The healthy e-working sessions are under way!

The Christmas break is behind us and all of us at the UOC are back to e-working due to the pandemic. At times like these it is important that we look after ourselves and make sure we are working from home under the healthiest conditions possible.

To help make it a little easier, every Wednesday from 1:30 to 2:15 pm for the next three months we will be offering healthy e-working sessions online. All members of UOC staff are welcome to join us as we learn about different exercises for meditation, stretching, eye yoga, breathing and posture.

If you missed the first session, let us share a few tips to make teleworking a healthier experience all around:

Look after your muscles and vision during working hours: now we spend over eight hours in front of a screen, moving less as we park ourselves before TVs, computers, tablets and mobiles, and we often wind up adopting very bad posture. Sooner or later this leads to vision problems and muscle aches, back pain in particular. Read on to find out what you can do to keep the pain from becoming chronic!

Sit correctly: sit with your feet flat on the floor in alignment with the rest of your body and your back straight (90° angle) in a chair that supports the kidneys.

Take care of your eyes: it’s important that you adjust your screen’s resolution and brightness so that your eyes aren’t exposed to too much light or strained because there isn’t enough. We should also take care not to stare fixedly at the screen; be sure to blink or avert your gaze once in a while. Take visual breaks, staring off into space or out the window, every 15 minutes; leaving your computer for 15 minutes every two hours is also beneficial. And if your eyes are bothering you, try relaxing them by warming up your hands and gently covering your eyes.

Get up, move around and stretch: the recommendation is to do this every two hours. To get rid of tension and relax our muscles, we can do three or four rounds of inhaling and tensing our body, and then exhaling and relaxing it, taking a few deep breaths at the end. Bowing our head to stretch out our neck and back is also effective, as it relieves tiredness and anxiety.

Remember, we are here every Wednesday, from 1:30 to 2:15 pm, with a new healthy e-working session. Your body will thank you for it!