A new year is almost upon us… What better way to start anew than by focusing on your wellbeing and making work less stressful. Wellbeing is associated with balance, understanding, acceptance, confidence and personal growth. Taking care of your body and mind can help boost your wellbeing, and allows you to recognise when you need to take a step back to re-evaluate your health. Focusing on your wellbeing gives you the opportunity to reassess the stressful aspects of your job and try to strike a balance in your life.
Keep active
Exercise is great for improving your wellbeing as it helps release endorphins which can relieve stress, anxiety and improve your mood. It diminishes worrying thoughts and anxiousness, making you to feel more relaxed and your attention gets refocused. Working out helps you to think clearer, have a greater sense of calm and increases your self-esteem. According to Mind Charity it can also lower your risk of developing depression by almost 20%. If you are feeling particularly stressed why not trying exercising during your lunch break and return to your desk feeling refreshed. Stay active this year by using Incorpore who offer discounted gym memberships, which saves you money and helps you keep fit.
Be mindful
The Health and Safety Executive 2016/2017 report revealed that 526,000 workers suffer from work-related stress, depression or anxiety, and 12.5 million working days are lost due to work-related stress, depression or anxiety. Mindfulness can help manage your stress level with simple things like slowing down and stopping constantly rushing around work. Paying more attention to your own thoughts and feelings can help you be more mindful. Along with taking a deep breath and appreciating the little moments in your daily routine.
Help your colleagues
Helping others and committing an act of kindness can help enhance your feelings of wellbeing and your mood. Little things such as making cups of tea, fetching a colleague lunch if you are out or buying some office biscuits are tiny acts of kindness which can make someone’s day and improve your own mood. Research has shown that helping others can stimulate the reward areas in the brain and creating positive feelings in the process. It can also give you a sense of purpose and feeling of self-worth.
Take a break from work stress
Don’t forget to have downtime to relax after a stressful day at work. Whether it is taking a bath, exercising, watching television, listening to music or reading a book, you should try to incorporate a relaxing activity into your evening routine to help you calm down. Clearing your head is vital to being creative and successful. Taking a break at work is also very important as it can help push you in the right direction if you have been stuck and when you remove yourself from the situation it allows you to recharge. Recent studies have illustrated that those who take a break once an hour from work perform better than those who don’t.
Don’t snack at work
What you eat and drink has an influence on your mood, as when your blood sugar drops you might feel tired, irritable and depressed. Eating regularly is essential to keeping sugar levels steady, so try to opt for foods that release energy slowly such as protein foods, nuts, seeds, oats and wholegrains. Skipping meals can also make you feel rubbish, eating breakfast gets the day off to a good start and smaller portions spaced out throughout the day will be better than large meals. Foods which make your blood sugar rise and fall should be avoided, such as sugary snacks, sugary drinks and alcohol. Vegetables and fruits keep you physically and mentally healthy, whilst also containing lots of minerals, vitamins and fibre.
Ignore your phone during the day
Most of the population will spend their day in front of a screen and then proceed to continue to use their phone before/during/after work. Mobile phones have become a clutch for boredom and nervous situations. We Are Social’s 2016 Digital Report demonstrated that there are 2.31 billion active social media users. Disconnecting from social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat can be good for you. Social media is an amalgamation of the public’s best moments of their lives and it can be deceiving, leaving people feeling anxious they do not own certain things or live their life a specific way. Taking a break from social media can help you stop comparing yourself to others, from becoming addicted, to not be competitive and to force you to connect with real life people.
Be eager to learn
Learning new skills can give you a sense of achievement and new confidence, whilst helping you to feel more positive about the future and improving your wellbeing. Evidence has shown that continuing to learn long after you have left education can improve and maintain your wellbeing, build your self-esteem and self-efficacy.