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Mindful self-values: Jazzmyne, Phoebe, Luke, Hayden, Sara

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Mindful self-values: Jazzmyne, Phoebe, Luke, Hayden, Sara

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When establishing values, having time for yourself is important to maintain a clear headspace. For example, taking moments for yourself to detox from social media and setting boundaries can improve your own health and values for yourself. You can also change the way you think about your device. Instead of mindlessly scrolling, think "how do I want to learn?" or "how can I improve my lifestyle?"

https://www.everydayhealth.com/wellness/5-tips-for-kick-starting-a-mindful-tech-self-care-habit/

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Mindful Tech Habits: Digital Balance for a Happier Life

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Explore practical strategies to balance technology for a happier life. Unplug, set boundaries, and embrace digital detox for improved well-being. Learn how mindful social media use and real-life connections enhance fulfillment. Navigate the digital era intentionally with key principles for a happier, more balanced life.

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Values dictate how we approach our day-to-day lives and how we approach life in general. These kinds of things matter; it shapes relationships, and our behavior, to name a few things. In my group, some of the values we hold in high regard include love, responsibility, and authenticity, because we believe those values will help the most in terms of general fulfillment and one's individual search for meaning. There are so many values one could believe in, and in this article alone they list at least ten of them, as well as the benefits of each. Some benefits include a sense of direction, overall confidence, and better general resilience, to name a few. Who wouldn't want these things to be a part of their lives?

https://brave-mo.com/establishing-meaningful-values/#:~:text=Once%20you%20have%20identified%20your,they%20align%20with%20your%20beliefs.

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Establishing Meaningful Values to Shape Your Life’s Purpose - Brave Counseling & Psychiatry

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Establishing meaningful values is one of the most important things we can do in life, as it gives us a guiding set of principles and a powerful tool for decision-making.

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Table 1 Group (Meghan, Amiyah, Isaac, Bryce, Aidan) - Consumerism

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Table 1 Group (Meghan, Amiyah, Isaac, Bryce, Aidan) - Consumerism

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We believe consumerism is one factor we face on a daily basis that can cause mental and environmental damage. The informative article we found focuses on "rethinking consumerism for the sake of young people's mental health (and the planet)" (Large, 2018).

"What if the solution to the mental health crisis facing young people is the same as tackling environmental degradation? That solution is at hand – moving beyond consumerism.

The environmental damage of consuming resources at the current rate is well known. Across the world, 60% more resources are consumed every year than the sustainable rate, driving the pollution, climate change, and ecosystem damage that are documented in ever more distressing detail" (Large, 2018).

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Blog Post Part I: Rethinking consumerism will not only boost environmental protection - it will also help to tackle the crisis in young people's mental health
What if the solution to the mental health crisis facing young people is the same as tackling environmental degradation? That solution is at hand - moving beyond consumerism.

The environmental damage of consuming resources at the current rate is well known. Across the world, 60% more resources are consumed every year than the sustainable rate, driving the pollution, climate change, and ecosystem damage that are documented in ever more distressing detail.

Evidence about the effects of consumerism on mental health and wellbeing is also building, and it makes similarly painful reading. And yet consumerism remains one of society's few unquestioned doctrines. We're prepared to have lengthy debates about many complex issues, from EU membership to wearing religious symbols at work. But whether society should keep consuming at a rate which destroys the natural environment while damaging young people's mental health is perhaps just too challenging a topic to confront. Maybe this is why projects to move society beyond consumerism receive the least funding from environment sector grant makers.

When faced with an economic downturn, politicians tell people to go out and spend on the high street as though their lives depended on it. The opposite is true. Society is dependent on a healthy environment, and it transpires that personal wellbeing is also boosted by breaking away from the consumerist pressure to buy, buy, buy.
Consumption and wellbeing
Social scientists have known for years that young people whose 'operating system' aims to accumulate ever more stuff (trainers, houses, jewellery, cars, bags, mobile phones) are less happy than those who prioritise heartier pursuits.

The traits of teens reporting higher wellbeing include spending time with friends and family, hobbies that expand the mind, finding a purpose inside or outside of work, exercising more, spending more time outdoors, and active community involvement.

Buying stuff to meet our needs of course plays an important role in people's lives, but wellbeing studies illustrate that materialistic tendencies are linked to decreased life satisfaction, happiness, vitality and social cooperation, and increases in depression, anxiety, racism and antisocial behaviour.

With young people exposed to more advertising than ever before, including through social media, where their friends and others they follow might be being paid to promote that new jacket they're wearing, shouldn't we be discussing and debating the impacts of consumerism on wellbeing?

According to the Varkey Foundation, British millennials have the second worst mental wellbeing in the world, second only to Japan. Depression rates have doubled in a decade with as many as 24% of girls and 9% of boys aged 14 in the UK experiencing symptoms of depression. One in four young women between the ages of 16 and 24 report having self-harmed and 93% of teachers report increased levels of mental illness in children and young people. Is consumerism partly to blame?
Materialism and self-esteem
Consumerism thrives on the importance of appearance, as promoted by adverts, music videos and social media. Alongside wellbeing experts, I find it hard to imagine that this influence does not contribute to the mental health crisis. Charity YoungMindsexplains that "social media puts pressure on girls to live their lives in the public domain, to present a personal 'brand' from a young age, and to seek reassurance in the form of likes and shares". A Girl Guides survey found that 42% of 11-16 year olds are "ashamed about the way they look" (most of the time or often) and the percentage of girls and young women aged 7 to 21 saying they are "happy with how they look" dropped from 73% to only 61% over five years.

UNICEF reports that those from low-income families may be particularly vulnerable to marketing efforts, with poorer 11-17 year olds being more materialistic than their wealthier counterparts, which appears to be associated with lower self-esteem among impoverished teens.
The long shadow of consumerism
Children living in the UK's consumerist society are by no means the only children affected by the system that drives demand for goods. Consumerism casts a dark shadow on young people's lives on the other side of the planet. For example, an estimated 20,000 children work in mines retrieving mica, the mineral that adds an iridescent shimmer to some eyeshadows and blushers.

I believe that this upsetting situation, at home and abroad, requires urgent action, and there is a major cause for hope among this bleak picture. The hope springs from the strength and simplicity of the post-consumerist destination. A life where young people experience less pressure to buy stuff and look good, and feel free to spend more time doing things that really make them happy, is also a life that preserves the ecosystems that underpin a prosperous society.
A bright post-consumerist future
To reach a post-consumerist society, the environment sector could lead by transforming the conversation about consumption. The real value to society lies in consuming less physical things, not just handling waste better or building the circular economy. It's hard to envisage a sure-fire scenario for planetary sustainability in which the current level of consumption of physical goods is maintained, no matter what level of renewable energy and material recycling exists. That is before factoring in the increased consumption of materials by the growing middle-class of economically growing countries such as India and China.

The good news is that the studies of materialistic lifestyles show that people who rely less on physical materials for happiness (after base needs are met) are generally happier. Consuming less stuff isn't about going backwards, or making a sacrifice - an accusation often levelled at the environment sector. Consuming less is about focusing on what really makes young people happy. When it comes to consumption levels in a wealthy society, it appears that less really is more.
Part two of this blog explores the interventions that the environment sector could deploy to move society beyond consumerism, and strengthen young people's wellbeing. A fully referenced version of this blog is available at https://www.globalactionplan.org.uk/news/rethinking-consumerism-a-win-win-situation-0. Chris is Senior Partner at Global Action Plan and has been at the organisation since 2005 working on environmental change programmes and informing policy. Follow him @ChrisLarge1
Keywords: consumerism, health, joined-up-thinking

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Rethinking consumerism for the sake of young people's mental health (and the planet) - Environmental Funders Network

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British millennials have the second worst mental wellbeing in the world, second only to Japan. One in four young women between the ages of 16 and 24 report having self-harmed and 93% of teachers report increased levels of mental illness in children and young people.

