While the easing of lockdown measures and reopening of services is good news for many, the past year has had an adverse effect on mental health, and individuals are now experiencing many anxieties surrounding the return to normal life and return to an office setting in particular. This is according to mental health startup MYNDUP, which states that it’s imperative that employees understand their potential anxieties and how to combat these in order to boost their everyday wellbeing and productivity.
Recent research has suggested that the COVID-19 pandemic saw clinical anxiety increase by over 30% in Q1 of 2020[1]. It’s thought that over a third (37%) of all ill health cases are accounted for by work related stress and a staggering three quarters (75%) of people with a mental health problem are not receiving treatment[2]. Furthermore, an estimated 45% of all working days which are lost to ill health are a result of ill mental health[3].
Joel Gujral, founder and CEO of MYNDUP says, “With increased anxieties presenting themselves as a result of the pandemic, many are feeling particularly anxious about returning to their office life. It’s important that businesses, leaders and HR teams look at what they can do to ease this burden, but there are also tools and techniques that individuals can execute to empower themselves at this pivotal time and focus on creating a happy and healthy mind.”
With this in mind, Joel offers the following tips for boosting wellbeing and productivity:
Engage in mindfulness techniques
There are many tasks you can do to gain a better understanding of how you feel about something, or to help you cope with certain situations. There are many experts in this field, and someone I often work closely with is Jamie Clements, Breathwork Coach & Founder of The Breath Space. He adds: “The breath is one simple yet powerful tool that we all have access to. We can use breath awareness as a mindfulness practice, observing the breath to connect us into the present moment, or we can use conscious breathing exercises to shift our physical, mental and emotional state. Whether you want to manage anxiety & stress, or feel more energy and focus, the breath is the key.”
Understand what’s causing your anxiety
First and foremost, you should try to understand what might be the root cause of your anxiety and mindfulness techniques will aid with this. Your body is designed to respond to stressful situations through two methods – fight or flight. In both scenarios, it’s completely normal to feel unease or worry, but when these feelings start to dominate your life, that’s when anxiety becomes an issue. Recognising the signs of your anxiety and understanding what triggers this is the first step.
Set yourself goals
Wellbeing is the state of being comfortable, healthy, or happy. There are a number of influences on your wellbeing, including your career, your financial situation, your fitness, your family and friends, your relationships, your personal growth, and the fun that you’re experiencing in your life.
It’s important to have goals to work towards. Once you’ve discovered where your anxieties might be stemming from, you can set yourself goals for improving some of these areas. For example, you might have career progression goals – what is it that you want to achieve?
Track the success of these goals
Once you’ve set these goals, setting up a success tracker will help you implement pragmatic steps towards achieving these goals. So, for example, if your goal is to get a promotion, you should list out the steps you need to take to achieve that promotion and set yourself date goals to work towards. This will help you to be accountable and keep you focused on what you need to do and by when to get to your end goal.
Joel concludes: “Executing these tools and techniques will help you to achieve a happy and healthy mind, enhancing your day-to-day work life.
“Having gone through my own mental health journey, I understand the importance of paying attention to your mental health and investing time into keeping it healthy. I’m now on a mission to help as many people as possible, and show the world that there’s no single solution to mental health. At MYNDUP, we want everyone to be happy and fulfilled by developing a better relationship with their past, present and future – having access to a personalised service that covers the whole mental health spectrum is key to this.”
About MYNDUP
MYNDUP is stopping the “one size fits all” approach to mental health by offering live 1-1 video sessions across the whole mental health spectrum: Therapy, Counselling, Life & Executive Coaching, Psychology and Mindfulness & Meditation.
MYNDUP launched in February 2020 and after a rapid growth cycle is now servicing 20k+ employees in 20+ countries across 3 continents with global brands like Savills and JBT. MYNDUP is backed by the London Stock Exchange Group and has recently partnered with private equity firm CVC.
The Editorial Team at Lake Oconee Health is made up of skilled health and wellness writers and experts, led by Daniel Casciato who has over 25 years of experience in healthcare writing. Since 1998, we have produced compelling and informative content for numerous publications, establishing ourselves as a trusted resource for health and wellness information. We aim to provide our readers with valuable insights and guidance to help them lead healthier and happier lives.
