Actuality¹⁰⁸

After returning from their summer vacations, many people would like to prolong the soothing feeling of enjoying a well-earned rest.

Personally, at the end of vacations, I always promise myself to preserve this state of mind by spending more time in nature. There has been a lot of talk about well-being since 2020, and this contemporary sensitivity is also reflected in our workplaces. It's undoubtedly for the better, but it's also quite vague, "well-being." According to the Larousse dictionary, it is described as a "pleasant state resulting from the satisfaction of bodily needs and peace of mind." I am very visual. So when I read "bodily needs and peace of mind," a series of fairly clichéd images come to mind: meditation, massages, yoga, forest walks, relaxation, zen music, and more. When I associate these images with the professional context, there seems to be a certain incompatibility. This perception of incompatibility is often shared by the specialists I collaborate with, and with whom I work to improve the well-being of their teams. In short, well-being is not easy to conceive in the corporate world.

Today, I want to draw from this familiar image of nature. Contact with nature - as proven by numerous studies - contributes to well-being. That's fantastic, of course, but few of us have the power to move our office to the heart of Mont-Tremblant National Park. What if we brought nature to the office? Not in the sense of transplanting a shrub into a pot (although that's beneficial!), but rather immersing ourselves a little more in nature.

Human nature.
Our individual nature.
Encouraging ourselves to be natural in our ecosystem.

The 21st century is marked by impressive technological advances. Initially, computers were meant to help us free ourselves from mundane tasks. However, their power proved to be such that it became evident that their utility would lie in the ability to accomplish even more tasks. The pace and workload have been accelerating year by year, reaching levels that are sometimes difficult to manage. How many unread emails do you have right now? Imagine if they were postal letters. I sense your anxiety, but rest assured, there would likely be fewer of them! Bringing our vision of work back to a human scale and a human pace is also about leaving room for human flavor.

By exploring our different personalities, by discovering the unique characteristics of our characters, we find that inexplicable something that attracts us to certain people. It is the variety of essences that allows us to distinguish the imposing grandeur of this tree, to reveal the exceptional beauty of this corner of the forest.

In this ecosystem where we all aim to grow and where each person contributes the fruit of their efforts, it is pleasant to take the time to contemplate the surrounding landscape. Let's offer a breath of fresh air to those who are struggling in the heat, let's stay firmly rooted to face the storms, but also let's bask in the sun to maximize our energy gain when we can.

Well-being is a state that is cultivated daily.
Come rain or shine.
And we must remember that it is natural to be simply - and wonderfully - human.

Pier-Luc Legault is a multidisciplinary artist and social entrepreneur. He founded INSIDE, an experiential production company, with the goal of sparking discussions around contemporary social issues, including well-being at work. He is the creator and director of 'Humains au travail,' an educational web series in which you are the hero, addressing mental health and workload through an original web series. >> humainsautravail.ca

Les bienfaits de la nature sur la santé globale, SÉPAQ, 2021
​​Des semaines plus longues et plus chargées, La Presse, 1er août 2023