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Hoffman Counselling & Psychotherapy

How Does Creating Balance in our Work Lives Help To Build Resilience?

Our physical and emotional well being is at the heart of our resilience and ability to perform well in the long term at work. When we work too hard, for extended periods, most people will experience a variety of side effects that reduce their ability to stay cool under pressure or think clearly.

Here are the findings of a Mental Health Organisation survey of employees who were working long hours:

  • One third of respondents feel unhappy or very unhappy about the time they devote to work.
  • More than 40% of employees are neglecting other aspects of their life because of work, which may increase their vulnerability to mental health problems.
  • When working long hours more than a quarter of employees feel depressed (27%), one third feel anxious (34%), and more than half feel irritable (58%).
  • The more hours you spend at work, the more hours outside of work you are likely to spend thinking or worrying about it.
  • As a person’s weekly hours increase, so do their feelings of unhappiness.
  • Many more women report unhappiness than men (42% of women compared with 29% of men), which is probably a consequence of competing life roles and more pressure to ‘juggle’.
  • Nearly two thirds of employees have experienced a negative effect on their personal life, including lack of personal development, physical and mental health problems, and poor relationships and poor home life. Quoted on www.mentalhealth.org.uk

Relaxation and breaks build resilience

Working too many hours without breaks has been proved to reduce the ability of our brains to do the following:

  • Our emotional brain is more likely to run riot. For example after a bad day, you get home and your children have made a large mess in their bedrooms on other days you may have the capacity to laugh it off or talk it through with them, after a bad day you shout and tell them how inconsiderate they are.
  • It is harder to make decisions. We cannot think as clearly so making decisions based on facts, data and gut feel will take longer and may not be as well thought through.
  • Our creative and problem solving capacities will be limited. Break through thoughts or ideas rarely come out of stressed or over worked times.
  • Often when our brains are left to wander (maybe whilst out on a run or in the shower) we get moments of inspired thinking.
  • It is harder to hold information. Our memory cannot hold too many things so when over worked things fall into the gaps; our brains will forget things that otherwise would not happen.
  • It is harder to resist urges to eat rubbish, drink too much caffeine or alcohol. The part of our brain that inhibits our knee jerk reactions finds it hard to function when over tired, stressed or worked.

To be resilient and function to the best of our abilities we need our brains to be well fuelled and rested. A more balanced approach to our lives that involve better eating, exercise, breaks, rest and play will increase our ability to effectively perform whether at work or out of work.

To Book an Appointment Please Call: 07778 136 995

Hoffman Counselling & Psychotherapy