Wellness Calendar: Thursday 16 October

Multiple hats, transferable ideas
At any moment in time, when we’re presented with information, be it formal or informal, external to us or self-generated, we have a choice as to what to do with it. If it’s not interesting, we might discard it; if we know exactly what to do with it, we might use it there and then, or we might store it for future reference.
If we’re on a training course related to our job role, it might be assumed that the information we gather will be applied solely to our work, yet this needn’t be the case. If we’re open enough to be able to compartmentalise information to wherever it’s best suited, we could use what we’ve gleaned for ourselves and our well-being, for our home life, and we could also share it with our family and friends.
Take this example: you’re listening to the radio and a dentist talks about not swilling your mouth with water after brushing your teeth. As someone who has been taught to always rinse away the toothpaste, this information strikes you as challenging and exciting. Not only do you decide to adopt this method, you discuss it with others. Staying with this thread of thought, you realise that you often do actions without considering the idea of non-activity, i.e. just letting things be. This then translates into interfering less in other people’s lives and people’s work, letting bits of your garden go wild, and generally being more thoughtful before you take an action, especially before you speak.
When we run training events, we like to invite people to wear as many (metaphorical) hats as they want during the session. We may say something along the lines of: “Please wear your own authentic-self hat, where you can. If you need to wear your professional hat, then by all means do so. You might want to consider a hat that takes information for yourself and your own well-being, a hat for you as a partner, a parent, a friend, etc. If you want to wear the hat that means you absorb information without fully participating, that’s okay. Similarly, if you want to totally immerse yourself in the session, and reflect later, it’s all good.”
We find that bringing these choices to the forefront of people’s minds at the beginning of their learning can help to give them permission to expand their learning potential. Multiple hats for multiple uses.