Mental Health Awareness Week May 2021

To acknowledge Mental Health Awareness Week and to encourage positive mental health and well-being at MB House, we shared daily tips with our employees. Tips were based around planning work in advance, taking healthy breaks, sharing problems, trying a digital detox and making small changes which all have huge impacts.

Some of the tips include:

• You are what you eat. Begin your day as you mean to go on full of energy. Strive to eat three proper meals a day to maintain your energy and concentration levels. Skipping meals can reduce your productivity throughout the day, as well as impacting on your metabolism.
• Get on the move. Aim to take a break from your desk and keep moving wherever possible, even if this is whilst working at home/remotely too. Switching the room which you take your breaks in, walking around the office and/or home, leaving the building to buy lunch, and just taking time out is important to refresh your head space.
• Brave the outdoors. If the weather allows it, try a leisurely lunch time walk, a brisk run after work or even a bike ride either by yourself or with someone else to help motivate you – you might enjoy it and get fitter too!
• Eat away from your desk. We have a canteen and encourage you all to use it for lunch time breaks and to make this space your own to enjoy a healthy break with people across all departments.
• It’s good to talk. When workload permits and those immediate deadlines have been met, make sure you take time to talk to your team, you might find one of them needs your support or you might find they can support you! Together we are stronger!
• And…. relax! Breaks are great, but it’s how you use them that really counts. Breaks can be useful to read a few chapters of your book, call a friend, go shopping…anything which gives your mind a rest from and time away from your screen. You should aim to feel calm and refreshed when coming back to work from a break.
• Alarmingly good idea. If you are the kind of person who often gets engrossed in your work and find yourself losing track of time, setting an alarm which may be useful to remind yourself to take your breaks.
• Mental Health Matters!