> Greetings from Minnesota on a cloudy Friday afternoon in
>November. Normally this time of year, I get the start of the winter
>blahs (when you have winter for upwards of five months, this is not
>unusual). This year however, it is different due in part to two stress
>busters that I have discovered. Now, this may not be for everyone, but
>they both work - though for different reasons.
>
> 1. On-site seated massage.
> About two months ago a massage therapist began coming
>on-site to provide massage to a co-worker was suffering from back
>troubles. Since she was already on-site, she allowed others to book
>appointments. What a fantastic service this has turned out to be.! Her
>rates are reasonable, and you have the choice of 10 or 15 minute
>appointments. I store stress between the shoulder blades and neck area,
>I also get sore arms from keyboarding all day (sound familiar?). After
>my appointments I am totally refreshed and re-energized. It is amazing.
> She has developed such a following that we are
>considering incorporating her into our benefit package!
>
> 2. Stamping
> No, not your feet. This is a craft related activity. I
>went to a home party, as a favor to a friend who was the hostess. To my
>surprise it was a excellent stress buster and talk about lighting a fire
>in the creativity furnace! It was interesting to note that many people
>who attended were linear, concrete thinkers, and very task oriented. I
>tend to be a global, abstract, multi-tasker and the activity of this
>craft sparked a whole variety of ideas.
> The demonstrator said that a colleague is paid by an
>organization to come in, on a weekly basis during the lunch hour, and do
>workshops. It acts as a major stress buster for those that participate.
>
> 3. A company in southern Minnesota has a ping pong table in
>their cafeteria.
>
> 4. Our company has a group that does hackey-sack outside during
>their lunch break.
>
> I would be interested in finding out what other non-traditional
>stress busters people know of.
>
> Have a great weekend!
>
> Julie T.
I decided to post my reply to Julie and the TREDV-list also to the LO-list
because I assume the topic interests also LO-listmembers.
In Europe we have a non-traditional stress-buster based on an art of
movement: Eurythmy.
Eurythmy contains many key-elements that gives access to our
self-correcting and self-directing abillities. In 1993 the European
Information Centre for the World Health Organisation and the German
'Bundesverband der Betriebskrankenkassen' recognized Eurythmy as 'A Model
of Good Practice'. Eurythmy is recommend by the European Information
Centre together with only nine other In Company Health- and
stress-preventional programms. Their decision is based on an analysis by
the German Sporthochschule Kvln. A number of companies in Europe have
their In Company-Eurythmist working with departments and individuals on
site. The amount of group- and individual exercises that have been
developed through daily practice is still growing, (including exercises
against the latest computermouse disseases).
I have developed several workshops which addressess the subject of stress
in the context of Personal Mastery, leadership, communication and
collaboration. In the Personal Mastery Workshops I offer a series of
individual movement exercises (WinnKey-exercises.) that outbalances
nowadays movement-poverty on the workspot.
Check out this site: <http://eurythmy.org/Welcome.html> for general
Information on Eurythmy. A specific website for the Personal Mastery
Workshops is only available after e-mail respons.
I'd like to do a series of introductionary One Day workshops in the States
coming Spring and it would help me to receive e-mail replies for more
information from interested persons and companies. The US is big, so based
on the responses I will plan the amount of workshops and locations ......
or cancel my US-tour. E-mail respondents will receive access to a website
with specific workshop information. In January 1998 final reservations for
attendence can be made and a final travelplan will be presented to the
list.
Please respond to <winfried@universal.nl> by giving your e-mail adress,
occupation and geographical location. In the subjectline: Personal
Mastery Workshop.
Hope to hear from you! From the chilly but beautifull coloured Flatlands
of Holland:
Winfried Deijmann
--Winfried M. Deijmann - Deijmann & Partners - Zutphen - The Netherlands Artists, Consultants and Facilitators for Organizational Learning and Action Learning Events <Winfried@universal.nl> Phone: +31-(0)575-522076 Fax:+31 (0)575-527310
"An educated mind is useless without a focussed will and dangerous without a loving heart" (unknown source)
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>