I-act Managing and Promoting Positive Mental Health

The power of building mind muscle!

Jane JamesLeave a comment

I’ve been working on a new project for a number of weeks focussing on collaborative empowering of the spouses, partners and adult children of currently serving UK Armed Forces personnel.

The Armed Forces in the UK, rightly, have the spotlight of support and training on them. They have taken the decision to protect the UK’s security.

The power behind them, did not. Without strong families supporting their loved ones, who are also our Armed Forces personnel, they can’t completely focus on their role.

But what about that often invisible power? Who puts the spotlight of empowerment on them?

On meeting Carolyn and Linzi from Military CoWorking Network, I discovered a kindred passion for the same thing. The organisation is run by spouses and partners of all Armed Forces for their peers. With classrooms on military bases to virtual workshops, all kinds of inspiring training is delivered.

The Military Reboot page on this website gives more detail on this exciting niche area.

Military CoWorking Network are hosting a webinar towards the end of November for their membership where I will share the content of Military Reboot and the planned start date in January.

Sneak Peak!……..

This morning was a rollercoaster of emotions – mainly frustration! – that arrives from trying to compile an information video to introduce Military Reboot when technical av software is not my forte!

Luckily, I practice what I teach!

For years I have been practising non-negotiable proactive self-care in short timed windows throughout my day to calm my mind which in turn has built the mind muscle essential when emotions run high to challenge the negative thoughts that automatically arise.

Finally, after cutting too much video, reinstating it, then cutting too much audio, I felt a sense of satisfaction when I finally uploaded the film to Vimeo for Military CoWorking Network to share!

Do you practice proactive or reactive self care?

Jane JamesLeave a comment

Awesome!

24/08/2022

After just one week on site with Pertemps, Haajarah has an awesome 1st appraisal. Scoring 9s and 10s with strengths in all areas she is adding huge value to the Pertemps team whilst empowering herself.

Unemployment, will often, naturally bring a dip in confidence. This leads to employers not seeing the full ability and potential of a potential new recruit to their business in a typical traditional recruitment scenario.

For over eight years, Growing Talent has bulldozed traditional recruitment practices. There are no cvs, job descriptions nor formal interview based on generic questions, which amplify the negative dip in confidence and enable assumptions to be made.

Instead, we have employer speed dating, one to one chats (employer selection processes) and a robust orientation/holistic week – which includes I-act Managing and Promoting Positive Mental Health and Wellbeing – prior to the new talent arriving on site. Empowered, more confident and ready to learn.

What’s not to like?

Growing Talent is a 360 degree ‘win win’ for the individual, employer and employers’ existing team.

Ready to recruit a different way?

#socialmobility #unlockthetalentwithin #collaboration #belonging

Positive Mental Health – It’s a Global Thing….

Jane JamesLeave a comment

It’s so grounding to work virtually with people from different countries and cultures to learn how mental health is viewed in their countries.

This week, I had the honour of delivering the global, accredited I-act Managing Positive Mental Health and Wellbeing to delegates from China, Taiwan, Korea and Germany.

All highly engaged, sharing their experiences and insights into how mental health is viewed in their Home Countries. One thing is clear, people the world over are passionate and proactive to learn how to maintain optimum positive mental health whilst raising their awareness and confidence in supporting those around them.

What made the event even more special, was all delegates undertook the course as part of their journey to become an accredited I-act Instructor within their business.

The word is clearly spreading.

Positive mental health is critical not only to individuals, but to families, communities, businesses, economies – in fact, everything!

I’m so proud to be part of this global awareness.

Knowledge is Power!

Jane JamesLeave a comment

Yesterday saw the final delivery of @I-act Managing and Promoting Positive Mental Health & Wellbeing of the year!

Now the team of managers have tools and knowledge to enable them to increase their own self-care and those around them in the workplace – ‘I can and I will’ is the new mantra!

Designed specifically for the workplace, I-act Managing & Promoting Positive Mental Health and Wellbeing is proactive and accredited by the Royal College of Psychiatrists. It teaches over 50 tools for self-care that can be used in supporting those around them as well. Proactive – early intervention leads to a quicker recovering. Learning when to start a conversation, how to prepare for it, techniques to ensure the individual feels validated and supported to identify their own solution, setting personal boundaries, assessing levels of interventions including suicide builds confidence in the workplace leading to a much more positive workplace.

