Former accountant turned mental health advocate and podcaster Amy Polly introduced members to the benefits of mindfulness at Cayman Finance's quarterly event on Wednesday, 19 Sept.
Mindfulness, the ability to be fully present and aware of where we are and what we are doing without being judgmental or reactive or feeling overwhelmed, is something that can be trained through meditation and other activities.
More and more businesses are teaching mindfulness techniques in the workplace to reduce stress.
Mindfulness not only alleviates the effect workplace pressure has on mind and body, it also helps develop the ability not be driven by one's emotions. As such it can have a big impact on the work environment and staff wellbeing.
Proactive mental health care is often overlooked
Polly encouraged the audience to first think about their own personal mental wellbeing strategy before thinking about implementing one in business.
This begins by understanding what mental health is. Mental health cannot be reduced to depression or anxiety or a topic to shy away from, Polly said.
"Mental health, everybody has it all the time. Mental health doesn't mean mental ill health. It is just your health, the same as physical health."
And just as employers have a duty of care to make the workplace safe and prevent risks to physical health, the same should apply to mental health.
Any mental wellbeing strategy in business will therefore start with a risk assessment.
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