In a world where many of us are running around and working hard, we are more prone to being burned out. What can we do to prevent this from happening? Well, Unified Caring Association (UCA) is here to share caring resources to help out our members and community. One way we have found that helps us become more resilient is taking a break to recharge our batteries.
Work to the bone no more!
Most of us learned that the harder we work the more success we have. The secret is, that this is not the best way to travel our life’s journey. What we tend to do after working this hard is shutdown when we get home. However, when getting home after work, many of us want to soak in time with family, friends, and hobbies. Not to mention, when we are burned out we are far less productive. This feels like running harder up a slippery hill and getting nowhere fast. For Harvard Business Review’s Neil Pasricha, what most people “…needed was a practical way to get more work done without taking more time.”
“Untouchable Days”
Enter a revolutionary self-care concept, untouchable days. “These are days when I am literally 100% unreachable in any way…by anyone…I look at my calendar sixteen weeks ahead of time, and for each week, I block out an entire day as UNTOUCHABLE.” This gives us time to unplug, journal, and recharge to be better able to tackle our work, and be more present in our lives.
Pasricha comments on his ‘untouchable days’ and what he gets from them. “I think of them as having two components. There is the deep creative work. When you’re in the zone, you’re in a state of flow, and the big project you’re working on is getting accomplished step by step by step. And then there are the nitros — little blasts of fuel you can use to prime your own pump if you hit a wall. These unproductive moments of frustration happen to all of us, and it’s less important to avoid them than to simply have a mental toolkit you can whip out when they happen.”
Being 100% out of reach is not for everyone. However, the concept of getting up and taking a break from work or a frustrating situation holds true. We often can compose ourselves with deep breaths or mindfulness activities. Then we can return to our day with new eyes and a can-do attitude. Ultimately, taking time to unwind is key for achieving self-care and success in all areas of life!
With so many emotions and stressors in our day it can be hard to maintain a mental balance. We at Unified Caring Association (UCA) have a special place in our hearts for mental well-being. To share the caring we have tools and resources, such as a 24 hour counseling hotline, available for our UCA members. In our research online, we have come across a wonderful TedTalk by Sangu Delle championing mental health.
What does the word “Mental” Mean
When defining the word mental, we are referring to the mind or brain. Delle brings up a definition rooted in his culture. “Growing up in West Africa, when people used the term “mental,” what came to mind was a madman with dirty, dread-locked hair, bumbling around half-naked on the streets.” This stigma came from his youth, where “normal” people do not have mental health problems.
What is astonishing is that some of the areas in the world that have the highest need for mental health support and care, have a very thin system in place with few professionals.
According to the World Health Organization, mental health is about being able to cope with the normal stressors of life; to work productively and fruitfully; and to be able to make a contribution to your community. Mental health includes our emotional, psychological and social well-being. Globally, 75 percent of all mental illness cases can be found in low-income countries. Yet most African governments invest less than one percent of their health care budget in mental health. “Nigeria, for example, is estimated to have 200 — in a country of almost 200 million. In all of Africa, 90 percent of our people lack access to treatment. As a result, we suffer in solitude, silenced by stigma.”
Mental Health Hits Close to Home
As we listen to this TedTalk, we wonder if there is a solution to the lack of care, acceptance and support for those who are affected by mental distress or illness. Delle shares the turning point for him. “For me, the stigma is personal… My best friend in the world — a brilliant, philosophical, charming, hip young man — was diagnosed with schizophrenia. I witnessed some of the friends we’d grown up with recoil. I heard the snickers. I heard the whispers. “Did you hear he has gone mad?” (Kru English) “He has gone crazy!” Derogatory, demeaning commentary about his condition — words we would never say about someone with cancer or someone with malaria. Somehow, when it comes to mental illness, our ignorance eviscerates all empathy. I stood by his side as his community isolated him, but our love never wavered.”