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Sierra Club (Bryce, Aidan, Isaac, Amiyah, Meghan)

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Sierra Club (Bryce, Aidan, Isaac, Amiyah, Meghan)

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One example of helping to create a hopeful future while still providing for your mental health is the Sierra Club. The Sierra Club is a non profit club that has one goal, which is to fight for the protection planet. The point of this organization is to explore and go on adventures in nature, all while protecting the Earth and participating in activities that benefit the world around you. The Sierra Club has 63 chapters worldwide, that has retired 382 coal plants, and protected 467 parks and monuments. They promote their "Outdoors For All" treks, and trips that encourages you to access and appreciate the outdoors. This can be beneficial to your own mental health by disconnecting and being able to go spend time outdoors, while creating a better foundation for the future.

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Get Outside

The Sierra Club Outings program provides environmentally friendly outdoor adventures-from Tahoe to Tibet-for people of all ages, abilities, and interests. Find a trip that feels like it was designed for you today.

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The Sierra Club Outings program provides environmentally friendly outdoor adventures-from Tahoe to Tibet-for people of all ages, abilities, and interests. Find a trip that feels like it was designed for you today.

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Future of Clean Energy (Meghan, Amiyah, Isaac, Bryce, Aidan) 

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Future of Clean Energy (Meghan, Amiyah, Isaac, Bryce, Aidan) 

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Alongs the coasts of the US clean energy is becoming more and more common with off shore wind projects popping up more and more. And this project in particular put forth by the Biden-Harris administration has set dates for the amount of power they want to generate from these offshore wind projects. "A commitment to deploy 30 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030, 15 gigawatts of floating offshore wind by 2035, and a target goal of permitting at least 25 gigawatts of onshore renewable energy by 2025."

https://www.doi.gov/priorities/clean-energy-future

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This article discusses the difference between a job for financial gains and a job for passion. I think this article is important because it talks about both options objectively and encourages the reader to make the best choice.

As a group we discussed how being driven by money alone can often lead to the "sleepwalking" worker that Hari spoke about, as well as over-saturation in well paying fields whereas passion based fields are dying out.

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How can you connect to your values? (Phoebe, Luke, Jazzmyne, Hayden, Sara)

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How can you connect to your values? (Phoebe, Luke, Jazzmyne, Hayden, Sara)

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The question, "What are your values?" can seem vague or confusing, but it's actually more simple to figure out than you might think.

Try thinking about the best advice or compliment that you've ever received. This could help point you in the direction of what's important to you.

Making lists of things you find important and refining the list if you go through any changes can help visualize you as a whole.

Ask yourself simple questions like "If I could switch places with someone for a day, who would it be?" Why did you choose this person?

Accepting that sometimes you'll have to make difficult decisions, and say no to things.

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This is How to Clearly Define Your Values and Connect with Your Purpose

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Five questions that helped me find my way.

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How to heal childhood trauma - Ana, Grace, Alex, Mady, Josh

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How to heal childhood trauma - Ana, Grace, Alex, Mady, Josh

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Accept what occurred

Acknowledge the Impact of the Trauma

Reach Out for Help

Learn Your Trauma Triggers

Practice Staying Present in the Moment

Distance Yourself From Toxic People

Reduce Your Day-to-Day Stress

Try Stream-of-Consciousness Journaling

Focus on Your Physical Health

Identify and Challenge Negative Beliefs

Engage in Activities That Bring You Joy

Practice Self-Compassion

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This article sheds much needed light on the idea that more and more people are staring to feel less motivation and meaning within their jobs, especially when it comes to the work environment they are a part of. When we don't feel like we are contributing in a meaningful way towards something, or are part of an unhealthy community, we feel more disconnected and not appreciated, respected or heard within that environment.

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I have heard and read a lot of posts lately of people making statements about staying in your job and "finding the meaning in your job and what you do" and "changing your attitude to approach your work in more meaningful ways." And, sometimes this can be helpful.

Certainly, a change in attitude in a healthy work environment can be helpful if we are just struggling to find some purpose in our work, and certainly, we can find more meaningful things to do to occupy our time during those ruts we get into. BUT, in an unhealthy work culture, we usually need more than just an attitude adjustment.

But, this isn't all to the story, just changing our attitude, because when we're in a really bad work environment - an unhealthy or even a toxic work culture - then not even a change in attitude can alter the reality of the situation.

So, let's just be clear here: we stay in jobs because of the leadership and the relational culture leadership creates, not because of what we DO. We leave jobs because of disconnection, not because of what we DO.

When we find ourselves in unhealthy work cultures, we don't feel appreciated, recognized, heard, or seen...when we don't feel like we are contributing in meaningful ways to the shared work of the culture, then we feel disconnected.

When we feel disconnected, we get guarded. When we get guarded, we don't trust. If we can't trust, then we don't share in a communal mentality of working together, AND we don't build meaningful relationships.

I'm not talking about personal or romantic relationships. I'm talking about work relationships, professional relationships. Those are important and significant too. They have different expectations, boundaries, and parameters, and they should, but they are no less meaningful than familial or other personal relationships.

Let that sit for a minute before you respond because it's not how we usually think of our jobs. Yet, it is what I hear from people over and over and over again when I do consulting work.

Just the other day someone told me, "I love where I work. I love who I work for and with. It doesn't matter what I do, and honestly, I don't love what I do. But, I love being there."

If we look at this statement, what we notice is someone who is finding meaning in their work NOT from the actual job itself and what they DO but IN RELATIONSHIPS.

And, there it is. Here's the big insight. Meaningful work is NOT about just making the job work, creating meaning in the doing, changing our attitude about what we do and how we do it...meaningful work is about the relationships within the work culture itself.

That's the core insight here: WHO we work with and HOW we are able to be in relationship with them is what makes our work meaningful. In even simpler terms: its connection versus disconnection.

If the relationships are healthy, then everyone feels good about what they DO. If the relationships are unhealthy, then it does not matter how meaningful what you DO is because it's not happening in a place where YOU feel good about you.

The likelihood of finding meaning in an unhealthy work culture is almost 0% because it is highly unlikely that anyone in that culture is feeling recognized, appreciated, or like they are contributing in a meaningful way.

An unhealthy work culture will never allow you to feel good about the work you are doing, even if it is meaningful, because you will never feel appreciated or safe to be vulnerable in that place ( vulnerability, here, means feeling that you can trust your colleagues with your sacred work AND feel like you can do good and sacred work together, collaboratively and equitably).

It is the CULTURE - created and maintained by the leadership - that will determine how we view ourselves within the overall meaning-making of our work life. And, the leadership is who determines if that culture is a positive one or a negative one.

Connection versus disconnection is always a communication problem, and if we want solid connection, then we need generous forms of communication with each other. We need Generous Communication.

We need to communicate appreciation and recognition and contribution. These are all forms of generosity that we can offer to each other...consistently...because consistency is also a form of generosity.

Yes, our attitude can help us approach our work differently, and yes, we can create new and meaningful ways to approach what we DO. But, that is only part of the picture because it matters a great deal to us the culture that we are in and how we are able to build and maintain relationships within that culture.

So, let's be generous with ourselves and our colleagues. Let's create good cultures together so we can do good work together. Let's build healthy work relationships that have depth and meaning for our sacred work together. Let's communicate generously with each other...and remember that generosity is always contagious.

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Meaningful Work is Not about What We DO, It's about Relationships

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I have heard and read a lot of posts lately of people making statements about staying in your job and "finding the meaning in your job and what you do" and "changing your attitude to approach your...

