10th October is #WorldMentalHealthDay, which is an opportunity to raise awareness of the importance of talking about mental health.
Here at YU, we do nothing but talk about mental health! But we often delve deeper into certain areas, so this is a good chance to go back to basics about why mental health is one of the most valuable things to invest our time in.
Just as we all know how important it is to look after our bodies and keep them healthy with plenty of exercise and good nutrition, it’s equally as important to look after our mental health because it determines how we’re able to operate psychologically and emotionally, and how well we can cope with the challenges that life throws at us.
Numerous things can impact our mental health, including experiences, lifestyle, biology and the environment around us. If these things are positive and healthy, we are most likely to have robust mental health that allows us to be resilient in the face of difficulties, build strong relationships with people around us, have a strong positive self-image and a generally higher quality of life. On the other hand, if our mental health is negatively impacted, we may struggle to cope with problems, and feel hopelessness and despair. We might isolate ourselves from others, stop looking after our physical health, and be generally unable to enjoy a fulfilling life.
That’s why the importance of mental health on overall wellbeing cannot be understated – it is a vital foundation upon which we build our life, and if that foundation isn’t stable, it will profoundly affect every part of us.
The 2024 theme of World Mental Health Day is prioritising mental health in the workplace. We are huge proponents of focusing on wellbeing at work, and why it’s as important to focus on how we’re feeling as it is on how much profit is being made. We’ve previously discussed the impact that work has on wellbeing and the benefits that a business can gain by focusing on mental health, and our latest podcast talks all about how and why businesses should focus on wellbeing.
If employers invest time and effort in trying to improve the wellbeing in the workplace, they can expect to see greater engagement and job satisfaction leading to increased productivity, better and more cooperative relationships with colleagues that can increase creativity and innovation, and reduced presenteeism, absenteeism and staff turnover that save costs and time. Ensuring equal and fair pay, flexible working hours and robust management teams are a fundamentally good place to start.
We have, however, noticed that talking about mental health in the workplace tends to imply that the challenges being experienced at work are distinct and separate from those being experienced at other times. Solutions being offered to business owners to improve wellbeing in their organisation (such as employee away days, mindfulness sessions in the office, exercise classes with colleagues etc) are solely aimed at improving the function and performance of the workplace (usually with the end goal of increasing productivity and thus profit).
But that’s not how mental health works – we can’t just section it off and leave some thoughts at home. Our worries, stresses, joys and heartbreaks follow us wherever we go. To hope that an away day with colleagues will stop people feeling the effects of divorce, grief, debt or loneliness while they’re at work is naïve at best. It may have a temporary uplifting effect, but ultimately, people’s performance at work will still be impacted by whatever else is going on in their personal life.
That’s why we think it’s vital to focus on the whole person. Everything is interconnected, and the effects of one person’s emotions can impact a whole group. This is called emotional contagion, and can have a substantial impact on the workplace. One individual’s low mood can seep through to everyone else and bloom into a detrimental effect on morale, cooperation and performance.
If workplaces truly want to improve wellbeing, a good place to start is to better understand how their people feel and what the overall emotional atmosphere is. This knowledge can provide a foundation on which they can make constructive changes that build an environment where employees feel supported and nurtured, and like more than just a cog in the machine. This is a win-win for both employer and workforce – and if work becomes a positive influence, there might just be some positive contagion into other areas of life.
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