As Covid-19 restrictions tighten what is the everyday looking like tomorrow?
Covid has disrupted families, broken hearts and affected minds and with the latest statistics on mental health just emerging, what do we see? According to Eddie Hawthorne, the chief executive of Arnold Clarke (a large car retail group) “mental health concerns have hit the roof”. Combine this with the latest from the University of Glasgow who found that lockdown had a major escalation in suicidal thoughts, depression, loneliness and self-harm and one can see that as we tighten up restrictions again, the resilience of our mental health is once again being put under fire.
Over the past few months, mental health teams have reported that patients with existing mental health conditions have suffered from significant relapses in their conditions and most surprisingly, people with no known mental health issues have presented in acute crisis.
There’s no definitive reason why some took lockdown like a beach holiday and others felt as though they were...
A Holistic Approach to Mental Health
What do you think when we say the words, “mental health”. Just pause for a second. Did you think wellness or sickness? Did you think of a depressed relative or an individual in quiet, zen-like calmness as they practice a mindful meditation class. Unlike physical health, throughout history, society has become prejudicial to mental health and more importantly mental illness. But, our past doesn’t have to be the deciding force in our future! And thankfully, things are changing.
If we think of mental health more like working out at the gym, it helps move our focus towards training both our mental health and our mental fitness. The buzz word in psychology for this is mental resilience. So what type of mental sit-ups and press-ups can you do to train your mental health muscles? Follow the WorkLifeWell Mental Health Workout with these easy daily steps.
Eat right - They say, you are what you eat, but what about...
How fit am I?
As we ‘run’ towards the 23rd September 2020, we approach an important landmark in the UK calendar. It is National Fitness Day. So if you are now wondering, “how fit am I?” it begs a pivotal question which is, what in fact does it mean to be fit?
Believe it or not there is no standard definition of physical fitness. If we use the dictionary definition of fitness we get:
noun
- The condition of being physically fit and health
- Being suitable to fulfill a particular role or task
The above definitions are not really useful, as they fail to take into account fitness from both a physical and mental health perspective. However, for the purpose of today's conversation, we are only concentrating on physical fitness and let’s bring this back to a practical level.
If you can run a marathon but can’t touch your toes, are you fit? If you can stand on one leg with your eyes closed for two minutes but have a resting heart rate of 95 beats per...
How to avoid sitting disease
For those of you that watch star trek, Captain Picard sits in the bridge for hours on end, gazing into the depths of deep space, boldly going where no man has gone before. The story would be different if after a few minutes he got up, limped around the room with a crook neck and sore back, stopping at an inter-stellar Chiropractic clinic for some well-needed adjustments. In the bridge of the starship Enterprise, the Captain's chair has good armrests, a headrest, soft material and well centered to the viewing screen in front. Now take a look at yours, would you be happy to sit like you are for hours on end exploring the galaxy, perhaps not? This is where good ergonomics comes into play.
Ergonomics is the study of people in their working environment with the aim of increasing comfort and productivity. Now as most of us are in a new, most-likely less efficient workplace, good ergonomics is vital.
Last time we discussed that poor workplace set-ups lead to pain,...
How does a new desk and higher computer monitor make us better?
Workplace efficiency aka ergonomics is often misconstrued as a dull and perhaps pointless exercise with the sole aim of ‘Feng-Shui-ING’ our environment to get us out of pain. For some, the addition of sparkling new furniture over-shadows the main aim of the exercise, which is to help us work at our best.
How does a new desk and higher computer monitor make us better?
Pain–relief: The most obvious reason to optimise your workstation, whether at home or in the office is to assist with pain reduction, pain relief, or pain-prevention. All equally useful, but on the basis that prevention is better than cure, to prevention of symptoms including, the inevitable stiff neck, disc irritation or sciatic pain has to be one of the most important benefits for workplace ergonomics.
Function: Within your work-environment, from kitchen, dining room or wherever that may be, we have to ensure that we can function. Have you got room to...
Anxiety and what you can do about it
For many of you, there will have been a time in your life where you felt anxious. From butterflies in the stomach, sweaty palms, a fast heart rate, increased breathing and a possible feeling of doom, you probably recognise some, if not all of these symptoms.
Anxiety as a subject, however, is very complex with numerous categories, sub-classifications, diagnoses and experiences. It may surprise many of you that there is a difference between anxiety as a symptom versus an actual anxiety disorder. So what’s that difference?
Anxiety as a symptom is a normal reaction to stress. For some it can be quite motivating, while for others it can be disabling. On the other hand, an anxiety disorder tends to be more prolonged, out of context with the current stress, impairs many aspects of your life and can alter your ability to think straight.
So it is vital to continue with the discussion clarifying that this conversation is focused to the sensation of anxiety and not an anxiety...
Why sleep matters
The UK loses just over 200,000 working days a year due to sleep deprivation among its workforce.
In recent years, businesses have clocked on to the importance of employee wellbeing. However, one fundamental part of employee health and happiness is often overlooked, sleep.
It has previously been estimated that lack of sleep among UK workers is costing the economy up to £40 billion a year, which is 1.86 per cent of the country's GDP. And that, shockingly, if individuals that slept under six hours per night started sleeping six to seven hours, roughly £23.9bn could be added to the UK economy. [1] Thinking about this in terms of days, it has been suggested that the UK loses just over 200,000 working days a year due to sleep deprivation among its workforce. [2] With figures such as these demonstrating a clear relationship between sleep and the economy, we make sure it is an integral part of our wellness strategy with each of our wellness...