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Why recognition of Childhood Trauma is very important

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Why recognition of Childhood Trauma is very important

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When children are actively dealing with traumatic events like a death or injury, it's hard for them to understand it and express themselves. That's why these problems develop into something far worse later in life. Recognizing traumatic events as soon as they occur is essential to get through the rights steps to make your child feel at ease. This website provides a list of different symptoms that a child may portray after a traumatic event.

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Recognizing child trauma and helping kids cope - Sanford Health News

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If left untreated, childhood trauma can lead to mental and physical issues later in life, experts say. Learn to recognize it and get help.

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How do other People Make Work Meaningful?

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How do other People Make Work Meaningful?

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For some, their work is just work and nothing more. They do the work for themselves. However, when your work matters and affects other people then it makes it much more meaningful. You are much more likely to give a project your all when it will also affect other people, not just yourself. This work that you are doing for others is transcendence. When people create meaningful work, they are more likely to talk about others and the impact it had on other people compared to themselves. So to create and connect to more meaningful work, it to work with others and give the work all your effort it the work will affect others. A community coming together to create something has much more meaning than just one person working on a project alone.

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Magazine Summer 2016 Issue Research Feature

New research offers insights into what gives work meaning - as well as into common management mistakes that can leave employees feeling that their work is meaningless.

Meaningful work is something we all want. The psychiatrist Viktor Frankl famously described how the innate human quest for meaning is so strong that, even in the direst circumstances, people seek out their purpose in life. 1 More recently, researchers have shown meaningfulness to be more important to employees than any other aspect of work, including pay and rewards, opportunities for promotion, or working conditions. 2 Meaningful work can be highly motivational, leading to improved performance, commitment, and satisfaction. 3 But, so far, surprisingly little research has explored where and how people find their work meaningful and the role that leaders can play in this process. 4

We interviewed 135 people working in 10 very different occupations and asked them to tell us stories about incidents or times when they found their work to be meaningful and, conversely, times when they asked themselves, "What's the point of doing this job?" We expected to find that meaningfulness would be similar to other work-related attitudes, such as engagement or commitment, in that it would arise purely in response to situations within the work environment. However, we found that, unlike these other attitudes, meaningfulness tended to be intensely personal and individual; 5 it was often revealed to employees as they reflected on their work and its wider contribution to society in ways that mattered to them as individuals. People tended to speak of their work as meaningful in relation to thoughts or memories of significant family members such as parents or children, bridging the gap between work and the personal realm. We also expected meaningfulness to be a relatively enduring state of mind experienced by individuals toward their work; instead, our interviewees talked of unplanned or unexpected moments during which they found their work deeply meaningful.

We were anticipating that our data would show that the meaningfulness experienced by employees in relation to their work was clearly associated with actions taken by managers, such that, for example, transformational leaders would have followers who found their work meaningful, whereas transactional leaders would not. 6 Instead, our research showed that quality of leadership received virtually no mention when people described meaningful moments at work, but poor management was the top destroyer of meaningfulness.

We also expected to find a clear link between the factors that drove up levels of meaningfulness and those that eroded them. Instead, we found that meaningfulness appeared to be driven up and decreased by different factors. Whereas our interviewees tended to find meaningfulness for themselves rather than it being mandated by their managers, we discovered that if employers want to destroy that sense of meaningfulness, that was far more easily achieved. The feeling of "Why am I bothering to do this?" strikes people the instant a meaningless moment arises, and it strikes people hard. If meaningfulness is a delicate flower that requires careful nurturing, think of someone trampling over that flower in a pair of steel-toed boots. Avoiding the destruction of meaning while nurturing an ecosystem generative of feelings of meaningfulness emerged as the key leadership challenge.

About the Research

Meaningful work is a topic that is receiving increased attention. However, relatively little empirical research investigates in depth what meaningful work actually means to individuals. To address this, we undertook an extensive review of the literature on meaningful work from various fields, including psychology, management studies, sociology, and ethics. Drawing on these findings, we defined meaningful work as arising "when an individual perceives an authentic connection between work and a broader transcendent life purpose beyond the self." i

To conduct our research, we wanted to garner insights from people in a wide range of work situations. We interviewed 135 individuals in 10 very different occupations and asked them about times when they found their work meaningful or meaningless. The occupational groups we studied were: retail assistants, priests from various denominations, artists (including musicians, writers, and actors), lawyers, academics from science disciplines, entrepreneurs who had started their own business, nurses in an acute care hospital, soldiers, conservation stonemasons who were working on the preservation of an ancient cathedral, and garbage collectors. All data were collected in the U.K. We transcribed the interviews and coded them by theme to uncover patterns in how people view their work.

The Five Qualities of Meaningful Work

Our research aimed to uncover how and why people find their work meaningful. (See "About the Research.") For our interviewees, meaningfulness, perhaps unsurprisingly, was often associated with a sense of pride and achievement at a job well done, whether they were professionals or manual workers. Those who could see that they had fulfilled their potential, or who found their work creative, absorbing, and interesting, tended to perceive their work as more meaningful than others. Equally, receiving praise, recognition, or acknowledgment from others mattered a great deal. 7 These factors alone were not enough to render work meaningful, however. 8 Our study also revealed five unexpected features of meaningful work; in these, we find clues that might explain the fragile and intangible nature of meaningfulness.

1. Self-Transcendent

Individuals tended to experience their work as meaningful when it mattered to others more than just to themselves. In this way, meaningful work is self-transcendent. Although it is not a well-known fact, the famous motivation theorist Abraham Maslow positioned self-transcendence at the apex of his pyramid of human motivation, situating it beyond even self-actualization in importance. 9 People did not just talk about themselves when they talked about meaningful work; they talked about the impact or relevance their work had for other individuals, groups, or the wider environment. For example, a garbage collector explained how he found his work meaningful at the "tipping point" at the end of the day when refuse was sent to recycling. This was the time he could see how his work contributed to creating a clean environment for his grandchildren and for future generations. An academic described how she found her work meaningful when she saw her students graduate at the commencement ceremony, a tangible sign of how her own hard work had helped others succeed. A priest talked about the uplifting and inspiring experience of bringing an entire community together around the common goal of a church restoration project.

2. Poignant

The experience of meaningful work can be poignant rather than purely euphoric. 10 People often found their work to be full of meaning at moments associated with mixed, uncomfortable, or even painful thoughts and feelings, not just a sense of unalloyed joy and happiness. People often cried in our interviews when they talked about the times when they found their work meaningful. The current emphasis on positive psychology has led us to focus on trying to make employees happy, engaged, and enthused throughout the working day. Psychologist Barbara Held refers to the current pressure to "accentuate the positive" as the "tyranny of the positive attitude." 11 Traditionally, meaningfulness has been linked with such positive attributes.

Our research suggests that, contrary to what we may have thought, meaningfulness is not always a positive experience. 12 In fact, those moments when people found their work meaningful tended to be far richer and more challenging than times when they felt simply motivated, engaged, or happy. The most vivid examples of this came from nurses who described moments of profound meaningfulness when they were able to use their professional skills and knowledge to ease the passing of patients at the end of their lives. Lawyers often talked about working hard for extended periods, sometimes years, for their clients and winning cases that led to life-changing outcomes. Participants in several of the occupational groups found moments of meaningfulness when they had triumphed in difficult circumstances or had solved a complex, intractable problem. The experience of coping with these challenging conditions led to a sense of meaningfulness far greater than they would have experienced dealing with straightforward, everyday situations.

3. Episodic

A sense of meaningfulness arose in an episodic rather than a sustained way. It seemed that no one could find their work consistently meaningful, but rather that an awareness that work was meaningful arose at peak times that were generative of strong experiences. For example, a university professor talked of the euphoric experience of feeling "like a rock star" at the end of a successful lecture. One actor we spoke to summed this feeling up well: "My God, I'm actually doing what I dreamt I could do; that's kind of amazing." Clearly, sentiments such as these are not sustainable over the course of even one single working day, let alone a longer period, but rather come and go over one's working life, perhaps rarely arising. Nevertheless, these peak experiences have a profound effect on individuals, are highly memorable, and become part of their life narratives.

