About Me — Eresha Abenayake

Professional Services Consultant and Blogger

Image is the author’s own (Instagram: @eresha.fwtn)

Bio

Thanks for clicking on my About Me story! I’m Eresha, it’s nice to connect via Medium and I hope this post provides you with information, perspectives, insights, and maybe even a laugh or two.

I’m a first-generation Sri Lankan Australian and grew up in Melbourne. Like most first gens, I’ve grown up with an acute awareness of my dual identity as a Sri Lankan daughter, sister, cousin and friend, and also Australian student, friend, professional and mentor. It’s been an interesting journey so far full of challenges, setbacks, and also achievements and huge milestones.

I’m passionate about a wide range of areas including health and wellbeing, professional development, socioeconomic inequity in health outcomes and sustainability.

Work

I am a Consultant in a Big 4 Professional Services firm and work across the areas of health and wellbeing, safety, sustainability (climate change, human rights, and social impact), and strategic risk. In any one week, you might find me completing an audit, delivering a workshop, writing reports, conducting interviews and pre-COVID-19, complaining about public transport.

Previously, I was a graduate in a global mining company working in regional Queensland on a metallurgical coal mine. This experience really opened up my eyes to regional work/life, the associated physical/mental health challenges, and the world of mining and resources. It also taught me how important lifestyle is to my own health and wellbeing, and alas, the regional life wasn’t for me, so I left my handsome mining salary and my orange high-vis behind, and chose the Professional Services grind back home in Melbourne.

Image is the author’s own (Instagram: @eresha.fwtn)

Since COVID-19 and the resulting change to work and lifestyle, I’ve found myself really interested in how my state of wellbeing has changed. I’ve found more time in my day, but have found that I’ve really had to make an effort to balance my time to avoid burnout. Some of the strategies I use include waking up early and rewarding myself by allocating some reading time (I should have mentioned before that I’m a bookworm!), and scheduling in the fun social activities to prioritise my personal time.

If you’re interested in checking out some of my writing in this area, you can read some of my blogs below:

COVID-19 has redefined my work/life routine and I won’t be going back

Burnout, Fatigue, and the Road Up and Out

Managing work/life balance after experiencing burnout

Fun

Whilst I have a tendency to over-work, I really do cherish my personal time and like to enjoy it by eating out, indulging in a fashion piece or two and picking up a great book.

Image is the author’s own (Instagram: @eresha.fwtn)

My preferences for books are non-fiction, personal development/business related books, some great reads include:

1. Sapiens — Yuval Noah Harari
2. Becoming Bulletproof — Evy Poumpouras
3. Rising Strong — Brené Brown
4. The Ride of a Lifetime — Robert Iger
5. Range — David Epstein

If you’re interested in reading more of my work, definitely consider following and leave a comment if you have similar interests, I’d love to check out your work too!

Eresha is a health and wellbeing consultant who is passionate about professional development and improvement. She recognises the inter-relatedness of self-improvement and wellbeing and is constantly looking for new ways to save time, learn, develop, and improve her overall health, wellbeing, and quality of life.

The views expressed in this article are my own and do not reflect any organisation for which I work or volunteer.