What is Mental Well-being? 7 ways to ensure it.

What is Mental Well-being? How to ensure mental Well-being for employees?

Mental Well-being is state of Well-being in which every individual realizes his or her own potential, can cope with the normal stress of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to her or his community. It is a positive sate of mental wellness. It includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It affects how we think, feel, and act.

Mental wellness is a positive state of mental health. It is more than the absence of mental illness. Being mentally well means that your mind is in order and functioning in your best interest. You are able to think, feel and act in ways that create a positive impact on your physical and social well-being.

Some of the mental wellness questions we ask during our mental wellness counselling sessions are: –

1. How are you feeling today?
2. Are you able to eat properly?
3. Has there been an increase or decrease in your appetite?
4. Are you able to sleep for 8 hours every day?
5. Has there been a change in your sleep cycle?
6. Has there been a sudden change in your weight?
7. Do you feel energetic throughout the day?
8. Do you experience mood swings?  If yes, how often?

Why Is Mental Well-being Important?

It is important at every stage of life right from childhood to adulthood. As per WHO, mental health is as important as general physical health (WHO).  Among the the global prevalence of illnesses, mental disorders and illnesses make up 14% of the total burden of disease

As per statistics, 1 out of every 6 Indian suffers from some major or minor mental disorders that require expert intervention. Mental illness can affect any age group and any strata of the society.

Achieving good mental health will enable you to:

•    Realise your own abilities,

•    Cope with the stress and challenges of life,

•    Engage in productive work,

•    Contribute to your community.

Sustaining mental health requires time and effort. Mental Wellness Exercises can help a lot to ensure mental well-being. The more you invest in your mental health, the stronger it will become.

We all know how important it is to stay physically fit, even if we don’t always do things like eat right and exercise regularly. However, many of us underestimate just how important mental health is to our overall wellness. Our emotional state of being influences so much of our lives. When we have a strong hold on our state of mental health, we can deal with everyday problems better. We’re more resilient and have closer relationships. Good mental health may even have an influence on our physical well-being.

Some of the benefits of mental well-being are as follows :-

• Better Financial Stability

Taking care of your mental health can even benefit your financial health. It’s not unusual for individuals who suffer from undiagnosed and treated mental illness to fall into poverty. Reasons for arriving at such a state can include leaves of absence, losing a job or having to depend on disability income, among other things.

• Improved Physical Health

Mental health and physical health go hand in hand. Your mental state plays a strong role in how you feel and function physically. High emotional stress and other fallout from mental health conditions can lead to significant medical issues. Problems you may face due to an untreated condition can include lowered immune function and poor sleep, but research has also shown a connection to increased risk of cancer and heart disease, among other serious diseases.

• Closer Relationships

Interpersonal relationships become incredibly strained when one party is dealing with a mental health issue. This is particularly true in the case of parenting.

• Higher Quality and Length of Life

Simply put, you’ll live longer and be happier when you care for your mental health needs. When mental issues are controlled, health risks go down. You’ll also be able to work more productively, interact in healthy ways with others, be more resilient and maintain emotional stability.

Benefits for the Employer/Companies/Organization

• Successful Companies – Research studies provide strong evidence that companies with high levels of mental health awareness are more successful.
• Increased productivity: Happy employees are productive employees Research shows that nearly 86 percent of employees treated for depression report improved work performance.
• Reduced absenteeism – Employees who are emotionally resilient face less of fatigue and less of burnout. Thus, it helps to reduce absenteeism.
• Reduce Costs and Risk- Investing in a mentally healthy workplace can have a cost savings effect by reducing absenteeism (employees frequently absent due to illness) and presenteeism (at work, but ill and distracted), as well as disability claims and lost productivity. It also contributes to helping you meet workplace health and safety guidelines to reduce legal exposure.

• Increased retention: Stress is a major reason why employees leave their job. If employees feel happy and satisfied with their current job, the attrition of the company reduces significantly.
• Decreased health care and disability costs: According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, rates of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases are twice as high in adults with serious mental illness.

What can affect your Mental Well-being?

Our mental well-being is often affected by big life events that we have little or no control over such as bereavement, illness or redundancy. In these situations, it’s about how we respond – our behaviours and habits – that will determine the impact on our mental well-being.

It’s here that our level of resilience comes into play. Resilience is your ability to cope with change and adversity.  You’re better able to maintain good mental well-being through all of life’s ups and downs.

There are also factors that influence our mental well-being, which we can control.

1. Relationships

Strong connections with friends, family and colleagues help to strengthen our confidence and self-esteem.

2. Physical Health

Through good nutrition and regular physical activity, we can boost our energy levels, improve our confidence and relieve stress. Small changes make a big difference.

 3. Emotional Health.

Practicing mindfulness can help you understand and manage strong emotions so that rather than feeling overwhelmed, you’re able to approach difficult situations with a sense of calm and clarity.

How to ensure Mental Well-being for employees?

