World Mental Health Day: Prioritizing Workplace Wellbeing

@GlenM our founder says:

Think about how you want to be remembered at the end of life and then try to weave in behaviors that will help you be remembered that way by colleagues. This helps bring a sense of purpose and meaning to the work even if it isn't completely aligned with your strengths, vocational goal, or calling. 

From our Community Director @Heather225

One of the most important things to do is to establish clear work-life boundaries to avoid burnout and protect personal time. We at 7 Cups on all levels of role commitment are passionate about moving the needle everyday because it feels good to know we're helping people heal so it's natural we want to work hard. However, you cannot pour from an empty cup. Every single one of us is an essential part of our community and we need to preserve ourselves so that we can give back to others. Be sure you are taking frequent breaks. Don't overextend yourself. Lean on your peers. We are a global team and what I like to view as a virtual family. We've got each other's backs but you have to make sure you're in charge of yourself, which means understanding and respecting your limits.

3 Tips from @ASilentObserver 

My 3 key tips would be: 

1. Set, Assess, Set Boundaries: Establish clear boundaries between your work and personal life. And from time to time as per the need, assess your boundaries to make any changes as needed. 

2. Ask for Support: If you struggle with any challenges including mental health struggles, do not hesitate to ask for support from your team, colleagues or leaders. Support is just an ask away. 

3. Never make comparisons: Everyone has unique needs and challenges, never make any comparisons how you struggle or how others. Lot of factors play a significant roles in how one might be feeling challenges. All you can focus is getting support or offering support what you can.  

From our Dean @Hope

Having good boundaries is key. It is important to have a clear divide of when work ends and rest starts. Often times people take breaks or time off but don't fully unplug making it particularly challenging to relax your mind and fully immerse in your rest day activities. 

Identify personal areas of improvement. A good place to start is looking into cognitive distortions. A lot of our worries are because of faulty thinking patterns. Maybe things are not as bad as they look, maybe we are looking at everything too pessimistically. 7 Cups has a series on learning about cognitive distortions.  

I also recommend that everyone dedicates 30 minutes every week to read books on professional/personal development so that you can better understand what an effective approach is to prioritize your productivity and mental health at the same time.

From @KristenHR

It's important at work to take a few short breaks as you are able, if only 5 minutes to step outside or walk around and get a drink of water and step away from your desk or station.  Take a deep breath and relax your shoulders as you exhale.  This can allow you to have some time to stretch your muscles and reduce some of the stress that your job may bring - even if it is good stress.

Another thing you can do to help your mental health at work is to work toward leaving home issues at home, and work issues at work.  This is done through compartmentalization, meaning that you put it away things at home while you are at work so you do not have the stress of things you need to take care of at home and can focus only on the responsibilities that you have at work.  To compartmentalize, it's like imagining that you put issues at home in a file cabinet or lock box until you get home where you can take it out.  Likewise, when you get ready to leave work, imagine locking them in your file cabinet or file cabinet.

The last thing I would mention is when you are feeling stressed, depressed or struggling with feeling frustrated over situations at work, take some time to identify something you are grateful for.  It can be small or large, from seeing your favorite bird out the window, having a job, or for something that made you smile over the past week.

Prioritizing mental health doesn't always need to be large and time-consuming tasks.  They can be small things that only take a few minutes of your time.

From @HealingTalk 

Prevent high anxiety and stress by keeping your commitments to what’s reasonable in the estipulated time. Talk with your boss. You are the expert on your task. If necessary, ask your boss to do a bit of the task to have a personal appraisal of the time and effort it needs. 

Promote peace of mind by accomplishing first what matters most. Have clear priorities and proceed accordingly. You might use the Eisenhower Matrix (one main component of 7 Cups Time Management Course), https://www.eisenhower.me/eisenhower-matrix/

Avoid burn-outs by taking frequent breaks. Might be short breaks, like walking around the block once and hour. Stretch in your desk. You might also take cat naps. I strongly recommend the Pomodoro technique, that breaks worktime into alternated and reasonable times for work and rest. Get a cellphone Pomodoro timer and follow the instructions.

Promote work-enjoyment balance in your life. Schedule enjoyable activities after work. By having something pleasant to expect and look forward to, you avoid the feeling that it’s “all spinach and no desert”. Pure drudgery. Schedule fun as formally as you do with work tasks, and actually do it at the stipulated time with the same commitment as for mandatory work tasks.

From @AnnaSilverberg

It can help to be mindful of our needs in the workplace, it's good to ask ourselves if we're taking on too many tasks or if we are in need of support with our tasks. Getting help and support is not a bad thing, just as it's not bad to help others out. 

@Rebekah: 

Your health is more important than anything. Yes, anything! If ever you feel like you need a break, take that break. They can help immensely!

@Tommy:

- always ensure you're passionate! 

- trust your gut and take breaks as soon as you feel the need

- be open and honest about how you are feeling 

- don't be afraid to take on new challenges. sometimes they benefit our mental health!"

From @Jenna 

It all starts off with having boundaries with our peers and the work we do here, learn how to say no when you aren't able to take on more work, prioritize your self-care, find a work-life balance, and seek help/support as needed.

@Gia:

I think it's so important to remember that work should stay at work and we need to maintain boundaries. As someone who's a major workaholic, I know it can be so easy to use work as a coping skill but that's only good for so long. Remember to take time for yourself, even if you work at home. Keep work in a different space besides your bedroom and make a time to turn off the computer. Work will still be there tomorrow!