This week marks Mental Health Awareness week in the UK, an opportunity for us to take stock of the importance of minding our mental health and reflect on what we can do to support the positive wellbeing of our team.
At TBP we are committed to supporting a healthy and resilient workforce, striving to create an open and balanced workplace by partnering with wellbeing experts and investing in resource to support our employees. This week we have hosted a number of events and initiatives to mark Mental Health Awareness Week 2021.
Developing mental resilience:
Most mental health strategies focus on reacting to those in crisis, rather than proactively preventing them from reaching that point. The most important building block of mental resilience is developing skills to manage thoughts and emotions. This week we took part in Tough Cookie’s Mixed Mental Arts programme - ‘Hacking our body’s stress response’ - a toolkit of practical techniques to manage thoughts and emotions, helping to build resilience through lasting behaviour change.
Laughter yoga:
They say that laughter is the best medicine, so why not combine it with yoga? Laughter yoga is a practice involving prolonged voluntary laughter which can provide the same physiological and psychological benefits as spontaneous laughter. We held a virtual laughter yoga session this week to help our teams connect, relieve stress and boost their moods, with some tips to takeaway and integrate more laughter into everyday life.
Mental health support all year round
We recognise that the mental health impact of the pandemic will be long-lasting and the safety and wellbeing of our workforce has remained one of our core priorities. Last year we gave all employees access to a virtual counselling service, available via the business and completely confidentially, an initiative that we will continue to provide for everyone across the business if they need it.
30 days of fitness:
This year, the theme of Mental Health Awareness Week is nature. Over the last 30 days we have been encouraging our teams to get outside and get active. In London, New York, Chicago, Paris and Singapore, our teams have been running, walking and cycling to boost their physical and mental wellbeing, whilst raising money for our charity partners Whitechapel Mission, Mind, Food Bank for New York City, Apprentis D'auteuil and G2C Children’s Society. Our goal is to collectively travel the distance between London and New York. We have already raised more than £3,500 and covered over 4,000km. We are currently somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, so we have a bit of a way to go yet!
