How do you tell what's going on?

How can you tell if your team members are struggling with loneliness, depression and anxiety if they don't tell you?

Loneliness, depression and anxiety can kill.?So how do you deal with these heavy topics which can have a significant impact your business, and also is it your responsibility as a leader to do anything?

Perhaps the DISC Health Formula can breathe new life into your organisation?

Team members go to work for various reasons – not just for money to pay the bills.

Many individuals are choosing to remain single and to live alone in this strange upside-down world we have created.

For two years from 2020, the subject of loneliness came to the fore when much of the world population was confined within their homes and not allowed to congregate.

I had never thought of loneliness and was shocked, surprised, saddened at my ignorance.

The subject takes me back to a personal event some years ago, although feels like it happened just yesterday.

Every emotion swept through me as we cleared my mother's apartment in December 2015.

I had always thought of Mum as a strong lady. However, that was on the outside.

How many of us are tough cookies with a soft caramel inside??!!?

You will have team members within your organisation who fit this bill.?

You will also have team members who put on a brave face but are really struggling to find who they are inside.?

These behaviours can be seen from a DISC behaviour profile without even speaking to the individual and provides leaders with key information and guidance on how to support them without any drama.

Mum was outgoing, bossy, loved a good laugh and was always with friends (that's me too).?However, gradually, the friends died, and Mum found herself alone, or piggy in the middle with younger couples that weren’t on her wavelength.?This gave her much more time alone which she didn't enjoy.

Not liking that she was growing old, life was changing so much before her eyes, never one to enjoy her own company, and not in the slightest IT literate, Mum turned to magazines, TV, reading and visits to me on the farm in Wiltshire, but this wasn’t enough to relieve her boredom and alleviate her physical pain as well as her mental anguish which was a constant reminder of the many bereavements experienced within our family.

I know that when alone, Mum was forever going over in her mind, details of the various situations where she'd been a key person of support, including with my own cancer experiences.

Every bone in her body hurt. She often told me that he only time she was out of pain was in bed.

Imagine being alone, bored, in pain and generally miserable, looking forward to dying??

Many times, Mum said she’d had enough of life, but she did a remarkable thing which spurred me on to create The Perfect Health HUB which was launched on the 5th of April 2022 - the 46th anniversary of my father's death at aged 46 years young.

In July 2015 I received a diagnosis of stage IV cancer.?By October the same year I received the wonderful news I was clear.?That was Mum’s signal that I was OK and she could move on to join my dad who died 40 years earlier.

We are not a cuddly, touchy, feely family so was a surprise when Mum hugged me in tears (we were both crying happy tears with the good news) and then took hold of my hands. She wouldn’t let go until I made a solemn promise that I would tell everyone how they too could recover from stage IV cancer, or better still avoid it in the first place.

Little did I know that was the last time I would see Mum in person.?She returned to her apartment and had a massive brain bleed on Tuesday 1st December 2015.?This was exactly the way she wanted to die. Mum regularly said to me that she wished something would happen that would take her straight out – and it did! I swear she manifested her own death, bless her.

That day, the weather was very cold and windy.?I learned that Mum was intent on planting the last of the garden bulbs in the community garden that was her pride and joy. For 25 years mum had been a volunteer and responsible for the glorious colour in the tubs around the restaurant garden. During the day Mum had met friends for coffee and they told me later that she excused herself early with a severe headache – this was rare – I’d never heard Mum complain of a headache – ever.

Whilst the death certificate had a fancy name as the cause of death, it was very clear, in hindsight that mum’s death was caused by the medical profession – in the same way that her sister had taken her life aged 52 years old due to circumstances made worse by medication.

The third leading cause of death in America is Iatragenic Disease – death by side effects of prescription drugs.

So many clients come to me and regale tales of their vast number of prescriptions and their never-ending sorry symptoms – all of which are caused by the medication.

I am shocked that few people ever read the data sheets which accompany their drugs.?The symptoms are all in the small print, and yet still they take another pill to relieve the side effects of the other drugs because they don’t joint the dots and their GP doesn’t tell them.

How many of your team members at work are on medication and how often are they checked?

When I took a break from corporate life and business mentoring, I created a business running cardiovascular health clinics and training others.?We checked artery and heart health for clients and guided them on how to improve their heart health and blood flow naturally.?Back then, in around 2010, it was estimated that 6 million people in the UK were on heart and blood pressure medication they didn’t need, and around another 6 million people were ticking time bombs and should have been on medication.

How many of your team members go home to an empty house, may be lonely and sad after a bad day at the office?

Is there a community culture within your organisation and a social mentoring programme?

Many team members now work from home or in a hybrid arrangement.?How confident are you that they are happy and effective in their potentially lonely work environment?

Might your organisation introduce a social community mentoring culture alongside business mentoring?

The DISC Health Formula is a brand-new programme which encourages personal responsibility for health and wellbeing and encourages group mentoring support. ?

Through a unique blend of DISC behaviour profiling, personal health assessments, access to online support resources, webinars and live group mentoring support we can guarantee measurable improvements in team performance, reduction in sickness absence and a rise in overall health and wellbeing scores.

Life is for living and enjoying every second.?Support your organisation to have happy, healthy team members both inside and outside of office hours.

On mum’s ansaphone was a message from Silverline – a befriending charity for older people who find themselves alone. I never saw that coming and has changed my perception on how we all live and work https://www.thesilverline.org.uk/

Why not book a call to discuss how we might collaborate and breathe new life into your organisation https://calendly.com/elainegodley or email [email protected]

The DISC Health Formula programme is a unique blend of powerful resources combining behaviour profiling, health assessments, group mentoring, live Q+A and mastermind techniques to encourage personal health and wellbeing supported within a safe community culture. Members may also have access to the Perfect Health HUB – an online portal with access 24/7 to hundreds of additional tools and resources for self-help health and wellbeing.

Elaine Godley MBA O.A. Dip (Psych) was voted the Best Health and Wellbeing Mentor 2022 -UK for her work which supports individuals to reverse serious health challenges.?Following her experience with stage IV cancer in 2015 after being given less than 1 year to live, and beating it in 3 months, Elaine teaches how to take control of health and wellbeing. Whether clients have been sent home with no hope of recovery, or want to stay well, Elaine has strategies that provide hope, inspiration, minimising symptoms and even reversal of serious conditions.?A former CEO, COO and business consultant who burned out, Elaine understands the business and health challenges which can derail organisations.

Use this link to book a free call with Elaine to learn how to introduce the DISC Health Formula within your organisation https://calendly.com/elainegodley or email [email protected]