communication

Effective communication is the foundation of any relationship. Be an active listener, express your thoughts and ideas clearly, and encourage others to share their perspectives.

Regularly check in with your colleagues to ensure everyone is on the same page.

This is especially important during conflict. How we disagree can make or break a relationship. In fact, a marital expert called Dr. John Gottman describes negative communication styles that can be detrimental to relationships, and even predict divorce with great accuracy (criticism, contempt, defensiveness and stonewalling). So, although it’s important to talk to each other, bad communication essentially puts your relationship on the ropes.

Be respectful, be willing to listen and exercise understanding, seek common ground, find solutions that are mutually beneficial, apologise if need be, take responsibility, and then be accountable. 

Sometimes it’s hard to communicate when you’re emotionally triggered, so let those emotions diffuse otherwise you’re likely to go head-to-head.  

And avoid gossiping, especially when experiencing conflict! I know that sounds like a given, but so many people turn to others and bad-mouth their colleagues, which only creates a bigger problem. Talk to the person involved instead, as if it were the other way round, I’m sure you wouldn’t want to be the subject of gossip.

Appreciation

Show appreciation and respect: Recognize and acknowledge the contributions of your colleagues. Offer genuine compliments, express gratitude for their efforts, and show respect for their opinions and expertise. Building a culture of appreciation and respect enhances team dynamics. Everyone wants to be validated to some degree, so why not make that small gesture?

Teamwork

They say teamwork makes the dream work, so actively seek opportunities to work with your colleagues. This could be as simple as sharing your knowledge, skills, and resources willingly, and also being open to learning from others.

Teamwork doesn’t have to be work-led. Those in a leadership role especially can encourage team-building activities or initiatives that promote collaboration and rapport. These activities can range from team outings or social events to workshops or problem-solving exercises. Where there is discomfort there is often vulnerability and humour, which will only strengthen a relationship and create a sense of unity.

Positive environment

Create a positive and inclusive atmosphere by being supportive, approachable, pleasant, and considerate.

Offer assistance to colleagues when needed, celebrate successes together, and foster a sense of friendship.

Schedule time for connecting with colleagues. It can be as simple as popping over to a colleague’s desk, offering to make a coffee, or spending lunch together away from the desk.

Be inviting and demonstrate that you want to connect.

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Virtual Book Club: We Read to Know We're Not Alone

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The Virtual Book Club has been running since December 2020.

Led by Gary Meades, Library Services Manager at Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, this session will look at the pleasures of reading, how it supports wellbeing and the connections it brings.

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Join Bloody Good Period, the campaign group fighting for menstrual equity, for this session designed for everybody – whether they menstruate or not!

Delve into the common myths society tells us about menstruation and menopause and how we can look to combat them in our workplaces.

The session takes inspiration from around the world to explore how to make menstruation more comfortable and equitable in the workplace.

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De-stress with a bit of boxing for mental and physical health.

Discover how to punch your way to fitness with Women's Boxing Northampton coaches Colin, Fiona, Laura and Dani.

Learn straight punches, hooks and uppercuts with bodyweight exercises to suit your ability.

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Each day of Virtual Wellbeing Festival week, we will be bringing you a different Get Active session to help you get moving and ready for the day ahead.

Let Helen Barness help you get your step-count up and kick Thursday off in style with this fun Walk to the Beat session.

This VWBF23 Get Active session is brought to you by RWL Fitness. Northamptonshire health and care colleagues can get 50% off a quarterly plan with RWL Fitness when you sign up using this link.

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Mindfulness and mountain meditation technique practice

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Meditation and mindfulness practices can not only improve our mental wellbeing mood, quality of life and attention – it can also help in increased focus, resilience, and improved decision-making. The key benefits of meditation and mindfulness training are that it can help you stay focused, calm and organized; help you reduce distractions; and improve your resilience to challenges.

Satish Chadha is clinical lead for the diabetic eye screening program in Northamptonshire. Besides his ophthalmology skills, Mr. Chadha has an interest in neuro-linguistic programming (NLP), hypnosis, cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), wellbeing and personal development. He is a professionally trained mentor in health care organisations and is also a certified mindfulness teacher and meditation coach.

If you are interested in taking part in Satish's 21-Day Meditation Challenge, please email Satish.Chadha@nhft.nhs.uk by 31 July 2023.

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I'm Olivia and I Am Autistic

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Personal stories offer members of our local health and care community the chance to share their wellbeing experiences and tell their own stories on video.

This year's theme for Virtual Wellbeing Festival personal stories is neurodiversity, and in this session Olivia Baker tells her story about the challenges of living with undiagnosed autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and the challenges of adapting to life with the late diagnosis.

 

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This session is presented by Nicola Phillips and Thomas Finnigan from NHFT's Northamptonshire NHS Talking Therapies service.

During the session, Nicola and Thomas talk about what burnout is and the different warning signs to indicate that you may be approaching burnout.

They also explore different techniques that can be helpful to prevent and manage burnout, including behavioural activation and mindfulness.

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BBC Bitesize science presenter Ayo Sokale possesses an array of talents and expertise, placing her at the cutting edge of the evolving scientific, environmental and media landscape.

Ayo is a chartered civil engineer and project manager for the Environment Agency in Eastern England and is a popular keynote speaker on the environment and sustainability. She is also a STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) ambassador and mentor, encouraging others to take up careers in civil engineering.

