Are you ready for the Holidays? Do you have all your gifts wrapped and ready to go for Christmas day? Is your calendar filled with invitations to reunions, get-togethers, and office parties? Have you already planned your menu for Christmas Dinner?

With all the gifts, festivities, and food going on during the holidays, it might be easy to lose sight of the reason for the season. Let us always remember that Christmas is about sharing, giving, and being thankful for all that we receive, both the blessings and the challenges: thankful for being able to share our blessings, and thankful for being able to overcome the challenges that life throws our way.

2016 has been (quite arguably) a very “colorful” year, so to speak. And to say that news outlets and social media feeds are filled with stories that are shocking is an understatement.

Let’s look beyond the din of bleak news and dreary forecasts. The only way for us to fight hopelessness is to be the hope we expect in others. Here at The Help, we are all about service. Not only are we committed to providing excellent service to our clients but we are also committed to giving back to our community.

We are a cheerful bunch of busy bees, and we love to share that positive outlook with others. Over the past few years, we have been involved in many outreach programs and community service. Today, we share a few of the programs that we were lucky enough to have been a part of over the years.

In November of 2013, one of the most devastating typhoons ever recorded in history hit Southeast Asia, with the most damage done to the Philippines killing more than 10,000 people and causing an estimated $2.8B in damages.

The first ever outreach program of The Help was born in December of 2013, where we organized a gift giving and Christmas program for the less fortunate of our fellow typhoon survivors. We all lost something that fateful day but sharing what we have with others has given us so much more in return.

With our pooled resources, we were able to put together Christmas Baskets for more than 50 families. We shared food, stories, and laughter. This was just the beginning. The Help has been continuing the tradition of service ever since.

Here are a few pictures of the Christmas Haiyan outreach 2013:

Basic Household and Kitchen Supplies

School supplies for the children

Non-perishable goods

School supplies for the children

Prayer

Breaking of bread

Haiyan survivors sharing their sad stories and their loss

Dinner with Haiyan Survivors

A picture of "HOPE" in the midst of Loss

The father in this photo just got discharged from the hospital.

Dinner

Game

Distribution of Gifts

Haiyan Survivors and The Help Team

In Dec of 2014, we shared a meal, laughter, and gifts with the kids of InJoy Life Children’s Home.

The year 2015 saw more outreach programs with a total of 6 spread over July and December. Some of our beneficiaries were:

• Mangas Elementary School
• Little Angels Home, Inc. (LAHI FOUNDATION)
• Mother Teresa Spinelli’s Treasures
• Bahay San Rafael Home for Special Children
• San Jose Bahay Kalinga (Home for the Aged)

This year has been a busy year for the whole team, but we managed to put together two outreach programs for the year. The Help teamed up with three medical doctors (Dr. Canuto, Dr. Ordonez, Dr. Gellido) and went back to Little Angels Home in July. Medical check-ups were given to more than 50 individuals in the orphanage. Children and adults living in the facility were also provided with free vitamins, first-aid and medical supplies. Just like last year,  our team shared a meal with everyone and even played fun games together.

The last program of the year just recently concluded on Dec 12th. We had the opportunity to feed one hundred- forty students, provide essential personal hygiene items, and gift each of their family a Christmas dinner.  

Our beneficiaries this year are:

• Little Angels Home, Inc. (LAHI FOUNDATION)
• Alfonso Central School (SpEd, K-6th)

Thank you for being part of The Help and for trusting us with your business over the years. May you always have blessings to share, dreams to realize, and relationships to build. We hope you have had a good year. May this coming year be another chance to create great memories. May you have a stellar Christmas and a bright New Year.

Love,

From all of us at The Help

My friend, we’ll call him Billy (to protect his privacy), plays golf…a lot! He’s out on the fairway every weekend, if his schedule permits. But Billy is also a very busy man. As with everyone else who works for intelligence and security, Billy is on call 24 hours a day 7 days a week. He wishes to have more time to practice golf.

Now, Billy is in no way a golf newbie. He’s actually one of the best in his company. So he gets invited to play at this tournament to raise awareness for a cause. The winners get to bag trophies, some cash, and a lot of bragging rights. Billy is up against top golfers but guess what…Billy bags the top prize.

Billy lives in an apartment and doesn’t get to practice as often as he would like, yet he still bags the top prize. His secret? Visualization.

It’s not a fluke, he practices visualization all the time. I’ve watched as he shot a 5 under to win the tournament and he has had 2 hole-in-ones this year alone. He says it’s all about practice as well as mental preparation through visualization techniques.

I know it’s hard to believe but top athletes, musicians, performers, public speakers, and sales executives use this technique all the time. In fact, Tiger Woods and Michael Phelps have been reported to use visualization to mentally prepare for their games. If it worked for them, it wouldn’t hurt to try it out.

Aside from preparing physically to achieve our goals, it makes a lot of sense to prepare our minds as well. After all, what could go wrong with envisioning achieving success? Nothing. We could only expect good things, of course.

As part of our “Building SUPER Habits” series, here are some tips on developing the habit of Visualization. So how do we begin?

Mental Images:

This exercise teaches you to flex those imagination muscles. Practice by looking at a pleasant image or scenery. Then close your eyes. You have to re-create the entire scene by remembering every bit of detail that you can. What were the items, how many, what were their colors, how was the light? Can’t remember all the details? Open your eyes and look again. Be more deliberate this time.

Psych yourself up:

A study done on January of 2014 by the National Strength and Conditioning Association on 16 male sprinters reports the beneficial effects of “psyching up” to improve sprint performance. The study “used arousal to get athletes excited to race, which helped them visualize success.” So get excited and find purpose. Psych yourself up. The positive energy will help you visualize success. Imagine yourself as a superstar and actions will follow thoughts.

