Presently, there is a cultural shift toward greater mental health awareness. This is key to focusing on psychological suffering, improving access to mental health resources, and reducing stigma in the corporate space. The Big Q then becomes how can corporates support workers’ mental health without encouraging them to dwell on their negative thoughts and feelings?

Corporates are increasingly focused on the mental health needs of their workers, and for good reason. With a consistent increase in anxiety and depression, especially among young adults, this becomes a matter of policy.
It’s good for corporates to be aware of their employees’ mental health concerns.

The more organizational leaders and managers appreciate mental health problems among workers and the fact that these problems decrease work engagement, job performance, and retention — the more motivated the staff will be to create an organizational culture that promotes good mental health.

The cultural shift toward greater mental health awareness has helped bring much needed attention to psychological suffering, improve access to mental health resources, and reduce stigma.

How can corporates support workers’ mental health without encouraging them to dwell on their negative thoughts and feelings?

ATTENTION ORIENTATION

  • Corporates should take advantage of evidence-based strategies for reducing anxiety and depression symptoms . These can bolster mental health-protective psychological states that don’t encourage a fixation on one’s own negative thoughts and emotions.
  • Instead of intentionally or unintentionally directing people to turn inward and focus on their negative thoughts and feelings, it orients their attention outward, toward activities that promote psychological flourishing.

GIVING 

  • A recent study published in the Journal of Positive Psychology found that having people engage in regular acts of kindness toward others decreased anxiety and depression symptoms compared to other interventions. Corporates should look for opportunities to promote acts of kindness in the workplace.
  • Engaging in and providing opportunities for workers to participate in volunteer work in the community is another way to inspire acts of kindness. The more workers direct their energy toward having a positive impact on the lives of others, the more they’ll reap benefits to their own mental health.

PHYSICAL EXERCISE

  • A growing body of research indicates that physical exercise is one of the best ways to improve mental health. It’s even been shown to reduce the risk of depression among individuals who have high genetic vulnerability to it. Exercise is an outward-action approach to mental health.
  • It is a physically demanding activity that helps take people’s minds off their problems, breaking the cycle of negative thinking that sustains anxiety and depression.
  • It’s hard to dwell on your problems when you’re focused on executing a workout. Even the simple activity of walking in nature has been shown to decrease rumination and neural activity associated with mental illness.
  • Exercise that involves others, such as team sports and group fitness classes, may be especially helpful at cultivating an outward-action mindset by fostering social engagement.

MEANINGFUL WORK

  • Finally, corporations can support mental health by helping their employees derive meaning from their work. Meaning in life is a powerful psychological resource for good mental health; individuals with a strong sense of meaning in life are at reduced risk of developing a mental illness, more mentally resilient when experiencing stressful life events, and more motivated to engage in activities such as physical exercise that promote good mental health.
  • An outward-action approach to work supports good mental health by increasing meaning. For instance, recent research finds that focusing workers’ attention on how their work serves a greater good (outward focused) increases work meaningfulness relative to focusing their attention on how it serves their own career goals (inward focused). And it also increases work engagement.

At the end of the day, you are responsible for your mental status, take care of yourself.

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