Managing Your Mental health While Working Full Time

For many of us, our work takes up a large amount of our time and energy. Working from 8:30am - 5:30pm can be emotionally taxing as well as physically demanding. We’ve discussed How to Create A Harmonious Work Environment, but there’s much more than that to staying healthy and happy in the workplace. So, here’s our Titanic Suites toolkit for Managing Your Mental Health While Working Full Time.

Factors

Mental health is something we all have. When we have good mental health, we have a sense of purpose and direction, the motivation to get things done, and the strength and ability to deal with everyday challenges. Unfortunately, factors such as poverty, genetics, trauma, discrimination, or ongoing physical illness can make it more likely for us to develop a mental illness. Feelings of depression and anxiety can seem insurmountable when you are busy working full time, hardly left with a moment to yourself. But here are some ways to manage your mental health while working full time.

Talk

As simple as this sounds, talking helps. It isn’t a sign of weakness, it’s a sign of bravery. It shows that you are taking charge of how you feel and trying to improve it. As they say, a problem shared is a problem halved. Having someone you are close with in work can make all the difference to your mental health.

Eat Well and Exercise

Eating healthy, regular meals and drinking lots of water are two key ingredients in the mental health cocktail. Bringing tasty, nutritious food to work for your lunch and keeping snacks such as fruit, vegetables and yogurts can help you to stay on track. If you are in an office, try to get away from your desk at lunch time. Why not take a walk around Belfast City Centre to clear your head? It is recommended that we do 30 minutes of exercise at least 5 times a week, so why not try to factor it into your daily routine?

Relationships

Whether you’re working from home or in the office, it’s great to have a few good friends in work that you can confide in. Office politics can be stressful and weigh heavily on anyone, nevermind someone struggling with their mental health, so be sure to have some loyal colleagues to help you feel positive and confident in work.

Take a break

A break from work can be as quick as a five minute breather and a cup of tea, a mental health day or a walk around the street at lunch time. Switching off from work when you feel the pressure mounting is a key way to manage your mental health when working full time. Sleep is also integral to a healthy mind. Without it, your mood will slip and concentration levels will go down.

So, it’s important to recognise that work can and will be stressful sometimes, but it doesn’t need to be brought home. It’s important to set boundaries and goals and pay close attention to your body to be able to manage your mental health while working from home.