Adaptability and flexibility for World Mental Health Day

With World Mental Health Day coming around it always reminds me that mental health is never just about one day. It is a reminder for everyone that it is all of our responsibilities to support ourselves, hold ourselves accountable and take responsibility for understanding our values, feelings and behaviours to others. If we can do that, then we can start to help others by sharing these experiences. A mass change in mindset starts with the smallest steps and hopefully with this blog I will be able to play my part.

My work life has been a rollercoaster for the last few months. I have moved countries, dealt with deals collapsing, fundraising and also some successes along the way. What I have not done entirely well is deal with my mindset and flexibility to change.

This is something I have always struggled with and as a founder of a start up, change is inevitable. It is often seen outwardly as exciting but change can be incredibly uncomfortable for those involved in it. In business you will have loads of things you can control and other things you cannot, which does not help ease concerns from a mental health perspective.

I have recently been diagnosed with stress-induced alopecia which might come across as ironic for someone working in the wellbeing sector, but it is a result of me not being adaptable or flexible enough to change. I take things personally as my business is so reflective of me and it is hard to change the mindset when you are experiencing the unknown of start up life. The fact my body is telling me I am experiencing overwhelm by patches and the loss of my beard is a clear sign that I am not handling things well.

I am lucky that I have the great support network of my incredible wife, family, friends and amazing colleagues who have been crucial to me recognising this and changing my mindset around work.

This is where flexibility and adaptability come in. I know my own root causes of stress and anxiety and it predominantly comes from work and the unknown challenges of start up life. I have my framework for how to navigate this and to ensure I don't experience burnout (including regular exercise, reading and socialising) but sometimes these things can slip through the net. Having people who I care about and respect acknowledge I need to be more adaptable in my mindset has meant I can better manage this moving forward.

Controlling what I can control and not worrying too much about the future is a big element of this. The point of this blog and in particular on World Mental Health Day is that mental health is a forever changing part of our lives. We have to be flexible and be able to adapt to what is going on around us and what we are experiencing. The most important part for me is that I have others around me that I trust to let me know I am struggling even when I cannot see it. This involves communication and opening up more and if there is one thing to take away from this make it that. You never know when you will need it most.