Alisha Leytem: Hello everyone. It's Alisha from Alishaleytem.com, and welcome back to another episode of Unlocking Your Well-being. I'm super excited for today because here in this little solo episode, I have a video going for you today. I feel like old times, we're talking to the camera for this podcast episode, but I wanna share with you three powerful communication techniques that you can use to help improve the mental health and wellbeing of those around you.
So this can apply for you if you are a leader working in the workplace, and you want to make a positive impact on the mental health and well-being of your team and of the culture in general. This can apply for you as a parent in your home, with your family and your children or your spouse. And this can also apply with external family members or friends because these three communication techniques and tools are really able to assist anyone in really any stage of their life and wherever it is that you are.
Because here's the thing with mental health and wellbeing, it's really important that we have the open communication around it. It's important that we talk about it. In the past, it has been something that we don't discuss openly because I think it has a lot to do with the fact that you don't see mental health necessarily as much as you see, you know, physical health.
It's much easier to see if there's something physically wrong or to discuss something physical in terms of your health with someone around you at work or at home because it's something that you can tangibly see. With mental health or brain health, as a lot of people like to call it, this is something that is more unseen.
It's more of kind of the unknown, and it's something that we're trying to get a better understanding and better grasp on because like I just said, it's not something that's as tangible and physically seen with the mind's eye because it's in, it's in our, it's our, it's in our mind, it's part of our brains, and it's just as important as our physical health.
If you know me in my work you know that I'm a big, big believer in mind, body, health and wellness. So I believe our physical health impacts our mental health and our mental health impacts, our physical health. We're all working as one beautiful unit, mind, body, and soul are all interchangeable and working together.
So just as much as we work on our spiritual self and connecting with the power greater than ourselves of our own understanding meditating, connecting with the universal powers that you feel connected to is just as important as keeping your body moving and healthy and feeding at the right foods and your mental health.
The way that you think and view your life experiences and how you're responding and the thoughts that you're thinking are just as important in the way that this comes and with your mental health and wellbeing.
And part of having really strong mental health and wellbeing is communicating it, voicing it, getting it out, speaking it. As leaders, we have the ability to assist in that process of sharing and communicating how it is that we may or may not be feeling. When you are a leader who wants to make some changes or wants to positively impact the mental health of your teams or your workforce these three things are really going to give you very strategic, tangible things that you can do to make a big difference and to be the change.
The first thing is the power of being vulnerable. So this will require you to open your own heart and to share your own vulnerabilities to sharing where you are at personally, where you are at professionally with people around you, with your team. So if things aren't going so hot for you in your own life, be vulnerable and share that because when you are vulnerable in sharing what might be going on for you behind the scenes, and remember we all have something going on at all times that's part of the point of life, then you're creating a safe environment and a safe place for your team to feel that they can share what's going on with them too, as well.
This is just vital to remember that at the end of the day, we're all human beings. We're all human beings who are going through unique experiences, unique things in our life, circumstances, situations, we're all going through something. One of the most human things is to want to feel connected to the humanness of other people.
The best way to feel connected to that is to knowing like, Hey, I'm not alone in, this emotion that I'm feeling, or this same situation that I may have felt like before, that no one understands me or no one gets me, or no one knows what it's like because that's just not the human reality.
The reality is we all are so, so deeply connected and the disconnection is really happening when we're not opening up and sharing that vulnerable side of what's really going on with us and what we're experiencing with other people makes others feel less alone.
It makes feel safe enough to be able to trust you. So that's the first tip, is to be vulnerable. Say, Hey, this is what's going on with me too. If you're having a health scare or health situation, share that. You don't have to go into oversharing, you don't have to, overshare or spill every single detail about what's going on, but sharing just enough.
Let's say your your child is sick and, and now you're sick or you're really exhausted as a result of taking care of your sick child, and you kind of felt like you had to choose between, leaving work to take care of your child, and it's catching up with you and you're feeling very overwhelmed and trying to just juggle it all because it's very hard having a sick child as, as a parent and sharing that, Hey, this is like, what's really going on.
