Productivity is directly dependent on intrapersonal skills

The current dominating and outdated paradigm is that mental health problems are caused by external factors and those external things and situations that cause stress, burnout, depression, and anxiety, need serious rethought.

Most of us consider it totally natural to blame others and outer situations for our mental health issues. By doing so, we neglect our own personal responsibility, leaving ourselves (and our employees) in ‘victim mode’.

Until we learn sufficient intrapersonal skills, mental health disorders will always seem to exist due to things and situations beyond our control.

We like to think that someone else or some situation causes our mental health issues and employee productivity problems. Thus the current dominating mental health approach and productivity hacking are focused on fixing external problems in a reactive manner and dealing with employee engagement and productivity after the problem becomes obvious and disturbing. However, we see this approach failing.

This old reactive approach does not secure mental wellness.

WHAT IS PROACTIVE?

Proactive means creating or controlling a situation rather than just reacting to it after it has happened. According to a proactive mental wellness approach we need practical know-how to deal with pressure before stress becomes a problem that leads us to (mental) health issues and work-related problems. Why?

In our last newsletter, we discussed the topic of work stress. We found that stress is a big problem around the world. But why is the stress response now kicking in more than in the past?

Our life pace is faster than ever before. We are more exposed to information overload, with every piece of that information in our hyper-connected world triggering some inner process within our own minds. Simply put, we now come into contact with more stress triggers than any other time in known human history. The triggers arrive to us from our work, our (always on) smartphones, internet browsers, TV news, personal relationships, ownership of things, and lack of owning what we desire, etc.

WHY DO WE NEED THE PARADIGM SHIFT FROM REACTIVITY TO PROACTIVITY?

It is natural that greater exposure to outside stressors can trigger more stress and mental health issues. And this is why mental health statistics get worse over the years.

So the question is: Is there a way to nip our inner reactions and mental health problems in the bud? 

The growing mental health epidemic demands that we establish a new paradigm on how we see mental health. And such a paradigm is already born: it is a proactive mental wellness approach available now in the form of Wellness Orbit e-trainings.

The core of this new approach is the discovery of our own awareness as it allows us all to develop efficient inner skills. Intrapersonal skills secure productivity at work and personal well-being at the same time. That is why training your mental strength is a vital and proven way to bring results for you.

 

Employees often hope that employers will solve their mental health issues without any effort and input from their side. This is not the case. It demands a new kind of partnership where the employer is the educator. Let’s observe why this is a must?

People falsely believe that when our mental health problem gets worse, there is a medical doctor who can give us a ‘magic pill’. A pill to make us well again fast and without our own effort. The bad news is there is no such convenient psychiatric solution!

Treatment of mental health problems is long; no physiatrist can instantly remove your bad habits and daily lifestyle choices and patterns that have caused changes in your mind/brain and physical body.

Healing takes time and demands real lifestyle changes also in case of mental health problems. Just as you cannot continue your life at the same pace after a heart attack, you cannot keep up the same work pace after burnout, depression, or severe anxiety disorder.

But let us take a step back.

Have you observed what blaming others does to your mind/brain:

• What are the thought patterns that you develop? 
• What emotions do you consider to be your identity? 
• Have you ever written them down? 
• Have you reread them a day or week later when you feel more neutral? 
• If you have, what have you noticed? 
• If you have not, maybe you should try it?
   

How to grow mental strength and learn to deal with pressure?

When you feel pressure it causes problems for you and others around you.

Is the pressure you feel really depending on your external situation (which indeed can sometimes be problematic) or can it be instead down to a lack of knowledge in how to respond adequately in the problematic situation?

Have you ever asked the following:

• How can I remain calm in any problematic situation?
• What if someone said something truly bad to me and I would lack a problematic inner reaction? For example, if a customer is angry (as you initially messed up) and you would feel totally calm inside, would it help to solve this problem easier and faster?
• When something outside triggers a problematic inner reaction in me and I would just notice it and calmly observe the real external situation (be mindful about what happened and where I am) and then look around in my professional knowledge and become aware of what I could do to solve this external problem without any worry and inner turmoil? Have you ever considered that this is even possible?

The fact is that the pattern of how your mind interprets the situation and starts its ‘automatic’ inner chain reaction is something that you have learned.

The term, intrapersonal, that Dr. Helena Lass uses, separates our inner functions from the physiological functions of the body. Learning intrapersonal skills enables us to fully use our other skills; much like when we learn to read it enables us to develop many other skills and competencies. As Dr. Lass wrote in HR Magazine UK “In this sense, intrapersonal skills form the foundation of any successful career, yet are lacking in workplaces and the wider business world because of their absence in current educational curricula.”

Currently, it is up to you as an employer to make intrapersonal education available for your employees. Let us observe why it matters.
 

INTRAPERSONAL EVENTS CHANGE YOUR BRAIN

The human mind can be trained to respond adequately to any situation – hence the need for practical and applicable intrapersonal skills.

Dr. Lass also wrote in HR Magazine, "There is strong and repeated scientific evidence that intrapersonal events have a direct effect on the function and structure of the brain. Therefore, skills to direct these events can lead to changes in wiring and neurotransmitter activity in the human brain. Until people are educated to exercise methods of conscious control over their emotional activation, it is only a matter of time before the destructive automatic emotional-mental complexes get triggered and initiate a cascade of problematic events.”

When we take time and observe our relationships and how we see different external situations very much depends on how our brain/mind interprets people, their behavior, and situations as seen through our inner prism. We often lack objectivity and see things subjectively as we perceive the situation based on our upbringing and life experiences.

We see things as we want to, not as the environment really is, and often interpret that there is a problem or threat, where there really is none. Such misinterpretation leads us to have false impressions that hinder our inner peace, success and even work engagement and productivity – hence again the need for intrapersonal education in workplaces.
 

NEW PROACTIVE APPROACH TO MENTAL WELLNESS

The nature of most modern productive work is more mental than physical. In her scientific paper 'Developing Intra-Personal Skills as a Proactive Way to Personal Sustainability - The Preventative Side of the Mental Health Equation', Dr. Helena Lass puts forward the need for a proactive approach to mental health, which can be particularly applicable to workplace environments.
 

Her scientific paper outlines this new and unique approach to proactive mental wellness. Mental health is in that context seen as something that every person can actively strive towards. It shifts the focus from current external and reactive problem-solving approaches – such as mental health first aid, medical leave, prescription of drugs, and psychiatric therapy – towards a more proactive intrapersonal education on mental wellness (click the illustration at the beginning of blog post). 

This new proactive approach is mostly for the people who need to be productive (experience slight mental health issues and still lack serious mental illnesses) as it enables them to learn practical intrapersonal skills that prevent further escalation of negative states into a potential mental illness. The same approach also solves employee engagement issues as we have shown before.

MENTAL WELLNESS GYM IS FOR TRAINING YOUR MIND

If employers want to see more personal responsibility, employee engagement, improved mental fitness, and more creativity, then they need to provide access to systematic and practical intrapersonal education.

When mental wellness is approached proactively, it can be likened to going to the gym. We all know that going to the gym is good for our physical health and overall well-being. That is why here in Wellness Orbit we have developed a similar approach for our minds. We need to train our mental fitness just as we train our physical fitness and both need to be done before we get ill.

The good news is that all workplaces around the globe can now give their staff access to our high-quality mental wellness gym and thus enable their employees to train their knowledge tools and practice how to direct their different inner functions. As it is an online solution it enables access to improve your mind whenever they need it, 24/7.