In addition to physical and social well-being, mental well-being is essential for health.
The WHO describes mental health as "a state of well-being in which the individual is able to fulfill his or her potential, cope with the normal stresses of life, work productively and fruitfully and contribute to his or her community" (WHO, 2001). Mental health is influenced by a variety of factors: personal experiences, genetic factors, social relationships and family environment as well as personal resources, employment and working conditions and housing conditions.
It is important to Implenia that our employees stay healthy and get through life accident-free. Stress, whether at work or at home, cannot always be avoided. Our 2024 prevention campaign, in collaboration with SUVA (Swiss National Accident Insurance Fund), shows how we can deal with stressful situations and stress more calmly.
The campaign consists of:
March 2024: Two-hour workshop on "Stress and resources"
March 2024: "15 minutes of safety" on construction sites on the topic of "Stress and resources"
From May 2024: regular updates on the topic of stress management
November 2024: One-hour workshop on the topic of "Stress and exercise"
Tips against stress
Tip 1: Integrate exercise into everyday life
Regular exercise is good for body and soul. It improves fitness, strengthens the heart and helps to maintain a healthy weight. In addition, exercise releases happiness hormones that reduce stress and increase well-being. This makes us feel more balanced and relaxed overall.
Getting going can be difficult: After a long day at work, tiredness sets in and the sofa beckons. Here's how you can motivate yourself:
- Find the type of exercise that suits you: Explore different activities such as walking, yoga or dancing to find out what you enjoy and what motivates you to keep moving regularly.
- Discover your own motivation type: Identify whether you are more motivated by social interaction, personal goals or rewards and adapt your exercise strategy accordingly.
- Formulate specific goals: Set measurable goals such as daily step counts or weekly exercise hours to better track your progress and stay motivated.
- Make a plan: Create a weekly schedule that includes set times for exercise sessions to ensure you get active regularly and minimize excuses.
- Establish habits: Incorporate exercise into your daily routine by developing routines, such as walking in the morning or cycling to work
- Use your time effectively: Look for ways to incorporate exercise into your daily activities, such as taking the stairs instead of the elevator or doing short stretches during work breaks.
- Get support: Look for training partners or join a sports group to get motivation and support and achieve goals together.
- Document your progress: Keep a written record of your successes and achievements, whether in a diary, app or calendar, to track your progress and motivate you to keep going when you have setbacks.
For complete couch potatoes, exercise for pleasure can be a great option. Try to find activities that you really enjoy. This could be a relaxing walk in nature, a dance class with friends or gardening, for example. Perhaps focusing on enjoyment will help you to develop a love of exercise and get active on a regular basis without feeling like you're forcing or straining yourself.
By the way: In November 2024, we will be offering one-hour workshops in Switzerland on the topic of "Stress and exercise" – more information to follow!
Tip 2: Take a deep breath
Stressed and somehow out of balance? Breathing exercises can help to relax the body and mind and can be easily integrated into everyday life. Take the test and feel how the tension is released after just a short time!
Five breathing exercises to combat stress
- Calm down with deep abdominal breathing: Abdominal breathing helps you to relax quickly and collect yourself. Lie on your back, place your hands on your stomach and breathe in and out evenly through your nose, raising your stomach as you inhale and lowering it as you exhale. This exercise increases your oxygen supply and promotes relaxation, even if you may feel slightly dizzy at first.
- Fully concentrated with alternate breathing: Alternate breathing relaxes, balances the brain hemispheres and promotes concentration. Close your left nostril with the index and middle fingers of your right hand and breathe in through the right one. Then close the right nostril with your thumb and breathe out through the left. Repeat this by inhaling through the left nostril and exhaling through the right.
- Relax again with progressive muscle relaxation: Progressive muscle relaxation also helps you to calm down. Breathe in slowly, tense as many muscles as possible, hold your breath briefly and relax your muscles again as you breathe out. Repeat this about five times and then sit or lie down briefly to consciously experience the relaxation. More about progressive muscle relaxation: Helsana blog
- Relieve anxiety with the right breathing technique: Anxiety triggers stress and shallow breathing. The right breathing technique can help to overcome anxiety. To do this, lie on the floor, place your feet flat on the floor and place your arms next to your body. Tilt your pelvis towards your navel, press your spine towards the floor and exhale completely. Hold your breath briefly, tilt your pelvis back and inhale, lifting the small of your back. Repeat this for a few minutes and then remain lying down for a moment to deepen the relaxation.
- Positive mood through conscious heart breathing: Fear, frustration, anger, annoyance or nervousness: consciously replace these negative feelings with more pleasant sensations. To do this, focus your attention on the center of your chest and imagine that you are breathing in and out slowly and deeply through your heart region. Consciously remind yourself of a positive feeling: something you love, something that brings you joy, someone you like. Practice several times a day for at least five minutes.
Tip 3: Cultivate relationships
In our hectic working world, we often overlook a powerful resource against stress: our interpersonal relationships. Whether it's support from family, encouragement from friends or collaboration with colleagues, strong and positive relationships help to reduce stress and promote our wellbeing. They offer emotional support, share burdens and find solutions together.
However, relationships can also be stressful, often because of our relationship patterns. How do we recognize negative patterns and replace them with positive and fulfilling ones? By reflecting on ourselves , honestly analyzing our behaviors and working on them in a targeted way, we can improve our relationships and make them less stressful.
As a starting point, it can help to ask yourself the following questions:
- What friendships do I currently have - personal or at work? Make a list of the most important people in your life to get a clear overview of your social network
- Which friendships should I consciously maintain and which should I consciously end? Decide which relationships are good for you in the long term. Focus on spending more time with the people who give you energy and set clear boundaries against energy guzzlers.
- What small things can I do to nurture the relationships I want to cultivate? Small gestures of appreciation, such as a thoughtful conversation or a spontaneous invitation, can make a big difference.
Watch out, energy guzzlers!
You probably know them – those guys who suck up more energy than a cranked-up vacuum cleaner. They hide in the darkest corners of your life and pop up when you least expect them. They are everywhere! From your colleague's constant nagging to your girlfriend's drama to your uncle's endless complaints about the weather. But don't worry, you're smart enough to see through them.
Sometimes it's hard to get rid of energy hogs completely, especially if they're your colleagues or family members. But don't worry, there is hope! Set clear boundaries and maintain a positive attitude. Don't let their negative energy drag you down. If you can't help it, think of them like an annoying wasp - stay away and ignore them as best you can. Keep an eye on your own energy and actively surround yourself with positive people who build you up rather than tear you down. Remember: You are the ruler of your energy castle, so defend it with all your might!
Tip 4: Bye-bye perfectionism!
We live in a world with practically omnipresent pressure to perform. Day after day, we are expected to meet a wide variety of demands both at work and at home. This sense of entitlement can be stressful and overwhelming. We should therefore not forget: We are all only human beings with limited resources, be it the time available, the available means and capacities, but also our actual abilities. We don't have to – indeed, we can't – be perfect and ideally meet all requirements. We have to do our best and face the world and its demands with composure.
Here are some helpful tips:
- Set realistic goals: Focus on achievable and concrete goals rather than perfection. Always have the next step in mind and try to complete it as well as you can. You don't always have to think in huge time and context horizons and worry about things that are so far away or so long ago. Work on what's right now!
- Set priorities: Determine the most important tasks and work on these first. Our everyday lives sometimes seem like sheer chaos and threaten to overwhelm us with their complexity. To keep ourselves on track, we need to distinguish between the important and the unimportant and tackle what is feasible and sensible. Once the important things are done, the unimportant things usually take care of themselves.
- Learning to delegate: Trust that colleagues can take on tasks. You are not alone here. Fortunately, how could you have done it all on your own? Trust your colleagues and sometimes hand over things that are too much for you. At times when it's easier for you, you'll be happy to take over for the others.
- Practice self-acceptance: Accept that mistakes are human and can serve as valuable learning opportunities. People make mistakes – that cannot be changed. The trick is to learn from them. If you make an effort and still make a few mistakes, it's not a bad thing, it's normal and nobody will be angry with you.
Joy despite a lack of perfection
Stopped painting because you weren't at the level of Picasso or van Gogh? Too bad about the joy! What have you always wanted to do but never did because it wasn't perfect enough? Seize the opportunity and open a new chapter for yourself. Whether you want to learn a new skill or revive an old hobby: plan your first step now and enjoy every step forward – often as a correction of a mistake.
Tip 5: Learning to let go
Who hasn't experienced it? A failed project, a conflict with a colleague or a wrong decision - negative experiences from the past can stay with us for a long time. But what happens if we don't let go of these stressful memories? Constantly carrying negative experiences around with you can have a significant impact on your well-being. You become emotionally exhausted, your stress levels rise and you are less able to concentrate on the present.
This constant strain not only affects your mental balance, but can also lead to serious health problems. Chronic stress can lead to sleep disorders, increased susceptibility to infections, cardiovascular diseases and even mental disorders such as anxiety and depression. It is therefore essential that you learn to let go of the old and focus on the here and now.
How to learn to let go
Letting go of negative experiences is not an easy task, but it is possible and, above all, worthwhile. Here are some practical tips on how you can do this in everyday life:
- Practice acceptance: Accept that negative experiences are part of life. Instead of constantly asking yourself why something has happened, try to accept what has happened and come to terms with it.
- Self-reflection and forgiveness: Take time regularly to reflect on your feelings and thoughts. Forgive yourself and others to find inner peace.
- Cultivate positive thoughts: Try to focus on positive aspects of your life. Keep a gratitude journal in which you write down daily what you are grateful for.
- Have conversations: Talk to friends, family or a therapist about your negative experiences. It often helps to broaden your own perspective by sharing with others and shed emotional baggage.
- Mindfulness and meditation: Practice mindfulness and meditation to be present in the moment and calm your mind. This helps to detach from stressful thoughts.
- Activities and hobbies: Find activities that bring you joy and distract you. A new hobby or sport can work wonders and help you clear your head.
By learning to let go of negative experiences, you create space for new, positive experiences and strengthen your mental and physical well-being. Try out these tips and find out which methods work best for you. Your future self will thank you for it.
Exercise: Saying goodbye to old burdens
This exercise helps you to let go of something from your past or to forgive someone. Here's how it works:
- Think about what burden from the past is still bothering you!
- Who triggered it?
Write a letter to this person - but don't send it!
Let go of the letter (and the feelings) - e.g. burn it on a campfire, scatter it to the winds on a ship, etc.
Important: Be honest and disclose all your feelings. Ask yourself what exactly hurt you and what you would like for the future. Ideally, you will turn the negative experience into an important insight that will improve your life in the long term.
