 Welcome back to Mental Wealth TV, I'm Emmie Golding, Director of Psychology for the Workplace Mental Health Institute. I'm Peter Dears, the CEO of the Mental Health Institute and we welcome you to the new year. Happy new year, I hope you've got a chance for a bit of rest and rejuvenation. Rejuvenation is the key. Most people feel not rejuvenated but a little bit more tired. Maybe we overrate or drunk a little bit too much. Well, that's something we noticed this year actually. A lot of the organizations that we worked with seemed to barely pause for the holiday season. They just kept going. Surprising because that's never happened before which either we should be happy that they're thinking of mental health all throughout or part of me thinking should I be concerned that people are not stopping and taking a break. So I'm ambivalent. I know a lot of HR managers, people in culture, directors that I was speaking with, they really wanted to just get a jump on their planning for the new year and that's where most organizations are at right now looking at what are the initiatives they're going to put in place for 2024, what are the needs of their people, what's going on in the world at the moment is actually impacting hugely on mental health of people as well. One thing to be ready, I think that's commendable. That's really good. Absolutely. So what is the mood for 2024 going into the new year? There's a few things that we've seen out there in the world that are impacting well-being. I think this is a good time for people to sharpen the axe. I'm not sure if you've heard that story about the two logger men. They were cutting trees. Woodchoppers? Woodchoppers. They are cutting trees. And one was cutting the tree and he was putting a lot of effort into it, a lot of effort. And he was listening to his colleague that every few minutes he was stopping and he thought, I'm going to finish much faster than him because he's taking so many rest. And no, as it happened his colleague finished the log first and he asked him, how did you do it? I heard that you were stopping. I thought you were taking it so slow and I was really going for it. And you beat me. And we basically had the same kind of log. And he said, well, I wasn't really resting. I was sharpening my axe. So every time I was using my axe, it was more effective. And this is what we can do now. 2024 is here. Maybe it's time to sharpen air axes. You know, stop for a moment and what have we done in 2023? What has worked? What hasn't worked so well? What can we improve on? And what kind of results and outcomes do we want for 2024? I'm not talking about setting new goals necessarily or putting more pressure on yourselves, more projects. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking the thing that you are carrying from 2023 that are important to you and important to your workplace and important to your family. What can you do better in 2024 so you get even better outcomes? It's about being strategic. Yeah, don't add more projects necessarily. You know, there's a lot of people that see that. New year comes along and they put more stuff onto themselves, which is very overwhelming. And I don't want people to be overwhelmed in 2024. Whatever you're going to do, do it well. Yeah. Let's get better at what we do rather than take on more stuff if our life is already full. Absolutely. So one of the things that I'm seeing... Sharpen your axe. Got it. Sharpen your axe. One of the things that I'm really seeing in the conversations I have with workplaces, whether they're in Australia, Asia Pacific area or the US and North America and Europe as well to some extent. Well, to some extent there's a lot happening in Europe at the moment. But one of the big things is there's a lot of uncertainty. And the political environment at the moment is quite on edge. One of the big things happening is we've got the ongoing war with Russia, Ukraine. We've got everything that's happening in Israel and Palestine with that situation. That's creating a lot of uncertainty for a lot of people out there. And of course they bring that into the workplaces as well. You know, just uncertainty. There's a lot of unhappiness and anger associated with that because they're seen as unfair wars. And people don't like unfairness. They like justice. They like things to be fair. And definitely we're not in an even play field at the moment around the world and the wars that have been started. So obviously for people that are in areas where there's conflict, there's a huge impact on well-being and mental health. That's quite usually considered a traumatic experience. But even for us watching it on the news, reading about it, social media, there's a lot of rhetoric about it. And so it's very easy to get caught up in all of that and have a negative impact on our well-being. And I've seen that. We would talk about it when we talk about vicarious trauma. That idea that there's direct trauma when you're physically involved in a difficult event, but then there's also indirect trauma when you're surrounded by that information and it has a very real impact on people and it's very easy to get stuck in that rabbit hole going down news and articles of greater or lesser quality, a lot of that information that we're getting as well. There's also the aspect that when you're watching, if you're watching too much news and you're getting caught up with it, it's very easy for us to hook onto the two main elements of a mental distress problem or a mental illness which are helplessness and powerlessness. You know, that idea that it doesn't matter what I do, it's not going to work and what should I try anyway. What position am I in to do anything about these international conflicts? So you can create an angst in our souls, in our psyche, in our spirits and that can, if we don't address it, it can cause problems later on. So it's good to be aware of this and see how we are coping with this. This is very interesting because a lot of people do start to think, well, what if these situations do start to impact on my actual life, my personal existence in the world? And there's been a lot of movies out lately around the sort of end of world scenarios which I think are very attractive to people because of this uncertainty, because of these fears going on at the moment. And what we know from mental health is that anxiety does serve a purpose. Those fears, those uncertainty, that anxiety, it serves a purpose in that it can prepare us if used correctly, that's the thing. Yeah, anxiety is the body's mechanism letting us know that something is amiss and that we need to pay attention to it. It doesn't tell us what it is, but it tells us that something is not quite right. So what do we do, the average person, if we're aware of all this going on in the world, we're concerned