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Wellness Wednesday was originally started on social media as a hashtag to promote wellness and mindfulness. Now, it’s turned into a global movement for self-care, and applies to workspaces, too.
Employers are trying to find ways to support their employees’ mental health and we’re here to help you to implement Wellness Wednesdays at your workplace!
To say that the past year has been stressful for everybody is an understatement. 19% of adults say that they are more stressed out now than they were a year ago.
This is, in short, an international mental health crisis.
Keep scrolling for 25 Wellness Wednesday Ideas for your office (including virtual!).
Jump to:
- The Top 5 Wellness Wednesday Ideas
- The Top 5 Virtual Wellness Wednesday Ideas
- The Top 5 Out-Of-The-Box Wellness Wednesday Ideas
- The Top 5 Wellness Gift Box Ideas For Your Team
- The Top 5 Workplace Wellness Challenges
The Top 5 Wellness Wednesday Ideas
1. Mindfulness 101 Lunch & Learn
This is a great way to take one hour of your day and your employees’ day over lunch to work on mindfulness. These are non-religious and guaranteed not to be awkward.
Your employees will spend the first five minutes in a mini-meditation, followed by a 40-minute presentation about mindfulness in the workplace, and then wrap up with a 15-minute mini-meditation.
This introduction to mindfulness meditation is recommended as a start to any series of sessions. This class will uncover the subtle differentiation between Mindfulness and Meditation and will leave you feeling less stressed and clear minded before carrying on with your day.
2. Chair Or Mat Yoga Classes
Chair yoga was developed back in 1982 when a yoga instructor realized that his clients couldn’t always perform the poses due to age, arthritis, etc. Now, fast-forward to 2022 and it’s a perfect option for workplace yoga.
This option is a great for Wellness Wednesday practices as it can be performed from the comfort of your chair! These classes are offered by registered yoga teachers and is perfect for beginners.
If your employees are physically able and interested, mat yoga is also an option for Wellness Wednesday. These classes are also administered by registered yoga teachers and include modifications to make it accessible to everyone.
3. Creativity Boosting Lunch & Learn
Mindfulness for Boosting Creativity is a class that shares a similar structure to Mindfulness 101 but focuses on how to use it to boost your employees’ creative thinking. Practicing mindfulness has been shown to increase divergent thinking, a critical element of creativity.
This class presents employees with two creative-boosting challenges and is a fun team-building activity. It’s very easy to get stuck in a rut at work, and this program will help your employees get motivated to think outside of the box!
4. Encourage Mindful Coffee Breaks
Set aside a short time in the mid-to-early afternoon for your employees to take a mindful coffee break and chat together, or encourage employees to take one on their own. Suggest non-work-related Wellness Wednesday topics or meditation during the coffee break.
This promotes a time to regroup when most employees are likely to be in an afternoon slump.
5. Virtual Dance Classes
What better way to shake off stress than to learn some new choreography! These sessions are great for beginners and experts alike. Dancing encourages your body to produce endorphins and can be an entertaining activity to lower your stress levels and anxiety.
The Top 5 Virtual Wellness Wednesday Ideas
1. Virtual Chair Yoga Classes
You already know how important a yoga class can be to your employees’ wellness; with the pandemic, twice as many people are working from home than before.
Working from home can be just as stressful, if not more, than physically going into work. Add virtual chair yoga classes to your Wellness Wednesday ideas so that your remote employees can participate as well and take a break to stretch out and release their stress!
2. Virtual Meditation Classes
Twello not only offers in-person Mindfulness 101 – they also offer this as a virtual option. So, whether your team is in the office or working remotely, a virtual meditation class would work for everybody.
Working from home comes with a unique set of challenges and by offering incentives like meditation classes to your employees virtually, it can allow them to gain a new perspective towards these stressful challenges.
3. Virtual Nutrition & Mindful Eating Classes
Twello allows you to broadcast a virtual session, led by a professional who has formal training in the field of nutrition. You’ll also receive a recording of the class to keep for other Wellness Wednesdays down the line.
This class will combine Mindfulness practice with eating in a way to help energize and fuel your body. Mindful eating is a simple but impactful practice to fit mindfulness into your everyday life. Grab a cup of coffee or tea before the session and we will close with a “mindful coffee break” meditation.
4. Virtual Work-Life Balance Training
This class explores the concept of work-life balance and how to develop it mindfully.
We’ll take a look at two data-backed strategies for improving work-life balance, even when working from home! Learn how to use mindfulness to determine what is most important to you.
5. Work-From-Home Virtual Ergonomics Check-Up
Check-in on your remote employees and make sure that they are using good work-from-home practices. Virtually connect with them to make sure that they have a good office set-up, that they’re stretching and not hunched over their laptop, etc.
The Top 5 Out-Of-The-Box Wellness Wednesday Ideas
1. Virtual Company Cook-Off
Virtual cook-offs have always been around but, with the global pandemic, they’re more useful than ever before. There’s a good chance that your company has locations all over the country, so why not create a virtual cooking competition?
