We’ve just marked World Mental Health Day for 2020 here at Microlise and it gave us pause to reflect on how we need to reach out and connect with each other and maintain our relationships – now more than ever.
Being mentally healthy doesn’t just mean that you don’t have a mental health problem. Mental wellbeing describes your mental state – how you are feeling and how well you can cope with day-to-day life. Our mental wellbeing is dynamic. It can change from moment to moment, day to day, month to month or year to year – and the current coronavirus pandemic is having a huge impact on it.
If your mental wellbeing is in a positive place you should:
- Feel relatively confident in yourself and have positive self-esteem
- Feel and express a range of emotions
- Build and maintain good relationships with others
- Feel engaged with the world around you
- Live and work productively
- Cope with the stresses of daily life
- Adapt and manage in times of change and uncertainty.
We are all different. What affects someone’s mental wellbeing won’t necessarily affect others in the same way. However, we all have times when we feel stressed, upset or find it difficult to cope.
To stay mentally well and develop your ability to cope with the ups and downs of life, there are some things we can all do to keep things on an even keel:
- Think about what is affecting your wellbeing
- Build positive relationships
- Take time for yourself
- Look after your mental health
- Look after your physical health
- Ask for help if you need it.
At Microlise, we have a number of tools in place to support our employees such as, Employee Assistance Programmes and dedicated Mental Health First Aiders. Our teams have also been working hard to reach out to employees and our very own Learning & Development Academy Specialist, Clive, has produced a number of Mental Resilience Workshops to support employees during this time.
Whilst the majority of our workforce are working from home, we actively encourage keeping in touch and reaching out to one another. Social relationships are critical to our wellbeing, by talking to one another instead of sending an email, asking how each other’s weekend was and essentially having a natter like you would in the work environment, you can not only improve your mental wellbeing, but also maintain your feeling of staying connected whilst working remotely.
