Business
Dr. Jack Travis stated in his remarks at the National Wellness Conference in that "connection is the currency of wellness." In this podcast with Jim Strohecker, CEO of Well People, we will discuss how the human connection and experience will lead us towards greater diversity, equity and inclusion processes. These are some of the show highlights and key takeaways: Jim Co-created the Wellness Inventory program am, a 12 dimension tool that focuses on dimensions of wellbeing. Four of the twelve dimensions highlighted were self-responsibility & love, breathing, sensing and eating. In his work with faith-based groups Jim used the Wellness Inventory to stimulate greater cohesion. Participants began to find ways to support each other using mindful eating and prayer walking. They began to combine modalities for health. Given that faith communities have high trust and common spiritual purpose, having good physical,mental and emotional health is a natural next step. Jim shares how he created a program for the Tennessee Department of Health to train wellness ambassadors from various faith communities from minority and underserved populations and the overwhelming response that he got from this program. Jim also addressed how to get wellness programs to groups especially when underfunded. He has done a lot of work in academic settings using a strategy that we discussed in the podcast. We discussed how connection to others with empathy is a part of universal wellness and can improve diversity and inclusion efforts. In a political climate where walls are being put up and that separation is a good thing, what can we do to increase a sense of cohesion and inclusion? Jim reminds us that we are all a part of the human condition and when we don't know what else to do we can just breathe. Wellness professionals need to be at the heart of these conversations because it's a whole person approach. For our healthcare and helping professionals, Jim shared that occupational burnout is now a classification of disease according to the WHO and will help us to get more attention focused on wellness and self-compassion. If you enjoyed this podcast, excellent! You can reach me for more information at nikki@diversityandinclusioncoach.com and my website at www.diversityandinclusioncoach.com. You can reach Jim Strohecker at jim@wellpeople.com or call @310.823.9553. You can find the Wellness Inventory Training Program at www.wellpeople.com.