10 ways to enjoy happiness at work
Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action. ―Benjamin Desraeli
👥 Serves: 1 person, 11-25 people, 2-10 people, 26-40 people, 41+ people
🎚 Difficulty: Medium
⏳ Total time: Ongoing
🥣 Ingredients: Depends on which steps you implement
🤓 Wholebeing Domains: Community, Positive Emotion, Radical Care, Ritualising
💪 Wholebeing Skills: Altruism, Caring, Celebration, Exercising, Giving, Joy, Kindness, Optimism, Reciprocity, Trust
10 ways to enjoy happiness at work
📝 Description
Tips to boost happiness at work.
The following recipe lists 10 tips to boost happiness in the workplace, adapted from Shamash Alidina’s beautiful infographic. Suggestions vary from tiny but powerful suggestions such as “be the smile you want to see in the world” to bigger efforts such as gifting a part of your salary.
👣 Steps
Step 1 – Kindness
Make a colleague a cup of tea or coffee, buy someone flowers, send a complimentary email. Step 1 of our recipe “Inner happiness” offers more suggestions on ways to cultivate kindness.
Step 2 – Self-care
Leave work on time, walk part of the way to work, have a massage, enjoy a candle-lit bath. Your smartphone can be of help in this case: check out our recipe “Digital goodies” to discover many apps that can boost your wellbeing! And did you ever consider creating a budget for self-care?
Step 3 – Fun
Tell some jokes, be the smile you want to see in the world, do a random moonwalk, laugh! Here are some ideas to bring lightheartedness and playfulness in the office: “Connecting through music”, “Inspiration jar”, and “Positive gossiping”.
Step 4 – Embrace imperfection
Be content with 80% perfect, celebrate mistakes, treat yourself to small successes. If that is difficult to you, consider going through our recipes “Coping with unhealthy perfectionism”, “Rethinking rejection”, and “Swapping envy for joy”.
Step 5 – Productivity
Focus 100% on your work, don’t check emails for the first hour, delegate a task, have a power nap. We know that is easier said than done, so here are a few recipes to help you: “Flow state”, “Pomodoro® Technique for Wellbeing”, and “Tips for time management”.
Step 6 – Exercise
Have walking meetings, go for a morning run, cycle to work, join a sports club, walk part-way to work. We have lots of movement-based activities for you to try out: from our comfortable “Chair yoga” through our “Gentle morning flow” to our “Walking meditation” practices.
Step 7 – Do something different
Call instead of emailing, take a different route to work, bake cookies for the team, organise a random party. Don’t know where to start? How about our recipes “Creativity through boredom”, “Solo day”, or “The no-spend challenge” to see what you can learn about yourself by leaving your comfort zone.
Step 8 – Negativity fast
Stop nagging for a day, drink no alcohol for a week, let go of a grudge. Our recipe “Catharsis through clay” offers a creative way to process tensions through kneading clay. And if you struggle to keep other people’s negativity at bay, learn to protect yourself with our recipe “Releasing energy”.
Step 9 – Generosity
Gift 10% of your salary, help a colleague out, print this out and stick on the wall, organise staff social. However, it is also important to be aware of your responsibility with your generosity: find out how you can be an ally for LGBTQIA2S+ folks and BIPOC in the workplace.
Step 10 – Mindfulness
Meditate for five minutes, accept however you feel, listen without judgement, take a day off to do nothing. We have plenty of mindfulness-based recipes for you to try out: “4-7-8 breathing technique”, “5 elements meditation”, “Body scan meditation”, “Colour-breathing meditation”, and “Mountain meditation”.