Your Mind Health Toolkit

3 Simple Ways To Stay Mentally Healthy

In support of Mental Health Week, Spotscreen would like to raise the opportunity for mental health awareness in your workplace.

We believe at an organisational level there are several ways in which employers can manage mental health issues such as stress and retain healthy minds of their employees. This includes encouraging more organisational communication to avoid role conflict, encouraging participation in decision-making, offering greater independence and responsibilities, creating a safe work environment and acknowledging accomplishments.

On an individual level, employees can also apply very simple techniques to their daily routines in order to stay mentally healthy.

Shallow and rapid breathing is a typical part of the stress response, and hyperventilation can be distressing for people with anxiety and stress (Health Smart Solutions, 2013.) Controlled breathing can promote relaxation and reduce the effects of stress (Better Health Channel 2015).
You can use abdominal breathing to help control your nervous system and encourage your body to relax, bringing about a range of health benefits.

A technique called the ‘square deep’ breathing exercise is a common and simple technique you can do sitting at your desk during work hours or at a time when you are feeling stressed or overwhelmed. All you have to do is sit on a chair with your feet placed on the ground and close your eyes.

Put one hand on your diaphragm (upper belly) to make sure that’s where you’re breathing from. Inhale for 5 slow seconds, letting your breath start in the upper belly and move up towards the chest. Hold your breath for 5 seconds and exhale slowly for 5 seconds. Hold your breath again once more after all the air has been expelled from your lungs then repeat for 2 minutes.

If you do this once every 2 hours each day you will feel calm, energised and alert.

Mindfulness fundamentally means moment-to-moment awareness. Mindfulness meditation is commonly practiced at work as it can lower stress levels amongst employees significantly. Studies show that there is a strong association between mindfulness and the decreased levels of the stress hormone cortisol.

People who practice mindfulness in the workplace report an improved ability to communicate clearly and contain more suitable reactions to stressful situations. They also report a better ability to handle workplace conflict, experience enhanced teamwork, and enriched creativity (Cacioppe, 2015).

If you are not sure on how to bring mindfulness into your daily work routine, simply start each day with a few minutes of conscious awareness. Instead of rushing to open your emails in the morning or scrambling to get your toolbox meeting together, just breathe and take a few moments of noticing how you feel, then set yourself an intention for the day. Write it down on a post-it note to remind yourself of how you are feeling and what your intention was in the beginning of that day.

Connecting within ourselves will certainly enrich our lives. A sense of belonging and connectedness gives us the opportunity to enhance our wellbeing. When we create a healthy relationship with ourselves it can bring great rewards, including fulfilment and overall peace and happiness. Connecting with others and surrounding ourselves with positive people is also important for our mental health. When we develop strong, connected relationships with others we feel supported and uplifted. Putting time and effort into building those strong relationships will impact encouragingly on your overall wellbeing.

We can develop and maintain these strong relationships in the workplace, within volunteer organisations, community and sporting clubs, social events or online forums if you live in rural or isolated areas. Opportunity to connect surrounds us always.