This year’s Business Show featured presentations and panel discussions with experts from across the industry. We’ve collated our highlights for those who missed the event.
Mental health and fitness are in the spotlight as the perils of today's hyper-connected world threaten to impinge on wellbeing. This can be particularly true among business owners and entrepreneurs. Penny Powers, British author and speaker, shares her advice on how to keep mentally fit, so you can give the best to yourself and your business.
What is mental fitness?
Mental fitness is not the same as mental illness, which includes depression and anxiety, says Penny. Instead, just as you can be physically healthy but not physically fit, so you can have mental health but not mental fitness, she says. Today’s 24-7 world is making many people feel overwhelmed and out-of-control, lowering resilience and impinging underlying happiness.
‘Every morning when we get out of bed, we put ourselves on a treadmill,’ Penny says. ‘We keep turning that treadmill up and it is exhausting.’ When you feel overwhelmed, Penny suggests writing down the triggers and using these to discover any recurring habits that might be hurting your sense of wellbeing.
Mental fitness is increasingly threatened by ‘compare and despair,' Penny says. As people play out their daily lives on social media, it can be easy to go online, compare yourself to others and feel bad. Overcoming this requires a deeper understanding of yourself and what you want. Once you’re clear on this, you’ll stop comparing yourself to others.
5 mental fitness tips
Managing your mental fitness requires time and self-care. Here are Penny’s top 5 tips.
- Know yourself deeply and stop comparing yourself to others.
- Know your core strengths as a person.
- Value yourself and then others will value you too.
- Pace yourself. Notice your wins and celebrate small steps as well as large steps.
- Find your own voice and own in. Be the leader of your life and your business.