Meaningful moments such as these were not forced or managed. Only in a few instances did people tell us that an awareness of their work as meaningful arose directly through the actions of organizational leaders or managers. Conservation stonemasons talked of the significance of carving their "banker's mark" or mason's signature into the stone before it was placed into a cathedral structure, knowing that the stone might be uncovered hundreds of years in the future by another mason who would recognize the work as theirs. They felt they were "part of history." One soldier described how he realized how meaningful his work was when he reflected on his quick thinking in setting off the warning sirens in a combat situation, ensuring that no one at the camp was injured in the ensuing rocket attack. Sales assistants talked about times when they were able to help others, such as an occasion when a customer passed out in one store and the clerk was able to support her until she regained consciousness. Memorable moments such as these contain high levels of emotion and personal relevance, and thus become redolent of the symbolic meaningfulness of work.

4. Reflective

In the instances cited above, it was often only when we asked the interviewees to recount a time when they found their work meaningful that they developed a conscious awareness of the significance of these experiences. Meaningfulness was rarely experienced in the moment, but rather in retrospect and on reflection when people were able to see their completed work and make connections between their achievements and a wider sense of life meaning.

One of the entrepreneurs we interviewed talked about the time when he was switching the lights out after his company's Christmas party and paused to reflect back over the year on what he and his employees had achieved together. Garbage collectors explained how they were able to find their work meaningful when they finished cleaning a street and stopped to look back at their work. In doing this, they reflected on how the tangible work of street sweeping contributed to the cleanliness of the environment as a whole. One academic talked about research he had done for many years that seemed fairly meaningless at the time, but 20 years later provided the technological solution for touch-screen technology. The experience of meaningfulness is therefore often a thoughtful, retrospective act rather than just a spontaneous emotional response in the moment, although people may be aware of a rush of good feelings at the time. You are unlikely to witness someone talking about how meaningful they find their job during their working day. For most of the people we spoke to, the discussions we had about meaningful work were the first time they had ever talked about these experiences.

5. Personal

Other feelings about work, such as engagement or satisfaction, tend to be just that: feelings about work. Work that is meaningful, on the other hand, is often understood by people not just in the context of their work but also in the wider context of their personal life experiences. We found that managers and even organizations actually mattered relatively little at these times. One musician described his profound sense of meaningfulness when his father attended a performance of his for the first time and finally came to appreciate and understand the musician's work. A priest was able to find a sense of meaning in her work when she could relate the harrowing personal experiences of a member of her congregation to her own life events, and used that understanding to help and support her congregant at a time of personal tragedy. An entrepreneur's motivation to start his own business included the desire to make his grandfather proud of him. The customary dinner held to mark the end of a soldier's service became imbued with meaning for one soldier because it was shared with family members who were there to hear her army stories. One lawyer described how she found her work meaningful when her services were recommended by friends and family and she felt trusted and valued in both spheres of her life. A garbage collector described the time when the community's water supply became contaminated and he was asked to work on distributing water to local residents; that was meaningful, as he could see how he was helping vulnerable neighbors.

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Moments of especially profound meaningfulness arose when these experiences coalesced with the sense of a job well done, one recognized and appreciated by others. One example of many came from a conservation stonemason who described how his work became most meaningful to him when the restoration of a section of the cathedral he had been working on for years was unveiled, the drapes and scaffolding withdrawn, and the work of the craftsmen celebrated. This event involved all the masons and other trades such as carpenters and glaziers, as well as the cathedral's religious leaders, members of the public, and local dignitaries. "Everyone goes, 'Doesn't it look amazing?'" he said. "That's the moment you realize you've saved something and ensured its future; you've given part of the cathedral back to the local community."

These particular features of meaningful work suggest that the organizational task of helping people find meaning in their work is complex and profound, going far beyond the relative superficialities of satisfaction or engagement - and almost never related to one's employer or manager.

Meaninglessness: The Seven Deadly Sins

What factors serve to destroy the fragile sense of meaningfulness that individuals find in their work? Interestingly, the factors that seem to drive a sense of meaninglessness and futility around work were very different from those associated with meaningfulness. The experiences that actively led people to ask, "Why am I doing this?" were generally a function of how people were treated by managers and leaders. Interviewees noted seven things that leaders did to create a feeling of meaninglessness (listed in order from most to least grievous).

1. Disconnect people from their values. Although individuals did not talk much about value congruence as a promoter of meaningfulness, they often talked about a disconnect between their own values and those of their employer or work group as the major cause of a sense of futility and meaninglessness. 13 This issue was raised most frequently as a source of meaninglessness in work. A recurring theme was the tension between an organizational focus on the bottom line and the individual's focus on the quality or professionalism of work. One stonemason commented that he found the organization's focus on cost "deeply depressing." Academics spoke of their administrations being most interested in profits and the avoidance of litigation, instead of intellectual integrity and the provision of the best possible education. Nurses spoke despairingly of being forced to send patients home before they were ready in order to free up bed space. Lawyers talked of a focus on profits rather than on helping clients.

2. Take your employees for granted. Lack of recognition for hard work by organizational leaders was frequently cited as invoking a feeling of pointlessness. Academics talked about department heads who didn't acknowledge their research or teaching successes; sales assistants and priests talked of bosses who did not thank them for taking on additional work. A stonemason described the way managers would not even say "good morning" to him, and lawyers described how, despite putting in extremely long hours, they were still criticized for not moving through their work quickly enough. Feeling unrecognized, unacknowledged, and unappreciated by line or senior managers was often cited in the interviews as a major reason people found their work pointless.

3. Give people pointless work to do. We found that individuals had a strong sense of what their job should involve and how they should be spending their time, and that a feeling of meaninglessness arose when they were required to perform tasks that did not fit that sense. Nurses, academics, artists, and clergy all cited bureaucratic tasks and form filling not directly related to their core purpose as a source of futility and pointlessness. Stonemasons and retail assistants cited poorly planned projects where they were left to "pick up the pieces" by senior managers. A retail assistant described the pointless task of changing the shop layout one week on instructions from the head office, only to be told to change it back again a week later.

4. Treat people unfairly. Unfairness and injustice can make work feel meaningless. Forms of unfairness ranged from distributive injustices, such as one stonemason who was told he could not have a pay raise for several years due to a shortage of money but saw his colleague being given a raise, to freelance musicians being asked to write a film score without payment. Procedural injustices included bullying and lack of opportunities for career progression.

5. Override people's better judgment. Quite often, a sense of meaninglessness was connected with a feeling of disempowerment or disenfranchisement over how work was done. One nurse, for example, described how a senior colleague required her to perform a medical intervention that was not procedurally correct, and how she felt obliged to complete this even against her better judgment. Lawyers talked of being forced to cut corners to finish cases quickly. Stonemasons described how being forced to "hurry up" using modern tools and techniques went against their sense of historic craft practices. One priest summed up the role of the manager by saying, "People can feel empowered or disempowered by the way you run things." When people felt they were not being listened to, that their opinions and experience did not count, or that they could not have a voice, then they were more likely to find their work meaningless.

6. Disconnect people from supportive relationships. Feelings of isolation or marginalization at work were linked with meaninglessness. This could occur through deliberate ostracism on the part of managers, or just through feeling disconnected from coworkers and teams. Most interviewees talked of the importance of camaraderie and relations with coworkers for their sense of meaningfulness. Entrepreneurs talked about their sense of loneliness and meaninglessness during the startup phase of their business, and the growing sense of meaningfulness that arose as the business developed and involved more people with whom they could share the successes. Creative artists spoke of times when they were unable to reach out to an audience through their art as times of profound meaninglessness.

