Nurturing Equanimity by Michael Edmondson

Author:Michael Edmondson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Business Expert Press
Published: 2023-07-13T00:00:00+00:00

“As stress and burnout levels continue to climb amid the ongoing pandemic, employers are putting the overall well-being of their employees at the top of their list,” said Regina Ihrke, WTW’s senior director, health, and benefits. “The organizations that most effectively move the needle are those that develop a comprehensive strategy that supports all aspects of their employees’ well-being. It’s also important to articulate that strategy to employees, conduct manager training and measure effectiveness.”17 As Kristin Lee wrote in Psychology Today, organizations need to “bake mental health support into work cultures.” To nurture equanimity and build a caring culture, baking mental health support into the employee experience means providing time paid time off, creating flexible work conditions, and treating people like actual human beings. “Work cultures that strive to avoid punitive and hierarchical ways, and instead work to build psychological safety and trust can breed the conditions that help mitigate burnout.”18 After helping leaders incorporate self-care into work cultures, Amy Jen Su echoed similar sentiment and observed “One CEO I worked with summed it up best when he said: ‘Self-care is no longer a luxury; it’s part of the job.’”19

One model available to leaders and managers in those organizations who wish to nurture equanimity and create a caring culture by prioritizing self-care is the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) Wellness Initiative. Since self-care and wellness is a broad concept, the SAMHSA provides individuals with a multidimensional approach for consideration that involves eight different elements: emotional, physical, occupational, intellectual, financial, social, environmental, and spiritual. “These dimensions are interconnected, one dimension building on another.”20 By using this model, leaders and managers can prioritize self-care within a framework that covers eight different aspects of an individual’s life. Such comprehensive coverage of self-care demonstrates a high level of commitment the organization has toward its employees. For SAMHSA, “wellness is about how we live our lives and the joy and fulfillment and health we experience.”21 To help leaders and managers better understand the interconnectedness of these eight elements of self-care and wellness, here is an example to consider as the organization looks to nurture equanimity and create a caring culture.

When employees worry about money (most recently the escalating price of consumer goods outpacing pay raises), individuals may experience anxiety (emotional). With anxiety comes the possibility of related medical problems (physical) and even the potential for negative experiences at work (occupational). When this happens, the employee may start to question their sense of meaning and purpose (spiritual). Additionally, if an employee is laid off due to the financial collapse of their organization, and therefore, through no fault of their own, they stop working (occupational), lose opportunities to interact with others who they worked so closely with for years (social), and may not be able to afford the good food and medical care they need to stay well (physical). If the situation gets critical, the employee may even need to move out of their residence and into a more affordable place that feels less safe and secure (environmental).

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