Our ignorance eviscerated all empathy; that phrase really hit home. We have seen and heard about so many ways that people can be bullied. One way that we can begin caring and supporting those who need mental healthcare is to bring awareness to the issue. Delle inspiringly did just that. He helped found the mental health special interest alumni group at his college. “And during my tenure as a resident tutor in graduate school, I supported many undergraduates with their mental health challenges.” Every person needs to be more aware about mental struggles. If we begin to accept mental health as important as physical health, we will become better individuals.
This awareness is not only for others, but for ourselves as well. Delle references his internal struggles, and how he could not bring himself to speak with a counselor, or even a friend. This reluctance was due to the stigma that still resided within himself. This was an eye opener for Delle. “We need to stop suffering in silence. We must stop stigmatizing disease and traumatizing the afflicted.”
Raise Awareness and Champion Mental Health
Delle calls us all to action by encouraging us to talk. “Talk to your friends. Talk to your loved ones. Talk to health professionals.” In communicating how we are feeling, we are allowing ourselves to better connect with others and ourselves. “[When talking] do so with the confidence that you are not alone. Speak up if you’re struggling. Being honest about how we feel does not make us weak; it makes us human.” We can champion others and ourselves through one common thread, we are all human and we all can take charge of having better mental health.
Would you like to watch the full TedTalk? Click HERE!
At
times life is chaotic, stressful and noisy. Luckily, there is a self-care tool
available to use that can help calm the chaos of everyday. Additionally, this
tool can help improve your health! This tool is meditation, also known as
mindfulness activities or quiet reflection. Oftentimes when we quiet our minds,
we are better able to cope with our everyday lives, during high-stress times,
and even improve our overall health.
What is Meditation?
Meditation has many forms, but all forms
have four main elements: a quiet space, feeling comfortable, a focal word or
image, and allowing our minds to let go. For hundreds and hundreds of years,
meditation has been used for increasing calmness and relaxation, coping with
and healing illness, and enhancing our well-being. We can see how meditation
has increased in popularity over the past five years; the number of people
using meditation and meditation techniques has grown by 5%-15%.
Looking for Meditation How To?
When we look around the internet, there
are many different articles and videos about how to meditate, much like the 15 Minute Healing Meditation: You Are Your Own Healer / Mindful
Movement.
Unified Caring Association (UCA) has a variety of meditation videos to help our
members start and maintain a self-care routine that includes meditation. Our
list includes videos and audio files that are uplifting and positive, relaxing
and rejuvenating, as well as for healing and physical health.
How does it help with our health?
Stress can increase our heart rates,
blood pressure, breathing and more. It is harmful if the stress is experienced
over a longer period of time. Our adrenal glands become taxed and “…overproduce
the hormone cortisol. Overexposure to this hormone can affect the function of
your brain, immune system, and other organs.” (Harvard Health Publishing) Recently, health studies have
shown that meditation has beneficial effects in combating stress, thus
preventing adrenal gland “burnout.” Meditation is a way to be productive while
your attention is focused inwards. This self care induces more relaxation.
“Meditation is thought to work via its effects on the sympathetic nervous
system, which increases heart rate, breathing and blood pressure during times
of stress. “It will help you lower your
blood pressure, but so much more: it can help your creativity, your intuition,
your connection with your inner self, says Burke Lennihan, a registered nurse
who teaches meditation at the Harvard University Center for Wellness. (Harvard Health Publishing)
Results from research on meditation and
the brain have been published and reviewed for years now. Benefits of
meditation, or quieting the mind, are “…now being confirmed with fMRI and EEG
instruments. The practice appears to have an amazing variety of neurological
benefits – from changes in grey matter volume to reduced activity in the “me”
centers of the brain to enhanced connectivity between brain regions.” (Harvard Health Publishing) This reduced activity allows
for creativity and problem solving to dominate without overtaxing the mind.
(a.k.a. it basically becomes effortless and allows for new solutions to present
themselves.)
Moving Meditation
One form of mindfulness or meditation is
yoga. Most of us are familiar with yoga from the numerous studios dotting the
streets and the even more videos online. Unified Caring Association also has a
select list of videos to help members with their mental and physical health. An
example is the YouTube video “Yoga for Complete Beginners” that blends the two ideas of
yoga and meditation seamlessly. In this video, we are walked through a 20
minute meditation yoga combination that gets the body moving while the mind
becomes restful.
