More employers are recognising the need for workplace based support for employees.
Being given space to be heard and understood is so valuable to helping people continue to give their best in the workplace.
I have been supporting employees both through group work and individual support. It is always such a privilege to hear people share their burdens and concerns. I work through these together with the person or group to create an outcome that improves the situation.
Sometimes employees can feel like they are trying so hard to make things work, yet not seeing a result from all of their efforts.
One thing that has struck me during my time of providing workplace support is many employees I have spoken to are in a supporting role. This can give them a sense of not being good enough and that they should be able to cope with what is entrusted to them.
Yet the reality is that carrying other people’s worries and concerns is difficult. It takes a lot of emotional energy to support others as well as supporting yourself. When people see you as a kind, empathetic person you are also more likely to get others sharing their worries with you.
This can create a caring burden or emotional burnout which is usually a sign of having been too strong for too long, not a sign of weakness.
“Sometimes the listeners need a listener too”
Everyone needs a space to be heard, especially when dealing with challenging or emotional content.
Having regular times for employees in caring roles to offload and share openly is an important part of looking after the overall wellbeing of staff.
As Occupational Therapists, we can facilitate this to help your staff to have a listening ear and be able to continue their amazing work.
Have you ever considered gardening to be a form of exercise?
This week I was pleasantly surprised to read that 3 hours gardening is the equivalent of 1 hour in the gym!
Gardening is indeed a fantastic form of exercise, offering a fabulous blend of both physical and mental health benefits.
I often find that as a busy working mum I don’t have the hours to spend in the garden, but find that even half an hour doing a bit of weeding or planting is totally rewarding and often helps me to feel rejuvenated and re-centered.
It is a go-to stress reliever, promoting relaxation and improving mood, with the added benefit of engaging all the major muscle groups as well as building strength, improving flexibility, balance and range of motion!
So, whether you have a few minutes or a few hours, tending to your garden is a fantastic way to stay fit and centered.
If you don’t have your own garden, there are plenty of community gardening projects and volunteering opportunities around that you could get involved with, highlighted by Rebecca in her recent blog.
The benefits of being in nature are well documented.
When it comes to movement, we are more likely to experience exercise as restorative when in green environments and blue spaces, compared to exercising in built outdoor environments (Kajosaari and Pasanen 2021).
What if your mental health makes being active outdoors difficult, however?
If you feel you need some extra support to move more outdoors, here are some ideas…
Green Gyms
Offer free, outdoor volunteering sessions across the UK, transforming green spaces.
Peer support groups IRL and online, run by people with lived experience of mental health issues, meeting regularly to walk, connect and share without fear or judgement.
Many local councils now run “wellbeing walks” – these typically involve shorter distances, with the option to join longer walks if you wish. Check your local council website for further information.
The Ramblers Association also facilitate Wellbeing Walk Groups.
Accessible Countryside for Everyone (ACE) has details of green spaces accessible by those with restricted mobility, wheelchair, pushchair and mobility scooter users. Go to:
Spending time outdoors with other living creatures can be very beneficial for our mental health. Wildlife events can encourage movement, whilst providing a focus other than exercise. If you don’t have a garden, try visiting a local park or urban green / blue space.
The Big Garden Bird Watch takes place in January each year:
It’s Mental Health Awareness week 2024: with the theme of “Movement: Moving more for our mental health”
So, how do we define movement?
Well, it can be any type of movement that has a positive benefit on your social, emotional, and physical wellbeing. If it is meaningful, rewarding and you enjoy it, then you are more likely to repeat it.
Engaging in any type of meaningful activity that gives a sense of pleasure, achievement and purpose will improve your mental health, reduce anxiety, depression, low mood and improve your self-esteem. Participating in activity that we enjoy, such as exercise, whether it be walking in the fresh air, working out at a gym, or going to a yoga class, can have such positive effects on our wellbeing.
If exercise isn’t for you, movement doesn’t need to be structured, it can be any type of physical activity, which increases your movement, which could include domestic chores, necessary tasks, playing football with your children, dancing around the house or walking to the shop.
However, sometimes this feels tricky if we are experiencing low mood and a loss of motivation.
When this happens, we probably start to move less as we start to avoid engaging in some of our daily activities. As you avoid these activities, you then reduce your opportunity for social and personal activities that give you pleasure and achievement. Behavioural activation is a treatment technique used in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy to help you to address avoidance and focus on activities to reestablish daily routines, increase pleasurable activities, and address important necessary tasks, therefore, increasing movement and supporting positive wellbeing.
This strategy helps clients to re-engage in activities to improve their level of pleasure and achievement, improving their mood and improving their positive thoughts leading to an increase in motivation.
How do we overcome this:
Make a list of activities that you’ve stopped doing (routine, pleasurable and necessary)
Think about new activities that you might like to start
Start small and try to plan and schedule activities into your day starting with the easiest, e.g., go for a daily walk
Be consistent
Regular small activities are better in the early stages to reduce procrastination and to encourage motivation.
