Mental health at work, Dealing with Anxiety, and Competing with self

This edition covers my perspective on some tough subjects like "talking mental health a work" to "how to deal with Anxiety" to discussion on not strivig to be the best.

We have some weekly stories, featured posts and amazing conversations adding immense value to the posts.

Let's dive straight into the content:

Post 1

How to destigmatize mental health at work.

Asking for help is not a sign of weakness, it’s actually a sign of strength.

As per HBR article and study, one in four adults will struggle with a mental health issue during his or her lifetime.?

?At work, those suffering from clinical conditions or with minor ones; often tend to hide their condition because of fear that they may face discrimination from peers or even?leadership?teams.

These stigmas can and must be overcome. However, it need more than policies set at the top?management. It also requires empathetic action from managers directly working with employees.

?It’s important to encourage open and honest conversations, and it is imperative to create?safe environment for people to?talk about their own challenges, past & present, without fear of being tagged ‘unstable’ or without fear of losing any key responsibility or key?jobs.

??The key is to ensure that employees should not fear that they would be judged or excluded if they open up in this way. The?humanresources?teams can play their role here.

??The leaders are required to set the tone for this by sharing their own experiences, or stories of other people who have struggled with?mentalhealth?issues, gotten help and resumed successful careers.?

They should also encourage everyone to speak up when feeling overwhelmed or in need. Understanding the value of?emotionalintelligence?is the key.

???Pay attention to language.?We all need to be aware of the words we use that can contribute to stigmatizing mental?health?issues

??Be proactive.?Not all stress is bad, and people in high-pressure?careers?often grow accustomed to it or develop coping mechanisms. However, prolonged unmanageable?stress can lead to worsening symptoms of mental illness.

Have you faced any such challenge at your workplace?

What do you think can be a solution to destigmatise this?

Post 2

Why striving to be the best is not a great advice.

And that might not help you learn & grow ??

If you are striving to be the best, then your goal is dependent on others to a great extent and can create illusion of the endpoint. ??

For example, you can be the best in your 'group,?community, team, or batch' by delivering the mediocre performance and you can continue to be that by not improving at all, for years, in case others are also not learning & improving. ??

Whilst if you strive to be better than you, you have complete clarity as you are competing with your past self. ??

And the goal is your future self. ??

Your goal is the?future?self you visualize for yourself, and that is not dependent on other’s approach, efforts, dreams or career path.

Post 3

Don't deal with Anxiety ??

Best way to deal with Anxiety, is not to Deal with it.

You need to understand what is anxiety and may be you don't need to deal with it on many occasions.

?Anxiety is precisely the gap between 'what is’ and ‘what should be’.

??The gap between 'what you are doing’ and ‘what you think you should be doing’.

??Once you can understand this clearly and own what you are doing, it's easier to manage yourself.

?? The more effort you put into stopping anxiety, the more power you give it by making it relevant. That's when you don't understand it properly and start acting upon it as a comulsive reaction.

?? Once you understand it, you will see that, it actually serves as an indicator that you need to make positive changes in your life.

?Anxiety is just an alarm, for you to 'act' or 'ignore', whichever way you want.?

Post 4

Cricket?in India is?more than a sport, it's a way of life.

And the learnings from cricket and sports in general, are immense.

In this aspect, It is amazing to have an active sportsperson like?Rishabh?on?Linkedin.

Welcome Rishabh Pant on?LinkedIn???

Starting with my playing days in school & college to being a 'cricket fan' to, now a person who 'writes about cricket', the source of my learnings in early years was just cricket.

There is huge potential to learn, overcome, and grow from sports and what better than someone like you, who has following from all ages of people (from kids to elders). It's just amazing to have you here and to have the possibility of?learning?from you.

And not just cricket, we are a fan of your 'behind the stumps' chatters and who can forget the episodes with 'Tim Paine' i.e. 'temporary captain' and 'baby sitter' etc.

Since I have always been more interested in metal aspect of the game (within the real game) and it just fascinates me that a young wicket keeper travelling overseas and he not just plays an absolute fearless brand of cricket, but also is so mentally strong to give it back to the opponent without getting his game or concentration affected at all.

I have tons of memories from so many huge games of yours, in a brief but a GRAND?career?so far, of course, there is a LONG way to go, and this space is not enough for me to share all of that.

Welcome again, and look forward to?learning?from your experiences.

Post 5

Clear Writing Means Clear Thinking

Hope you enjoyed this edition of newsletter.

Until next week, many thanks!