It’s World Mental Health Day, a day when people from across the globe are encouraged to educate themselves, raise awareness and most importantly connect with one another around the subject mental health, and we at Litmos are proud to participate in honoring this important day.

Mental health issues affect us all and so on this day people are encouraged to share their experiences with mental health, in order to dismantle social stigma, develop a deeper understanding of mental health and ultimately improve people’s mental wellbeing.

The theme of this year’s World Mental Health Day is Working Together to Prevent Suicide. The World Health Organization report that “every 40 seconds, someone loses their life to suicide” and so, this year the WHO is encouraging people to join them to raise awareness for suicide prevention by taking part in “40 seconds of action”.

The WHO suggest taking 40 seconds out of your day to start a conversation with someone you know who may be struggling with unwelcome thoughts or taking that time to reach out to someone you trust and letting them know how you’re doing.

So, in that spirit, what we thought we’d do here is spend 40 seconds (or maybe slightly longer) giving you four steps to try yourself or suggest to someone you know that may have been feeling particularly down recently.

1. Try keeping a daily mood diary. This is a great way for you to monitor your emotions and spot negative mood triggers. Once you’ve maintained a mood diary for a while, you will have a clearer idea of where your depression may stem from and then you can develop ways to avoid these negative triggers.

2. Reach out to your friends and family. They know you better than anyone. They can provide vital insights about who you are to them, offer you a different perspective on things and just give you some much-need love and support.

3. Engage in mindfulness. Pay attention to the present moment and your thoughts and feelings. Try doing something which always makes you happy and try to experience every aspect of it – you know, really savour every second – and think about why you enjoy it so much. This is a great way to train your brain to locate the joyful elements of everyday life.

4. Seek the help of a professional. There are loads of people trained and ready to help you when you aren’t feeling great. Go see a GP and tell them how you’re feeling or if you don’t feel like talking to someone, check out websites like MIND.org – their testimonials, information and advice is invaluable to anyone having tough time.

As an added bonus, we also have many courses which have been specifically designed to promote mental wellbeing and offer insights into some of the most common mental health conditions. They include:

• Mental Health Awareness
  Contained within our Care Certificate collection, the Mental Health Awareness course is designed to help you develop a better understanding and awareness of mental health conditions, dementia and learning disabilities. Originally intended for workers employed in in the health and social care sector, this course offers insight to anyone looking to develop their understanding of mental health.
• Health and Wellbeing Collection
  There are a number of mental health-related courses contained within our Health and Wellbeing collection which offer introductions to a number of mental health conditions, as well as other courses covering more general advice to personal and professional mental well-being.
• Introduction to Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
  This introductory course provides you with an overview of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT); one of the most popular mental health treatments. In this course you will learn how CBT focuses on managing your challenges by examining and changing the way you think and feel.
• Anxiety and Panic Attacks
  Anxiety is one of the most common mental health problems worldwide. In this course, you our provided with key information about the condition. As well as this you learn about the condition’s most common symptom, panic attacks; and also, we show you some basic therapeutic coping tips.
• Bipolar Disorder
  Bipolar disorder is recognized as one of the most common mental health conditions, affecting approximately 1% of the global population. In this introductory course we teach you about bipolar disorder, how it can affect your life, and learn some coping strategies for daily life.
• Borderline Personality Disorder
  Borderline personality disorder is a mental health condition marked by mood swings and unstable behavior. In this course you will learn key information about the condition, how to recognize and define the four different symptom groups and some basic BPD coping techniques.
• Five Ways to Wellbeing
  Caring for your mind is as important and crucial as caring for the body. This course will teach you about the “Five ways to wellbeing” steps and how they can improve your mental wellbeing.
• Understanding Emotion
  Emotions shape an individual’s belief about the value of a job, a company, or a team. Emotions also affect behaviors at work. Research shows that individuals within your own inner circle are better able to recognize and understand your emotions.
• What are Emotions?
  In this course we explore the role emotions play in the workplace and how both positive and negative emotions can benefit productivity. Alongside this we illustrate how to maintain a healthy balance of emotions in your workplace which will lead to greater job performance.

As well as these courses, make sure to look out for our soon-to-be-released Mindfulness collection which will be available early next year.

With our busy and chaotic lives, juggling work, home, traffic, sleep, cooking dinner, exercising… urgh. It’s easy to sometimes feel completely snowed under. Because of this, the practice of mindfulness is becoming increasingly important to businesses and individuals. This brand-new Mindfulness collection will include tons of guidance and ideas for living in a more calm, conscious way – from controlling our tempers, relinquishing our need for complete control, and just stopping to smell the roses every now and again.

So, don’t forget to honor World Mental Health Day by taking just 40 seconds out of your day.