Work-minded or mindfully aware?

This week we celebrate Mental Health Awareness Week and, this year, it is all about mindfulness and how it can help organisations improve employees’ mental health.

“Mental ill-health at work can take all sorts of forms: stress (one the biggest occupational health problem in the UK), anxiety, depression, burnout”

The 2013 Wellness at Work Survey asked workers across the UK about mental health and well-being at work. When asked if they felt happy in the work place, only 29% of employees answered “I am mostly happy”. In a similar fashion, 40% of employees surveyed by the CIPD that same year said their employer does not promote health and wellbeing.

Why is that when 91 million working days a year are lost to mental ill-health (The Mental Health Foundation) and stress-related sickness absences cost an estimated £4 billion annually? The CBI estimates that 30 times as many days are lost from mental ill-health as from industrial disputes.

Mental ill-health at work can take all sorts of forms: stress (one the biggest occupational health problem in the UK), anxiety, depression, burnout… to name but just a few of the most common ones. It is estimated that nearly 3 in every 10 employees will have a mental health problem in any one-year.

Mental ill-health poses a high risk to businesses in human terms and in financial terms with compensation payments for stress and absence costs.

This week we celebrate Mental Health Awareness Week and, this year, it is all about mindfulness and how it can help organisations improve employees’ mental health. It may look like a trend, the latest craze in HR management. But it is so much more than that. Mindful techniques such as meditation and yoga have been around for enough millennia to vouch for their effect on the human being and their more recent versions of MBSR, MBCT or Sophrology have brought to our modern world their techniques in a more 21st century user-friendly corporate style. The latest neuroscience research has shown time and again how the practice of mindful techniques can spark measurable changes in brain regions associated with memory, sense of self, empathy, and stress. They enhance left prefrontal activation, improve sleep quality and focus, self-confidence and resilience, bring a greater sense of well-being and contentment. General brain performance improves. Conversely, people who have higher right than left prefrontal activity often suffer from depression, anxiety,… So who would you rather have on your staff, the mindfully-trained left-prefrontal type or the other?

One of my latest blogs deals with bringing mindfulness into your work day so I will simply refer you to it for immediate action!

But here is something for you that could also make a difference: do you know what signs to look for in your employees to detect the early signs of mental ill-health? Here is a short list to get you started:

• « Super-driven », unable to switch off, answers emails at night etc
• Relying on large amounts of coffee or other stimulants to keep going
• Not sleeping well
• Feeling overwhelmed, anxious or frustrated
• Negativity and emotional outbursts
• Frequently late for work
• Less productive
• Disconnected from work
• Increased amount of sick leave

If any of these signs are common among your staff, it may be time to introduce some sort of mindfulness technique!

Florence is the chosen blogger for our Health @ Work Summit 2015, if you want to meet her then make sure to get your ticket now!

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About Florence Parot

Enlightened Strategies for Peak Performance

Florence is an international expert in Stress and Sleep management, a Performance Coach and Sophrology* Practitioner.

She works with executives who need to perform at a high level and face pressures and challenges on an everyday basis. She teaches them practical tools and strategies to be at their best when they need it most, know how to “switch off” and “on” at will, remain in control, have energy, focus, a clear head and build resilience. With methods similar to those used by Olympians, she helps her clients develop the brain power of a corporate athlete: their mind at its best!

Florence worked in high-performance environments within Strategy Consulting and International Logistics before training as a Sophrology Practitioner and a Coach. She has been running her own business for 8 years. In 2010, Florence opened the first Sophrology training centre in the UK, The Sophrology Academy, recognised in 2013 as a centre of excellence by the profession.

Florence is a member of the Editorial Committee of the French magazine “Sophrologie, Pratiques et Perspectives” and blogs regularly for the Huffington Post and Psychologies Magazine’s Life Labs. She published her first book: Instant Serenity for Life and Work: An Introduction to Sophrology in 2012 and wrote as the burnout expert for Guide de Sophrologie Appliquée, a book directed at Sophrology professionals in France in 2014.

* Sophrology is a very modern and flexible form of mindfulness used in companies, schools and hospitals on the continent for 50+ years to achieve an alert mind in a relaxed body.

Website

• Using technology at work - 13 June 2016
• Connecting to your inner productivity - 31 May 2016
• The one-minute break secret - 19 January 2016
• Burnout or not burnout, that is the question! - 17 November 2015
• Not stressed enough? - 13 October 2015
• Taking performance to the next level - 30 June 2015
• Presenteeism: the virtually absent worker - 10 June 2015
• Work-minded or mindfully aware? - 11 May 2015
• How to use technology and not let it use your employees - 28 April 2015
• A mindful day at work: what does it really mean? - 8 April 2015

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