The WellRight Blog

Thanksgiving and health tend to not go hand in hand: The average American consumed 3,000 calories during their big family dinner.

Despite this, there are health benefits that come with the holiday. (And no, we’re not talking about the meager amount of veggies you get from eating Aunt Sue’s green-bean casserole.)

The act of giving thanks is good for our physical and mental health. Gratitude is a habit worth cultivating and practicing not just around Thanksgiving, but all year round.

Here is what the science says about the transformative power of gratitude:

It’s a classic scene in just about any office: Meeting requests, incessant emails, rush projects, and late-night work dinners add up to frazzled employees downing a potent mix of coffee, candy bars, and antacids. And that’s if they haven’t called in sick … again.

Luckily, employers have access to a tool that has the power to help employees manage stress and improve productivity, while lowering healthcare expenses and reducing costly sick days. Even better, it hardly costs a thing.

Magic? Nope. It’s mindfulness.

Wellness is more than a single blood pressure reading or the number of miles we logged last week on our Fitbit. Instead, wellness is a complex connection of systems, with each one affecting the next.

Because of this, companies who take a siloed approach to employee wellness, focusing solely on nutrition or fitness, do themselves—and their employees—a huge disservice.

But imagine what could be accomplished when an employer helps their employees not just eat well and better manage health conditions, but also plan for retirement or college, teach stress management and coping strategies, and develop social groups to keep employees feeling connected.

Taking care of ourselves during the busy holiday season is frequently overshadowed by decorating the house, baking sweets and treats, selecting the perfect gifts, attending party after party, and taking the perfect holiday card photo.

But if we don’t take the time and effort to care for our overall wellness, we may not be able to enjoy the season. So, where do we start?

When it comes to wellness in the workplace, gone are the days of focusing solely on health, nutrition, and fitness. Today’s employees want to see improvements in all areas of their life: emotional, social, financial, purpose, physical, and occupational. 

Employers also understand the value of a well-rounded employee, so they’re implementing multidimensional wellness programs. But they may be surprised to learn that encouraging social consciousness—the understanding that we’re all part of an interrelated community with others—can improve wellness on multiple levels. 

For better or for worse, we tend to take on the habits and mannerisms of those closest to us—which is why families are such an integral part of our lives. They shape who we are, what we do, how we feel, and even what we eat and drink.

So, when wellness program directors are evaluating possible initiatives to help employees stay on the path to better health and wellness, including the families of employees in those initiatives can be a smart approach.

Is there anything social media can’t do? It helps us connect with long-lost family and friends, keep up with current events, share news, follow our favorite celebrities, and find that must-try recipe that everyone’s talking about.

But while it connects us with one another superficially, social media rarely lets us connect in meaningful ways. That’s why it seems the more we use social media, the less happy we become—with social media leading to increased feelings of depression, low self-esteem, anxiety, and loneliness.

This lowered happiness can easily spill over into the workplace, making it important for corporate wellness programs to address social media use and the negative effects it can have.

Employees often talk about feeling “burned out,” but are they really?

True employee burnout is more than needing a temporary break from work or feeling briefly worn down by an intense project. Instead, it’s a state of chronic job stress that results in overall exhaustion, frustration, and a defeatist attitude that negatively affects an employee’s personal and work life.

Tis’ the season for giving! We hope you’ll give many gifts this holiday season, but the gifts we’re suggesting don’t involve any shopping or pretty packages. It’s in our nature to think BIG when it comes to gift giving this time of year, but we want you to think small -- at least for a moment. To complete the Giving Experiment, you will need two things: a recipient and a small act of kindness. Seems boring and simple? Maybe so, but it’s also extraordinarily powerful.