All of the things happening around the world in the summer of 2020 are having an enormous impact on people of all demographics. This can be physically, mentally, and emotionally taxing on anybody—including your employees (and you!)
Unfortunately, mental health concerns are too often pushed under the radar instead of dealt with head-on.
Here, we’d like to provide examples on how to easily refresh your mental health, and encourage your employees to do the same. Here are 3 ideas for rebooting your brain and body!
Mental Health Care for You and Your Employees
1. Practice Empathy
Practicing empathy is a human skill that not only fulfills your employees’ experience, but will end up affecting your customers’ needs as well.
Check In With Your Employees: It can be difficult to know when someone is struggling emotionally or mentally, so take time to proactively communicate with your employees. Ask them, with sincerity, how they are doing. Regular check-ins will help you know if they’re doing okay, and—if they aren’t—allow them a space to communicate so you can work toward a positive environment together.
Writing: Whether you write your frustrations in a journal for a few minutes, or share a meaningful story with your employees over video chat, both exercises relieve pent up stress, and use the part of the brain that helps us recognize compassion for others.
Reading: You can also provide emotional support to your employees by sending them reading material that they might be interested in or create together a suggested reading list for the season. Many people are struggling with depression and anxiety right now, and there is a plethora of material being produced to combat it.
Storytelling
Shared struggle is a good opportunity for creating deeper relationships, and this will go for your staff as well as your customers. Share staff stories via Instagram, send a monthly story in your newsletter that speaks honestly, or ask them to share stories of their own as a way to connect and discuss what they may be going through.
Exercising your empathy like a muscle can set off creative ideas as a response or solution to a problem. More importantly, it enhances the ways you can relate to your staff!
2. Exercise Your Body and Mind
It starts with awareness; recognition of your own emotions and how you might be coping is the first step to working out or letting go of stress. Don’t forget that these needs may be individual, but they are also universal needs that we all require.
The best way to pay rewarding attention to yourself and to your employees is to practice the essentials of being a good listener, and leader. These characteristics often require patience and the ability to critically think before taking action.
Here are a couple of examples of how to exercise your mind and body patiently, with options that can fit into your schedule.
Take Your Morning Routine Outside: Before you start the work day, spend 5 minutes drinking your tea, coffee, or juice while you soak up fresh air and bask in your surroundings. This small window of time to yourself can better prepare you to take on any issues.
Discover Positive Snippets or Tips: The media makes it very easy to get caught up in the negative news. Do yourself a favor and skip certain headlines for a morning and catch up on a crossword or read golf jokes online.
Did We Mention GOLF?: In fact, golfing itself helps reduce anxiety and boosts mental health! Studies have shown how your health can improve from being outdoors with nature or from feeding your memory with information. Both of these are accessible methods to improve your thinking patterns and release serotonin (that chemical that makes you feel happy).
These are all methods that can quickly reboot your focus and mental clarity.
3. Taking Alone Time
Feeling emotionally drained? Perhaps you went into the people business because you enjoy being social and want to give back by cultivating a personable culture for your golfing community. It can be hard to fulfill these goals when you’re suffering, yourself.
No one is perfect, and certain emotional or mental flaws can help us learn about who we are as interesting people. Everyone deserves a moment to pause and pay attention to how they are feeling, and what it means.
You can take a few solo minutes by:
Listen to Calming or Meditative Music: Health studies also show how taking a long deep breath instantly releases stress and helps your body and mind relax. Imagine taking one-minute to close your eyes, tune out the noise, and calmly breathe while you feel yourself achieving more peace.
Giving yourself that time to be open and reflect on what you’re grateful for is also an ancient practice that health practitioners still recommend trying in order to live a joyful life.
Go for a Short Walk: As cliche as it may sound, science holds up when it comes to simple exercise and how it helps aid depression, memory, and even physical illness. Plus, spending time outside has been proven to enhance your overall well being.
It’s important to reset and remember that keeping your mental health in check is nothing to be ashamed of. You can support your business by remembering to set time aside for your own emotional and mental health, which will only end up benefiting your employees, and giving back to your community.
If you or someone you know may need mental health services promptly, resources can be found HERE.