7. Put people at risk of physical or emotional harm. Many jobs entail physical or emotional risks, and those taking on this kind of work generally appreciate and understand the choices they have made. However, unnecessary em> exposure to risk was associated with lost meaningfulness. Nurses cited feelings of vulnerability when left alone with aggressive patients; garbage collectors talked of avoidable accidents they had experienced at work; and soldiers described exposure to extreme weather conditions without the appropriate gear.

These seven destroyers emerged as highly damaging to an individual's sense of his or her work as meaningful. When several of these factors were present, meaningfulness was considerably lower.

Cultivating an Ecosystem For Meaningfulness

In the 1960s, Frederick Herzberg showed that the factors that give rise to a sense of job satisfaction are not the same as those that lead to feelings of dissatisfaction. 14 It seems that something similar is true for meaningfulness. Our research shows that meaningfulness is largely something that individuals find for themselves in their work, 15 but meaninglessness is something that organizations and leaders can actively cause. Clearly, the first challenge to building a satisfied workforce is to avoid the seven deadly sins that drive up levels of meaninglessness.

Given that meaningfulness is such an intensely personal and individual experience that is interpreted by individuals in the context of their wider lives, can organizations create an environment that cultivates high levels of meaningfulness? The key to meaningful work is to create an ecosystem that encourages people to thrive. As other scholars have argued, 16 efforts to control and proscribe the meaningfulness that individuals inherently find in their work can paradoxically lead to its loss.

Our interviews and a wider reading of the literature on meaningfulness point to four elements that organizations can address that will help foster an integrated sense of holistic meaningfulness for individual employees. 17 (See "The Elements of a Meaningfulness Ecosystem.")

The Elements of a Meaningfulness Ecosystem

1. Organizational Meaningfulness

At the macro level, meaningfulness is more likely to thrive when employees understand the broad purpose of the organization. 18 This purpose should be formulated in such a way that it focuses on the positive contribution of the organization to the wider society or the environment. This involves articulating the following:

What does the organization aim to contribute? What is its "core business"?

How does the organization aspire to go about achieving this? What values underpin its way of doing business?

This needs to be done in a genuine and thoughtful way. People are highly adept at spotting hypocrisy, like the nurses who were told their hospital put patients first but were also told to discharge people as quickly as possible. The challenge lies not only in articulating and conveying a clear message about organizational purpose, but also in not undermining meaningfulness by generating a sense of artificiality and manipulation. 19

Reaching employees in ways that make sense to them can be a challenge. A clue for addressing this comes from the garbage collectors we interviewed. One described to us how the workers used to be told by management that the waste they returned to the depot would be recycled, but this message came across as highly abstract. Then the company started putting pictures of the items that were made from recycled waste on the side of the garbage trucks. This led to a more tangible realization of what the waste was used for. 20

2. Job Meaningfulness

The vast majority of interviewees found their work meaningful, whether they were musicians, sales assistants, lawyers, or garbage collectors. Studies have shown that meaning is so important to people that they actively go about recrafting their jobs to enhance their sense of meaningfulness. 21 Often, this recrafting involves extending the impact or significance of their role for others. One example of this was sales assistants in a large retail store who listened to lonely elderly customers.

Organizations can encourage people to see their work as meaningful by demonstrating how jobs fit with the organization's broader purpose or serve a wider, societal benefit. The priests we spoke to often explained how their ministry work in their local parishes contributed to the wider purpose of the church as a whole. In the same way, managers can be encouraged to show employees what their particular jobs contribute to the broader whole and how what they do will help others or create a lasting legacy. 22

Alongside this, we need to challenge the notion that meaningfulness can only arise from positive work experiences. Challenging, problematic, sad, or poignant 23 jobs have the potential to be richly generative of new insights and meaningfulness, and overlooking this risks upsetting the delicate balance of the meaningfulness ecosystem. Providing support to people at the end of their lives is a harrowing experience for nurses and clergy, yet they cited these times as among the most meaningful. The task for leaders is to acknowledge the problematic or negative side of some jobs and to provide appropriate support for employees doing them, yet to reveal in an honest way the benefits and broader contribution that such jobs make. 24

3. Task Meaningfulness

Given that jobs typically comprise a wide range of tasks, it stands to reason that some of these tasks will constitute a greater source of meaningfulness than others. 25 To illustrate, a priest will have responsibility for leading acts of worship, supporting sick and vulnerable individuals, developing community relations and activities, and probably a wide range of other tasks such as raising funds, managing assistants and volunteers, ensuring the upkeep of church buildings, and so on. In fact, the priests were the most hard-working group that we spoke to, with the majority working a seven-day week on a bewildering range of activities. Even much simpler jobs will involve several different tasks. One of the challenges facing organizations is to help people understand how the individual tasks they perform contribute to their job and to the organization as a whole.

When individuals described some of the sources of meaninglessness they faced in their work, they often talked about how to come to terms with the tedious, repetitive, or indeed purposeless work that is part of almost every job. For example, the stonemasons described how the first few months of their training involved learning to "square the stone," which involves chiseling a large block of stone into a perfectly formed square with just a few millimeters of tolerance on each plane. As soon as they finished one, they had to start another, repeating this over and over until the master mason was satisfied that they had perfected the task. Only then were they allowed to work on more interesting and intricate carvings. Several described their feelings of boredom and futility; one said that he had taken 18 attempts to get the squaring of the stone correct. "It feels like you are never ever going to get better," he recalled. Many felt like giving up at this point, fearing that stonemasonry was not for them. It was only in later years, as they looked back on this period in their working lives, that they could see the point of this detailed level of training as the first step on their path to more challenging and rewarding work.

Filling out forms, cited earlier, is another good example of meaningless work. Individuals in a wide range of occupations all reported that what they perceived as "mindless bureaucracy" sapped the meaningfulness from their work. For instance, most of the academics we spoke to were highly negative about the amount of form filling the job entailed. One said, "I was dropping spreadsheets into a huge black hole."

Where organizations successfully managed the context within which these necessary but tedious tasks were undertaken, the tasks came to be perceived not exactly as meaningful, but equally as not meaningless. Another academic said, "I'm pretty good with tedious work, as long as it's got a larger meaning."

4. Interactional Meaningfulness

There is widespread agreement that people find their work meaningful in an interactional context in two ways: 26 First, when they are in contact with others who benefit from their work; and, second, in an environment of supportive interpersonal relationships. 27 As we saw earlier, negative interactional experiences - such as bullying by a manager, lack of respect or recognition, or forcing reduced contact with the beneficiaries of work - all drive up a sense of meaninglessness, since the employee receives negative cues from others about the value they place on the employee's work. 28 The challenge here is for leaders to create a supportive, respectful, and inclusive work climate among colleagues, between employees and managers, and between organizational staff and work beneficiaries. It also involves recognizing the importance of creating space in the working day for meaningful interactions where employees are able to give and receive positive feedback, communicate a sense of shared values and belonging, and appreciate how their work has positive impacts on others.

Not surprisingly, the most striking examples of the impact of interactional meaningfulness on people came from the caring occupations included in our study: nurses and clergy. In these cases, there was very frequent contact between the individual and the direct beneficiaries of his or her work, most often in the context of supporting and healing people at times of great vulnerability in their lives. Witnessing firsthand, and hearing directly, about how their work had changed people's lives created a work environment conducive to meaningfulness. Although prior research 29 has similarly highlighted the importance of such direct contact for enhancing work's meaningfulness, we also found that past or future generations, or imagined future beneficiaries, could play a role. This was the case for the stonemasons who felt connected to past and future generations of masons through their bankers' marks on the back of the stones and for the garbage collectors who could envisage how their work contributed to the living environment for future generations.

