Making space for wellness in a remote-first culture
As Axonista is a remote-first team, we are always looking for ways to enhance our team culture, and bring people together in a fun and interesting ways that deepen our connection to each other, and give us shared experiences to reflect on. In 2022, we are bringing a themed approach to our monthly team activities.
February was our inaugural Wellness Month at Axonista, and we had an incredible month! Our team took part in online activities that focused on wellness and encouraged everyone to take care of themselves. From yoga and meditation, to guest speakers and art, the Axonista team enjoyed activities that were great for the mind, body, and soul!
We kicked off our Wellness Month with a company-wide Wellness Day to encourage our team to take some time to do something that makes them feel good. (Check out our blog to see what some of the Axonista team got up to).
Here are five online wellness events we really enjoyed, that are suitable for remote teams everywhere!
1. Yoga at Your Desk with Aisling Conn
As a remote-first team, we can find ourselves spending a lot of time in our chairs without properly moving or stretching. So, we were thrilled to have an online yoga lesson with yogi extraordinaire Aisling Conn. During the 30 minute lesson, we did some gentle movements and seated exercises followed by a selection of energy-promoting standing poses. We finished with a few minutes of breathing awareness.
We enjoyed this session with Aisling because it taught us lots of practical tips on making sure we move and stretch during our work day to ensure we are always ready to tackle the week ahead.
“I really loved the opportunity to stop and stretch during work. I always have tense shoulders and could feel the benefit immediately! It’s great to do this along with the rest of the team. A reminder to do it more often!”
Louise, Project Management, Dublin, Ireland.
2. Meditation with a Japanese Buddhist Monk
Our Wellness Month continued with meditation led by a Buddhist Monk. Our guide Kuniatsu started the session by sharing insights about his meditation practice. Then he instructed us in two types of meditation. The first was a chanting mantra that helped us focus on a deep practice, which was followed by a breathing-out meditation. We finished the session with a discussion of our reflections on the practice.
Our team loved this class as it definitely exceeded our expectations. We learned something new and felt very relaxed afterwards! Some of our team had participated inf meditation previously, while it was brand new to others. Our team enjoyed this so much, we recently invited Kuniatsu back for another session.
“The meditation session with the Japanese Buddhist Monk was amazing! I am acquainted with deep breathing from my freediving hobby, but the benefits from the Buddhist chanting, and in the last session the number concentration aroused a lot more curiosity about this type of meditation, so I went and did some research and what I found was indeed very interesting!”
Agostinho, Engineering, Funchal, Portugal.
3. Motivation and Performance while WFH with James Parnell (The Wellbeing Gym)
The following week, James Parnell, the founder of The Wellbeing Gym gave our team a neuroscience-based talk that focused on effectiveness, productivity, and focus while working from home (WFH). The Wellbeing Gym provides a range of online and offline training programmes
The session with James was really informative, it focused on techniques for productivity and focus while remote working. The session gave us an insight into neuroscience, and some new tools to use, and it was a great way to take a step back and analyse how we work.
“Our session with James Parnell was really informative. As a remote-first company, it was great to have an event with a focus on working from home and get some productivity techniques for this kind of work. James gave us tips and tricks on how to remain motivated and manage our workloads while working remotely.”
Michaela, Operations, Dublin, Ireland.
4. Coffee, Cake & Chat
On a Friday morning, we had a Coffee, Cake and Chat call with our team. We shared stories about our daily lives, and reflected on the teams’ experience of Wellness Month so far while enjoying a nice coffee and a sweet treat. The topic of Wellness month, and the shared experiences of the various events, made for a great starting point for our discussions. !
5. Create Mexican Stories with Art
We are big fans of art and storytelling at Axonista, so to finish off our incredible Wellness Month, we chose a class from Mexican Stories With Art. During the art class, we learned how collage techniques are used to tell stories in Mexican culture, and we made some masterpieces of our own.
The session with Sofia was lovely because we learnt new things about Mexican culture, and the Mexican music she played while we were painting created a fun atmosphere that set the scene for creativity. It was nice to take a break from work to embrace our creative side in an open and unpressured environment. This class was also a great way to spend time with the team outside of our normal day to day activities.
“My daughter and I really loved Sofia’s Create Mexican Stories with Art session. Painting to the sounds of Mexican music and learning together about Mexican culture was a brilliant way to spend a Friday afternoon – it gave us a new perspective on that part of the world and reminded me of the simple joys of making things.”
Eoin, Product Management, Dublin, Ireland.
Our Wellness Month was a huge success! To understand how our team felt about the activities, and to improve our future plans, we asked them to fill out a survey and share their opinions about Wellness Month. The results were very positive. Everyone was a big fan of all the activities they participated in. It was nice to have a mix of activities that suited everyone on the team, Meditation with a Japanese Buddhist Monk, and Create Mexican Stories with Art were top hits! We are very excited to bring what we have learned during Wellness Month into our daily lives.
Thanks for reading! We’re always on the lookout for new team members to join in our mission of building the video-first future of shopping, if this sounds like something you are interested in, please check out our careers page.
