The 2nd of December holds very special significance for us as today is our double anniversary! Three years ago today we held our breath tightly, signed a contract for what seemed like a scarily long lease and got the keys for our Bearsden building. And then exactly one year ago to the same day we did exactly the same thing and got the keys to Stepps! We remember those two separate days so well as we approached them with anxiety and excitement, trepidation and anticipation, joy and downright fear. But we are great believers in fate and that brilliant Scottish phrase ‘what’s fur ye'll no go by ye’ played loudly in our heads and there felt something quite serendipitous about chancing upon our two buildings.
We have faced and surfed many emotions and also all of the ups and downs that running a self employed business entails, the things behind the scenes you never hear about. In addition to dealing with a global pandemic just a month after we opened, we have had leaking ceilings and walls, flooded kitchens, faulty boilers, blocked toilets, doors hanging off hinges, people accidentally locking themselves out of the building late at night, frequent admin and IT challenges, all while dealing with uncertainty and our own personal life events and while continually trying to ensure the integrity of our service. But we have had many ups and many belly laughs too and working together as ‘the power of three’ while facing such challenges just makes us stronger. What always helps us through these opportunities and challenges though is remembering exactly WHY we are doing this in the first place, what our underlying values are that motivate us to do the work we do and therefore, consequently and ultimately, what makes us also LOVE what we do.
One of the most common presenting issues we see from clients is work related stress, relationship issues and overwhelming anxiety and malaise about life. Many people describe feeling like they are trapped at work, are unsatisfied in relationships, and that they lack direction and meaning in their life. This often leads us to speak about and explore values with our clients. Values are the things that really matter to us, the things deep in our heart that we really care about. One of the most striking questions that can really bring home what is important to us is this: what if you were to live your identical life again and again and again? Would this thought be welcomed with delight or would you immediately be filled with dread? What parts of your life would you long to repeat? What parts would you want to change? A stark question like this can often be really helpful to make us think of what we truly value in life and whether or not we are connecting with these values. Of course, for many people, changing jobs or relationships entirely might not be an option. It's then about thinking where the values are within your existing situation that you can tune into. For example, taking 10 minutes to go for a walk if freedom is something you value, or having a chat and a cuppa with colleagues if connection is important to you. It might be that the value most helpful to tune into is that your job sustains and provides security for your family, or there may be values external to work (eg, fitness, fun, adventure etc) that are important and which help balance things out during your time away from work.
We ourselves are humans too and have also personally faced the same questions and self reflections that our clients face. This is a huge part of why The Wellbeing Rooms even exists. Like our clients, over the past few years we have felt that our own working lives weren’t always going in the direction that we wanted them to go in. We noticed how it often felt incongruent with how we actually wanted to live our lives, and in the way in which we wanted to help others. We were at a stage in our careers where we paused to give serious thought to where we were, where we wanted to go, and how we could live our lives most meaningfully both for our clients but also for ourselves and our own families.
We wanted to provide a welcoming therapeutic space to help others, to offer more choice to clients for who they see for help and when, to provide a safe place where both clients and practitioners could go, and where practitioners could flexibly regain autonomy and empowerment over their own working lives. A place where people looked forward to going to, that had professional integrity, where we could foster and encourage social, personal, and professional connections, and where we could bring compassion, care and professionalism to the local community. These are the ideals and values that help us get through it all when the going gets tough and the tough gets going!
So we look upon the 2nd of December 2022 with a smile and a wipe of our brow while saying ‘phew, we got through another year!’ but while feeling the huge satisfaction that we are still flavouring our lives with our values but also stopping to savour them. We are also grateful that we are in a position to be able to help many clients along the same journey and help them think about what would be most helpful for them, essentially by ‘doing what matters’. This blog is for all of you out there who are facing the same challenges, it’s a rollercoaster indeed but without facing the fear of change and taking a different direction, life might just continue to lead to the same old cycles and the same old unfulfilling path.
Thanks for reading and here’s to the next year of doing more of what matters!
Jo, Jan & Catherine