that it may have some impact on us in some way. We've seen articles where people, Sweden, for example, have rushed off panic buying and really in that sort of response mode, is that a good thing to do? Is that a bad thing to do? How do we get the balance right in terms of our well-being within all of this? I think different people need to do different things to feel psychologically protected. If you're fearing that maybe finances will be an issue, it might be good to have a financial cushion of sorts, maybe savings, cash savings at home, or if you fear that water or food is going to be an issue. Because remember, we're not talking just about Australia or New Zealand or Canada, we're talking about the whole world. Europe, the threat of war in Europe this week has become quite real with some countries saying that they're thinking about starting conscription again and preparedness for war. This is quite serious talk. So we're here in Spain, so we're a little bit far away from the front lines. Being the front line is supposed to be in Russia. But those countries that are close to Russia, it's logical that they may have to look at things like water, food, electricity, etc. I think within our communities, within families, within workplaces, when we're having these conversations, some people would look at that and go, wow that's extreme, there's no need for any of that, you're crazy, what are you thinking about? For someone who is concerned about that actually taking actions like you've mentioned could actually alleviate that anxiety. The important thing I think is to say, alright, what can I do that will help me feel better, feel more prepared? And then when I've done those things, stop. Okay, I've done that as ready as I can because who can predict the future, who knows what's going to happen, but it can't be at the expense of our mental health. It should be something that serves our well-being and gives us that sense of safety and security that we have a plan B. Exactly. You can be reasonable about these things and you don't need to preach about them to other people. If having a psychological cushion of sorts is good for you, just do it. You don't need to tell other people that you're doing it. Just be aware that you can go too far in addressing your anxiety. It's okay to have a certain degree of anxiety. You don't need to kill it out of your life. No, you don't want to be so blasé. Yeah, but you don't want to be so blasé then everything goes. But you don't also need other people's approval in order to have a psychological cushion of sorts. You don't need them to approve of what you're doing necessarily. So a balance is the key word here. A psychological cushion is not necessarily preventing everything that could possibly happen in the world. We don't have control of those things. So the question is, what could happen that I'm concerned about? Could happen? And what would be a psychological cushion that if I have it, and even if these things I'm concerned about doesn't happen, well, what's the big one? I've got a sense of control going back to your point about feeling hopeless or helpless. It gives you that sense of control. And it hasn't destroyed my life in the meantime. Exactly. It hasn't made me a hermit. I haven't spent all my money in this preparedness and now if it doesn't happen, I'm ruined. No, there's a balance to this thing. It's a cushion, not a bunker. I think there's another element. That's very good. It's a cushion. It's a cushion, not a bunker. Unless you've got a lot of spare for a bunker. That's a cushion for you. It's with a spare change. With a spare change, you're building a bunker. It's kind of a cushion. So there's another thing that I think I'm seeing is having a huge impact on well-being just generally is, and we've kind of touched near the topic, is those relationships with our friends and family around these kinds of topics. So, and the obvious example, there is what's going on with Israel and Palestine. You know, the level of what might be an interesting political conversation at the dinner table becomes an all-out debate and becomes an unhealthy conversation. And we've seen that on different topics over the past few years as well. There's definitely a lot of division on ideas and people having really hard conversations, which I think are important to have. And yet we've also seen people have damaged relationships because of it and more loneliness because of it. Some people can't handle thinking about things. You know, what we may be really comfortable to look into I'm afraid of war, I'm afraid of this, I'm afraid of that. Some people prefer not to think about it. Because it feels so helpless and it causes pain. So, if we initiate a conversation and people have a reaction, well, maybe that's a cue to stop and not talk about it with them. They're not the person. But some people, you start a conversation and they can't wait, oh my God, I'm so glad someone else is concerned about this and they're wanting to talk, that's good. So, you take those opportunities and you talk with them. As much as you have time and allowance for that. But yeah, it's about having a bit of social, you know, acuity and say, well, is this person connected to their pain around this and they want to talk about it or they don't want to talk about it, if it's a problem. And what about just simply people that do want to talk about it but might have opposing views? That's fine too. But we have seen some people are quite okay to we can have completely opposite ideas politically but we can still be friends. Because other people, that's not possible. We're too misaligned to be able to continue our relationship and that's really difficult. In fact, I think the world is experiencing that polarity at the moment in which people feel that if you disagree with me in a subject, we can possibly be friends. You must be the worst human being in the world. That didn't happen 30 years ago. People had different opinions and they remained friends. In actual fact, having different opinions and different angles was seen as good diversity. Because it shapes each other. It makes us be more balanced. So that's a good kind of diversity. So if you're out there navigating all of this then you're not alone. That's definitely what we're hearing from having with workplaces and individuals. All around the world. We fear it is. Hi, I'm Emmy Golding, director of psychology for the Workplace Mental Health Institute. We hope you liked the video. If you did, make sure to give it a thumbs up. We have more and more videos being released each week. So when you subscribe, you'll get a notification letting you know when a new one's just been published. So make sure to hit that subscribe button and don't miss out on this vital information for yourself, your colleagues and your loved ones.