15 Emotional Wellness Activities to Practice in the Workplace

Contrary to popular belief, employee wellness is a much broader term that includes more than just physical health. It is a combination of many things, including emotional wellness, mental wellness, etc. But the reality is most people keep fixating on physical wellness and forget the rest.

One of the elements which get neglected the most is emotional wellness. Also, most employees mistake it for mental health, which is entirely wrong. So, to clear the air, let’s try to understand emotional wellbeing better with some emotional wellness activities as well.

What is Emotional Wellness?

Emotional Wellness means a person’s ability to cope with various aspects of life like meaningful relationships, hardships, failures, etc. It is being aware of one’s feelings and how to manage them healthily without losing control over it.

It is again very different from mental health in the following perspective.

How is Emotional Wellness different from Mental Wellness?

Mental wellness means how your mind processes different information while emotional wellness means how you cope with your emotions in response. Here, mental health is also a much broader term than emotional wellness.

While emotional wellness only looks at controlling emotions, mental health is more than just processing information. Mental wellness also determines how you reason things and maintain a steady and fully focused attention span.

Out of the differences cited above, there are also many elements on which the two terms differ. To sum things up, you can view emotional well-being as a part of mental well-being but not the other way around.

15 Emotional Wellness Activities To Practice In The Workplace

Now, let’s get to the main topic at hand, a few of the emotional wellness activities to do in the workplace to improve emotional health.

1. Spend some time with your passion

One of the best ways to divert a mind from troublesome aspects is to do something you love. In this regard, you should allow some time for your workers to indulge in their passion. It can be painting, music, writing, etc.

Indulging in a passionate activity makes individuals feel better and helps them get through harsh times.

By feeling good about themselves, they will also express their emotions at the workplace better. It will further help them enhance their emotional wellbeing.

2. Meditation

Office meditation techniques are a great way to fend many negative aspects like workplace stress, anxiety, workplace depression, etc. Fortunately, it will also help with better emotional stability. By meditating and doing deep breaths, workers can get a deeper understanding of their surroundings.

It helps calm the mind down and bring itself to a state of neutrality. It is especially helpful in frustrating situations wherein employees lash out as a result. Here, practicing meditation at work will help your workers cope with their emotions better in the office.

3. Yoga

Yoga in the workplace is another activity in the workplace that can help both the body and mind. Practicing yoga can help eliminate stress, anxiety, depression, and other mental illness. It is because yoga poses can help with emotional stability as well.

Furthermore, yoga can enhance resilience. This resilience can help one recover from negative emotions, which aid in emotional wellness.

4. Journaling

Writing down one’s emotions can also help deal with feelings as well. In this regard, workers should keep a journal wherein they can write their thoughts. It is also a great alternative because some employees may not feel comfortable talking about their emotional problems.

In this case, a private dairy can be of excellent health in daily life. Writing in a journal can be the same as talking things out. It prevents workers from bottling up their emotions.

5. Positive Affirmations

Positive affirmations are also a great way to cope up with emotions. Things like “I am worth it, I am better than this” are an excellent make-belief for a mind to motivate itself. These are excellent to get through bad emotions and encourage workers to handle themselves better.

6. Gratitude List

Workers like everyone else should always be grateful for the things going right. A sense of gratitude helps mask and cope with bad experiences. So, every worker must practice this good deed. Your workers should always write down three things they are grateful for throughout the day.

7. Exercise

Practicing different exercises can also help with emotional wellbeing. Exercising releases hormones from your mind that boosts your mind. This “boost” helps one handle oneself better and push forward towards emotional stability.

Here, you don’t have to get fully in the workout zone while being in the workplace. You can also practice simple office exercises to get the blood flowing in your physical body.

8. Volunteer

Volunteering for different office activities is also suitable for emotional wellness. It brings out a sense of camaraderie with a team that makes one feel good. Furthermore, it can also be a fun way to divert the mind whenever necessary.

It also helps bring a different perspective into your emotions after being away from it for a while.

9. Social Activities

Since your workers spend a lot of time among themselves, they often form strong bonds of friendship. By workers spending time with their best mates in the office, they also feel good about themselves. It proves to be a healthy distraction from the competitive business world.

in this regard, activities like office outings and office parties, have a great impact on emotional health.

10. Talk it Out

Talking things out is crucial in maintaining proper mental and emotional health. Here, you must have employee counseling for workers to talk out things with professionals.

Counseling will help workers get a different opinion on their emotions running wild. It helps cope with emotions better. Here, having a support group in the office will also work wonders.

11. ACT

ACT means Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. A therapy, as such, can help diffuse workers from their emotions. ACT helps one space out oneself mentally and emotionally from certain events by focusing on their strength.

It also helps with coping skills as to how not to take things personally. To practice this therapy in the workplace, you will need professionals to handle things with your workers.

12. CBT

CBT stands for Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. This therapy helps people understand that the root of a problem is their thoughts and how they perceive it. For example, if we take challenges as an opportunity to learn more, it is no longer a problem.

Like ACT, CBT also requires proper professionals in the workplace to practice this for significant results.

13. MBSR

MSBR stands for Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction. It helps one enhance mindfulness by teaching one how to live in the moment and be less reactive. To have this activity for your workers, you must have a professional to oversee the activity.

14. Take a Pause

It is important to detach oneself from work somedays. This is because while working in a competitive business environment, one can get suffocated with work. A sensation as such can harm one’s mental health to a great extent.

Therefore, one must pause from time to time. It means having a timeout during a workday. Even taking a few days off can also help one as well in this regard.

Related Article: 8 Awesome Ideas For Brain Breaks For Adults

15. Laugh out Loud

Last but not least, your workers must enjoy life and laugh it up with a jolly sense of life. Humor is a potent tool to overcome harsh times and reality. So, your workers must find out time to have fun and laugh at things. It can be looking at videos, sharing silly experiences, etc.

These were our suggestions for some emotional wellness activities you can practice at the workplace.

Conclusion

The way we express our emotions is vital for everyone around us. It is because the way we express ourselves can harm us and also hurt the people around us. In this process, workers can also be the cause of an unhealthy working environment.

This is a crucial matter as maintaining a proper workplace environment is vital in the workplace. The way one person behaves can affect the whole workforce. So, your workers must put effort into being emotionally healthy people.

To cultivate this ever-important wellness, we take it that starting with our list of activities is the best way for your employees. Take your pick today!