So being vulnerable and the thing about vulnerability is we must remember that vulnerability is actually one of your biggest strengths and one of your biggest powers as a leader. This is something that researcher and author Brene Brown has written about and researched about extensively. She even has a YouTube video called The Power of Vulnerability that explains this even more in depth.
If you haven't watched that video before or dove into Brene Brown's work, I highly encourage you to do so. But vulnerability, we think it is you showing weakness, but it's actually, research has shown the exact opposite. Vulnerability is you showing your strength and you showing your power because when you are tapped into the truth and strong enough to share what's really going on and how you're actually feeling, that is true.
Strength, pretending like everything's perfect and putting up this mask and, acting like a robot is actually not the strong thing. The strong approach, your greatest superpower and strength is your ability to be vulnerable. So be vulnerable and share what's, what's up with you.
My husband likes to open up these conversations in team meetings by asking and going around, how are you doing, how are you doing professionally? And how are you doing personally? And this helps to open up that vulnerable side. And oftentimes here myself will begin in that circle, right?
Like, okay, personally, here's what's going on with me and professionally, here's what's going on with me. And so that creates a safe environment for others to share for themselves as well.
#2-Tell, Show, and Repeat Often
The second thing is to tell, show and repeat often. So what does this mean? So it means that you are telling others what it is that is working for you, and what are some things that you are doing to impact and improve your own mental health and wellbeing.
So for example, in the workplace, let's say you have a really cool workshop series that's being offered in the organization. If the organization is not promoting that, or if you as a leader aren't promoting it or talking about it and telling it, then your team members are not going to hear about it, or they're not gonna see as much of value in it because you're not communicating that.
You're taking it, you're seeing it, and you're talking about it, and you're telling them you know, what it is that you're learning from it, what it is that you're doing yourself and how it's impacting you. So that's the second part of it, is telling them, what you're doing, what's working, you know, what are some things that are being offered that you're taking advantage of, but then also showing them how it is that you're doing that.
So, to elaborate on it, let's say this workshop series is you learning some mindfulness skills, and your intention was to learn these mindfulness skills or learn some meditation sessions that you feel resonate with you the most. Then you can go and meditate in the meditation room at the office that has been there for a while, or maybe it's brand new, and you really wanted to utilize that, so that you can tap into that sense of stillness and centerness and steadiness as you go about your work day.
An example would be, Hey, I'm learning about this really cool meditation style. It's called mindfulness meditation in this workshop series that our organization's offering. I actually went and did it myself in the meditation room just before this call or yesterday before I presented. It helped me immensely. I’ve noticed a huge difference in my mental health, and it's making me feel a lot less anxious and so much more steady and calm throughout the day.
It's really awesome. That is an example of telling them about something, but then also doing it, embodying it, and showing it with your actions. Again, that that creates this container of safety and of you walking the talk and not just talking or telling someone else to go do it, but rather I'm doing it. I'm engaging it. Here's how it's helping me, and exactly what this looks like for me.
Or even, Hey, I have been using my mental health days and this is what I did in my mental health day. I took my family, we weren't for this hike, and I felt so good after that. It was awesome for me. I highly encourage you guys to take your own mental health days that we have a, you know, available for you here at the office, et cetera, et cetera. But what's important about this is you can't just you tell it, say that you're doing it, and then do it once.
This is ongoing behavior. This is something that I speak about all of the time, which is the power and the impact of embodying and being and leading wellbeing. Doing these things. Being truly a, a leader who embodies wellbeing, who takes care of the physical health, takes care of their mental health, takes care of their spiritual health, makes it something that is a top priority and does it.
That is not just saying one thing, but it's showing it and being the change. And as you be the change, you don't have to say it as much. You will see a ripple of impact from that. Like, oh, they're doing that, she's doing that, he's doing that. I now feel safe for me to explore and do that.
They then improve and we begin to start seeing ripple of changes in as well, the culture beginning to show that it's safe to take the time to do that, that it's safe here for us to meditate or calm down or genuinely use these programs and opportunities to help you with your own mental health and wellbeing.