Holistic Meaningfulness

The four elements of the meaningfulness ecosystem combine to enable a state of holistic meaningfulness, where the synergistic benefits of multiple sources of meaningfulness can be realized. 30 Although it is possible for someone to describe meaningful moments in terms of any one of the subsystems, meaningfulness is enriched when more than one or all of these are present. 31 A sales assistant, for example, described how she had been working with a team on the refurbishment of her store: "We'd all been there until 2 a.m., working together moving stuff, everyone had contributed and stayed late and helped, it was a good time. We were exhausted but we still laughed and then the next morning we were all bright in our uniforms, it was a lovely feeling, just like a little family coming together. The day [the store] opened, it did bring tears to my eyes. We had a little gathering and a speech; the managers said 'thank you' to everybody because everyone had contributed."

Finding work meaningful is an experience that reaches beyond the workplace and into the realm of the individual's wider personal life. It can be a very profound, moving, and even uncomfortable experience. It arises rarely and often in unexpected ways; it gives people pause for thought - not just concerning work but what life itself is all about. In experiencing work as meaningful, we cease to be workers or employees and relate as human beings, reaching out in a bond of common humanity to others. For organizations seeking to manage meaningfulness, the ethical and moral responsibility is great, since they are bridging the gap between work and personal life.

Yet the benefits for individuals and organizations that accrue from meaningful workplaces can be immense. Organizations that succeed in this are more likely to attract, retain, and motivate the employees they need to build sustainably for the future, and to create the kind of workplaces where human beings can thrive.

About the Authors

References

16. Ibid.

17. Ibid.

29. Grant, "Leading With Meaning."

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What Makes Work Meaningful - Or Meaningless

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Magazine Summer 2016 Issue Research Feature New research offers insights into what gives work meaning - as well as into common management mistakes that can leave employees feeling that their work is meaningless. Meaningful work is something we all want.

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By changing our mindset from accusatory to appreciating in our relationships with others we can view them as a source of support and understanding. Removing your ego to change your mindset involves recognizing positive qualities and showing appreciation for their efforts

https://www.minimalismmadesimple.com/home/ego-in-relationships/

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Ego in Relationships: 7 Strategies to Overcome It

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Ego can be a powerful force in relationships, often leading to conflicts and misunderstandings. When left unchecked, ego can erode trust and respect between partners and create an environment of competition rather than collaboration. Fortunately,

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How to cope with comparing ourselves to others

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How to cope with comparing ourselves to others

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Negative feelings from comparing ourselves to others on social media are associated with more time spent on social media apps. So in order to minimize social comparison, the best thing and quickest thing you can do is to limit your time there. A few other things you can do are:

Be aware of your triggers: Notice which posts make you feel down on yourself and start the comparison trap. Consider unfollowing those people.

Remember it’s not real: Don’t compare someone’s outside to your inside. These posts are designed for attention, they aren’t real life.

Practice gratitude: Try to focus on what you do have in your life vs. what you don’t. It can be small, but acknowledging what you do have can be really helpful in minimizing comparison.

Limit social media use: Make use of apps that help you limit your time spent on particular platforms by setting a daily limit or times during the day when you can’t access social media from your phone.

Focus on the positive: Try to follow people and view posts that inspire you, rather than those who leave you feeling negative about yourself or others.

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Understanding social comparison on social media | JED

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Social media comparison can lead to depression, anxiety, body image issues, and mental health concerns. Learn how to cope with JED.

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Letting go of your ego can be very challenging and can be sometimes difficult. This can be a scary thing, except for when you are around your friends. Being around your friends can release dopamine and can boost your energy. Now some of your friends will purposely try and chip away at your ego, most times not in a demeaning way but in the way friends mess with each other, and honestly, if your friends aren't doing this, then you might not have the necessary skills to rebuild your ego after it has been destroyed. Your ego does not define who you are; it matters about personality and charisma.

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Childhood Trauma -- Alex, Grace, Ana, Mady, Josh

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Childhood Trauma -- Alex, Grace, Ana, Mady, Josh

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This article outlines what childhood trauma/stress is, how to identify it, how you can help as a family member, and how to seek treatment. Specifically, SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) encourages family members to be patient, ensure and share to the affected child that they are not to blame, and to prioritize the communication of the child's safety. Making sure that the child feels safe, not responsible, and being patient. More Clinical approaches include therapy, and specific practices of "Cognitive Behavioral Therapy." However, therapy often includes specific/tailored treatment to the affected child.

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Learn about the signs of traumatic stress, its impact on children, treatment options, and how families and caregivers can help.

Types of Traumatic Events

Childhood traumatic stress occurs when violent or dangerous events overwhelm a child's or adolescent's ability to cope.

Traumatic events may include:

Neglect and psychological, physical, or sexual abuse

Natural disasters, terrorism, and community and school violence

Witnessing or experiencing intimate partner violence

Commercial sexual exploitation

Serious accidents, life-threatening illness, or sudden or violent loss of a loved one

Refugee and war experiences

Military family-related stressors, such as parental deployment, loss, or injury

In one nationally representative sample of young people ages 12 to 17:

8% reported a lifetime prevalence of sexual assault

17% reported physical assault

39% reported witnessing violence

Also, many reported experiencing multiple and repeated traumatic events.

It is important to learn how traumatic events affect children. The more you know, the more you will understand the reasons for certain behaviors and emotions and be better prepared to help children and their families cope. Learn more about the types of trauma and violence and types of disasters.

Signs of Child Traumatic Stress

The signs of traumatic stress are different in each child. Young children react differently than older children.

Preschool Children

Fearing separation from parents or caregivers

Crying and/or screaming a lot

Eating poorly and losing weight

Having nightmares

Elementary School Children

Becoming anxious or fearful

Feeling guilt or shame

Having a hard time concentrating

Having difficulty sleeping

Middle and High School Children

Feeling depressed or alone

Developing eating disorders and self-harming behaviors

Beginning to abuse alcohol or drugs

Becoming sexually active

For some children, these reactions can interfere with daily life and their ability to function and interact with others.

Impact of Child Traumatic Stress

The impact of child traumatic stress can last well beyond childhood. In fact, research shows that child trauma survivors are more likely to have:

Learning problems, including lower grades and more suspensions and expulsions

Increased use of health services, including mental health services

Increased involvement with the child welfare and juvenile justice systems

Long term health problems, such as diabetes and heart disease

Trauma is a risk factor for nearly all behavioral health and substance use disorders.

What Families and Caregivers Can Do to Help

Not all children experience child traumatic stress after experiencing a traumatic event, but those who do can recover. With proper support, many children are able to adapt to and overcome such experiences.

As a family member or other caring adult, you can play an important role. Remember to:

Assure the child that he or she is safe. Talk about the measures you are taking to get the child help and keep him or her safe at home and school.

Explain to the child that he or she is not responsible for what happened. Children often blame themselves for events, even those events that are completely out of their control.

Be patient. There is no correct timetable for healing. Some children will recover quickly. Others recover more slowly. Try to be supportive and reassure the child that he or she does not need to feel guilty or bad about any feelings or thoughts.

Review NCTSI's learning materials for parents and caregivers, educators and school personnel, health professionals, and others.

Treatment for Child Traumatic Stress

Even with the support of family members and others, some children do not recover on their own. When needed, a mental health professional trained in evidence-based trauma treatment can help children and families cope with the impact of traumatic events and move toward recovery.

Effective treatments like trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapies are available. There are a number of evidence-based and promising practices to address child traumatic stress.

Each child's treatment depends on the nature, timing, and amount of exposure to a trauma.

Review Effective Treatments for Youth Trauma - 2004 (PDF | 55 KB) at the National Child Traumatic Stress Network.

Families and caregivers should ask their pediatrician, family physician, school counselor, or clergy member for a referral to a mental health professional and discuss available treatment options.

More Ways to Find Help

Many U.S. agencies and other groups offer research and support related to child traumatic stress.

