Friday Footnote #51

Each week we share loads of content amongst Team ION and with our network. Content that inspires us, which we find helpful or just makes us smile. We thought we would start sharing these insights every Friday. Welcome to Friday Footnote.

#ConnectwithNature

This week is Mental Health Awareness Week and the theme is nature. The ION team has joined the conversation on their social media feeds, and our corporate feeds, sharing how they manage their own mental health. Whether it's Vichy cleaning out her horses every day, Adam volunteering with his local youth football team, or Felicity sharing her family's 'happy place' on Angelsey,  their personal stories highlight the importance of the great outdoors and its role in managing their mental health.

Check out our LinkedIn page to find out more about the team's stories.

Mental Health Awareness Week is an annual event when there is an opportunity for the whole of the UK to focus on achieving good mental health. The Mental Health Foundation started the event 21 years ago. Mental Health Awareness Week is open to everyone. It is all about starting conversations about mental health and the things in our daily lives that can affect it. This year we want as many people as possible – individuals, communities, and governments – to think about connecting with nature and how nature can improve our mental health.

A busy week of ION events

It has been a busy week of events this week for Team ION.

Wednesday saw Part 1 of our Mental Toughness: Building Proactive Resilience virtual session take place, led by Leadership Development Specialist, and AQR International accredited mental toughness practitioner, Andrew Veevers. In session 1, the group discussed the origins of mental toughness, how it is measured, the 4C's and 8 factors of mental toughness, and emotional intelligence vs mental toughness. This week's conversation sets up perfectly next week's session when we’ll focus on 20+ exercises to help develop mental toughness and sensitivity. We're looking forward to it already, and so are some of those who took part:

• 'Fantastic session on mental toughness delivered by @ionleadership today, we focus on mental resilience training heavily (rightly so) but seem to brush over the toughness aspect' (@Langerz_)
• 'Great speaker. Some really great tools to help the team and yourself. I really liked the 4 C's and the emotions chart. Thank you. Looking forward to next Wednesday' (Dean Owens, via LinkedIn)

Thursday saw us run our weekly #IONOpenDoors session, but this week we were joined by Empower Wellbeing founder, and ION alumni, Joanne Juliff to discuss How 'more than before' can improve your wellbeing. During the session, we discussed the important role physical activity and the great outdoors plays in helping us manage our mental health, and Jo shared some fantastic tips on how to start doing 'more than before'. There were some fantastic conversations amongst the group (as there is every week!), and a huge thank you to everyone who joined us, and for sharing their stories.

We get together every Thursday at 11am for our weekly sessions, so if you want to join the conversation, find out more and come and join us.

Inspiration

• Got a meeting? Take a walk (TED)
• What will the hybrid hiring era look like? (The HR Director)
• How to be mentally tough without sacrificing emotional intelligence (Harvard Business Review)
• How to support wellbeing at work in the 'new normal' (Lifeseeker)
• The deadline to enter this year's Wales Start-Up Awards is 31st May. Enter today. (Wales Start-Up Awards)
• 3 mid-work mindfulness exercises you can do in 30 seconds or less (Calm.com)

Become an extraordinary leader

Thanks to WEFO, we are currently able to offer our leadership programmes fully funded. However, the funding is currently due to end at the end of August 2021. Therefore, all programmes which start before the end of August 2021 are fully funded, and you can find details of these programmes on the courses page of our website.

Missed previous #FridayFootnotes?

Diolch. Team ION