Men at Work
Why is it that when we talk about men’s health, the conversation quickly turns to suicide, drug and alcohol use, and toxic masculinity?
This unhelpful start-point fails to take into account the vast numbers of successful and financially comfortable men who work in high-pressure environments but never contemplate suicide or abuse drugs and alcohol and who are courteous and respectful towards their female colleagues. All those men who just keep going.
That’s not to say they’ve got it all worked out and lead Pinterest-perfect lives. According to a recent survey by The Priory 77% of men polled suffered with symptoms of common mental health conditions such as anxiety, stress or depression. 32% put this down to work pressure with a further 31% citing their finances and 23% their health.
Experiences may vary but it makes you wonder how much better these men would perform, in all areas of their life, if they had some solid coping strategies in place so that they can stay strong and find peace when the pressure is on. Here are two, non-invasive, productivity based solutions that can help men working in high pressure environments.
1 Eat Drink Move Sleep
Mental faculty and sharpness of mind can be improved and sustained by making small changes to hydration, nutrition, exercise and sleep hygiene.
This is a workshop addresses how to factor them into a day that is already full. It can can be delivered in an hour and half (longer if we have more time) and it might make a useful startpoint for people concerned about having to ‘open up’ about their mental health.
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You can read more about it here
Originally designed as a wellbeing programme for frontline NHS staff, this workshop shows participants how to leverage time spent outdoors for enhanced mental fitness. A study in Scientific American showed that spending twenty minutes outdoors each day can lead to significant reductions in the stress hormone cortisol. It can also significantly enhance memory retention and cognitive function.
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I normally run this workshop in an outdoor setting but we can explore the principals of it as an in house or online workshop and also look at what I call ‘back-pocket mental fitness skills’. These are techniques for quickly re-setting your mental baseline during a long busy day.
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You can read more about it here.