{"id":189,"date":"2020-06-05T00:41:43","date_gmt":"2020-06-04T23:41:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.coachingbysmk.com\/?p=189"},"modified":"2020-06-05T00:41:43","modified_gmt":"2020-06-04T23:41:43","slug":"how-to-improve-your-workplace-mental-health-5-action-points","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.coachingbysmk.com\/how-to-improve-your-workplace-mental-health-5-action-points\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Improve Your Workplace Mental Health -5 Action Points"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Have you ever asked Google what to do about stress, anxiety or depression? If so, you\u2019re not alone. UK based healthcare provider Priory Group<\/a> found that, in the UK, people search for depression on Google 27 times a minute. Google searches for stress are made 22 times a minute and 21 times a minute for anxiety. What\u2019s going on?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Google is the leading search engine in the world, the fact that people search these terms with such frequency reveals that people are hungry for solutions to the conditions that impact on their mental health. Sadly this is a topic that plays out in my day to day experience of working with professionals & SME\u2019s in Coaching by SMK. Stress, anxiety and fear always comes up in conversation about work, but often these people don\u2019t know how to address it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While there is a lot of information online about how to improve your mental health, there is so much information that people can get lost in articles and not come away with actionable solutions.  People might read an article, get some ideas but struggle with creating actionable tips and the HOW to implementing them. So, today, I want to share with you some actionable tips, but I\u2019m going to keep them really simple.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Five Simple Strategies for Minding Your Mental Health<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Eat Soul Food<\/strong><\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    I\u2019m not a dietician and I\u2019m not here to tell you what foods are good for your brain and which are not. But we do know that there are certain foods which make us feel better than others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Water hydrates us, helping our brain to function better and making us less sleepy during the day. Healthy foods do a similar job, they feed our body and our mind. So, to look after your mental health be aware of what foods you\u2019re eating. The vast amount of the happy hormone, serotonin, is produced in the gut<\/a> in response to the foods we\u2019re digesting. If your gut\u2019s not happy, chances are the rest of you won\u2019t be either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    1. Guard Your \u2018Me Time\u2019<\/strong><\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

      \u2018Me time\u2019 is not selfish. It is a necessary element of every day to keep yourself healthy, happy and balanced. With that in mind, get strict with yourself and others about wasting it. Your lunch break? That\u2019s yours, time for you to relax, eat and de-stress in whatever works best for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      1. Are you having a laugh?<\/strong><\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

        No? You should be! We all need a bit of humour in our lives. There\u2019s nothing like a good laugh to lift our mood. Do you remember that Robin Williams film, Patch Adams? It\u2019s loosely based on the real-life story of Dr. Hunter \u2018Patch\u2019 Adams, who promotes the importance of humour and play in healthcare. The science<\/a> is there to back it up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        If you\u2019re feeling stressed take a few minutes to watch a comedy clip on YouTube or have a chat with that friend who always leaves you in stitches. It\u2019s not hard, but it can do your mental health the world of good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        1. Get Engrossed in Something Fun<\/strong><\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

          Mindfulness is a concept that we hear a lot of these days. For those of you who don\u2019t get it, think of it as getting lost in something fun and relaxing. You know how you forget about whatever was stressing you out when you\u2019re preoccupied with an activity? That\u2019s the basis of mindfulness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

          Any activity that takes you out of your head and makes you focus on the task at hand can help you mind your mental health. Cooking, baking, painting, gardening, playing an instrument, the list goes on and on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

          Make time in your life to do something you enjoy and let yourself get lost in it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

          1. Name & Shame the Imposter<\/strong><\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

            Many of us believe that successful people have it all figured out. Usually, that\u2019s not true. Lots of hugely successful people admit to suffering from imposter syndrome, just like you and me. That\u2019s the feeling we get when things are going so well for us that we can\u2019t quite believe it. We\u2019re waiting for someone to figure out that we\u2019re not the one who should have gotten the promotion, or whatever else it might be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Imposter syndrome is encountered by practically everyone at some point in their lives. It\u2019s how we deal with it that matters. We can let those fears of inadequacy ruin our chances, or we can name the feeling and tackle it head-on. When you start feeling the symptoms of imposter syndrome and call it out, you are admitting you\u2019re a bit scared \u2018cos the stakes are high. It\u2019s ok to be nervous, pushing yourself outside your comfort zone will do that, but you can choose nervous excitement or debilitating worry. Don\u2019t buy into the worry that your imposter is peddling. When you stop buying, he\u2019ll go elsewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Mental Health is<\/em> Health<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Many people still think of mental health as somehow distant and removed from the rest of our health. It isn\u2019t. It\u2019s right there tied up in everything! Our mind can affect our body and our body can affect our mood. So, we need to take an integrated approach to looking after our mental health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Just as we take Vitamin C during the winter to help boost our immune system and ward off coughs and colds, we need to identify what we need to boost our mental health and ward off burnout, panic attacks, and depression \u2013 and then supplement with it every day. If we don\u2019t mind ourselves on a day to day basis, by being aware of how we feel and acknowledging the state of our mental health, it can escalate into something a lot more serious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            This month, I\u2019m delighted to have been invited to speak as a member of a panel at Make a Fuss Live<\/a> in conjunction with Her.ie<\/a>. I joined Dublin footballer, Nicole Owens in Farrier & Draper for an evening where we discussed workplace wellness and how to mind your mental health. It was a great event and I hope everyone who attended got something practical from it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            If stress and anxiety are wearing you down, at Coaching by SMK<\/a>, I can help you identify what you need to do to mind your mental health and put strategies in place to make sure you get what you need. You can book a free 30-minute discovery call<\/a> on my website, to see if we\u2019re a good match before you commit to anything. Why not try it out, what have you got to lose?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

            Have you ever asked Google what to do about stress, anxiety or depression? If so, you\u2019re not alone. UK based healthcare provider Priory Group found that, in the UK, people search for depression on Google 27 times a minute. Google searches for stress are made 22 times a minute and 21 times a minute for…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":190,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.coachingbysmk.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.coachingbysmk.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.coachingbysmk.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.coachingbysmk.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.coachingbysmk.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.coachingbysmk.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":191,"href":"https:\/\/www.coachingbysmk.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189\/revisions\/191"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.coachingbysmk.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.coachingbysmk.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.coachingbysmk.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.coachingbysmk.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}