Wellbeing is deeply personal
I’ve been thinking a lot about wellbeing recently.
Over the next few months, I’m running a couple of workshops to help teams explore what wellbeing truly means to them - not as a buzzword in the annual training calendar, but as something real, lived, and felt.
It’s been on my mind even more after taking part in a 20k walk around Battersea Park on Sunday to raise money for Hospitality Action. I walked the entire distance alongside two fabulous women, and by the end, I felt deeply connected - to them, to the cause, and to myself.
That walk reminded me just how personal wellbeing really is.
For me, wellbeing is about connection - with others, yes, but mostly with myself. It’s also about the small daily rituals that keep me mentally fit: the things I do consistently to feel grounded and balanced.
And when I skip them, I notice it. My brain starts whispering excuses -“You’re too busy today,” or “You deserve a lie-in.” Before I know it, a few days have passed, and I start to feel… prickly. Off-balance. Disconnected.
And it makes me wonder - why do we do this to ourselves? Why do we so easily deprioritise our own wellbeing, even when we know how much better we feel when we make time for it?
I think part of the answer lies in how we talk about wellbeing. Too often, it’s treated as a one-size-fits-all concept. Something you can tick off a list or roll out in a workplace initiative. But, it’s not a formula; it feels more like a fingerprint to me.
When we “sheep dip” people through the same activities or programmes without helping them make it meaningful for them, we risk missing the point. What nourishes one person might drain another. What’s restorative for me might feel uncomfortable or unnatural to you.
For example, my wellbeing rituals include:
A cold shower every morning - Regulating my nervous system almost like hitting the reset button on my energy and focus for the day.
Morning and evening journaling, where I check in with myself: how I’m feeling, what I need, what I’m grateful for.
Meditation, which helps me slow my thoughts and quieten the noise. And there can be a lot of noise sometimes :)
And perhaps most importantly, an hour to myself in the morning, before the world wakes up. That quiet time is sacred and chance to start the day intentionally.
But I know others whose wellbeing looks completely different.
A friend finds hers in exercise. Stretching herself physically, is what recharges her.
A client protects his energy by switching off from social media every evening and cooking from scratch to reset.
Another client told me she feels most well when she’s creating - drawing, designing, making things with her hands.
And isn’t that the beauty of it? That there’s no single path to feeling well.
So maybe the real work, both personally, professionally and collectively, is to create the space for people to explore what their wellbeing looks like. To encourage curiosity instead of prescribing certain ways, and to help people find ways of being that feel natural to them.
When wellbeing becomes personal, it becomes powerful.
