June is Employee Wellness Month, and Transocean is committed to providing you with the tools and resources for managing your physical, financial, social, and emotional wellness. In reality, employees spend most of their active life working, and balancing work with home life can be stressful. In addition to all of the resources shown on My Journey,* here are some proactive strategies for a healthier you—in both worlds.

1. Mind your mental health. We all know how hard it can be to focus when we’re stressed, whether it’s deadline pressure at work or a worry you carry into your day from your home life. Many of our common stressors are temporary and we know they will pass, and exercises like deep breathing, meditation, and yoga can help us navigate them. However, prolonged periods of stress can negatively impact your physical health, even leading to a stroke or heart attack. To lower your stress, we encourage you to take advantage of your emotional wellness benefits shown in the Healthy Mind section on My Journey,* whether it’s calling our crisis hotline, reaching out to the EAP, getting help with substance abuse, or speaking to a behavioral health therapist in person or through video chat.
2. Healthy eating. You are what you eat is a centuries-old adage that sums up how what we put into our bodies affects not just how we feel, but how we perform. We know we’re supposed to eat healthier – limit processed foods and red meat, eat more vegetables and fruit, and limit sugar and salt intake – but putting that into practice can be difficult, particularly for busy employees with families. One way to start is to make sure you eat a healthy lunch at work. There are also many healthy ready-to-eat meal kit services on the market today for those busy evenings when menu planning seems out of reach. Try some meal prep techniques on the weekends to make it easier to bring a healthy lunch to work and ease the evening meal preparation routine.
3. The heart of the matter. Healthy eating is also part of the journey to heart health, along with exercise, being smoke and nicotine-free, limiting exposure to second-hand smoke, physical exercise, and limiting your alcohol intake. If you are addressing all of these areas and you still have elevated blood pressure and cholesterol, ask your doctor about medications. If you’re enrolled in our medical plan, use an in-network doctor and take advantage of free annual wellness checkups to monitor and catch any problems early.
4. Keep the frame strong. Back pain, whether chronic or from an acute injury, can be one of the most debilitating forms of pain. Many of our employees engage in physical activity throughout the day, so maintaining a healthy back is important, as well as understanding the proper way to lift and carry large items and using the proper equipment for the job. Doing exercises that strengthen your core and watching your weight are also ways to be kind to your back so it works for you instead of against you.
5. Move … and then sleep. If you find it difficult to keep up a regular pattern of physical activity, set more manageable goals. For example, start with a goal of walking 15 minutes in the morning before work. Many come to enjoy and even anticipate such a morning routine that offers quiet mental preparation (or even mental rejuvenation after work). Yoga and other less dynamic stretching exercises can help strengthen your core and improve your balance, which can decrease your risk of injury from falls.

Finally, be sure you get enough sleep. Eight hours a day is still the gold standard but try to get at least seven.

Nearly half of all Americans suffer from at least one chronic disease. By taking advantage of Transocean’s health and wellness benefits, which are described on My Journey,* you can be on your way to mental and physical fitness that you can bring to your work life, and also channel into your home life each day.

^{*Some of the programs and resources included on the My Journey page require you to be enrolled in a Transocean medical plan to participate.}