Government Websites

Other Organizations

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Recognizing and Treating Child Traumatic Stress

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Learn about the signs of traumatic stress, its impact on children, treatment options, and how families and caregivers can help.

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Volunteer Your Time: Devote your time to a cause you care about. Whether it's spending time at a local shelter or assisting in community clean-up initiatives, volunteering allows you to make a direct and meaningful impact on the lives of others.

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Volunteer Your Time: Devote your time to a cause you care about. Whether it's spending time at a local shelter or assisting in community clean-up initiatives, volunteering allows you to make a direct and meaningful impact on the lives of others.

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The idea that meaningful work has better job satisfaction and has positive results on mental health. This is an important thing for people to know when they choose a career as many people select money over their happiness. Choosing money over happiness can cause people to have poor mental health while choosing something you love can make it feel meaningful making it feel like your life is worth it.

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The Psychological Need for Meaningful Work

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As modern workplaces have evolved, purpose and inclusivity have come to shape our quest for meaning.

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Harvard study suggest personal changes, but says little about the meaninglessness of most jobs or how to address that.

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How to Find Meaning When Your Job Feels Meaningless

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Amidst a rapidly spreading and deadly virus, a global economic crisis, and civil and political unrest that’s ripping at the fabric of society, it’s hard to feel inspired about much of anything these days — let alone your job. But while it’s understandable now to feel that your work has lost its purpose, rekindling it ought to be a top priority. What can you do to shift your perspective? Reflect on what you care about and what motivates you. Think about why you wanted to work at your organization in the first place. Remind yourself how the work you do affects others. You don’t need to be curing diseases or saving endangered species for your work to have meaning. Reflect on the projects that invigorate you, and consider the interesting problems your organization is tackling. Look, too, for ways that your purpose can be personal. You might, for instance, coach a younger employee or help a member of your team who’s struggling. Putting yourself forward even in small ways can be replenishing.

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Gallup found U.S. employees were increasingly detached from their employers, with the workforce reporting less role clarity, lower satisfaction with their organizations and less connection to their companies’ mission or purpose. Employees were also less likely to feel someone at work cares about them.

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4.8 million fewer U.S. employees are engaged in early 2024

Continuing a downward trend, employee engagement in the U.S. has dropped to its lowest level in more than a decade.

Last year, Gallup found U.S. employees were increasingly detached from their employers, with the workforce reporting less role clarity, lower satisfaction with their organizations and less connection to their companies' mission or purpose. Employees were also less likely to feel someone at work cares about them.

The drop in these employee engagement elements was particularly acute in remote, hybrid and younger workers. By the end of 2023, 33% of U.S. employees overall were highly engaged, meaning they were highly involved and enthusiastic about their work and workplaces.

Unfortunately, the first quarter of 2024 continued this downward trend, with engagement dropping three percentage points to 30% among both full- and part-time employees. This decline represents 4.8 million fewer employees who are engaged in their work and workplace, marking the lowest reported level of engagement since 2013.

Employee engagement trends are significant because they link to many important performance outcomes crucial to organizational leaders such as productivity, employee retention, customer service, safety incidents, quality of work and profitability.

In the first quarter of 2024, 17% of employees were actively disengaged, one point higher than the 16% for the full year of 2023 and equivalent to the percentage actively disengaged in the fourth quarter of 2023. The U.S. now has a ratio of 1.8 engaged employees for every actively disengaged employee. This compares to a ratio of 2.1-to-1 in 2023.

The 2024 first quarter finding is the lowest percentage engaged and ratio of engaged to actively disengaged employees since 2013, where 30% were engaged and the ratio was 1.6 engaged for every actively disengaged employee. The record-high percentage of engaged employees was recorded in 2020, at 36%. Since that peak, six points fewer, or 9.6 million fewer workers are now engaged.

The recent drops in employee engagement have been most pronounced in the following categories:

younger employees under 35 (down five points), particularly Generation Z employees (down six points) who also feel less connected to their organization's culture

employees who could do their jobs remotely but work exclusively on-site (down six points)

employees who exclusively work from home (down five points)

Some Organizations Are Bucking the Downward Trend

Even amid this overall downward trend, the best-run organizations that Gallup has studied are managing to hold their own -- or have even improved their cultures -- during the challenging past four years during and following the pandemic.

These top-performing organizations average 70% engaged employees and a ratio of 14 engaged to every actively disengaged employee, more than seven times the U.S. average. They exist across industries and geographies. The inspiring workplace cultures they have built have been strategically planned and intentional.

Many have created hybrid working environments that fit their cultures, with clear overall expectations, supported by coaching managers who combine flexibility with accountability. They have effective onboarding programs for new employees and holistic and multidimensional approaches to wellbeing, offering a range of services and resources.

Be proactive about engagement at your organization.

Author(s)

Jim Harter, Ph.D., is Chief Scientist, Workplace for Gallup and bestselling author of Culture Shock, Wellbeing at Work, It's the Manager, 12: The Elements of Great Managing and Wellbeing: The Five Essential Elements. His research is also featured in the groundbreaking New York Times bestseller, First, Break All the Rules. Dr. Harter has led more than 1,000 studies of workplace effectiveness, including the largest ongoing meta-analysis of human potential and business-unit performance. His work has also appeared in many publications, including Harvard Business Review, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, and in many prominent academic journals.
Sangeeta Agrawal contributed analysis to this article.

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Continuing a downward trend, employee engagement in the U.S. has dropped to its lowest level in more than a decade.

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How to live a more meaningful life by taking time to explore and practice your values.

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Realizing Your Meaning: 5 Ways to Live a Meaningful Life

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Research that examines the question of how to live a meaningful life.

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According to Viktor Frankl, a doctor and concentration camp survivor, it’s not pleasure nor success and power that essentially drives people; it’s finding something - a purpose, a meaning - to live and even die for.

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Finding Something to Live and Die For | The Philosophy of Viktor Frankl

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Several evidence-based treatments use values as the basis for treating depression.

Identifying your values and living them out loud helps you build a fulfilling, satisfying life in a range of ways:

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Your Life, on Purpose: Discover Your Values

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Why you’re not living until you’ve discovered your personal values. Plus, how to find them.

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Going to work after doomscrolling for hours on social media can lead to feelings of stress and distraction due to comparison. Since most people choose to put only their best online, it makes others feel worthless. If you already are unhappy with your job, seeing people post about how they "have no complaints" about their lives, or bragging about their great jobs can cause feelings of imposter syndrome. If people start to cut back on their screen time, and work towards pressing the "not interested" on posts that cause these bad feelings, people can enter the workplace with a free and empty head. Social media is a great way to discover other opportunities,

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Removing the like button from other people's feed can reduce the stress and anxiety of needing to earn that same validation

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Practicing mindfulness when it comes to social media can significantly improve mental health, encouraging self-awareness and assistance in regulating the complicated emotions which can come with social media use. Meditation is a great way to start, with many apps and online tutorials there to help. Meditation can calm the mind, improve overall well-being and can lead to the creation of a balanced and positive relationship with digital platforms.

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Getting a good night's rest is extremely important for your mental health, according to the National Hearth, Lung, and Blood Institute, sleeping is your brain getting ready for the next day at hand. It makes it easier for you to remember things, solve problems, and be creative. Without proper sleep, you are more likely to have mood swings, be impulsive, depressed, and other bad symptoms. It's also essential for young kids and adults to get proper sleep as it also helps you grow.

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Sleep is a very important part of mental health that is often overlooked as something that can help. Sticking to a bed time can make sure you are getting the proper amount of sleep which can reduce impacts of poor mental health. Studies have been shown that if you are having a manic episode getting 3 nights in a row of 8 hours of sleep can greatly improve the chances of it breaking. For some they get too much sleep like with depression some people get around 12-14 hours of sleep reducing this to 8 hours can improve mood and reduce chances of a depressive episode.

