Mental Health Awareness Week is from 18th - 24th May, but mental health issues do not simply disappear on the 24th May! It’s quite fitting that this week is dedicated to recognising mental health matters, given we are in the midst of the greatest pandemic this country, if not the globe, has ever seen. With more people off work either due too illness, furlough, unemployment or home schooling. And those who are still at work, potentially not only doing their workload but the workload of colleagues on furlough will have needed to be able to instantly adapt and deal with significant change, makes me wonder how often we are individually checking our own mental health or checking in with others?
This article is written based on my own experiences of being a husband, father of 2, under the age of 11, once an employee and now director of a company, with the responsibility of 9 others. I’m also an ironman racing, marathon running, motorbike riding and VW campervan enthusiast, so life can be busy and sometimes feel like it’s whizzing by, so I understand the importance of checking in with others and how to look after my mental health. It is necessary to caveat all of this as I’m not a professional in the field of mental health, but I recognise its significance, the impact it can have on my personal life and the life’s of others, plus the strategies I use to manage my own mental health.
Further to all of this, managing a company, who’s primary focus is to create a future where we live in balance with, and connected to nature, by increasing our understanding of natural infrastructure. Guiding its enhancement in the places we live, play and work, it provides a great link to the benefits that access to nature and green space has on our health and well-being.
There are many similarities which can be drawn upon, between physical and mental health, how they can be managed and why it is important that both are trained without worry.
What is mental health & what does it mean to you?
Mental health and the discussion around it, can very often and easily be stigmatised by other as you having a mental health issue, and because of this it can often be an avoided topic of conversation, both in the workplace and at home. So why don’t we train our minds for it?
Whether it be doing the couch to 5k challenge, taking part in an ironman race, or simply recovering from an injury and having to retraining your body to put one foot in front of the other, physical training is important to succeed. With physical challenges, and this is only from personal experience, you have a plan which sets out the basis of what you want to achieve and you follow it as much as possible to get to the end result.
Through the training plan there maybe a need for adaptation, rescheduling, time for recovery and also time for the unexpected like an injury, plus a bit of mindset training. However, if the first elements are done correctly and there is not too much overload, hopefully the likelihood of injury is reduced. In 5 years of competing in ironman and triathlon races, I’m still yet to hear anyone turn up to a race and say they feel great and injury free, so perhaps insufficient time has been given to recovery.
This is similar to mental health training, perhaps we don’t give ourselves sufficient time to recover, reflect or as our senior ecologist Matt Wall said ‘just be’ in order to manage it. Perhaps we need to think of this as going to the physio, where you may be told to rest or do different physical training.
Therefore how and why can we be expect to manage our mental health, without training for it and being slightly selfish about doing this? Do the problems actually come when we ignore it?
Surely good mental health, which is managed, is beneficial to us as individuals and those around us. If you’re in good mental health, you can:
make the most of your potential
play a full part in your family, workplace, community and among friends (even virtually)
cope with life, even in times of unprecedented circumstances
Therefore if we ignore our mental health and the need to work on it, to improve it, do we do ourselves a disservice? During the current period of unrest and disturbance to what we perhaps consider to be ‘normal’, where the world has slowed and moved away from the 100mph way of life, it provides the perfect opportunity to reset the balance for so many people and work on our mental health.
Mental health and nature
Over the past few months since Covid-19 has taken over the news, I have taken the opportunity to speak to as many people as possible, both those that we work with and also those in different industries. One thing which has come to the fore through all of these conversations is the appreciation that people have for nature and the natural environment. People have watched the physical change of winter to spring and now to summer, the buds bursting on plants, the blossom on trees and leaves flushing, the dawn chorus of birds, the cleaner air and smells of nature. There are so many comparisons that can be made between nature and mental health and the mutual benefits. Firstly mental health doesn’t always stay the same, just like nature. It can change as circumstances change, and as you move through different stages of your life it will alter and adapt. But most of all by recognising it and managing it in a planned way, you can appreciate the benefits nature provides and get the most from mental health and nature.
So why is this important?
As we go through the current pandemic, it is likely that mental health issues will be further highlighted and its critical that there are opportunities for everyone to be able to talk without fear of being stigmatised.
Mental health is everyone’s business. We all have times when we feel down, stressed or even frightened or anxious. Most of the time those feelings pass without issue. But sometimes they develop into a more serious problem and that could happen to any one of us. Furthermore as people start to return to work from being at home, anxiety could build, especially if people have been self isolating or simply spending time alone. Employees may be wondering what has changed, will they fit back in? will it be like their first day in a new job but on a grander scale. Therefore as business owners, managers and directors, my view is that we have a social responsibility to support people and provide them with the resources and sometimes external support to allow our teams to successfully return to work.
We must remember everyone is different. You may bounce back from a setback or significant change in circumstances, while someone else may feel weighed down by it for a long time.
What have we been doing at Wharton?
Our approach may not fit with everyone, however my view is that through all of the most recent changes since the start of March, our team will emerge tighter, more productive and appreciative of what each other does.
We have set up twice daily team meetings for anyone in the team to join, whether on furlough or not. They are not compulsory, but they are an opportunity for the team to communicate and have a general informal chat and check in to make sure team mates are doing ok. It is very often the opportunity where we can recognise if an employee is ok or not. This can then be followed up in a separate call. It’s also the opportunity for normal office banta which you simply don’t get when working in isolation from home.
Everyone is encouraged to keep active, whether that be taking regular breaks to step outside and away from the laptop or for some of the team taking the dog for a walk, being with their pet cat or riding their horse. This not only allows the clearance of the mind but improves cognitive ability and creativity.
What lockdown has done is improve many of our eating habits. The relationship between healthy eating and good mental health is well versed, although the team can’t wait for the first company pizza lunch together!
From a directors perspective, accepting who people are and how they adapt and look at mental health has been eye opening. As much as I would like full engagement from all you don’t always get it and sometimes you have to accept that. However it’s vitally important that the door is always open for people to speak either to you, each other or to external people.
We try to be thankful for at least one thing a day, recognise what has been achieved and celebrate in some way. We all have much to be thankful for, now more than ever.
And finally I asked the team about what mental health means to them. This was enlightening, but one thing that rang true for all was the access and need to be outside and close to nature and green space. The benefits provided by this are unquantifiable in many ways. The other element was that it’s ultimately not wrong to be selfish about mental health, its about you as an individual and we are all different, however from that it was identified that finding the thing that allows you to switch off was vital and allow yourself ‘just be in the moment’.
So what you may be asking?
We have an opportunity to change normal, through what we do, how we do it and why we do it?
As a company, the heart of everything that we do, is to be able to refer back to not only our core values but also our vision which is to increase our understanding of natural infrastructure and guiding its enhancement in the places we live, play and work. Now more than ever, people have relied on well planned and managed green space, however I wonder from all of the development projects which have been completed in the past few years do they actually provide great quality green and open space and how many people really see the benefits of the spaces provided. I can only comment on those which I visit and generally I see dead landscapes, which bare no resemblance to the approved plans which show flourishing trees, an abundance of biodiversity and space where people want to be. I believe we have a social responsibility now to change normal and look at those exceptional landscapes, which some people design and implement and see the absolute benefit to the final user. Those people will have been so thankful of that through this current time.
I hope that during this time of lockdown you have been able to find and develop a new normal, where life, work and mental health is well balanced.
