I had a very insightful and interesting evening last week at the Women in Technology North Meetup; this month’s topic was “Increasing Resilience”. The first talk was by Sue Evans, who has a background in engineering and has delivered £multi-million projects and culture change for some huge international organisations.
She drew on her experience of supporting one-to-one clients and specialist knowledge of resolving stress and anxiety, to discuss CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy), NLP (neuro-linguistic programming) and all sorts of other acronyms, bringing a fresh take on what some people may think of as a bit of a touchy subject.
Sue taught us ways to combat a problem that everyone has faced, and will undoubtedly face again, in their professional lives. Stress isn’t a new concept, but it seems that we have to go out of our way to learn about how to cope with stress – it isn’t exactly taught in schools. I test drove a couple of my newly learnt methods over the past few days and have already benefitted from them, so thanks Sue!
The second talk was by Liz Hardwick, who had kindly worked through hundreds of apps on her phone over the past few years so we didn’t have to! From some better-known apps such as ‘Headspace’, to less mainstream apps such as ‘ThinkUp: Positive affirmations’, Liz gave us recommendations on the different apps she has used to help organise her life and mind. We rarely make the time to sit back and calm our minds, so having a reminder on your phone to complete ten minutes of meditation, or to do your daily yoga practice, can really help you keep on top of different stresses in life.
Overall, the evening was thoroughly enjoyable and I am looking forward to the next Meetup. Thank you to Women in Technology North for organising the event, and to Sue and Liz for your talks!
If you are interested in attending future Women in Technology North Meetups, you can RSVP here.
