10 Tips to Boost Resilience at Work & Keep Good Mental Health

When employees struggle with emotional well-being, it’s tough on them and your organization. Companies may even lose out on revenues due to emotional health problems of their employees. In fact, it costs employers worldwide up to $225 billion a year. A quarter of all employees view their jobs as the number one stressor in their lives and work stress is said to be a health epidemic.

As the pace, intensity and stress of contemporary work culture are not likely to go away, it’s more important than ever to build resilience skills to effectively navigate your work life and keep good mental health.

How to Keep Good Mental Health and Build Resilience?

Resilience is the ability to ‘bounce back’ while facing the challenges that are an integral part of life. Resilient people tend to maintain a more positive outlook and cope with stress more effectively.

Research has shown that while many people come by resilience naturally, one can also build resilience through practice.

Here are 7 tips on how to boost resilience in your career to hopefully help you along at work and keep mental health.

1 Seek Understanding from Your Setbacks

Mental agility is the ability to switch gears in your mind from reacting to stress to responding to stress. Reacting is instinctive and emotionally-driven, while responding is a more objective approach. For example, you work hard to build a kick-ass proposal for a potential commercial partner, but the lead goes cold. You receive no kind of communication from that end and that from your end is not replied back too. As a result, you see it as a potential source of income going dry. After you rant/have a de-stress pint, detach from the situation and reflect. No, it is not being said that this is all but reasons, but you have to learn from all your mistakes and challenges.

2 Build a Strong Support Network

You can’t live on an island alone. People by nature are congregious to an extent, because you can share joys and sorrows with them and get motivated when you are down. Having caring, supportive people around you acts as a protective factor during times of crisis, irrespective of places whether it is in your workplace or somewhere else.

3 Embrace Change

Flexibility is an essential part of resilience. Learn how to be more adaptable and that will help you to respond coolly to a situation when faced with a life crisis. Resilient people often utilize these events as an opportunity to branch out in new directions.

4 Try to Establish a Good Work/Life Balance

You know what’ll take a toll on you? A bad work/life balance, right? Find hobbies outside of work that bring you joy or find a side hustle that fulfills you. Nurture the relationships you have with others outside the office, and try new things. Having a good work-life balance can help you build resilience at work. You can also hash out your stress at the gym, or bake your worries away.

5 Keep Working at Resilience

It is because it will be a journey. You cannot develop resilience overnight. This is like growing pearls in an oyster, slow but steady. Each day you will become stronger.

6 Practice Positive Thinking

Research has shown that positivity has a great impact on physical and mental health. It can lower blood pressure, reduce stress and build a strong inner self to combat challenges. Try to transform those negative thoughts into positive ones.

7 Take a Break

Studies suggest those who vacationed less than once every two years were more likely to suffer from depression and chronic stress. See the pent-up feeling during the Covid-19 lockdown period when work-from-home is a new normal. Work dynamics are changing and employees feel they are often swamped with extra workloads, affecting their physical and psychological health.

8 Be Kind

Showing kindness to others is a strength and it’s linked to an increased feeling of happiness. It can improve your mood drastically. A simple “good morning” greeting to your colleagues or offering help to someone needing it can also boost your mental well-being.

9 Leave Work at Work

Set work life apart from home life. If work life trickles into your home life, your work-home life balance will get affected. Try to maintain a balance in between your work and personal life, like by not checking work emails after office hours, etc.

10 Take a Daily Walk

Physical exercise is a great way to boost your mood, relieve stress and lower your risk of depression. A 30-minute walk everyday can help you stay fit, physically and mentally.

Key Takeaway:

Building resilience and keeping mental health takes time, so don’t get discouraged if you still struggle to cope with workplace crises. Keep focusing on practicing the skills, picking up good practices and following the common characteristics of the resilient people.

At the same time, remember to build resilience on your existing strengths and find your own ways to stay mentally healthy, says an expert at Promise Training and Consultancy, a reputed corporate management training provider.