Don’t ignore your gut feeling

Everyone is talking about gut health and its link to wellness – our social media feeds are full of it (well okay, mine are), we’re bombarded with products aimed at maintaining a happy gut and if we’re not careful, we end up swallowing so many different supplements, we start to rattle when we walk. 

What on earth does any of it have to do with effectiveness at work?  As it happens, quite a lot.  In a world powered by facts, data and intelligence - artificial or otherwise, you should never ignore your gut feeling.

Here’s the medical bit.  The enteric (think all things intestinal) nervous system that regulates our gut is sometimes referred to as the body’s “Second Brain”.  Although it can’t do long division or write a report, it’s an extensive network using the same chemicals and cells as the brain, to help us digest and alert the brain when something is amiss. So, the gut and brain are in constant communication.  But we aren’t always listening.

When things are out of whack with the gut, we can experience symptoms that hamper our effectiveness at work.  It might be fatigue, lack of focus, mood changes or just feeling unwell generally.  Any of those things affect how we show up and how we contribute.  The way we work now – from a range of locations, non-traditional hours, tech driven, online meetings – can be fantastic for our work/life balance yet lousy for our gut health.

If you’ve fallen in to a pattern of long hours in front of a screen, rarely taking a break and jumping from one meeting to the next without a breather, you’ll know the impact this can have on your general wellbeing, yet you may not have considered that this is linked to gut health.  But it is.  In the same way our working practices can negatively impact how our gut feels, small changes can equal a happier, more settled gut.

Here are a few to get you started – gold star if you’re doing them already:

• Encourage lunch breaks.  They should be a regular practice, not a treat.  A time to stop, think, eat and relax. We’re all more productive in the PM when we get a decent break half way through the day.
• Get outside.  After a grim winter in the northern hemisphere, it’s getting lighter and the sun is finally shining.  A break outside, a walk, some fresh air, even for 20 minutes is great for clearing the head and settling the gut
• Breaks from the screen.  How many of us take a screen break, only to go on another screen?!  Real breaks mean no screens. Swap screen for a conversation, a book, a moment with pets, plants or humans or just a chance to stare in to space for short time.  Doing nothing is when the good ideas come – because we think better when we don’t force it
• Active team time.  If you’re planning a team get together, could some of it be active?  The activity needs to be something everyone can do – even a walk and talk is a great alternative to sitting around a table.

One of the team at Sharpstone Skinner, Juan Carlos Herrera, is a specialist in this area and runs workshops and sessions about gut health and wellbeing at work.  He’s based in Spain and visiting the UK in April, around World Health Week.  Lots of our clients have booked him to come and speak as part of their commitment to workplace wellbeing.

Do get in touch with us if you’d like to run something similar in your organisation.  Your team and your gut will thank you.