#3-Keep the Conversation Open and Going
The third communication tool that you can use to assist with this is to continue to keep the conversation open and the conversation going. This isn't just a one and done thing and checking it off the box. This needs to be an ongoing conversation, continuing to ask and check in, Hey, how are you doing? Here's how I'm doing. And then follow up. Hey, I, I heard, you know, I know you just had that, that doctor's appointment. How did it go? How are you feeling? Or, Hey, I know that you were taking that mental health day last week. What did you do? How did it go?
Continued to have that open and honest communication so that you can have this flow, this beautiful flow of back and forth and back and forth. This is where that safety to be able to communicate their wellbeing needs with you and you with them really improves mental health massively with people.
There was an article that came out recently that I read that found that wellbeing, especially mental health and wellbeing, the workplaces is highly impacted by managers and leaders in their own behavior. What you do and what you don't do will impact your team immensely. So keeping this conversation open and a safe harbor for you guys to discuss, it means that if and when something comes up for someone, they feel safe, that they can actually come to you and tell you what's going on ahead of time before it becomes something that is irreversible, like, burn out or they're just done and checked out at that point, or don't even tell you.
Do the quiet quitting thing that's been happening, across, across the country lately. So having that open and honest communication will also help with having and creating a kind culture and being kind and loving to one another because when you're kind and loving and have compassion, then this is a much safer environment to feel as though you can thrive in.
At this point you know, past the last three years, past 2020, we're no longer interested, in my opinion, in just getting through, and just hustling and pushing and, and stopping, never stopping.
We're more interested in how can we create a sustainable pace in which we prioritize our own mental health, our own wellbeing. And we don't just say it, but we actually do it and we encourage it, and we have, we talk about it and we create safe places to be able to talk about it. And this isn't something that's just woo woo anymore.
There's so much research and discussion to back up how having these kind of safe places to discuss and share is actually something that you can maintain in the long run and sustain. And so that's what we're looking for, right? We want people to have safety in and their ability to thrive and truly having balance.
If we say that something, it's a value of ours and having balance and work and family, then having these conversations helps you to maintain a sustainable, thriving environment where this is something that we can maintain that, that balance in in your life. So I'd love to hear from you guys, which of these three communication tools and tips that you will dive into a little bit more for yourself.
Like I said, I used a lot of examples on this today within the workforce as leaders, but you can also use this in your everyday life, even as, as a parent, right? You can be vulnerable with your child, you can be vulnerable and say, you know, mommy's really going through a lot at work, right? I'm, I'm having a lot of pressure. Mommy's scared to travel and, go on the plane. But here's what I'm doing to prepare myself for it.
I know that I'm going to be a little bit scared, but I am really practicing my meditation and my yoga to help me stay calm even when I'm afraid. And here you can do some yoga with me. That's the showing, that's the acting of it. Let's meditate together. Here's what I'm doing. I'm practicing this breath work and that's what I'm gonna be doing throughout the plane.
After the plane ride, you let them know how it went and you ask them how they're doing and how they would feel riding a plane or so, something along that, those lines, I'm going on a plane trip here very soon. So that example is at the forefront of my mind. But keeping that conversation open, sharing how you're feeling, talking and telling them what you can do, doing it, and asking them, don't just always tell them, but keep the conversation open with them.
Have real dialogue between each other. So these three communication tools can be interchangeable and used in many different aspects of your life. So I hope that they serve you.
Thank you so much for tuning in with me today. If you'd like more information of how we could work together, you can head to alishaleytem.com. That's a l i s h a l e y t e m.com. If you have not grabbed a copy of my book yet, you can head to Amazon to pick it up. It's called The Six Gold Keys to Wellbeing, A Guide to Unlocking a Happy and Healthy Life.
It is a beautiful roadmap and guide to helping you jumpstarting your personal wellbeing journey using the six keys that I believe are the foundation to living a beautiful whole life. I give you so many resources and tips and guide guidelines on where you can begin that isn't overwhelming, and how you can sustain and maintain it for yourself, which are all wellbeing behaviors that you can tell others, others that you're doing, and show them and do them, and let people know how they're working for you.
This is how we'll ultimately create this massive overhaul of improving mental health that we are so very needed right now in the world. So that is available for you over on Amazon. We'll also have the link for you in the show notes below. So I wish you all a very beautiful rest of your day, wherever you are in the world, and I will see you next time for another episode.