Wellness and AI?

For those of you who know me, I am passionate about all thing's tech, HR and I also taught fitness/wellbeing classes for over 25 years. I get excited when my worlds collide and recently that is happening more frequently. I was invited to speak at an upcoming conference on the intersection of technology and wellbeing. Can AI really open the door to helping us all find our middle ground? I wasn't sure (and still figuring out) and today I can share some early learnings as we consider this for the teams at CMS and I continue to reserach the practical ways technology and wellbeing can collide.

Many of you have heard of the Calm app. There are many others on the market and personally I have been a long-time calm user as it helped me break into the space of meditation by easing me through short, guided segments. My favorite being shorts by Jay Shetty whose ability to weave the story, the breathwork and a simple stillness was refined in his work as a monk (yep, he did).

Recently we brough the app to our leaders and it was the first time we entered the space of integrating technology, wellbeing and leadership development. Our goal was to create greater awareness around key elements in reducing burnout: Self-Compassion, Mindfulness, and Self-Awareness. Calm has a function that is "for work" so this truly was the "easy button" to get folks to develop a rhythm of taking a bit of space after wrapping one thing and before diving into the next.

We know you HR peeps are stressed, so let's use what is right at our fingertips?

It looks like this:

• Set a 15-minute calendar invite before your next all hands or team meeting "Self-regulation"
• Make this meeting recurring and type in the notes the prompt "How do you feel right now?"
• Commit to yourself and to your accountability buddy/mentor/co-worker of your intention
• Download the Calm app, navigate to discover and favorite "for work"
• When the calendar invite reminder goes off start with the three-step process of self-compassion:

1. Pause and take one big breath
2. Notice how you are feeling, in your head and in your body acknowledging and naming those feelings. Acknowledge those feelings are valid, normal.
3. Much like you would do for a friend, ask yourself "What do I need right now?"

• Open the calm app and click on your "for work" favorite
• Choose what answers the question for you: Energy? Music? Reset?
• Finally make a note in your original calendar invite: How do you feel right now?

This seems simple. Too simple. We kept it simple on purpose. Technology can feel overwhelming and integrating tech tools into our daily practice helps us get more comfortable when big technology shifts happen, like the introduction of machine learning and AI. This also helps people close the habit loop by reflecting on the impact of the action (See the Power of Habit and Atomic Habits for more about this important step).

Why does this have anything to do with AI and how can that specific technology starts to help us find our way to the middle ground?

AI is a tool.

We get to choose how to use it. Language is the key to leveraging this tool correctly and teaching our leaders the appropriate language can assist them in building their own AI toolkit.

In this example we are teaching our leaders two major concepts that reduce burnout and compassion fatigue based on the neurological research: Self-Regulation and Self-Compassion.

Next we are going to assist them in applying that language to begin to build their toolkit:

• Open the generative AI of your choice: Microsoft CO-pilot, for example
• Copy this prompt: What are self-regulation techniques I can try right now from my desk to reduce my stress level? (or fill in how you are feeling here)
• Boom: 10 options from anywhere, anytime that helps someone develop one more tool for their toolkit.

As we will discuss in subsequent articles, humanizing the technology is the key to leveraging this and many technology tools. Teaching the language in an approachable and applicable way helps people build the dialogue around connecting their mind and their body. Setting a recurring reminder assists in building a habit. Circling back on using the same language in a different way takes this from concept to application.

I am still learning and researching the many other ways we can start to approach this intersection. Stay tuned for more later post research! Each week I will share new findings on all things that hit the sweet spot in the intersection between AI and the #humanexperience #HX. For more details and hear more experts, join us on the podcast The HX Podcast