Therefore… just try a little bit of extra movement and see the positive benefits on your wellbeing.
Find out more about Cognitive Behavioural Therapy in Shean’s earlier blogLearn more about Shean and her approach to therapy with her clients
“The kitchen is a place of solace, where problems are solved.”
Nadiya Hussain (British Chef)
“I just had an instinct that it [comedy] was the right thing to do.
It felt so natural to just talk to people and know there’s only going to be maybe two or three reactions – they’d laugh, get angry, or just stare me out.”
Fern Brady (Scottish Comedienne)
“Getting away from everything, sniffing about on my own, was not only fuelling that curiosity and funding that fascination for nature. It was also giving me that comfort zone.”
Chris Packham (British naturalist & presenter)
“I like going to the gym every day.”
Frank Bruno (British former professional boxer)
Answer: All the above public figures have spoken openly about their mental health & all are describing occupations that are important to them.
What are Occupations?
Occupations are the activities that we need, want, or like to do, and give meaning, value & purpose to our lives.
Occupations and Mental Health
Changes in our mental health can mean we may struggle or feel unable to carry out our usual occupations.
For example, if we experience low mood, we may feel less motivated than usual, or if feeling stressed, we may find it difficult to concentrate and focus on what we need to do.
Occupational Therapy
Occupational Therapists support people to overcome challenges completing occupations, whilst ensuring you have the skills needed to do them. We also consider how the environment around you is impacting on this.
This may include adapting familiar occupations or together, identifying new ones.
Occupational Therapists offer an individual, holistic and person-centred approach, meaning that we will work towards what is important for you in a way that feels right for you.
“People can’t just fit in anymore these days. Everyone needs this and that, just for them”
Ahh a penny for every time I have heard something similar when I tell people that my job is working with children and young people with mental health issues and neurodivergence. I would certainly be rich but I would not stop doing the job I am currently doing.
[Pause here if you are new to the term neurodiversity, please refer to my previous blog first]
Understanding is key and I am completely understanding of people’s attitudes to something that they do not understand. So please, allow me to explain…
Let me take you back to the early 90s (yes I was there before you think I am writing out of turn) with a huge number of office workers sat all day long looking at a screens on box-standard chairs at box-standard desks slowly but surely working themselves into screen-related eye problems and posture-related back problems.
My dad was one of these dutiful workers who ended up with both of these issues, struggling through the day trying to stretch every now and then and drowning the rest out with coffee. Until one day, someone started to realise that these problems could all be prevented with screen breaks, better adaptable seating and that maybe we could start doing workplace assessments to ensure office workers were better supported.
Well, after realising we all have different body sizes and lumbar support needs, we are now realising that we have many different types of brains that equally need different kinds of support.
We are realising that doing something in exactly the same way all the time is maybe not the most productive way to work and we can be just as productive with certain breaks and changes in posture.
A neurodivergent brain is wired differently and responds differently. If ever I am in an emergency or crisis situation, please let me be surrounded by neurodiverse people as their quick thinking and innovative ways of looking at problems will most likely produce the best rescue.
Neurodivergent people have incredible analytical skills, they can think at a dazzling speed and digest huge amounts of information … if they learn to play to their strengths and are in a positive, neuro-affirming environment where they can be themselves.
I know amazing people who can do all those things mentioned above, yet crumble under the pressure of delivering a 10 minute presentation in front of a critical colleague.
Young people who are so creative they could earn a living from their creations, yet are being told they are failing their year at school.
The key is down to understanding their thinking patterns or executive functions.
Neurodivergent people’s brains are much more fine-tuned to the world around them. This can be super helpful when assessing risk in a crisis situation. It can also mean that they live in a world where they are bombarded by sounds, sights, smells.
The world can feel exhausting if you are physically unable to turn off the sensations coming at you.
Neurodivergent brains are incredible at out-of-the-box thinking. This also means that arbitrary rules that are not based on logic can be hard to follow.
That unwritten social codes can be completely confusing, despite their best intentions to be kind, generous and honest. (Honesty and being socially acceptable do not often go together when you really think about it…)
That perhaps their mind needs a better reason to follow an instruction than ‘because I said so’.
If you want to understand neurodiversity better, start to look up information about executive functions instead of looking up diagnoses.
If you want to be able to better support a neurodivergent person, ask them how you can support and allow them to be honest – even if you don’t like to hear the answer.
No two neurodiverse people are the same as they are all spectrum conditions, meaning people can be miles apart in their presentation.
Most of all, do not presume every odd interaction, word or comment is a deliberate personal attack. A little bit of empathy goes a long way.
Just check if they are upset or annoyed or if they just got the tone or words wrong. They will soon tell you and then you can work together and harness the beautiful power their brain holds.
