The daily actions you take will impact how you show up in your personal and professional life. With COVID-19 still looming, access to wellness programs has become more essential to the suburban coworking community than before.
While Slack and Microsoft Teams are productive, they cannot replace in-person, social interactions. Working from home has made it challenging to combat feelings of isolation. As a result, more people are looking for employee-led groups that prioritize health outside of virtual collaboration and digital platforms.
The Harvard Business Review reports, “Human connections are especially critical for addressing the effects of stress, anxiety, burnout, and other forms of workplace distress. Rather than focusing on self-care, we need to be better at taking care of each other. It begins by framing employee distress as a collective rather than individual problem.”
At HAYVN, we go above and beyond traditional wellness. Each of our programs is structured to help members establish genuine connections through shared experiences within our coworking community.
HAYVN’s Multiprong Approach To Wellness
At HAYVN, we support the mental and physical health of our members. The spaces we curate imbue a sense of calmness and relaxation, to deliver a much-needed refresh during the day.
What makes the programs we offer so special? The women behind them. Most of our wellness programs are led by members with a related business or have had an impact on the community.
We enjoy bringing in wellness providers to HAYVN as part of the fold, so they receive support with their business needs, and access promote their skills by leading events. It is an excellent opportunity to increase brand awareness and network with professionals in the industry or simply share wellness tips with the coworking community! Some of our most popular include:
- A weekly Morning Meditation and Walk, led by Maria Allen of Real and Powerful.
- Sandwich Generation Support Group, led monthly by Meleisa Holek of MLH Consulting. They support, educate and provide resources to handle life’s most challenging tasks with grace and strength.
- We have also offered pop-up yoga events, held classes in our onsite fitness center, cooking class, and hosted health-focused sessions in the past.
- Our forthcoming event to look forward to is our upcoming Health and Wellness Fair on October 10th.
If you’re looking to join a wellness group, visit our Event Page.
Morning Meditation and Walk
Three Phenominal Women Addressing Health At HAYVN
We sat down with Kristen Rzasa (WellBuilt Workshop), Bridgett Brown (Dear Body Workshop: Preteen Edition), and Linda Stephens (Spring Into Your Summer Shape) who brought positivity and wellness to the HAYVN community. They shared tips and insights from their personal and professional journey.
WellBuilt Workshop With Kristen Rzasa
Kristen Rzasa, a long-time HAYVN member, helps individuals create a new rhythm in their lives, businesses, and bodies. Throughout several reinventions in her life, health, and business, she established a company that supports and inspires other individuals to create something new.
“I have been an entrepreneur, primarily in different aspects of the wellness space, for over thirty years,” Kristen said. “Once you create a brand new rhythm for yourself, you can live and work with more ease and step into a more radiant life.”
“I’ve found you can’t separate professional and personal, so I work with clients to create a business that works with their lives,” she said. “Wellness continues to play a key part of that process, as well as mindset, energy, and productivity.”
Being part of a cowork space has provided her with many opportunities for community, from diverse events to presenting and teaching workshops. She has even supported other members of the same industry to help their core businesses grow. “While these have resulted in new customers, the real gift is the friendships I’ve made,” she said.
Spring Into Your Summer Shape With Linda Stephens
Fitness extraordinaire Linda Stephens has been in the health and wellness industry for 12 years. She has her Master’s degree in clinical nutrition and holds personal training certification from the National Academy of Sports Medicine.
You may recognize Linda from her first HAYVN Halftime, Spring Into Your Summer Shape. Women joined in to learn her secrets to building a strong, sexy look through everyday exercises and nutritional tips that’ll help along the fitness journey.
What led to her career change? “I reinvented myself after I became a mom in my mid 30’s. I previously worked for UBS in equity sales and trading. I knew that I wasn’t going back to that lifestyle, and it was then that I decided to turn my fitness passion into a business.”
Linda has excelled as a competing pro athlete in the International Federation of Bodybuilding (IFBB) and also judged for the National Physique Committee (NPC). “It’s been the most rewarding career ever!” she said.
As a new member at HAYVN, Linda hopes to make more connections at the cowork space. “I recently just became a full-fledged member, and it’s been an excellent opportunity to meet many amazing female entrepreneurs,” she said.
Body Workshop: Preteen Edition With Bridgett Brown
Professional model Bridgett Burrick Brown is redefining wellness and beauty with her company, the Beyond Beauty Project. After spending over 25 years in the industry, she created a movement and multimedia platform focusing on inspiring confidence and acceptance surrounding beauty, body image, and mental health.
“The inspiration for my project came from my life experiences and my 25-year career working as a professional model,” she said. “After several miscarriages, I knew I couldn’t heal my body or soul with the industry’s judgment, and my focus was to be the best role model I could be for my daughter.”
With her professional experience came an understanding of the full power of advertising. “We are sold the idea from a very young age that if we look like the girls on the covers of magazines, we will be “happy,” but I was the girl on the covers of the magazines and quickly realized that this wasn’t true. My mission is to change the narrative of beauty by redefining its meaning from the inside out.”
At her company, Bridgett is on a mission to empower others to ditch the conventional and patriarchal standards of beauty and shape it free from the judgment of others’ expectations. Since its launch, her platform has grown into a podcast, a blog with contributing writers, workshops, keynote speaking events, and more!
The first event Bridgett held at HAYVN was her Body Workshop: Preteen Edition. She joined after a friend, and fellow entrepreneur recommended the cowork event space. “Felicia really created something very special for us! It really motivated me to do more.
Looking To Join A Wellness Group?
Wellness is more than just a balance of physical activity and nutrition. It’s also how we approach handling life’s most stressful moments to embrace better mental health. For more information on our wellness groups at HAYVN, visit: https://hayvn.com/events/
HAYVN Coworking
Founded in 2018, HAYVN is a flexible workspace for enterprising women (and men) to connect, create and grow. Along with a vibrant & engaged coworking community of entrepreneurs and business professionals, HAYVN is a business HUB, offering short- and long-term office space leases, meeting rooms rentals, and events to support local businesses. HAYVN is proud to be a Certified B Corporation™ and a CTNext partner. We believe in using the power of business to build a more inclusive and sustainable economy and have met the highest verified standards of social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability. HAYVN’s workshops and signature programs encourage women of all colors and ages and acts as an incubator for developing skills and pursuing funding. HAYVN Launch incubator is a 2021 winner of the SBA's Growth Accelerator Fund Competition (GAFC), and the only 2021 winner in Connecticut.
Visit our beautiful safe ‘HAYVN’ in Fairfield County, CT at 320 Boston Post Road, Darien, CT, 06820. Arrange a private tour today, or to learn more about our health and safety response, read through our detailed guidelines here.
