World Mental Health Day

On World Mental Health Day let’s all do what we can to make the places where we work as healthy as we can.

Work is often associated with stress, and stress can lead to exhaustion and many physical and psychological symptoms like anxiety, taking longer at work, difficulty in making decisions, focusing on mistakes and failure, less creative problem-solving, and drug and alcohol abuse. But too little stress, like a job that demands way less than we can offer, can also be uncomfortable – we need some demands on us or life becomes boring and we perform below our potential.

But stress can also be your friend! An optimal amount of stress pulls us into what is called “flow” – when we are so wrapped up in a task we enjoy that we become unaware of time or effort and are focused and creative.

Athletes and their coaches know this well – they create enough stress through competing to generate the adrenalin that drives their performance, but not so much that it begins to interfere with their abilities. So athletes seek out and welcome physical demands that for most of us would be dreadful. I know some ironman competitors whose idea of a fun weekend is to drive themselves to the point of physical exhaustion. They emerge haggard, battered and aching all over – and exhilarated! For them, this horrendous experience is a magnificent challenge.

When we are faced with a demand or challenge at work, can we look for the opportunities it presents rather than the threats? Just imagine if the terrible threats hanging over you were transformed into opportunities!

When I face a busy day ahead, can I look at which of the tasks are going to advance my values? What is going to be fun today? How can I approach each task in a way that will make it a positive challenge?

When I face a difficult conversation, can I look forward to it to learn more about myself and my capacity to work with others? Can I help the other person(s) grow and thrive?

Stress becomes distress when we perceive the threat facing us as bigger than our resources to cope. Stress becomes our friend when we perceive our ability to cope and thrive as bigger than the threat.

That gives us three ways to reduce the stress that comes from too many demands:

1. Reduce the stressors:

• Plan and prioritize and make decisions about what to let go

2. Increase your coping resources

• Ask for help/delegate
• Learn new skills and develop rituals to help you focus – like set hours and efficient processes
• Be authentic in the way you work – rather than stressing over what others think of you
• Insist on getting enough sleep, enough exercise, a healthy diet, and enough time with those you love

3. Manage the way you think about the challenges and yourself – feed your mind with opportunities

• Remind yourself of your purpose and the meaningfulness of your work/contribution in life
• Begin the day with meditation or prayer and planning, taking charge of the opportunities the day presents.
• Focus on what you can control in your life, not what you can’t
• Use a relaxation or meditation method to help your body cope, and to create helpful images in your mind of yourself as a strong, coping person.

And in the end, most of us need to take ourselves and life a little less seriously. We are never going to be able to do all the things we want to do or even should do. We need to make choices and then let go of the things that are not our top priority. It’s okay to be merely human.

I wish you increasing health and joy yourself, together with wonderful opportunities to bring health and joy to those you work with.