To be healthy as a whole, Mental wellness plays a vital role !
It’s been 2 hours 23 minutes since I’ve been staring at the cursor blink on my laptop screen, wondering what to jot down. There’s this constant urge to write something, but the question is: where to start from?
Well to give it a kick start I decided to sketch a picture about something that is very important but is often ignored by all of us, so here it is.
I’m naturally a very practical person, and I may often come out as too much of a realistic person but I am secretly very optimistic by nature. And lately I think we all are trying to be something we are not, just to satisfy our imagination of being a different person or to fit in maybe, but why fit in when you are born to stand out! So my spontaneous response when things are going down the hill is — “Everything will eventually get better, it’ll all fall into place slowly, have patience and courage.” But I know it’s difficult to have hope and control over your feelings, so it’s okay to be scared.
According to NAMI, serious mental illness costs the United States of America $193.2 billion in lost earnings per year. From a business perspective, I believe this cost can be significantly reduced if we change the stigma of admitting to a mental health concern, along with the repercussions of those brave enough to admit to struggling. Poor mental health has significant negative effects on employee workplace performance, contributing to presenteeism and absenteeism. This loss of workplace performance often results from some of the symptoms and complications of these mental health problems including reduced attention span, fatigue, poor decision making and time management abilities, and distorted communication. Expectations may weigh you down, standards will only pressurize you, so let go, and accept that being not okay, being not fine, is perfectly okay, too.
Yes sometimes our sanity and survival may depend on self-care. Interacting with friends and family, socializing and engaging with people can be your only coping mechanism in life and these all when taken away may seem like the end of the world, but just hold on and try to look on the bright side, we all know it’s going to be tough but you are strong, and we are all here in this together side by side, united. We will survive.
Without effective mental health resources in place, it will cost your organization your best employees. The silver lining is that we have the technology, data, and resources to do so.
Organizations should look at implementing initiatives around policy creation, communication, training resources, and early-intervention treatment: This can include creating policies and mandates around mental health at a corporate level; sharing resources through internal marketing channels to promote awareness; giving management and HR the training to identify issues and handle them successfully; and, providing employees with self-help tools and programs.
It’s okay to spiral, and be overwhelmed due to your emotions. It’s totally okay sometimes to not let your guard down as you are scared of being judged. It’s alright to completely space out and work towards a peaceful mental health, don’t let little setbacks hamper your growth. Pause for a while, think what’s really going on and take your feelings into consideration. Even if you fall it’s okay, try again harder, the next time you can do this, have faith in yourself.
So just in case no one has told you today, it’s okay to not be okay. Things will get better. Your best is more than enough. You can do this. You are loved, no matter how you feel.
It’s okay if simple things don’t feel very simple anymore. Be gentle to yourself.