What’s not to like?

Control what you can – ignore what you can’t!

Jane JamesLeave a comment

What a roller coaster the past couple of years have been.

It seemed we’d turned a corner with the Government lifting restrictions, more and more people leaving their hybrid workplace and returning to their offices – even booking holidays, events and Christmas family gatherings! Life getting ‘back to normal’?

Then, earlier this week came the news of yet another variant. Omnicron had arrived!  A vortex of fear, dread, overthinking fell on some intensified by the re-introduction of some restrictions by the UK Government.

Scientists in South Africa alerted the world to this new variant. We know by the time a new variant has been announced, it’s already out there in the world’s population. They couldn’t control the reaction of countries closing their borders. Had they known, would they have shared their discovery?

Borders are starting to close.  Restrictions are being re-introduced.  It can feel like news channels are on repeat cycles of doom without any context or balance.  There is no evidence of which way this new variant will go. The UK Government’s consistent guidance of ‘we have to live with this’, seems to have now been reversed.

It’s no wonder anxiety, fear and overthinking is rising in many of us.  So, what can we do? 

Control what we can – ignore what we can’t.

Accept some things we cannot control.  Governments and scientists will make their decisions. But, here’s the thing.  When we accept these things are out of our control, we can stop focussing on them and look at what we can control.  The fear, anxiety and negative thinking starts to dissipate.  We start to grow stronger and move forward.

Change your thoughts – start by questioning them.  What evidence do you have to think that way? Often, we think negatively because our minds are designed to keep us safe and so they over amplify negative thoughts. Merely by questioning our negative thoughts, their power starts to dwindle.

Control – what areas of your life can you focus on, control and inject positivity into? Building in some self-care windows to everyday routines, learning new skills these are some of the building blocks to growing self-esteem, empowerment and resilience. Doing something for somewhere else makes us feel better and them. Start with a simple smile. Watch – it’s infectious!

For employers, what additional things can be considered? 

Emotional Intelligence behavioural assessments – our emotions impact our thoughts.  Our thoughts impact our behaviours.  Our behaviours impact our actions which impact everything and everyone around us.  Thing is how we see our behaviours can be very different to how those around us experience them.

i-act’s Managing and Promoting Positive Mental Health and Wellbeing delivers all the tools to proactively build a resilient workplace. The 50+ tools taught in i-act are life-long skills that enable us to deal with all life events. Accredited by the Royal College of Psychiatrists, designed specifically for the workplace and global.

Therefore, I’m going to control what I can and ignore what I can’t – how about you?

Spreading the @I-act word!

Jane JamesLeave a comment

What a full on, interactive, knowledge sharing week it’s been so far and we’re only at Wednesday!

An unexpected, last minute re-schedule request saw two I-act Managing & Promoting Positive Mental Health and Wellbeing delivered on Monday with a little over one hour gap – exhilarating!

The first with a utilities organisation who have already delivered this course to many of their managers and seen the benefits of doing so….

Followed by a leading UK university – this time with some of their senior managers and academic staff. I never thought I’d be training a ‘Professor’! Fabulous collaboration and sharing of experience and thoughts.

In between these, work on a potential new advertising campaign for Growing Talent in the New Year, ongoing processing for 25 Genos EI Assessments for a global facilities services company – progressing nicely then yesterday I delivered I-act Managing and Promoting Positive Mental Health and Wellbeing to a mixed cohort including managers from diverse industries wanting to upskill their knowledge and some trainee instructors doing this as part of their accredited instructor journey….

What an honour it’s been to work virtually with so many people in such a short time!

What was some of the feedback?

“The course was very interesting and so close to my heart”

“You made us all feel included and comfortable – I learned so many new tools”

“I’m going straight back to work to talk to my managers – we need to do more of this!”

And what happened when I mentioned nose hair? Well, that’s a whole other post.

Some weeks are full to the brim with activity, new learning and wonderment. If we just open ourselves up to every opportunity – who knows where it will lead or the new connections we’ll secure!

Enjoy the rest of your week!