Lecture Modules and Workshops in Association with Equilibrium Solutions

In today's rapidly changing times, the need for optimum energy, emotional balance and mental clarity is of paramount importance. Wellness at Work is a highly effective programme of workshops and seminars that has been successfully running in a number of organisations for more than a decade. The programme uses a combination of scientific theory and practical application to demonstrate and teach techniques that can be applied both at work and at home.

	Are you Sitting Comfortably?
	Creating Optimal Learning
	Creating Optimum Sleep
	Eating for Peak Performance
	Harnessing Creativity
	Leading with Energy
	Managing Conflict
	Managing the Pace
	Redressing the Balance
	Stress and the Immune System
	Stress and your Personality
	The Power of Visualisation

These modules are offered by Dr Nerina Ramlakhan. Former founder of Corporate Wellbeing programmes at BUPA, Nerina established her own practice, Equilibrium Solutions, in April 2000. Her delivery style is lively, academic (scientific), challenging and interactive. She has a particular interest in Physiology, Philosophy, Organisational and Sports Psychology. Her seminars and coaching programmes offer models and insights drawn from these areas as well as from the personal experience of having worked with thousands of business professionals over the past ten years.

The organisations that she has worked with include: HISCOX, AMLIN PLC, Faraday Group Services Ltd, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, STATOIL, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, GMTV, Securities and Futures Authority, Bank of England, Freshfields, Lovells, CMS Cameron McKenna, HSBC Investment and several police forces throughout the country

Are you Sitting Comfortably?

‘Musculoskeletal symptoms – typically upper and lower back problems – are the greatest cause of occupational ill-health and sickness absence’.
‘The way you sit affects the way you think’.

This highly practical seminar will give valuable insights into the principles of optimal body posture and will cover the following areas:

	Are you sitting comfortably? A diagnostic for checking your own posture;
	Exploring the link between body posture and cognitive performance;
	Practical techniques for improving posture and enhancing work performance and energy management;
	Posture, body language and the power of influence;
	Practical desk-based techniques for alleviating neck, shoulder and back problems.

Preventing Burn-Out for Parents
To cover the following areas:

	Recognising when you are moving away from equilibrium – the burnout spiral.
	Managing the work/home interface and creating healthy boundaries;
	Creating the healthy mindset for being a working parent – managing guilt and perfectionism.
	The essential self-care rituals for working parents.

Creating Optimal Learning

This seminar is particularly helpful for those who are studying part-time and preparing for exams. The focus of this two hour seminar is on creating the optimum conditions for learning and success.

The following areas are covered:

	The physiology of Optimal Learning; the Ideal Performance State;
	Managing the work-study interface;
	Sleep and learning;
	Cognitive techniques for creating the best outcome; visualisation, planning and anxiety management;
	The essential principles of ‘study hygiene’

Creating Optimum Sleep

	An introduction to the physiology of sleep, circadian rhythms and energy recovery.
	Sleep as a mechanism for defusing stress and pressure;
	Shift work and sleep patterns; the implications for energy recovery,
	Impact of today’s world (technology) on sleep efficiency and patterns of sleep disruption.
	How your time management can affect your sleep.
	The Optimal Sleep Toolkit: Practical techniques for optimising sleep quality.

Stress and your Energy Levels
To cover the following areas:

	The link between, stress, energy management and performance;
	The energy continuum: from optimal energy to burnout;
	The signs and symptoms of individual and organisational fatigue;
	The key principles of energy and time management:
	recognising where you lose energy and how this impacts on work focus and performance;
	Energy and creativity;
	Synchronising your work patterns with your energy cycle.
	An introduction to practical techniques for optimal energy management.

Eating for Peak Performance

‘Inadequate nutrition may be one of the most significant factors contributing to poor performance and burnout in today’s organisations.’

I base this statement on consultations with tens of thousands of employees in the past decade or so. Consider the following:

	how many cups of tea/coffee or cans of coke/red bull do you need to get you through the day?
	do you suffer from energy swings during the day?
	do you regularly crave chocolates and junk food?
	do you struggle to find the energy to do the things you enjoy?
	do you have problems sleeping?
	do you have problems concentrating at work and in meetings, particularly mid-afternoon?
	do you have little or no energy outside work?

All or many of these can be related to poor nutritional habits. This seminar covers the whats, hows and whens of healthy eating to achieve maximum performance both at work and at home. The session is particularly focused on creating healthy, sustainable eating habits that are effective and practical for those working in high-pressure jobs and working long hours. The session is also tailored for those working shifts, with specific advice given for balancing eating patterns with maintaining alertness and concentration levels for the job.

Harnessing Creativity

It is not enough to have a good mind.
The main thing is to know how to use it. DESCARTES
For many of us working in today’s organisations, time pressures and work demands can force us to over-rely on our technical or logical left brain, often at the expense of creative, innovative right brain functions. We then tend to get ‘stuck’, feeling unable to solve problems or find creative solutions to everyday problems. This seminar deals with practical techniques for tapping into creativity and using the whole brain for problem-solving, whether at work or home. It is particularly useful for those who have particularly technical jobs and are seeking more innovative ways of viewing and solving problems. It is also useful for those who are trying to get more out of their creative hobbies.