We at Unified Caring Association (UCA) are no strangers to the chaos of life. Sometimes the chaos is overwhelming and we get lost in a sea of “things-to-do” while the world seems to be against us. Fear not, because there are ways to simplify your life through organization, mindfulness and self-care routines.
While reading an article on https://simonsinek.com/, we were moved by the author’s (Kristen Hadeed) journey from realization to caring acts that helped them out of their slump. It all started when Kristen was at work, feeling frustrated and discouraged before a big, long team meeting. The first thing she did was to be honest about how she was feeling when asked. “I told everyone how I truly felt without sugarcoating any part of it.”
What Kristen experienced was an incredible blossoming of support via the team listening. We often forget that our peers, family and friends are here to support us with caring thoughts and acts. Kristen painted the image perfectly when she recounted that “[her] team listened. They hugged me. They helped me make sense of my feelings. They validated them.” Kristen has a super team because they took the caring two steps further. “They owned their part in what led to me feeling the way I did. They came together and created a plan to move us forward.”
Dealing With Discouraging Moments…
Discouragement is something we all can encounter in our lives. What we do in those moments makes all the difference. Below are some suggestions that Kristen Hadeed used to achieve success in dealing with her discouragement.
Taking the time to reflect on your day and feelings brings clarity. This clairity helps us become more in tune with our emotions (i.e. helps build emotional intelligence). “I was able to pinpoint how I was feeling last week and what was causing it.” (Kristen Hadeed)
Honesty
Being honest with others and yourself is crucial. If something is causing you to feel negative and down, one of the worst things you can do is minimize it. Stuffing feelings inside like a turkey on Thanksgiving is one of the most tragic things you can do when feeling discouraged. We can all related to Kristen when she writes, “If you pretend your feelings don’t exist and sweep them under the rug, they’ll continue to build and build and build. Eventually you’ll explode, and when you do, it won’t be pretty.” If you are honest with yourself and those around you, you are able to let go of the negative emotions, build a plan, and begin self-care efforts. Remember, no one can help you if they are not getting any communication from you. People are not mind readers. As Kristen expressed above, her team created a caring support net for her and helped her develop a plan to dispel the discouragement.
Answers Can Come From All Around
To tie into honesty and communication, solutions can come from more than one place. We can find some within ourselves, from the people we know, or even researching online. “When we’re emotional, we’re usually not logical. When we’re too close to the problem, we’re usually not able to see a clear path forward…You invite people in, you give them a chance to make a difference, and you build trust by showing that you’re human. Asking for help is courageous.” (Kristen Hadeed)
Reprioritize and Organize
Taking caring action is the next step. One reason we can feel discouraged is because we are over-extended. Setting up your to-do lists in sections with labels for the level of importance and how time sensitive they are. If the task is not crucial, it can wait until later. There is nothing wrong with hitting that pause button and picking that task up later. Better yet, maybe there is a way to share or delegate the task out to get it off your plate completely!
Reflecting on how many good things happen each day is a quick and easy way to alleviate stress and get rid of discouragement. Kristen lists around ten things she is thankful for before starting the day. We can also can do this at night in the form of a gratitude journal. If ten seems to be a bit much, start with three and build from there. The consistent flood of gratitude will help reset your brain, wiring it to be more open and positive.
Refuel To Reset
Think about what energizes you. What things do you love to do that bring out your best attitude? These are different for each person. For some it is dancing, or painting, and for some others it could be meditating in a quiet forest. What ever refuels you will help reset your emotions and energize you to maintain the caring actions that prevent discouragement.
We all get discouraged at times, but what we do in those moments is key to our success. Taking time admit and express our feelings honestly give us space to take time to build a self-care plan, act on it, and reset our minds (and lives). I addition to our blogs, we at UCA have many tools for our UCA members to help assess their personal well-being, and build a self-care routine that will help maintain positivity and success in their lives.