5 Top Tips for Managing your Mental Health at Work

Meet Nath, a social entrepreneur who led the charity Mental Health Monster for three years, aiming to break barriers and promote good mental health. Through workshops, bespoke guides, and impactful campaigns, Nath tackled the stigma surrounding mental health. Alongside career triumphs, Nath grappled with his own mental health challenges - navigating anxiety disorder, perfectionism, self-sabotage, and stress. Now, Nath shares five vital tips for managing mental health at work. Keep reading and find out how to prioritise your mental wellbeing!

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Nathan Jackson, founder of Mental Health Monster CIC

Hi, I’m Nath! I spent three years running a social enterprise, Mental Health Monster CIC, that aimed to shatter the stigma, break the barriers and guide people towards good mental health. We did this through a number of avenues, such as delivering workshops, writing bespoke mental health guides and overseeing various projects and campaigns.

This involved numerous high points, such as our tailored beer mat campaign, our youth-led hip-hop track and receiving various recognition awards. Though as with everything, to enjoy the high points we had to experience the lows. Which, as you’d expect, taught me a whole load about managing my mental health at work.

Staying on top of my mental health was actually one of the biggest challenges that I faced throughout the whole process. Especially when having to keep my monster, an anxiety disorder, at bay. Aside from the usual perfectionism, self-sabotage and stress that can come with wanting things to go well.

The knowledge I gained in doing this would be wasted if it wasn’t shared with you, not least because I believe that absolutely everyone should have access to the necessary tools to keep on top of their mental health.

So here are 5 tips for managing your mental health at work!

Use whatever support is available

Whether you have access to workplace mental health schemes, a good network of friends to talk about your mental health with or even just a journal that helps to clear your mind, it is important that you take advantage of these.

There is no simper way to say it, our mental health is extremely important and it must absolutely be prioritised. So it is vital that we use what we can to make looking after ourselves as easy as possible.

Why not see what support your workplace can offer? It may even be worth recommending apps designed to promote employee wellness, such as those in this list.

Check your standards

If you judge yourself against others, thinking about past mistakes all the time and give yourself mountains to climb then it’s likely that you’re being too hard on yourself.

Stop trying to be perfect, instead try to be the best that you can be. Because if you spend your whole working life trying to be perfect, where does it end?

Being the best that you can be, despite your circumstances, is a lot more achievable and you’ll feel better for it.

For this to work, you may want to remind yourself that the biggest project you’ll ever work on is you.

Be careful with language

The way that you talk to yourself can actually have a huge impact on your self-esteem and your mental health. It is therefore important to be intentional with your self-talk so that it can lift you and not tear your down. Here are some examples of how this can work:

Use ‘yet’ wherever possible (e.g. I’m not very good at this ‘yet’)

Use ‘but’ at the end of a negative sentence (e.g. I have to be better at this ‘but’ at least I’m trying).

Change ‘I need’ to ‘I could’ and ditch the word ‘I should’ from your vocabulary. If you’re always believing that something needs to happen for you to be enough then you’re always going to be chasing.

Build Proper Routines

One of the best ways to manage stress at work is to leave it where it belongs; at work. And a great way to do this is to build a solid routine that is made up of habits, structure, prioritisation and, most importantly, life.

Whilst routines can be difficult to get into, they allow for your brain to automate many tasks and therefore help to reduce the impact of stress and lead you to feel much less overwhelmed.

Looking after your mental health on autopilot? It’s a no brainer.

A routine that is good for your mental health will include actions for each of these four things:

Body Care (e.g. eating, sleeping, exercise etc.)
Achievement (e.g. working, errands, studying etc.)
Connection (e.g. chatting with friends/ family etc.)
Enjoyment (e.g. hobbies/ interests)

Listen To Your Body

Most of the time, if you’re struggling with your mental health then your body will tell you.

For example, anxiety can manifest itself in a number of ways, including:

Chest Pain
Ringing Ears
Jaw Pain
Circulation Issues
Headaches
Muscle Aches
Changes in Body Temperature
Upset Stomachs
Your gut will also have a lot to say and listening to it would be wise

Pay attention to how you’re feeling when you’re in or thinking about work. If any of the signs persist then it might be time to re-evaluate your goals or speak with someone that can support you in the workplace.

If you’re struggling with your mental health and the symptoms last for over two weeks, you may want to think about seeking some professional support. Why not arrange an appointment with your GP? There are tons of apps, websites, people and resources online that can support you alongside this. Here are some of my favourites:

Dr. Julie Smith (@drjulie on Instagram and @drjuliesmith on TikTok) posts frequently about anxiety and stress management with real and actionable tips that can often be used anywhere

Mental Health at Work provide heaps of resources, tools and case studies for anyone in the workplace that can inform workplace practices and help individuals.
Mind also provide free, downloadable mental health resources to promote staff wellbeing.

Thanks for reading and best of luck managing your mental health at work!

Thank you so much Nath!

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