Today is World Mental Health Day (WMHD) and this year the theme is mental health in the workplace.
Seeing as though most of us spend a sizeable chunk of our lives at work, it's hardly surprising that our experience there can hold significant sway on how we feel in general. A positive working environment helps us to improve our wellbeing and can also help to reduce the risk of both mental and physical health problems developing.
From a business perspective, poor mental health is hugely damning for productivity. In fact, more than 70 million work days a year are lost to this alone.
That's why a lot of companies invest in incentives to improve moral - like away days, office shenanigans, casual Fridays, food ventures and that sort of thing. This article on The Guardian has some decent ideas and hits the nail on the head.
Working for an NHS trust that specialises in mental health means we have a Staff Wellbeing Service which can offer professional support. We also have a staff health and wellbeing offer, which provides tips to cover the Five Ways to Wellbeing (be active, connect, take notice, keep learning and give) to help stay healthy. I'm heavily involved in pulling the latter together, so as a shameless plug - check out this video I made.
But not every workplace has dedicated support in place, or incentives to outweigh the high levels of stress and demand. Even when there is, we've all had tough days at the office.
That's why this it's important to raise awareness of this year's WMHD theme and other steps you can take to help deal with what life or your mind throws at you.
There's a number of good tips to check out on the Mind website, but I thought I'd share some endorsement of using one particular technique known as mindfulness (mindfulness-based stress reduction).
This is form of meditation which focuses on the breath to help bring you into the present moment, preventing you from worrying about the past or future.
Admittedly I'm still a relative rookie to the technique, but I can certainly see the benefits in continuing to do it long-term. Evidence does back up that it can increase positive thinking, improve mood and resilience, and reduce anxiety and stress.
I was first introduced to this through a team-building/ wellbeing session at my current place of work. This involved a group guided mindfulness session, run by a psychologist from our Staff Wellbeing Service. I remember feeling incredibly relaxed after and managed to grasp the overriding concept of self-compassion.
Honestly though, it was a while before I had another bash at it for some reason. Then due to the fact I was noticing various life pressures in my mind, and possibly because I was regularly promoting it in work, I thought I'd invest some more time into being mindful.
There's a decent app called Headspace (the guys voice is incredibly chill) and there's umpteen videos on YouTube which can teach you the basics of mindfulness, how to relax, how to unwind, and how to focus on what's really important. The present moment.
After listening to a track before bed, or as soon as I wake up, I find that I go into the coming day with proverbial gloves up - rather than taking swinging hooks full force to the face. I even managed to use it to block out the dull pain of an ear-ache caused by cliff jumping on holiday.
Some days can obviously still be a struggle, but this is a technique that needs practise. I intend to carry on the process, so it hopefully becomes embedded in my life as a habit.
I'd definitely encourage you to give mindfulness a try. Whether you have a positive or negative experience of your workplace, or life as a whole, it could hold significant sway for you and how you feel.
Seeing as though most of us spend a sizeable chunk of our lives at work, it's hardly surprising that our experience there can hold significant sway on how we feel in general. A positive working environment helps us to improve our wellbeing and can also help to reduce the risk of both mental and physical health problems developing.
From a business perspective, poor mental health is hugely damning for productivity. In fact, more than 70 million work days a year are lost to this alone.
That's why a lot of companies invest in incentives to improve moral - like away days, office shenanigans, casual Fridays, food ventures and that sort of thing. This article on The Guardian has some decent ideas and hits the nail on the head.
Working for an NHS trust that specialises in mental health means we have a Staff Wellbeing Service which can offer professional support. We also have a staff health and wellbeing offer, which provides tips to cover the Five Ways to Wellbeing (be active, connect, take notice, keep learning and give) to help stay healthy. I'm heavily involved in pulling the latter together, so as a shameless plug - check out this video I made.
But not every workplace has dedicated support in place, or incentives to outweigh the high levels of stress and demand. Even when there is, we've all had tough days at the office.
That's why this it's important to raise awareness of this year's WMHD theme and other steps you can take to help deal with what life or your mind throws at you.
There's a number of good tips to check out on the Mind website, but I thought I'd share some endorsement of using one particular technique known as mindfulness (mindfulness-based stress reduction).
This is form of meditation which focuses on the breath to help bring you into the present moment, preventing you from worrying about the past or future.
Admittedly I'm still a relative rookie to the technique, but I can certainly see the benefits in continuing to do it long-term. Evidence does back up that it can increase positive thinking, improve mood and resilience, and reduce anxiety and stress.
I was first introduced to this through a team-building/ wellbeing session at my current place of work. This involved a group guided mindfulness session, run by a psychologist from our Staff Wellbeing Service. I remember feeling incredibly relaxed after and managed to grasp the overriding concept of self-compassion.
Honestly though, it was a while before I had another bash at it for some reason. Then due to the fact I was noticing various life pressures in my mind, and possibly because I was regularly promoting it in work, I thought I'd invest some more time into being mindful.
There's a decent app called Headspace (the guys voice is incredibly chill) and there's umpteen videos on YouTube which can teach you the basics of mindfulness, how to relax, how to unwind, and how to focus on what's really important. The present moment.
After listening to a track before bed, or as soon as I wake up, I find that I go into the coming day with proverbial gloves up - rather than taking swinging hooks full force to the face. I even managed to use it to block out the dull pain of an ear-ache caused by cliff jumping on holiday.
Some days can obviously still be a struggle, but this is a technique that needs practise. I intend to carry on the process, so it hopefully becomes embedded in my life as a habit.
I'd definitely encourage you to give mindfulness a try. Whether you have a positive or negative experience of your workplace, or life as a whole, it could hold significant sway for you and how you feel.