Taking Our Mindfulness Program to the Next Level

May is mental health awareness month, and as many of us are returning to our previous schedules and lifestyles, we're once again in a period of transition, which can cause anxiety and uncertainty. The same routines that have given us comfort for two years are changing, so it’s easy to feel a little off balance. At Ardene, we recognize the fundamental need to take care of our mental health, so in honor of this month and as an ongoing part of our mental health support, we're providing additional resources, training and activities to help our team members disconnect and take care of themselves. We've already started providing mental health training to our store employees and leaders at head office, which we will now be offering to all our employees, and we're excited to be expanding our Mindfulness program to include year-round practices to help reduce overall stress. We're actively working to help foster a healthy workplace environment and create a culture where our mental health is always the first priority.

Monthly Mindful Activities

Mindfulness is an incredible way to take care of both our physical and mental selves by paying attention to our thoughts, feelings and senses. It helps us move through difficult times and avoid getting caught in negative ruts. After starting our Mindfulness program in stores in 2018, the following year we introduced a series of challenges throughout the month of October that encouraged team members to take a moment each day to focus on being present. We didn't anticipate how much the program would grow or how well it would be received by our teams, but after winning an Excellence in Retailing Award in 2021 from the Retail Council of Canada, we've been continuously working to enhance and expand it. We will be introducing more frequent monthly challenges and have also launched monthly Mindfulness activities, which will allow team members to disconnect and destress through focused practices on a more regular basis. With a different theme to practice every month, these activities are designed to improve moods and help find balance in challenging situations.

Sharing Positivity

'Positive Shift' was the first theme we introduced in stores in April, and it encouraged our team members to begin every shift by sharing what makes them happy. Employees were encouraged to participate by scanning a QR code and entering a word that they associated with happiness. Starting each shift in this way reinforced that it's ok to be in a bad mood, but by focusing on something that makes us happy, we can share positivity and push through whatever the day presents. Each week, we turned their words into word clouds of positivity, giving our team members a visual reminder of what makes them happy and encouragement to share their positivity with the people around them.

Practicing Gratitude

For May we're focusing on the theme of 'Gratitude', which is something we can easily take for granted on a day-to-day basis. Like anything else, feeling gratitude is a practice, and if we incorporate it in our daily lives, it can be a powerful tool to help take care of our mental health. This month, we're taking a moment each day to express what we're grateful for on our gratitude trees, which are set up around our stores and the head office. Our team members are encouraged to write a daily gratitude on a leaf and stick it to the tree, resulting in a month of reflection and appreciation for everything we have and love. A simple shift in perspective can alleviate the accumulation of stress and help us focus on what really matters.

We're very proud of our Mindfulness program and the continued engagement of our team members in these monthly activities, and we will continue to enhance our program, not only for mental health awareness month, but all year long. Finding little moments throughout the day to focus, breathe and ground ourselves can go a long way in reducing our overall stress, and with practice, we hope that putting our mental wellbeing first will become a priority rather than a necessary reminder.