Giving Back - Corporate Wellness

Dance: One of my non-corporate passions!

I find my corporate life challenging, but I'm sure I'm not the only person who has other passions that aren't currently being applied to my core job.  

To give myself the chance to explore and grow in these areas, I try to find outlets to do what I love by giving back to the workplace community in the hopes that this will help my colleagues improve their own lives and perhaps contribute to others within and without the corporate realm.  

To do this, I volunteer my time as a faculty member of Google's internal education team, teaching courses on leadership, project management, and time and energy management. I am also a contributing writer for the company's internal health and wellness program, Optimize Your Life. Recently, I was named "Wellness Champion"!  

Below is the piece that ran in the monthly newsletter. Although it mentions a specific company, what I discuss below is applicable to anybody, anywhere. I hope that by taking a moment to read this, you'll 1) be reminded of what's most important in your life, and 2) think about how you can give these elements the attention they deserve.


This month’s wellness champion is Susan Lin! 

Susan has penned many articles  related to stress management for Optimize Your Life What motivates you to write articles for OYL?
As Googlers, we tend to be passionate about our jobs and everything we do in our lives; the commitment we bring to each is a wonderful thing.  However, the demands of our jobs, family, and other responsibilities can place a lot of pressure on us and we're constantly faced with decisions and tradeoffs.  

I've thought a lot about how to enable ourselves to do all the things we want to do while staying sane and even feeling empowered, while negotiating everything that demands our time and energy.  I'm always excited about sharing any insights and tips that have worked for me and for others, and OYL is the perfect platform through which to reach and hopefully help fellow Googlers!   

How did you become interested in emotional health?
Life can throw so many curveballs and it all comes down to how you deal with those ups and downs.  I've always tried to turn to myself to see how I can be stronger during times of challenge or hardship, and in the process learned that 1) a great deal is actually within your control, and 2) it's okay to ask for help!  

In other words, our peace and happiness levels are in large part determined by our own perspectives; it can be difficult (or impossible) to change other people or our surroundings in any given moment, but we can work with ourselves.  And sometimes, we need the support of others to help us figure things out.  This combination of strength and vulnerability is key, and I've been exploring how this can work in various situations to help us lead more balanced and happy lives.  

What is your vision for health (specifically emotional health) at Google?
I see Googlers who are passionate about their jobs and who allocate enough time and energy towards the things that are important to them: self, health, and family.  Work is important, but not at the total expense of these other elements.  

This means time at Google, whether at work or sweating it out at a G-Fit class, and time away from Google with friends and family, or doing whatever makes you happy.  That's what helps make an engaged and productive Googler.  It's that constant desire to achieve the right balance in life so that we feel refreshed and ready to tackle those stretch OKRs (goals) when it's time to work.  

If anything in my articles can help people make even a tiny bit of progress towards this balance, that will be the greatest reward I can hope for.

Know Your Body and Know Yourself

Have you tapped into your own personal Google?  

That’s a question that you may hear from Steve Sisgold, one of the warmest and most engaging people you’ll ever meet.  Here’s a person who genuinely cares about you, and wants you to know how all the answers you need to make your life better than it’s ever been are already within you - your own personal Google!

I can’t take credit for that unique turn of phrase.  I met Steve when he came to give a talk at Google last quarter (check it out on YouTube!).  

The main premise of Steve’s wisdom is that if we take notice of and listen to what our bodies are trying to tell us, we can then begin to understand where our anxieties are coming from and thus overcome them to find our truer, happier selves.  He is the author of the book “What’s Your Body Telling You?”, through which you can gain deeper insight on this unique way of assessing our personal wellness.

I find this a thrillingly simple way of “working with what you have”.  We were born with generations of “fight or flight” instincts - our brain and bodies are still wired to help us run away from a charging saber-toothed tiger in our prehistoric days, or to freeze when we see a snake in our path.  But what happens when these instincts kick in when we’re not immediately threatened by literal situations of life or death?  

The result is that we’ve  learned how to suppress these instincts to a certain extent.  But in doing so, are we neglecting the most important signal to understanding ourselves at that moment, to remain forever blind to the keys that could very well unlock our own potential in these crucial moments?

Let’s put it more personally: Have you ever felt a surge within you when you feel strongly about something, only to dismiss it?  Do you ever tell yourself, “That’s ridiculous - there’s no way this is possible,” even before you’ve fully articulated your deepest desires?  This is one way dreams are nipped in the bud.  

The key is to be open to possibility, and to make yourself vulnerable.  All it takes to begin this journey to self-knowledge is simply to notice what your body’s doing at any given moment.  Steve calls this your Body Quotient, or BQ.  

How does this work?  Take a moment and just breathe.  Focus on the quality of your breathing.  What do you notice?  Steve invited us to try this little exercise, and we all discovered something new.  I inhaled deeply quite easily, but found I could not exhale fully.  It struck me that in general I listen to others well and can absorb a lot of stress, but it can be difficult for me to relax and shake loose.  My breathing could very well reflect this. It was a wonderful moment of insight, shared by my fellow participants in their own way.

Our bodies our also like a database of all the experiences we’ve ever had.  If you don’t know why your mind is willing but the rest of you is not, ask your body: What are beliefs that I carry in my body that prevent me from doing what I want?  This is what Steve meant by tapping into your own personal Google.  

What do we mean by ‘beliefs we carry in our bodies’?  Steve told a story about a man who cringed whenever colleagues patted him on the back; they thought he was just weird, but it turned out that when this man was growing up his older brother would slap him on the back quite unpleasantly.  The man was mentally receptive to his colleagues’ good will, but his body remembered the negative experience associated with the gesture and instinctively he would shrink away. Once he realized what was causing his behavior, he was able to communicate it. To his relief, nobody thought this was strange at all, and his colleagues began to express their approval in a non-physical way.  This is the mind-body connection at work.

Focusing on your body is a startlingly simple way to understand yourself and to navigate life’s challenges starting with you: it’s about listening to your body, and what it’s telling you - right now!

So listen, and articulate what you’re feeling.  You may very well learn why you experience certain anxieties that prevent you from doing what you want, and thus unlock the keys to overcoming them.

Want to learn more about the mind-body connection?  Check out Steve SIsgold’s site and his book!  If you have read Steve's book, watched his videos, or have attended one of his events, please share anything you’ve noticed or learned as a result of applying Steve’s teachings - I look forward to hearing from you!