The Widespread Misconceptions About Self-care and Mental Health

I was quite surprised at the number of people who misunderstood the idea of mental health. I read comments like:

?"Back in the day, we were taught to be yada yada."

"The younger generation now is lazy."

"Self-care is an excuse to escape from responsibilities."

These are all widespread misconceptions about self-care and mental health. It implies that people who prioritize their mental health will show signs of weakness and vulnerability. Most people who were taught back then believe that mental toughness is equivalent to hard work. For them, hard work means you need to spend a lot of time at work and do more to be promoted. It’s not true.

Successful organizations with high-performing employees share the same thing: they prioritize psychological safety. Satisfaction, motivation, high retention rates, productivity, and the like are the results of prioritizing employees’ mental health. It will cost your organization more if you treat them like robots. How do you expect them to go the extra mile with that kind of attitude? How do you expect them to be more open if you’re not even safe in the first place? I’ve been doing telehealth consultations, and one of the main culprits of job burnout is a lack of empathy. People will leave you despite your high-paying job if you have poor leadership.

Mental health means making sure that everyone is treated with respect. Mental health is listening to your employees’ needs and concerns. Mental health is providing honest and constructive feedback so they can improve. Mental health is humane and requires practical care in the workplace. Mental health is about empowerment. It’s about self-love while teaching others to do the same. Mental health is making sure that we’re all enough while being inspired to strive to be better each day. So, no, mental health will not eventually make everyone weak, vulnerable, and lazy. It’s the opposite.

Allow me to also share the following:

1.???? Productivity isn’t measured by the amount of time spent at work. Let's take the case of presenteeism. How many people are actually at work, but their minds are elsewhere because they are under too much distress and pressure due to poor job designs, leadership, and whatnot?

2.???? Being tough doesn’t mean putting up with “unnecessary workloads”. It’s often mistranslated at work that you need to stretch yourself so you can be tough.

3.???? The secret to a successful team is collaboration. Creative outputs and low job burnout are outcomes of putting this essential key into practice.

4.???? Rewarding people with more work and taking so much of their time isn’t healthy.

5.???? Self-care is more than just enjoyment. It’s not even promoting laziness and unproductivity. Self-care is a form of self-love that involves giving back to yourself the same level of care, support, love, and effort that you give to others. You need to recharge so you can perform well at work.

Let’s stop glamorizing “unnecessary hard work” in the workplace. It’s not mental toughness when you overwork. It’s unhealthy, and it should be stopped.