For public relations maestro Lynda Williams, work is all about wellness. After all, before she launched her PR company Vim & Vigour in 2013, she worked in-house for Aman resorts and Como Hotels and Resorts, both of which are known for their bespoke wellness experiences.
At Vim & Vigour, she has also represented brands in the well-being industry, including GuavaPass, Balinese wellness resort Revivo and currently, Yoga Movement and Balanced Living. In 2020, she also launched wellness-centric digital platform The Soothe and is a neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) practitioner.
How has your work made you more aware of the importance of personal well-being?
Running a full-on business, especially in the early days, my health suffered massively. In the first three years, I had two major burnouts and I was forced to relook my health and the way I was living.
What is your mindfulness practice like these days?
Exercise has always been essential for my mental health and I do it first thing before the day gets too crazy. I also practise breathwork, meditation and mindfulness often. Breathwork is scientifically proven to calm the nervous system and is highly effective when going through periods of stress.
Mindfulness has been hugely helpful during the pandemic. I believe in working on the things that you can control and not to stress about the things that you can’t — learn to work with them instead.
What spurred you to launch The Soothe?
We felt there was a real need for an informative, honest and bold resource for well-being in Singapore. We want to empower people to take control of their own health with the right tools and resources. I also believe in the well-being of our communities and our environment, so we made sure to include lots of content on culture, connecting, relationships and green living as well.
How do you walk the talk within your workplace?
We talk openly about mental health, it’s not a taboo subject. Earlier this year, I decided to extend medical benefits to cover seeing a mental health professional. The team knows I see a mindfulness coach and have seen therapists and counsellors in the past — we have to normalise this.
Fostering a positive working environment is really important — a safe environment where people can be themselves and not be afraid to speak up. We made extra effort to get the team engaged this year and had split teams in the office to engage, get out of the house and connect in a safe way.
Share one of your favourite NLP techniques that can be used to enhance wellness in the workplace.
Learn how to change your state of mind. If you tend to get anxious or overwhelmed, pre-create an anchor to get you out of it, through things like specific music tracks, breathwork techniques or an actual physical anchor to change your state from languishing to motivated, anxious to calm, sad to happy. They are so handy and enable you to get in a more balanced frame of mind in a matter of minutes.