(Peacefully) Fighting back with Mindfulness: Mental Health Awareness Month

In light of Mental Health Awareness Month and the abundant articles we’ve written about the pressures and high expectations imposed on the millennials generation to have their life together make it clear that the issue exists, and is widespread. But what can we to about it to mitigate the stress associated with it? A 2010 study conducted at Harvard University in Massachusetts found that mindfulness increases happiness. But what is mindfulness? Reachout.com explains that ‘mindfulness’ “simply means paying attention to the present moment. Practising mindfulness can help you to cope with everyday life and deal with tough times.” Mindfulness is often associated with meditation. Whilst meditation is a valuable practice for eliminating stress, mindfulness can be achieved in a variety of ways – the most important part is to remain acutely aware of yourself and your feelings. Reachout advises to concentrate on what’s happening around you. Think about this right now as you’re reading:

• What sounds can you hear?
• What can you smell?
• Are you hot? cold?
• Are you hungry?
• How are you breathing? Think about each breath you take. In, and out.

That is what mindfulness feels like.

To learn more about (peacefully) fighting back your stress with ‘mindfulness,’ read more on Reachout!

– Leonie

Career Success means Living to Work

Before the age of 30, we expect and place pressure on ourselves to obtain a profitable career because it means success, it means happiness.

Of course, this can be understood as such a stable desire and can be aspirational to mostly everyone.

So how to do it?

In coming across this article on CBNC, Marketing Guru, Scott Galloway provides a few insights into what it takes to get that ahead in obtaining that successful ‘millennial career’.

Firstly, if you want to be the best and reap the long term dividends you have to realise that 10-20 years of your life may now be dedicated to work.

“Acknowledge that you’re pretty much going to have time to work and to work out — and that’s about it.”

Second, play with someone better than you.

Whether that means moving cities for greater competition or finding a new workplace – in order to be the best you must compete and learn amongst people of higher skill.

And thirdly, differentiate yourself!

“You need something that can digitally differentiate you from everyone else, because the entire world is now one big LinkedIn profile,” Galloway says. “And, you need people to know that you have credentials that separate you from other people.”

Best of all, if we can do this while we are young then yes, you will be on your way.

Good luck!

Full article here.

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EC

Comparison & Social Media: The downfall of the 20s

The advent of social media has created a social climate previous generations never had to cope with. Psychologist Melinda Rak states that social media is a significant contributor to why millennials experience a tough time with such high levels of the stress.

It’s a well-known (but often forgotten) fact that we only post the highlights of our life on social media. This has the consequence of leaving us constantly comparing us to that high standard. 95% of people in Australia use Facebook, and people in their 20s most frequently use social media (literally, every day). So every single day, every time we’re scrolling down our Facebook and Instagram feeds, we are faced with a wave of content featuring celebrities with perfect bodies, our friends constantly travelling the world and our peers showcasing their dream jobs. So when you suddenly combine the issue of comparison with the sheer scale of social media usage, it’s no wonder that it plays such a contributing factor in making us feel inadequate. Melinda emphasises that “Being angry, sad, frustrated, anxious etc. are all normal and acceptable emotions. However social media distorts this assertion by equating positive emotions as acceptable and expected, and thus more valued.”

For anyone who is seeking advice in how to cope with this, we’ve collected two quotes that are valuable to keep in mind – we hope you take them to heart like we did.

“The reason we struggle with insecurity is that we compare our behind-the-scenes with every one else’s highlight reels.” (Steve Furtick)

“Educating people on emotional literacy and their self-talk can go a long way to building resilience and coping skills. In addition, understanding how the lens of social media used to view society is currently out of focus, and that developing skills to reframe how one’s self-worth is not dictated by a photo.” (Melinda Rak)

– Leonie