Send out an invite with ingredients and a set time…and GO! And offer a prize to the winner of the cook-off. It’s a great team-builder for your business Wellness Wednesdays.
2. Wednesday Walking Meetings
Instead of sitting in a conference room for a meeting, make it a walking meeting! Get out of the boardroom and get active. Studies have shown that walking meetings increase creativity by 60%, so get up and get moving!
3. Subsidize Meditation Apps
The fact is that your employees are more likely to use a service if you pay for a portion of it or provide it 100% cost-free.
Companies have been adjusting to remote workers over the past year and have started to offer meditation apps as an added perk. For instance, Hewlett-Packard offered a meditation app to its employees…and it worked. Their workers used over 500,000 combined minutes on the app.
4. Daily Push-Up Or Burpee Challenge
Fitness can happen in the workplace, too. Create a daily push-up or burpee challenge for your employees and encourage them to add reps every day. Keep track and give the winner a prize at the end of the month!
5. Virtual Wellness Show-And-Tell for Wellness Wednesday Ideas
Nominate a member of your leadership or management team every week to share what they do for mindfulness and self-care. If you show your team that you are exercising self-care, they’ll be more likely to do it for themselves.
The Top 5 Wellness Gift Box Ideas For Your Team
1. Healthy Snack Boxes
It’s important to get away from the vending machine culture of the workplace. Use your Wellness Wednesdays to hand out healthy snack boxes to your employees. Eating foods high in nutritional value can affect your motivational level as well as brain function. It will encourage clean eating and may even get them to try something new!
2. Self-Care Boxes
It would be a great idea to rotate your healthy snack boxes with self-care boxes on Wellness Wednesdays. Hand out boxes to your team that include items like bath products, hair care, a stress ball, a journal, and a self-care checklist. Self-care boxes is a great way to show employees their wellbeing is a priority.
3. House Plant Or Succulent Box
Potted plants are some of the best gifts for employees. They encourage productivity, improve mental health, and they won’t break the bank. Adding plants to a room can create a more complete and cozy effect to a home and can be great for work-from-home offices.
Pick one Wellness Wednesday every month and give out small plants or succulents to your team!
4. Meditation Package
If you’re going to offer virtual or in-person meditation from Twello, why not add a package as well?
These are easy to do-it-yourself – fill boxes with incense, essential oils, and a small candle. Then, hand them or mail them out before your mindfulness classes.
5. Natural Wellness Box
Encourage your employees to get in touch with their senses by giving them a natural wellness box. The possibilities are endless!
Some ideas could be:
- a stress ball or a fidget toy
- essential oils or room spray
- a bottle of water
- positive affirmation cards
- a healthy snack
You can also include Wellness Wednesday facts on notecards, such as which herbs are good for your organs, or the best foods to eat before bedtime.
The Top 5 Workplace Wellness Challenges
1. Mindful Walking Challenge
This can be done individually or as a team. While your walking meetings focus on walking while working, the mindful walking challenge should focus on moving without a goal.
Set aside a time to walk slowly, while being aware of every step and breath. You can meditate to yourself, or listen to a walking meditation guide while you’re moving.
2. 8-Hours-Of-Sleep Challenge
This probably isn’t a surprise, but one-in-three adults isn’t getting enough sleep. So, chances are, a good portion of your employees aren’t properly rested when they show up to work in the morning.
Start a sleep challenge with your team. Have them track their shut-eye with a sleep app for a week, and give out sleep-related prizes to the employee who tracks the most nights of 8-hours of sleep consistently.
3. Mindfulness Challenge
Humans are competitive, so make mindfulness a game!
Start a mindfulness challenge for Wellness Wednesday. Encourage your employees to practice mindfulness for five minutes every day for five days.
4. Journaling Challenge
You’ve already handed out journals in the self-care boxes. Now, encourage your employees to use them!
Have them write one journal entry per day for thirty days wit no rules or limitations – it could be a random thought, or something good that happened that day, or a lengthy entry. Give out prizes to those who keep up with their journal every month.
5. Mood-Tracking Challenge
Show your employees that you care by having them download the Beautiful Mood app. Have them track their moods for an entire month and give out self-care prizes on Wellness Wednesday to those who keep up with it. The incentive is key!
Looking for help launching your Wellness Wednesday Campaign?
You have come to the right place!
Companies like Netflix, Hello Fresh and The Home Depot have used Twello with their teams to improve mindfulness and morale.
- You can also call us directly at 646-859-8485 to learn more about our corporate programming or get recommendations from our team of Culture Experts
Your employees’ happiness directly reflects on the work that they’ll do for your company. Help support their wellness by launching your Wellness Wednesday Campaign today.
Complete Wellness Wednesday Plan
We know finding time to take care of your employees mental wellbeing can be tough! Leave all the planning to us. Let us know the details below and we will send you over a customized program to promote Wellness Wednesday in your organization.
