Reflections on our mental wellbeing

We all go through some anxious and tough moments in our lives. In the last couple of years, given the context of the pandemic, I guess there have been more such instances. I have also personally experienced moments of anxiety, panic and frustration last year. For instance, I went through moments of panic when a family member was sick with Covid symptoms. At work, there have been moments of frustration when I have not been able to some things done on time. There have also been days when I felt tired with work, questioning why I am doing something, and also felt like taking a break and not opening my laptop the next day! And there have been days where I felt a bit alone. We all go through these phases. Fortunately, I could bounce back from these occasions, and thankfully, they all didn’t bunch up together. But for some of us, at times these could all come together and lead to a deeper and a much more prolonged sense of languishing.

On this World Mental Health Day, it is good to remind ourselves that we could all go through times when our mental well-being is not at its best. In fact, it is now about our holistic wellbeing and?not just about staying fit physically, but taking care of our body, mind, social connections. As Aristotle says- "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts". Over the last couple of years, we have all become more aware of this, and we all can play a role in managing this well.

As a leader of a team, we can play a great role in supporting the mental well being of all in the team. Three things we could do. First, take some time to connect with people on an individual level. All it takes is to ask them ‘how are things going’, ‘how are you’ or ‘how are things with the family?’ Just listen, with a little empathy. Look for signs of people being very withdrawn or under extra stress. Listen without giving advice, without judging them, so that you build trust that they can communicate freely with you. Social connection is a powerful element of mental well-being, so encourage the team to connect with each other too. Second, a biggest cause of alienation from work is not seeing the meaning in the work we do. I guess we see meaning in work through two ways- we should see it making an impact, and we should be learning something new. Try and see that each person in your team is doing something where they are learning something, and happy to see the impact their work is making. Let’s bring greater meaning and purpose to the jobs people do. Lastly, give them time to focus on themselves. We all need time to recover, we all need some breaks- this helps us recharge ourselves and get to the newer challenges. A little bit of physical activity helps refresh us. So encourage self care- let them show some compassion on themselves and have the space to take care of themselves. Be there, be present.

Moreover, we can do each of these three things to take care of our own mental well being too. First, keep up your social connections- you don’t need 100 friends on Facebook, but just a few with whom you can talk freely. Also, doing small acts of kindness help us feel good, and aids in our mental health. Mentor a younger colleague. Connect someone to a new project opportunity. Help someone in your community. Help someone in the family with something. Another good practice is to maintain a gratitude journal- once a week, write down what you are grateful for. Second, look at how you can make your work more meaningful for you, or take up something that you feel is meaningful. Try and learn something new- there is actually so much to learn in our everyday work if we actually try and see what we don’t know. Learning makes you grow, feel confident about yourself. And lastly, show some kindness to yourself and take care of yourself. Short breaks, physical activity, fun time with family, meditation, all help you recover and build that resilience. These are my leanings- you will probably find something that helps you more, so go with those.

Once again, it is important to know we can all go through periods where we are not at our best, and also this is not obvious to others. So lets be aware of this, and consciously promote mental well-being in our teams. All it takes is some simple steps- but the key is to consciously work on it. In the end, we should keep in mind that each of us is unique in our own way, and we should help create an environment celebrates that uniqueness, for all to thrive.?