Why do we prioritise physical health over mental health?

The top skill Kiwi workers will need to develop in the workplace now and in the future is a healthy mind.

We at Genius You—a company that teaches people how the mind works and how to use it to uncover their own brilliance by using emotions constructively—would love to see all New Zealanders put the same focus on their mental health as they do on their physical health.

If you want a satisfying career. If you want healthy relationships and if you want to be good with your money, you need to start thinking of mental health like you do physical health. I learned this the hard way, after being fired four times by employers because I didn’t realise that my mental health was a major contributor to my success and failure at work.

At the time I had no idea that my impulsivity was connected to my ADHD, which in turn affected my mental health. You don’t have to be neurodiverse to have mental health challenges—they affect us all a lot more than we know. I just couldn’t see it because you don’t know what you don’t know.

Much like developing physical fitness, developing mental fitness is a workout. It is hard work to sit on uncomfortable and painful emotions, but we need to learn how to use negative emotions if we want to become mentally fit and strong.

We run away from negative emotions, we medicate, and we avoid when instead we should listen to those negative emotions because the mind is trying to defend us against something that is harming us, which we may not even be aware of.

The healthier your mind, the more you can use it to be more effective in your personal life and career. When you can’t achieve what you want to achieve and do the things you want to do, that’s the time to stop and take note of your mental health.

Here is some advice to get you started on developing your mental health.

1. Acceptance

Everybody needs to accept that they have mental health.

Once you acknowledge that your mental health needs to be looked after like you do your physical health, you can begin to understand, improve and develop. Take responsibility for looking after your own mental health.

2. Learn about your mental health

Set a goal to learn about your mental health.

Find out how your mind works. Investigate it, talk about it—mental health isn’t a disorder thing, it’s a whole spectrum of a health thing.

3. Get to know your emotions

Our emotions are tools for strengthening our mental health.

Like weights in a strength training workout, emotions are the resistance in a mental health workout. Begin by documenting how your emotions work; what triggers them and how they affect your behaviour.

I urge you to pay attention to your mental health not just when there is a disorder or when issues flare up, but also in how it affects you and how to get the best out of it to build healthy relationships, a career and stable finances.

More information here: https://www.geniusyou.co.nz