When we think of self-care, most of us might think of taking a walk in the country or running yourself a nice hot bath but how can you look after your mind at work?
As part of Mental Health Awareness week, we have decided to explore all the ways we can do just that. Here are our some of our tried-and-tested methods:
Get outdoors on your lunch
If you’re on your lunch-break reading this I demand you get up and go outside. We know it can be hard to prioritise yourself sometimes when you know you have a million high-priority tasks waiting for you in your inbox. Not only that, but our English weather can also be a deterrent, meaning more often than not, you end up working through your lunch. I used to schedule a call with my best friend every day until I started “working through my lunch” but it was to my own detriment. When I walked outside, even just for just half of my break, I came back more refreshed and therefore much more productive. That after-lunch slump is easier to work through when you’ve been out and had fresh air moving through your lungs.
Meditation
You don’t need to be an expert Yogi to do this one. We know meditating can be difficult but it’s amazing what 3 minutes of quiet can do to your brain. After all, what is just three minutes out of your lunch-break to practice self-care anyway? Take yourself off to a quiet place or if you can’t do that there are also guided walking meditations you can do which make you focus on the feeling in your feet and the sounds around you.
P.S You don’t need to fork out ££’s a month on mindfulness apps as a quick Youtube search can give you free guided meditations to listen to like this one:
Be honest / speak up
If you feel like you’ve bitten off more than you can chew, say so. There’s no shame in re-evaluating your priority list and setting yourself realistic goals. The biggest way to reduce stress and maintain good working habits is to make sure you are checking in on yourself regularly. Remember, asking for help doesn’t make you weak or incompetent it will help you with your workflow and a bit of support will increase your productivity levels too. Asking for advice can also help you with your workload as you may get some nifty tips and hacks that you wouldn’t have known otherwise.
Take regular breaks away from your screen to reduce eye-strain
According to WebMD, When we aren’t glued to our screens, we blink about 15 times a minute which allows for our tears to spread across our eyes and stop them from becoming dry and irritated. When we are looking at a screen, reading or playing a game the number of times we blink decreases. To reduce this, try the 20/20/20 technique where you look away from your screen every 20 minutes, as far as 20 yards away from your screen for at least 20 seconds.
Here are some other eye tips to make sure you are “self-care -ing” for your eyes
Using eye drops will help to protect, hydrate and lubricate your eyes. We recommend Theolaz Duo.
If you’re a glasses wearer, make sure you are up to date with your eye tests as your prescription may have changed since you got your last pair of glasses. In addition, we recommend our enhanced corrective lenses by Eyezen designed to prevent or reduce eyestrain when you are using digital devices. Eyezen is available to everyone, whether you have a prescription or just want glasses to protect you from your daily screen usage.
If you regularly wear contact lenses make sure you have breaks from wearing them preferably one a week (if you wear monthly lenses this is not possible but it would be good to have a breather before you put on your next set.)
These are our self-care at work tips, do you have any tips that you swear by? We would love to hear from you. Leave a comment below or feel free to reach out to us on any of our social channels.