Health & Wellbeing: Social Entrepreneur's Breakfast

When was the last time you thought about yourself? Your own health and wellbeing? The impact of what you have eaten today, how much sleep have you had, how much time you have dedicated to connecting with the people that matter? These were all questions posed at the RSA monthly Social Entrepreneurs’ Breakfast today, which focused on Health and Wellbeing.

Chiyedza Heri, one of the social entrepreneurs speaking at the breakfast, expressed this eloquently by highlighting the point that we often all forget:

"People buy-in to people, so you are your biggest asset to your social enterprise."

How often do you treat yourself as your enterprise’s greatest asset?

Breaking the ice as a group by sharing what made them smile this week and the addition of the sun shining in through the great windows of John Adam House, started the session with everyone in a positive frame of mind.

This was then followed by what was for me, the first experience of a mindfulness exercise. Henry Ford, who leads the London Mindfulness network, provided an inspiring session, showing that with only ten minutes you can bring yourself back into the moment and regain that all important focus. In a world that can sometimes feel like a never-ending to-do list, I for one plan to repeat this easy yet effective activity in my own time to help improve my day-to-day awareness and focus to achieve my goals.

Following various discussions, we came to the conclusion that the main challenges faced by social entrepreneurs in terms of their health and wellbeing tend to be centred around time management, networks and mind-set & emotional intelligence. Possible solutions to some of these challenges were also discussed and each member of the group agreed they would take away a positive action to try today and one that they would try over the next month.

Below you can see some of the pledges made; which one will you try?

Time

• Making time to care for myself (Put time in the diary)

• Take a 30 day challenge: Try and learn new things

• Write a ‘First things first’ book of priorities

Mindset / emotional intelligence

• Stop viewing situations as confrontational and adopt a win-win approach

• Take a step back from everything and reassess

• Drink less coffee

Networks

• Make time to speak to friends and family (put a time in the diary)

• Make contact with a friend that I haven’t contacted for a long time

• Look for support within my circle of friends and wider network instead of trying to do it all myself.

 So as I sit here at my desk, after taking a walk to refresh my mind, reviewing my busy diary for next week, I am reminded of what I learnt this morning. Whether you are currently running a social enterprise, are an aspiring social entrepreneur or you just want to be kinder to yourself, remember: you are your greatest asset in whatever you choose to do, so remember to treat yourself like one!