I recently had the pleasure of attending a small event with Dr Rangan Chatterjee hosted by Yulife. Dr Chatterjee started his conversation by explaining that a number of health problems are often caused by an underlying stress and therefore if you don't address this then you can't stop the issue on the surface (like being told to get more sleep, eat less sugar or read more books but without someone asking why this might be a challenge in the first place?!). 

According to Dr Chatterjee and a number of other experts, the workplace is the best place to start thinking about stress and wellbeing. From a cold business perspective it is in their (the employers) interest since less people are away from work is better for productivity and in turn people can be more creative and engaged. All great for business! 

Additionally for the individual employee it is in our natural human tendencies to find it easier to make changes as a community than individual.

Ultimately to make this a success the culture inside the organisation needs to change. Dr Chatterjee's 'quick win' is the following...

Promote a tech free lunch break

• By promoting this it enables the wider team to feel that this is acceptable
• When you stop working on a task the brain keeps thinking and helps to solve problems whilst also being more creative
• By not stopping we do not allow the default mode network to kick in and therefore we are less creative and productive
• I also believe that a tech free lunch will promote more human connection, more time to do something else at lunch that you enjoy or is necessary to your day and therefore feel happier