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Talking to someone you trust – whether a friend, a family member, or a colleague – can help. You may feel better if you are able to openly share what you are going through with someone who cares about you. If you live in an area where face-to-face interactions are limited, you can still stay connected with your loved ones through a video call, phone call or messaging app.

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Few people recognize that childhood trauma is a component that is strongly linked with rates of substance abuse addiction, health problems, suicidal ideation, and even early death. Many people attribute these struggles to a lack of willpower, a lack of motivation, unluckiness, or even worse, a defect in one’s character. However, we can link many of these struggles to a common factor – childhood trauma.

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Childhood Trauma in Relation to Addiction

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Few people recognize that childhood trauma is a component that is strongly linked with rates of substance abuse addiction, health problems, suicidal

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just adding a following only section so all you see is what you want can help reduce the confidence issues that social media imposes while focusing on the human connection it provides

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Your Diet and it's Mental Health Affects

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Your Diet and it's Mental Health Affects

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A study in 2022 was conducted to see how a person's diet affects their mental health and there is a huge correlation between the two. A high intake of grains, vegetables, fruits, potatoes, fish, and olive oil led to less serve depression and anxiety. Alternatively Large amounts of poultry and high fat diary was linked with more serve depression and anxiety.

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An expanding push for self actualization and independence is pushing people apart. Social media is used as a replacement for offline connection and often amplifies the feeling of loneliness offline. Some social media platforms, like Facebook, offer resources for finding local offline events and communities but this is often overshadowed by the ability to connect online in the same app (lower effort connection). Are there any apps that exclusively focus on offline community building?

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Social media has been the means behind a plethora of self esteem issues. Instead of consuming content, create it with purpose. This purpose should primarily be based on keeping others up to date with your life and bringing people joy, if it's not, then maybe consider sharing in a more personal way. You don't have to share the negative things, but understand when others don't post they're still there. It's like holding a facade in person, although it's easier to hide it online. All in all, try to create an inclusive and positive environment online.

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It has been proven that exercise can help ease some symptoms that come from depression and anxiety. When you exercise you release endorphins which are a brain chemical that can improve your sense of well-being and overall mindset. Exercise also allows you to take your mind off something that could have been bugging you even for just an hour.

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Use apps like AllTrails and Strava to get involved with outdoor activities in nature. These apps help connect people to each other and to fulfilling outdoor activites. Studies by UC Davis have shown that getting some fresh air can help your mental health.

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3 ways getting outside into nature helps improve your health

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Research shows that stepping outside for some fresh air is good for your mental and physical health. Find out how nature can help you stay well, and get some quick tips to making the most of your outdoor time.

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A 2015 study found that college students who volunteered up to 10 hours each week were less likely to feel depressed than students who did not volunteer. The same study found that students who were employed for any amount of time were equally as likely to report depression as students who did not work, although employment did affect students feeling generally overwhelmed.

https://www.uhs.wisc.edu/student-volunteering-could-have-health-benefits/

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cinnamon toast flavored antidepressants

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Creating an accessible support system for everyone and any specification

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creation of a platform that would allow people with shared experiences in childhood traumas to communicate anonymously, and thus seek help together or feel less alone.

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Design Solution: Kacie, Griffin, Tommy, Connor

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Design Solution: Kacie, Griffin, Tommy, Connor

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An app that is run by a non profit that tells you the pros and cons of items that you buy so that you're a well informed consumer.

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Design Solution: Stella, Jake, Pete, and Arthur

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Design Solution: Stella, Jake, Pete, and Arthur

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Getting help with childhood trauma: many people individualize their childhood trauma and think that they're the only ones who experience it, when it's far from the case. A tech solution for this is creating online spaces where people can talk about their trauma in safe, moderated places where they will have a reduced risk of being revictimized again.

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Post Your Group's design solution to right

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Post Your Group's design solution to right

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Factors that can lead to meaningful work include mindfulness and positive attitude. But there's no discussion of whether the job itself adds meaning to peoples lives. Also job might support consumerism culture messages, "stop being weak, start being strong- people come together"

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How do you make your work more meaningful? Prior studies have focused on understanding the factors that contribute to making work meaningful overall, such as having more autonomy or being able to job craft. But these are individual actions that don’t easily translate into how we experience meaningfulness every day. It can also be difficult for early career professionals as you can’t just decide to drop every uninspiring task from your to-do list in an attempt to experience more meaning in your role. Research shows that being in a state of awareness can help. In a state of awareness (of yourself and your wider work environment), people are more willing and able to be creative in how they think and deal with challenges and other work-related problems. Awareness also helps you come up with better solutions, interpret signals from others around you, and adapt to changing circumstances. This, in turn, can facilitate a sense of meaning because it enables you to think and behave in ways that help you see the value, worth, and impact within everyday work tasks and interactions. To become more aware, start by practicing mindfulness. Mindfulness helps us learn to recognize and acknowledge what’s going on in the mind, moment by moment, increases awareness, and decreases rumination. It also promotes cognitive flexibility, all of which lead to greater meaning-making. Journaling is a great way to build awareness into your everyday work life. Before you end the day, ask yourself, “What did I find meaningful today,” and write it down. You can do this not only for yourself but also for your colleagues. Consider weaving awareness into group discussions and conversations at work. Investing more in one’s relationships is important to feel happy and fulfilled at work, as our findings suggest. As an individual, you can respectfully engage with others at work through active listening and showing appreciation. These behaviors could then also enable greater psychological safety in the work environment as they help promote a sense of belonging at work that prior research shows is critical for meaningfulness

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Connect with the people in your life to help understand different perspectives on mental health and mental health issues.

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Disappointment can often be fixed with a change in ones lifestyle.

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87% of people don't like their jobs. Top down management vs democratic management.

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How 87% of people either disliking or hating their job became normal

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How 87% of people either disliking or hating their job became normal By E.F Nicholson In 2012, Gallup published their State of the Global Workplace report, which could have been more accurately tit…

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Social media has created a false sense of joy through others thinking that we are happy. If it appears that we are happy to all of our internet friends, we should be happy. The approval of our "friends" is where we look for our fulfillment.
Expectations vs. reality

https://www.sadanduseless.com/geraldine-west/

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People tend to individualize their traumas and issues and view them as things that solely happened to them. In reality however, traumas and issues tend to be a lot more shared and common than we think.

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Home = Village = 4 walls

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Connect to the people in your life

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People come together to create a better future for their community, even when they're vastly different from one another. All the conservative Muslims, gay people, and punks coming together to protest one woman getting evicted for unfair reasons and getting a psychiatric hospital to release a man with a cognitive disability that he was arrested for is a powerful example of this.

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Join endeavors where you can help make a difference in the world where you feel change needs to happen. That way you can help or at least feel like you didn't do nothing.

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People use the internet as a replacement for real human interaction in our individualistic society.

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The US has a very individualistic idea of how things should be run, or even who gets to take credit for what has or hasn't been done. So putting everything on one person, even of that wasn't necessarily the case. Media is built around centering a singular user, and emphasizes that individual idea. More, on this with "Connect to Joy" ego is emphasized in an individualized society.

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When you went to see your doctor, you didn’t just get pills. You were prescribed one of over a hundred different ways to reconnect—with the people around you, with the society, and with values that really matter. They brought in all the local volunteer organizations to help people get what they needed...

Hari, Johann. Lost Connections (p. 192). Bloomsbury Publishing. Kindle Edition.

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Make list of ideas for non-technical solutions for Mental Health.   

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Make list of ideas for non-technical solutions for Mental Health.   

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Each idea should be posted in a Column that describes the type of solution. I have created Columns based on Johan Hari's research, but you can post other ones!! An idea can also be duplicated and put under more than one type of solution.