Practiced emotions:

I know this one is hard. You can’t practice how you react to a certain scenario. But the trick here is to pay attention to how you feel when you’re visualizing a scene. If your goal is to close out a sale and you’re preparing to deliver a pitch to someone you know is skeptical, imagine yourself as being calm and competent. Imagine being able to address their concerns and answer their question and proceed to make preparations. If you keep visualizing a calm and competent demeanor, you are likely to have the same demeanor in real life.

Do you have other visualization tips that worked for you? Share them with us! Stay humble, hustle hard!

Written by Jaie O.- The Help

We spend one-third of our lives at work and it’s no surprise that our workplaces have an enormous impact on our mental health. In a study by the National Alliance on Mental Illness, they have found that “one in four adults–approximately 61 million Americans–experiences mental illness every year. This is why mental health is now fast becoming a priority in corporations. A lot of companies, non-profits and government organization, and most communities now participate in campaigns to raise awareness about mental health. Now that is happy news indeed.

Now more than ever, we all aim to achieve a work – life balance, not just to keep our sanity but to encourage wellness in others. It is not only our personal responsibility to maintain a work – life balance in our own lives, but to keep the workplace a safe and healthy space for others as well. Nobody… NOBODY… likes going to work with a bright ray of “everything sucks of gloom and doom”.

It would be easy to dismiss the responsibility of adding to the quality of a workplace if you are already cheerful and balanced. You might say “I’m already well adjusted. It’s not my job to look out for other people’s mental health” In reality, we all have this incredible opportunity every day to be kind and to make work a little less tedious for the people around us.

Here are a few wellness tips for a balanced workplace. Spread the cheer!

• Say “Hi” – don’t be that guy who keeps his head down and pretends to be on the phone all the time. Strike up a conversation. Ask how their weekend was.
• Say “Good morning!” – if this is the only thing to ever come out of your mouth for the rest of the day as you prepare to hunker down and plow through work, let it be the cheeriest, brightest “good morning” you utter. Say it like a blessing. Say it like a promise. Say it like you all have no other choice but to have a good morning.
• Encourage – encourage others to share ideas, insights, feedback, suggestions, comments. Encourage others to participate… in planning, in solving a challenge together, in joining fun activities. It makes others feel valued to have someone hear what they have to say.
• Whistle – ok, maybe whistling while you work could be a tad annoying… but you know what I mean… If you have the opportunity to spread good vibes and positivity, do it! If you’re in an extra cheerful mood, be extra cheerful to other co-workers and your positive attitude might rub off on them too.

Do you have any tips on how to improve and promote balance in the workplace? We’d love to hear about them. Please share your tips with us! Stay humble and hustle hard!

Written by: Jaie O. – The Help

The holidays are upon us. It is the time for cakes, pies, and stuffed turkey. We are all concerned about our questionable eating habits, our sedentary lifestyle, and not having enough time to workout because of: errands to run, kids to pick up, gatherings to attend, trash to take out, and Christmas trees to set up. We imagine going into the new year with renewed spirits, hopefully picking up on the yearly resolutions we’ve dropped in the middle of the year.

People are busier than ever during the holidays. And they find themselves having less time to exercise. That, coupled with sitting in an office chair for 8 hours a day (sometimes more), can put you at risk for obesity as well as a myriad of  other health  problems including back pain, tense muscles, leg cramps, and  poor posture among others.

According to a study done by the Mayo Clinic prolonged sitting can cause “obesity and metabolic syndrome — a cluster of conditions that includes increased blood pressure, high blood sugar, excess body fat around the waist and abnormal cholesterol levels. Too much sitting also seems to increase the risk of death from cardiovascular disease and cancer.”

I don’t mean to  scare you. And, NO, I don’t  mean you should throw away a perfectly good desk and swap it out for a standing desk (although you might want to consider it). I  just  mean that you should try to squeeze in as much exercise as you can because, office workers sit too much. Aside from sitting all day at our desks, we sit during our commute both ways, or sit in the car, or spend our evenings sitting in front of the TV. You can see where this is going, right?

But don’t fret! There are  exercises that you can do at work. These are exercises that are designed to be performed discretely at your desk. The operative word is discretely. Be considerate and mindful of your co-workers. Although I’m sure they will be very supportive of your efforts towards fitness and getting enough exercise, they won’t appreciate you taking out the dumbbells and busting a move to “Eye  of the Tiger” on full volume.

Here’s a video from Gulshan Physiotherapy Fitness Center of the Best Exercises To Do At Your Desk.

Aside from these exercises that you can do without leaving your desk, I also encourage you to try these activities:

Wander around:

Walk to the window and enjoy the view. Walk around the office and stretch your legs. Walk to the water cooler. Say hi to your cubicle mates and office desk neighbors. Don’t stay  too long though, these things could turn into a gossip session and you want to increase your productivity not decrease it.

Tap Tap Tap:

You don’t need music to tap those toes (although it would be nice if you do). Try this mini exercise with maximum benefits: Stand in front of a small trashcan and lift up those legs to tap the toes on its edge, alternating feet, in soccer-drill fashion.

Take the Stairs:

How often do we often hear this bit of advice? We hear it all the time, right? But why don’t we ever see more people using the stairs? Seriously, take the stairs already. If you really want to up the ante on this workout, you can skip the steps or do lunges.

If you’re more into yoga stretches and low impact exercises, you might want to try the yoga flow  exercises in this video: 

Set yourself up to win by creating calendar reminders or alarms to remind you to take an exercise break. You can also do it old school by sticking mini post-its around your workstation. If you’re feeling conscious, you can look for an empty conference room and exercise there.

Do you have other tips that are not on this list? Let us know. Stay humble and hustle hard!

Written by JaieO.- The Help