How is our mental health today?

Some months ago, I addressed the theme of mental health and its importance in the context we are living.

We are exhausted, saturated, tired, fed up! Who doesn’t feel like this?

The fatigue is real! For the first time in history, we used the expression “pandemic fatigue”, recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a natural symptom of the current times: a right that we are intitled to as human beings. “The pandemic fatigue growths gradually with time and it is influenced by the cultural, social, structural and legislative environment”, WHO refers.

And now? We are constantly put to test. But well… we are still alive!

When we experience high stress or challenging situations, our neurobiological mechanisms react by identifying an eventual threat situation. Our system goes on alert state and activates its survival mode, releasing adrenaline and cortisol and increasing our heart rate. Our emotional self-regulation provided by the connection to our cognitive system is compromised. In this context, we get into autopilot and stuck into repetitive thoughts, fear reveals itself like a blockage to us, shattering the consciousness of ourselves and others.

With the pandemic situation, this whole process is exacerbated, compromising our mental health, our ability to act and think straight for better and effective decisions.

The way out of this mechanic cycle of emotional hijacking is to build and cultivate Resilience.

Resilience
Resilience is a constant learning effort and is usually defined as the ability to resist adversity and to recover from difficult life events (crises, disappointments, failures, obstacles … and, also, pandemics).

Being resilient does not mean that anxiety, stress, and suffering are not experienced. It means that they are experienced with our full awareness, as we take advantage of our own personal resources and skills – looking for support systems whenever necessary – in order to overcome challenges and solve problems. It is a competence that must be practiced and cultivated in a constant development process:

• Accepting reality as it is;
• Believing deeply that there is a purpose in our life;
• Having the unwavering ability to improve.

These are the 3 essential characteristics we need to be attentive and reactive, keeping a positive and conscious posture, drawing the right lessons from each moment, without fear or concern of recognizing failures.

Cultivating resilience through the practice of mindfulness
Mindfulness practice is one of the basic tools for the development of emotional intelligence skills and it has been identified as one of the most useful and effective practices to become more resilient and strengthen our mental health.

How to implement “mindfulness” in the business context?
The practice of mindfulness is easy, but it requires consistency and discipline. Investing on these two specific factors is the key so that both employees and the organization itself can benefit from its usefulness.

Whether using different meditation techniques, guided or autonomous, that employees may learn with a specialized assistance; whether through the awareness of everything they do: read, write, listen, speak, eat well, rest and sleep well … the positive impact that it generates contribute to their creativity and productivity, drastically reducing the prevalence of chronic diseases, absenteeism, dissatisfaction, exhaustion, and conflicts.

When we feel good, our unlimited potential is activated and put at the service of the organizational ecosystem.

And this is one of the main purposes at ABC Sustainable Luxury Hospitality, in which beyond the dynamization of a unique, independent, profitable, genuine and authentic hospitality, we actively promote the continuous improvement of the human being as the key to an abundant and conscious economic and social society.

Alexandra Outeiro
HR Specialist
ABC Sustainable Luxury Hospitality