7 ways to celebrate Mental Health Awareness Week

To mark this year’s Mental Health Awareness Week, which explores the theme of “Movement: Moving more for our mental health”, we’ve put together a comprehensive guide sharing 7 ways you can celebrate this significant time of year on the mental health calendar - both in and outside of work.

With mental health problems affecting 1 in 4 people in the UK alone, the conversation around mental health continues to grow. At Calmer, we also hope to shine a light on the preventative measures that can support you in managing your mental health and strengthening your mental resilience, especially at work.

If you are observing Mental Health Awareness Week in your place of work, or you would like to start prioritising your mental health from home, now is the time to do it.

With that in mind, keep reading and discover seven ways you can celebrate the week to improve feelings of connectedness, focus and wellbeing at work.

1. Start talking about mental health

Talking about mental health is an important step to take this week. By speaking up and raising awareness, you can contribute to help end the stigma around mental health, and also foster a better workplace culture when talking about it at work.

Find out how to talk about mental health in our guide - you could start with a friend, a family member, or a professional - whoever you feel comfortable with.

If you’re a solo worker, i.e. business owner, freelancer, or entrepreneur, you can action this by following our 12 ways to manage your mental health guide.

2. Join The Reignite Project

One of the most common reasons people take sick days is due to stress, depression and anxiety. Long-term, unresolved stress can manifest itself as burnout, and prevent you from attending work or even running your own business.

It’s why we launched The Reignite Project, with the aim of preventing burnout in 600,000 people by 2023. If burnout is something you’ve experienced, we recommend reading about the signs of burnout, understanding the five stages of burnout, and signing up to The Reignite Project for free.

The Reignite Project offers a complimentary 10-week e-course providing burnout prevention strategies, sent straight to your inbox. You can sign up here to get started.

We also have a short film to support The Reignite Project, which can offer you further insight and inspiration. The film focuses on the sypmtoms of burnout and how to recover from it, featuring real life case studies from three diverse entrepreneurs and business owners. Head on over to The Reignite Project page to give it a watch!

3. Get informed about stress

Alongside joining The Reignite Project, we recommend reading up on common signs of stress and how to deal with stress in your own work and life.

There are a few stress-related factors we see cropping up quite often; technology, self-doubt, and linking your self-worth to your finances, are all very common.

If you would like to reduce your stress levels and build your mental resilience as an entrepreneur or freelancer, we recommend taking our Stress Relief Ecourse or digital wellbeing video training course The Calmer Entrepreneur. You can follow the courses at your own pace, and once you have access, can revisit it as often as needed.

4. Prioritise nutrition and movement

It’s no surprise that good nutrition and getting regular exercise does wonders for our mental health and wellbeing, with many studies highlighting benefits such as reduced stress and risk of chronic diseases, improved mood and a stronger immune system.

Take notice of your diet this week - what eating habits of yours are nutritious, and are there any improvements you’d like to make? In relation to movement, ask yourself - are you nurturing a healthy exercise routine?

For further inspiration, take a look at our guide on how to nurture and maintain your mental and physical health.

5. Develop your support network

A support network is a group of people who care about you - these can be everyone from your family, friends, colleagues, clients, and even those you connect with online.

It’s important to take some time to develop and nurture your relationships alongside your work. We humans are social creatures, so spending time with people who care about you - and who you care about - can really boost how you are feeling. Remember that we can all experience feelings of loneliness from time to time, it’s a normal human emotion and there’s no shame in it. If you think you could benefit from feeling more connected with other, consider the following:

Who in your life helps to lift your spirits and is there for you unconditionally? It may be someone you haven’t connected with in a while and you might wish to reconnect with them. Being aware of who brings you happiness is important, and if you’re struggling to think who this may be right now, consider reaching out to a local support group for support.

Connect with role models in your support network - follow the people who inspire you on social media, read up on their life stories, and maybe even contact them for advice. Who knows - you may just end up forging a great connection!
For entrepreneurs, developing an entrepreneurial ecosystem is also important - this is a network of start-ups and support organisations that facilitate collaborations and connections. It can support you when you need to find new clients, and enable you to share your experiences and advice with likeminded individuals.

6. Create a business wellbeing strategy

For business owners and business teams, creating and developing a business wellbeing strategy starting this week may be particularly beneficial.

A business wellbeing strategy can support the mental health of your team, and improve your workplace culture. At Calmer, we believe a happy mind makes for a happy business. This is especially true of start-ups and SMEs, who rely on a small yet effective set of people to keep the business functioning.

By creating a business wellbeing strategy, you can benefit from:

Improved team morale
Higher levels of motivation
Reduced levels of stress and burnout
Reduced absenteeism
Reduced staff turnover

If you’d like support building this initiative, find out more about our Wellbeing Champions programme and how we support businesses to develop and implement a long-term mental health and wellbeing strategy and policy.

7. Schedule regular check-ins with your mental health

And finally, make time for yourself. Giving yourself the opportunity to check in with your mental health on a regular basis can enable you to reduce your stress levels and prevent burnout from occurring.

This could be in the form of a meditation or Mindfulness practice, or simply taking time to just be, and connect with activities that help you feel centred. Your mental health check-in could be: