![]() ![]() We have been searching for a “quick fix”, likened to taking a pill, to prevent emotional energy discharge. The system can compound the stress through workforce-unfriendly technology, workload, blame-based governance systems, bullying and harassment, and policies, actions and processes that are in contradiction with values and purpose of the organisations we work in. Distress could be caused by competition, juggling family, work and training, mistakes, failures, rejection, comparisons, unrealistic expectations, and interpersonal tensions. Common distressing emotions are guilt, shame, anger, jealousy, powerlessness, feeling excluded or devalued, mistrust and doubt. Threats can elicit distressing emotions within us and may have an impact on our self and on our relationship with others. If we learn to validate these emotions without feeling shame, and reframe threats as opportunities using kindness and gratitude, then we could bring about calm and solve problems peacefully. Negatively reacting to distressing emotions can drain our emotional energy. Distressing emotions are essential for human survival and leading change, as they are warnings that something is not right. It seems that the benefits of kindness and gratitude can be explained by neuroscientific mechanisms. Rather than taking this for granted, we could be grateful for their time and embrace the opportunity to leverage their strength. In these situations, they are donating their valuable time. We may realise that this person stops to say hello, responds to emails or even agrees to meetings. One question arises commonly as to how to deal with someone you feel negatively about. If we stop and notice, we as humans rely on each other to function as a society through everyone’s contributions – this connects us together and makes us all equal. Gratitude is easy to show to others, even to individuals we believe have not contributed. If we stop and reflect, we as humans have one common purpose: leading a contented and purposeful life. Everyone reacts to and manages situations differently and based on their genetics, environment and capabilities. Everyone faces some issue in their lives relating to their families, workplaces, finances, health and societies. Kindness is easy to practice, even on individuals we perceive have caused us wrong. Insomnia has given us plenty of time to explore and design pathways to constructive solutions and moderate impulsivity. Impulsivity offered us the ability to speak our minds respectfully without excessive filtering and political correctness. Creativity and risk-taking aspects of ADHD have given us unlimited access to ideas and the courage to run with a few of them, without fearing risk. ![]() PTSD and childhood trauma have given us lenses through which to identify injustices – contradictions between stated organisational values and processes, policies and actions. It would be remiss of us not to highlight some of the benefits our mental health issues have yielded. ![]() The practice of kindness and gratitude could set the foundation for these efforts, delivering joy at work. We believe that while recharging initiatives are important, it may be more efficient to invest efforts into minimising emotional energy discharge. Having experienced and living with our own mental health issues (post-traumatic stress disorder, trauma, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and anxiety) and observed burnout among our colleagues, we came to recognise that practising kindness and gratitude could simplify our approach to the pursuit of mental wellness. While the system does its part by addressing some aspects of wellbeing, individuals need to invest in their own wellbeing. PUBLIC and private health systems around the world have committed to creating better workplace culture to improve wellbeing of their health workforce. ![]()
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