Look after yourself first

This was the message from John Scott, the last presenter in our Life Well Lived 2.0 speaker series (full program schedule below). And what a great message to end on as this concept was the original inspiration for the Life Well Lived program at the 53^rd.

John brings an interesting perspective to our branch after spending 26 years in the wealth management business and subsequently embarking on a career in wellness leadership coaching through mindfulness. He is now a certified positive psychology practitioner and uses this knowledge to help people in organizations build pathways of flourishing by incorporating mindfulness

Jon Kabat-Zinn says mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way; on purpose, in the present moment and non-judgmentally. John Scott had us complete a fun exercise to introduce us to the concept of mindfulness. First, he asked us to pair up and then spend two minutes sharing our to-do list with each other. Staying with the same pairings, he then asked us to spend two more minutes telling each other about one thing we had done that was awesome and very proud of. We then debriefed and compared how everyone looked during the two exercises.

Not surprisingly, people were much more animated and enthusiastic when sharing the story about their great thing. One could really feel the positive energy in the room when people were discussing a personal or professional accomplishment they were really proud of. And through that simple exercise, John demonstrated the power of positivity.

To conclude, John re-emphasized some of the key messages that came out of our exercise session with Nigel Gray, our health span session with Dr. Greg Wells, our nutrition sessions with Tara Postnikoff and Jen Sygo and the mediation session with Lawrence Jay: increasing self-care through adequate sleep, a healthy diet, regular exercise and mindfulness will result in more time in health span.

A big thank you to all our speakers for making Life Well Lived 2.0 a success.

• Nigel Gray: http://www.nrgpt.com/
• Tara Postnikoff: http://www.heal-nutrition.com/
• Dr. Greg Wells: http://drgregwells.com/
• Jen Sygo: http://jennifersygo.com/
• Lawrence Jay: http://www.theyogafyexperience.com
• John Scott: http://www.doinglifewellnow.com/