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Bringing energy and HAPPINESS: How a Danoner is leading a wellness movement at work

 

Lucia Mikusova is a nutritionist at our Nutricia Research Centre in Utrecht. She started a wellness movement to help her colleagues at Danone move more, eat well and improve their wellbeing. And smile! It started in 2015 when she became a dance teacher to fulfil her passion outside of work. Her colleagues asked her to give them lessons in meeting rooms at lunch. Fast forward seven years, she has a huge following of Danoners who tune into her yoga classes, afternoon stretches and wellbeing and nutrition workshops.

 

When speaking with the Danoners who have joined her events, it is clear to see how valued she is amongst her colleagues. "It is not part of her job so I really admire the hard work she puts into giving her colleagues moments of fun and relaxation”, says Jolanda Kampman-Bout. “There is something special about the sense of community she brings."  

Stretches for lunch

Lucia explains, "It started as a bit of fun, I was giving dance classes for a few colleagues in a meeting room. The news started spreading, more and more Danoners joined, I then realised how many people wanted something like this, to have a fun break in the middle of their working day". After trying out a few different types of classes to see what people needed the most, she launched her 15-minute afternoon stretches, which were a huge success. Danoner Miriam van Dijk-Ottens is overjoyed with the sporty intermissions: "I joined from the beginning and take part in anything, Salsa, Yoga, I love them all. She is great at what she does and I am always encouraging more colleagues to join."

“It is not part of her job so I really admire the hard work she putsinto giving her colleagues moments of fun and relaxation.”

A worldwide hit

By 2020 Lucia's 'Vitality and Health Club' had grown hugely, she ran workshops and took a yoga instructor course, allowing her to provide monthly yoga classes. Covid-19 hit but she was motivated to keep making her colleagues happy, doing the classes virtually. If anything, it helped her club grow with Danoners from all across the Netherlands joining, and even colleagues as far away as Singapore tuning into her February Yoga Challenge this year. Francina Dijk wouldn’t have missed it for the world: “I needed her classes even more, working from home sitting at my desk all day, the stretch sessions encouraged me to take a moment to relax in between meetings and tasks, it was good to have some exercise and be with colleagues at the same time”.