One of my goals for this year is to publish a weekly article promoting good mental health, in a local publication. This is an example of what I'd like to produce.
I'd love to know your thoughts, as well as some ideas about the types of articles that would interest you.
Striking the Perfect
Balance
Just like
any stable and reliable structure, good mental health requires a solid
foundation. The keys to a secure
foundation are balance and consistency.
We all love
a good catch-phrase and “Work-Life Balance” is up there with the best of
them. It’s often spoken about, but what
does it really mean and how well do any of us truly ‘live’ it?
To simplify
matters, we can break most of our tasks in life into four categories:
Achievement
Activities: Anything that we do that is goal focussed and
provides us with a sense of accomplishment at its completion. Our ‘have to’ tasks tend to fit into this
category as well. E.g. work; household
chores; errands; study etc.
Pleasant
Activities: All of the things we do that we enjoy and
that make us feel good. This category
includes all of our leisure and pleasure activities. For example: reading; watching a movie;
travel; having a massage; gardening; drawing, etc.
Social
Activities: Whenever we spend meaningful time connecting
with others, we are being social. This
can include face-to-face contact, but also telephone, Skype, email, social
networking. E.g. coffee with a friend;
dinner parties; BBQ; visiting friends or family etc.
Physical
Activities: Any activity that requires us to move our
body. The World Health Organisation
(WHO) suggests that we ‘move’ at least 30 minutes every day, at least five days
per week. It doesn’t even have to be
consecutive e.g. you could do ten minutes of physical exercise, three times per
day. For example: gym; walking; running;
cycling; taking the stairs; swimming etc.
What you’ve
probably already noticed is that many things that we do fit into more than one
of the above categories. How great is
that?!
Walking
with a friend on the beach is a physical activity, a pleasant activity AND a
social activity. It might even be an
achievement.
Gardening
can be an achievement, physical and pleasant.
The key is
to make sure you are participating in enough activities in ALL of the
categories on a regular basis. Many of
us are very good at completing ‘Achievement’ type tasks but we struggle to find
time to fit in exercise or time to catch up with our friends as often as we’d
like. I’ve noticed that many of us don’t
even remember what we love to do.
When an
imbalance occurs and we’re doing too much of one thing and not enough of
others, we increase our risk of stress.
If that continues for a long enough period of time, the risk of
developing other mental health issues increases.
I challenge
you to think about your own life balance.
It’s not rocket science. If you
are feeling tired or stressed, low or anxious, it’s time to make some
changes.
If
we are not feeling our best, we need to do more of the things that make us feel
better.
Are you
doing enough of the things that make you feel good?