In recent years, Ayo has felt more able to talk about being on the autism spectrum. She has a diagnosis of Asperger’s syndrome and is an empathetic and inspirational keynote speaker on neurodiversity, mental health challenges and how to overcome them.

Ayo loves the performing arts, fitness and is a presenter for BBC Reel. She has a passion for supporting great causes and has raised funds for a number of charities, using her platform as a beauty queen and finalist for Miss Galaxy England, Miss Earth and Miss Great Britain.

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Managing Long-Term Condition Symptoms and Experiences

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This session includes information and understanding about how to manage the common symptoms associated with long-term conditions such as pain and fatigue.

It includes pacing, goal setting, understanding and managing the boom-and-bust cycle, as well as beliefs and expectations in relation to managing relapse and remitting symptoms.

This session is delivered by Dr Jo Brown, Principal Lead Psychologist for Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust's Staff Psychological Wellbeing Service.

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This session provides practical advice relating to personal safety in the public space - both in the real and virtual world.

Presenters Paul Fell, Tiffany Buchanan and Paul Golley also highlight some of the work being undertaken in Northamptonshire to promote public safety, particularly in relation to violence against women and girls.

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In this session, Suzanne Mulholland (aka the Batch Lady) shows you how to make fast, simple meals that you can make in advance and put in your freezer ready to grab out at anytime.

She will run through the methods of freezing and defrosting and how you can save money on your weekly food bills by following some top tips.

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Each day of Virtual Wellbeing Festival week, we will be bringing you a different Get Active session to help you get moving and ready for the day ahead.

We're bringing the energy on Friday morning with Sarah Clyne and Cecilia Harris - so get ready to slide and glide with this fun retro aerobics session.

This VWBF23 Get Active session is brought to you by RWL Fitness. Northamptonshire health and care colleagues can get 50% off a quarterly plan with RWL Fitness when you sign up using this link.

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Self compassion: working with emotions and the inner child meditation technique

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Meditation and mindfulness practices can not only improve our mental wellbeing mood, quality of life and attention – it can also help in increased focus, resilience, and improved decision-making. The key benefits of meditation and mindfulness training are that it can help you stay focused, calm and organized; help you reduce distractions; and improve your resilience to challenges.

Satish Chadha is clinical lead for the diabetic eye screening program in Northamptonshire. Besides his ophthalmology skills, Mr. Chadha has an interest in neuro-linguistic programming (NLP), hypnosis, cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), wellbeing and personal development. He is a professionally trained mentor in health care organisations and is also a certified mindfulness teacher and meditation coach.

If you are interested in taking part in Satish's 21-Day Meditation Challenge, please email Satish.Chadha@nhft.nhs.uk by 31 July 2023.

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This session considers what comes under the banner of neurodiversity and looks at how we can best support the people around us who are neurodiverse.

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Gok Wan is an award-winning TV presenter and fashion expert. His name is now synonymous with offering straightforward fashion advice to women to boost their appearance and confidence, no matter their age or shape. Gok’s engaging approach, combined with his personal charm, has enabled him to build a reputation as one of the UK’s best known TV presenters.

Gok first came to fame in the UK as a fashion stylist, crashing on to the nation’s screens with an infectious personality that belied his deep understanding of fashion and style. His first TV series for Channel 4, ‘How to Look Good Naked’, was a big success and paved the way for a further six series as well as various other spin-off fashion-focused TV shows. However, it was his ability to relate to people, combined with his knowledge and love of food and cooking that enabled Gok to expand his expertise across a broader lifestyle remit and in 2012, he presented his first TV cooking show ‘Gok Cooks Chinese’.

As his professional profile grew, Gok used his status to draw attention to the issues he feels passionate about and has become actively involved in several charities, all of which have a common theme of being emotionally engaging as well as inspiring people to achieve their dreams. Gok has drawn on his life experiences to raise awareness of the many challenges surrounding child obesity and anti-bullying, and he remains enthusiastically involved in fund-raising projects for cancer care and child empowerment charities.

Above all, it is his articulate and intelligent approach to presenting which has rightly earned him a reputation as an authentic voice.

In November 2021, Gok was awarded an MBE for his services to ‘fashion and social awareness’ from the Princess Royal at Windsor Castle.

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This art session introduces drawing as a way to help with focus and relaxation. It makes use of easily accessible materials with a focus on shape, mark-making and pattern.

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Trigger warning: This session includes discussion of suicide, self-harm, eating disorders and other mental health issues. 

If you've been affected by any of the subjects discussed in the session please use the below information to get some help.

To talk to someone about stress, anxiety or depression call the Northamptonshire NHS Talking Therapies team on 0300 999 1616. For anything else, including access to more urgent help or a mental health crisis call 0800 448 0828 or visit thementalhealthnumber.me

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This session is delivered by Robert Freund and Dave Harrison from NHFT's learning and development team, who discuss and explore the benefits and dilemmas of lived experience leadership at work, and how to look after our wellbeing.

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Plugging the Volunteering Gap with Positive Mental Health

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This TED-talk style presentation explores the reasons volunteering numbers have fallen since the COVID pandemic – and how we can all help to reverse this decline while improving our own mental health and wellbeing.