I am a total summer person. Especially in the warmer months, Cologne offers many beautiful spots where you can enjoy a little break in the middle of the hustle and bustle of the city. One of my favorite places is the beer garden at Rathenauplatz.
KGM Strategy Wellbeing „We focus on making mental fitness a priority“
Our mental health not only plays a role in our personal wellbeing, but also has a significant impact on our ability to make decisions and work productively. With KGM Strategy Wellbeing, we make employees’ mental health a priority. In addition to anonymous access to therapists who can provide support in acute cases, we also offer all employees the opportunity to take advantage of internal mental coaching in order to take preventive action. In this interview, mental coach Afsaneh Mamedi talks about her own personal journey and gives tips for challenging situations.
Can you please briefly tell us about your background and how you came to KGM Strategy?
I studied business administration in Cologne and specialized in Learning & Development over the course of my career. The focus was always on helping people to develop further. After supporting various clients in this area for several years, I was lucky that KGM Strategy advertised the right position for me at the right time as Learning & Development Manager, where I dealt intensively with the topic of coaching, among other things. In my three and a half years at KGM Strategy, I have learned a lot and continued to develop my skills. My passion project is the Wellbeing Initiative, which I co-founded. In this context, I have also completed training as a mental coach, which now enables me to offer mental coaching to all KGM Strategy employees.
What exactly is your role at KGM Strategy?
As Wellbeing Manager and Mental Coach, I am responsible for our offerings to promote resilience and mental and physical health. As part of our wellbeing approach, we take a holistic view of the interplay between body, mind, nutrition, and the environment in which we work. It was particularly important to us to create an offer that focuses on prevention and offers all colleagues individual opportunities to deal with the topic and themselves. For example, we offer various sports activities, healthy food in our offices, keynote speeches by external specialists, and easy access to mental support – whether for personal or professional reasons. Anonymous access to therapists is available for acute cases. And uniquely, all employees have the opportunity to take advantage of in-house mental coaching as a preventative measure. This gives colleagues the opportunity to develop their own individual strategy for dealing with challenging situations in confidential 1:1 coaching sessions. It is an incredible pleasure to accompany colleagues on their journey and support them in activating their own resources to find solutions to their issues.
How did it come about that you became intensively involved with the topic of mental health?
There was no specific trigger for me; the topic has always been of great interest to me and has been part of my life. My own experiences have made me more and more aware that mental health should no longer be a taboo! After all, we all have a psyche and benefit from mental health. I firmly believe that mental fitness has a major
impact on quality of life. In my opinion, we need more mindfulness, resilience, and inner clarity, especially in an increasingly dynamic world. However, we often don’t take enough time for this. Yet this is immensely important: to develop a good and conscious approach to ourselves and to understand and respond to the individual signals of our own body and mind. And this is exactly what I support my colleagues with during the internal coaching sessions.
What specific topics are involved?
In confidential 1:1 coaching sessions, I give employees the space to place the issues - whether professional or private - that occupy them mentally and emotionally, trigger stress, block them and prevent them from reaching their full potential. Every coaching journey is unique and very individual. Regardless of whether colleagues want to learn more about their inner stressors, find
a way out of the thought carousel or work on a positive attitude, I am there to work with them on their issues.
I also use various methods that come from mental training in competitive sports and help top athletes to reach their full potential in extreme pressure situations. I believe that everyone has an inner knowing and an inner ability to find the right solution to their own issues; and my mission is to help people access this inner voice, develop a healthy mindset, and develop strategies to build emotional and mental strength.
I also use various methods that come from mental training in competitive sports and help top athletes to reach their full potential in extreme pressure situations. I believe that everyone has an inner knowing and an inner ability to find the right solution to their own issues; and my mission is to help people access this inner voice, develop a healthy mindset, and develop strategies to build emotional and mental strength.
Is there an exercise you recommend when the stress & pressure gets too much?
I am happy to share 2 exercises that I personally find very effective and that have become an integral part of my personal toolbox:
As a short-term solution to big feelings of stress, I recommend taking a short break and doing 4-7-8 breathing for 10 rounds, which means first breathing in for 4 seconds, holding for 7 seconds and finally breathing out for 8 seconds. As the exhalation is considerably longer than the inhalation in this breathing technique, it helps to calm the nervous system and reduce the feeling of stress. It’s quick, effective and the great thing about it is that you don’t need any additional tools.
This method is very effective for regulating emotions or getting off the thought merry-go-round. You list the following one after the other:
- 5 things you are currently seeing
- 4 things you are currently hearing
- 3 things you are currently feeling
- 2 things you smell right now
- 1 thing you are tasting at this moment
A very simple and incredibly effective mindfulness exercise that forces you to return to the present moment by activating all your senses and letting the rational part take over again.
How do you like to spend your free time?
My free time is very much geared towards consciously filling it with activities that give me energy. My biggest sources of energy are yoga sessions at my favorite yoga studio in Düsseldorf, traveling to constantly discover new places and cultures, and daily walks with my dog Luna.
When we travel to Cologne, what should definitely be on our bucket list?
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