“Today you are you, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is youer than you.” Dr Suess
This year’s mental health awareness week theme is body image and, while this is such an important topic, I wanted to actually talk about mental health in the workplace.
I work for a PR agency that specialises in Financial Services which, let me tell you, is an industry that puts people through their paces. Its tough. They work long hours and are expected to be near their phones / laptops at all times. I know they get paid well and there are other industries that are much worse but I’m not trying to make a point about that.
This awareness week has me thinking about how little I do to look after my mental health. I am very conscious about living a healthy lifestyle, I go to the gym, play netball, eat well and all that #basic London girl stuff, but what do I do for my mental well-being. Actually, nothing stands out really. Self-care is so important so this week I booked myself a mani and pedi which obviously was great for my hands and feet, but it also gave me a bit of time to myself to completely switch off and not worry about anything. IT WAS GREAT!
I am lucky that I can afford to do this every so often and trust me I will make sure that taking time for myself becomes a habit. I have spoken previously about how I don’t like staying in by myself on the weekends and doing nothing but actually what I have come to realise is that I need to spend a couple of hours a week looking after myself.
It doesn’t matter what I do, as long as I can spend some time being switched off, from work and other things, some time doing something that is just for me, some time checking in with myself mentally then I should be on the right track to a healthy mind.
I think more workplaces need to be conscious of their employee’s wellbeing. A lot of the time I think people forget that work takes so much out of people. We all know holiday allowances aren’t that long and unfortunately there is nothing we can do about this so it’s all about using them in a way that makes the most of the time we have.
Last year I had a big holiday booked in September and another one booked in October which meant that most of my holiday was already used. This was not ideal and to be honest it’s not something I will do again because I was going mad. I like my job so it’s nothing to do with that, I just think everyone needs time off more regularly. This year I decided I was going to take more long weekends off and spend my holiday that way. Which hopefully will leave me feeling refreshed more of the year rather than running myself into the ground until the big holidays.
So far, I have had a few days here and there but I am about to start planning the rest of the year and make sure I get time off when I need it (starting to think I might need some asap).
Anyway, to finish up, just make sure you make time for yourself.
That’s all I have to say!
😊
The year for me! 