Mental and Emotional Well-being has emerged as one of the biggest challenges for employees and employers. As many workers struggle to manage an evolving work dynamic amid a global pandemic, organizations must prioritize emotional Well-being of employees. Some of the strategies which can be followed are as follows: –

Some of the practical strategies to be employed for ensuring mental Well-being are as follows: –

1. Make Recognition and Praise Part of Your Company’s Culture

One of the most desired and easiest to implement – wellbeing initiatives is simply to recognize employees for their effort and achievements. A recent survey shows that 70% of employees say recognition makes them feel emotionally connected to peers while another 70% say recognition makes them happier at home. The impact of a recognition-rich culture cannot be understated.

2. Allow Time & Flexibility

Companies should be careful about how quickly they ask employees to go back to work. It is both a safety issue and a business issue, essentially making the point that companies’ reputations may suffer if they make poor decisions.

Employees need to be provided the flexibility in terms of working hours and place of working. It shall help them to ensure work-life balance.

3. Regular and transparent Communication

Communication is the backbone of any organization. Employees should be informed on a regular basis any change in policies and ways of working.

Isolation can be one of the most challenging aspects of this whole pandemic situation for plenty of people. Lot of employees are used to communicate and socialize their colleagues. Lack of day-to-day socialization can leave a discomforting void. Thus, businesses should also look to emphasize interaction and communication while employees are returning to work.

4. Fitness Challenges

Fitness challenges unlock the spirit of fun and friendly competition. Peer involvement will encourage greater participation, and inspire your team to push themselves further than they would on their own.

5. Invest in Affordable Weekly Virtual Employee Well-being.

Practicing mindfulness is associated with several facets of overall well-being, including reduced stress, enhanced relationships, and stronger focus. Conducting webinars on how to handle stress, depression, anxiety, work-life valance can help employees to understand the coping strategies for handling day to day stressors in life.

6. Remove the stigma around Mental Illness

Encourage the employees to discuss about mental illness and coping strategies to handle mental illness. There’s a lot of stigma surrounding mental illness which can be reduced by conducting awareness sessions.

Engage employees positively while firmly conveying inappropriate behaviour that may induce panic or anxiety in their colleagues.

7. Connect employees to mental wellness professionals

Employee Wellness initiative can be launched by having tie-up with counsellors and psychologists. The employees can directly call at the helpline numbers to avail the counselling service.

Following are some mental wellness tips which can help to ensure mental well-being: –

1.  Connect with other people

• Good relationships are important for your mental well-being. They can:
• Help you to build a sense of belonging and self-worth
• Give you an opportunity to share positive experiences
• Provide emotional support and allow you to support others
• There are lots of things you could try to help build stronger and closer relationships.

2.  Be physically active

Being active is not only great for your physical health and fitness. Evidence also shows it can also improve your mental well-being by:

• Raising your self-esteem
• Helping you to set goals or challenges and achieve them
• Causing chemical changes in your brain which can help to positively change your mood.

3. Learn new skills/hobbies

Research shows that learning new skills can also improve your mental well-being by:

• Boosting self-confidence and raising self-esteem
• Helping you to build a sense of purpose
• Helping you to connect with others
• Even if you feel like you do not have enough time, or you may not need to learn new things, there are lots of different ways to bring learning into your life.

4.  Give to others

Research suggests that acts of giving and kindness can help improve your mental well-being by:

• Creating positive feelings and a sense of reward
• Giving you a feeling of purpose and self-worth
• Helping you connect with other people
• It could be small acts of kindness towards other people, or larger ones like volunteering in your local community.

Some examples of the things you could try include:

• Saying thank you to someone for something they have done for you
• Asking friends, family or colleagues how they are and really listening to their answer
• Spending time with friends or relatives who need support or company
• Offering to help someone you know with DIY or a work project
• Volunteering in your community, such as helping at a school, hospital or care home.

5. Mindfulness

Paying more attention to the present moment can improve your mental well-being. This includes your thoughts and feelings, your body and the world around you.

Some people call this awareness “mindfulness”. Mindfulness can help you enjoy life more and understand yourself better. It can positively change the way you feel about life and how you approach challenges.

What does Mental well-being look like?

Mental well-being is not the absence of negative thoughts and feelings. We all face difficult and challenging situations that cause us to feel angry, sad and everything in-between. It is normal to feel all these emotions. Instead, it’s about being able to understand and manage those feelings, so that generally you’re able to:

• Build Coping mechanism to handle everyday situations
• Feel confident about yourself
• Build and maintain positive relationships
• Have a sense of purpose
• Live and work productively
• Manage change effectively

Are you looking for Mental Well Being partner for your organization?

Proud HR Services provides holistic training related to mental well-being and happiness at work. It also has a panel of counsellor, psychologist and soft skill trainers who can provide support regarding employee wellness programs.

For more information, pls get in touch with us at info@proudhr.com