This week is Mental Health Awareness Week 2022, hosted by the Mental Health Foundation, and is an opportunity for everyone to focus on achieving good mental health. The annual event is running for seven days from 9th – 15th May and this year’s theme is ‘Loneliness’.
Being a business owner can be lonely. No one to bounce ideas off or share challenges with. It’s important to be aware of your mental health and do what you can to avoid loneliness.
So, we’ve pulled together seven tips to help reduce loneliness and improve your mental health:
Get outside
Taking a step away from your desk, site, shop, salon, whatever your work looks like…can make all the difference to your stress levels. It can help break a cycle so you return to work feeling replenished and ready to tackle your tasks with a fresh head.
Make time for face-to-face
Online meetings have their place (and never more so than the past two years) but meeting someone face-to-face and having social interaction is what we as humans are good at.
Stay connected
It’s important to keep in touch with your team and make time for that coffee break, or catch up. And even more so if you or your team are working from home. Touching base with each other means you’ll be able to pick up on how you’re all feeling and alleviate feelings of isolation.
Make time for you
Whether it’s during your working day or outside of work, making time for you by doing the things you enjoy is key. Perhaps sitting on the seafront with a book, or going for a walk in the woods is the thing that takes you away from everyday stresses and let’s you lose yourself for a while.
Find your community
Finding a community who can support you, and vice versa, can make all the difference to your journey. It might be an online community through a Facebook group or a local networking group, find people who are experiencing the same highs and lows as you.
Prioritise your relationships
This applies for relationships both inside and outside of work. Building relationships and improving communication with your team is an important part of running a business. And it goes without saying that prioritising your relationships with friends and family can help you feel well-rounded and balanced.
Share your struggles
Whether you choose to speak to friends, family, colleagues, your community or a business coach, sharing your struggles can help lift a weight off your shoulders. Particularly when people in your community or your business coach can actually help you overcome that problem.
If you’re wondering what a business coach does or how we can help you, please do get in touch, we’d love to hear from you.