Pre-seminar exercise: Before you attend this seminar please come prepared with a question in mind: What area(s) of my life could be enhanced by being more creative, and how?

Leading with Energy

In today’s fast-paced and competitive world, the challenge for leaders is to maintain a consistently high level of performance at no cost to personal health, relationships and energy levels.  In this one-day workshop, leaders will learn how to build their resilience and optimise their energy on every level- physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. 

The following will be covered:

	Understand the crucial link between pressure, performance and your energy levels
	Understand how burnout can arise
	Develop strategies – personal and practical – for renewing energy at every level

Managing Conflict

In today’s organisation, the competitive advantage may lie in building cohesive relationships and teams. Furthermore, man is a social animal and our morale and productivity are largely influenced by the quality of our relationships. This seminar examines the factors which create conflict in the workplace and offers practical solutions for resolving difficulties and enhancing performance.

The following will be covered:

	The anatomy of conflict
	Breaking the cycle of conflict;
	Shifting perspective; changing attitudes and behaviours;
	Venting constructively;
	Creating positive outcomes.

Managing the Pace

Pressure is something we all live with and can be a healthy and normal part of life. This half to one day workshop for managers and their teams will introduce techniques which will help delegates to manage pressure and stress by increasing physical and mental resilience.

Key objectives:

	What is and isn’t stress? What are healthy levels of pressure?
	Understanding the ‘pressure barometer’ - enhancing personal awareness, self-diagnosis and spotting early signs of stress in others, recognising when stress becomes ‘medical’;

Introducing a practical toolkit for building resilience including:
1. Cognitive skills (developing Mind Power) – introducing key mind power skills that can be used on a regular basis to create a healthier and more positive outlook (including managing negative/positive emotions such as fear, guilt and worry; limiting beliefs; your relationship with ‘control’; support strategies; your relationship with time).
2. Life-skills - increasing energy and wellness through exercise, healthy and practical eating habits, optimising sleep quality and power napping, relaxation and focusing techniques for work and home, creating healthy work/life balance;

Redressing the Balance

This seminar explores the Wheel of Life and looks at how each area of your life – work, home, social, financial, hobbies – relates to every other area. This seminar is particularly useful for those who are seeking to improve work performance and enjoyment without compromising balance in other areas of their lives. The following will be covered:

	Work/home balance – what is healthy and how can you create sustainable boundaries?
	Nourishment - what drives and fuels your performance at work? Can you perform better with less effort?
	Practical techniques for ‘freeing up’ energy for other life domains.

Stress and the Immune System

	Have many days have you been off work sick in the past year?
	How many of these sick days have been due to minor coughs, colds or flu-type symptoms?
	How many colds have you had this year?
	How many times have you struggled in to work with a cough or cold because you can’t afford to take the time off?
	How many times have you got ill as soon as you take a break?

Statistics from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development indicate that the average UK employee takes 8-10 days off work per year. More than 50% of this is likely to be attributable to minor ailments such as colds, headaches, IBS and other stomach disorders. This is an underestimate of the problem; the statistics do not account for the loss of work productivity if an individual is at work but performing sub-optimally.

In this seminar, the link between how one reacts to stress and the immune system will be explored. Attendees will learn practical techniques for rebalancing the immune system so that they are able to perform at their best not just at work but in life in general.

Stress and your Personality

The pace of today’s life is such that many of us find ourselves constantly driven to perform at a consistently high level, both at work and at home. This seminar explores the relationship between personality and how we perform. Particular emphasis is placed on the following:

	Perfectionism; a good or bad thing? Recognising when trying too hard undermines performance;
	A self-assessment questionnaire to determine your personality type;
	Practical Life skills for balancing out your personality;
	Cognitive techniques for improving focus, clarity and time management.

The Power of Visualisation

Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.
We all know how to visualise but often we do so to create a negative outcome. For example, you might be dreading giving a presentation or sitting an exam and then end up with exactly the outcome you were trying to avoid.

This workshop will demonstrate the essential principles of positive visualisation and how to attract the outcome that you really want – whether at work, home or in your relationships. The following areas will be covered:

	how and why does visualisation work?
	how to set the focus for your visualisation; starting with the end in mind
	how to visualise positively
	how to create powerful and effective images that will create the right results
	how to become aware of negative visualisation.

Pre-seminar exercise: Think of a situation in which you are seeking to create a positive outcome (work or home-related). Have you been in this situation before? What outcome have you usually had? What would be your ideal outcome?

All of the above are available in one day workshops, half day workshops or hourly coaching sessions.

Investment

One Day Workshop £1,600
Half Day Workshop £1,100
Hourly Rate £300
Coaching Programmes £300 per session
Telephone Consultations £150 per one hour session

All prices exclude VAT at 17.5%

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