The Learn with Aegis project team recognised the impact on mental health and wellbeing that the covid pandemic and changes to work and lifestyle were having on its members – so they decided to organise events and produce resources to help.

The team at the Union Learning Fund supported Learn with Aegis project spend a lot of time supporting their learners with important upskilling opportunities and gaining qualifications for the jobs of today and tomorrow. 

However sometimes, especially during these days of Covid, it is just as important to consider their own, and their learners’ wellbeing. 

Inspired by the ideas of Mindfulness they set to work, and as part of their Learning at Work Week offerings during October, they decided to put together a suite of Wellbeing Webinars for their learners to access.

The Wellbeing Webinars consisted of:

• Menopause in the Workplace.
• Online Relaxation Sessions.
• Mindfulness (or ‘Matt’s Mindfulness’ as we affectionately called it).

Mindfulness can be defined as:

the basic human ability to be fully present, aware of where we are and what we’re doing, and not overly reactive or overwhelmed by what’s going on around us.”

They were never in any doubt that they wanted to include a Mindfulness session as part of this series of webinars.  The team attended a session run by Matt Pointon, Project Officer for Unionlearn, in the summer; this session was an introduction to short Mindfulness exercises to reduce stress and promote wellbeing. 

The team took a lot out of the session and it could not have been offered at a better time as an opportunity to switch off and reset their frazzled brains. Following the session, they had no doubt that their learners would love to have access to one of these sessions and more Mindfulness resources. 

Whilst they were getting all their ducks in a row for the Wellbeing Webinars, the team came up with the idea of a Mindfulness Activity Book to support the campaign.

Julie Thompson, Project Worker for Learn with Aegis, said:

During one of our regular Teams Calls, the team came up with the idea of creating the Mindfulness Activity Book to support our Wellbeing promotion.  As so often with our ideas, they start off from very humble beginnings, with ideas for content of the book being bounced around and scribbled on pieces of paper.

We wanted the Activity Book to be very bespoke to Learn with Aegis and reflect us as a team and include fun activities to distract and calm a busy mind; it was important to us that it would be suitable for our adult learners and also their children.”

The book is all about rediscovering a childhood love of colouring, drawing, doodling and puzzles.  When we saw the finished book and heard how much learners were enjoying doing the activities, we couldn’t be any prouder of it.”

Each activity in the book can be completed within a short break, so learners do not need to set aside a lot of time to use the book: they can just pick it up when they fancy a few minutes of mindful relaxation.

The feedback is that the book is an extremely positive tool that supports mental health and wellbeing. 

It also helps learners engage with the Project, whilst they continue to work remotely, and encourages our learners’ children to get involved and even understand more about what a union and Unionlearn can offer.