Mental Health Awareness Week

In case you missed it, it is Mental Health Awareness Week, and this week at Independent Agent we opened up our weekly sales meeting with a bit of a chat around this topic.

There are always challenges, but high stress is a contributing factor to any kind of mental health outcome, and there are certainly some stressful challenges out there at the moment.

We talked about a false peak – a term I heard about from trail running. A false peak is when you are climbing a hill and you think that you have reached the top, only to round a corner and find that the hill (mountain) keeps on going. In long runs this can break a runner’s spirit. Something similar is happening right now in the property market. We have gone through a tough year, we know that we have hit the bottom of the market but as we come around this low corner, we can see that there is still a hell of a lot of work to do yet.

This market is still tough. And while some suburbs and locations are galloping away, others aren’t. Supply has got super tight in some areas. And I believe that slightly soul destroying feeling out there is this; How long until the tables turn?

I am interested in how we can unplug ourselves from overwhelming stress, and protect our mental health.

I started with ‘other obsessions’. I like to have something other than Real Estate to keep me ‘awake at night’. Small, unimportant, and maybe quirky fascinations to provide a distraction. In this real estate game, we DO need to be obsessed with our business. But it might be healthy to be evenly obsessed with something else. It might be a fitness goal, an artistic exploration, a collection. It might be a free or cheap hobby. I talked about getting a ‘deal buzz’ by hunting down deals in low value, low stakes situations… that still gives you a deal buzz.

The team came up with much more sensible and scientifically proven ideas to promote wellness. Getting outside, getting out in nature, and the restorative power of going for a walk. Our brains love the colors blue and green, and if you can get around the ocean or some green spaces you will be so much better for it. Our brains don’t love hard edges – the soft and irregular forms in nature restore us. The critical importance of sunlight came up and I shared how I may have staved off my normal winter blues this year because I have been up at dawn through the darkest period of winter.

There was a reminder to focus on what you have, and on what you have achieved. If you can do it once, you can do it again. And in a quiet spell like we have just had, we talked about the importance of attributing disappointment to its actual cause – there were factors outside of our control this year. Rather than beating ourselves up it might be worth changing the perspective. Did we personally have control over the current boom and bust cycle that we have been through? Was it our fault that someone’s debt was higher than the price we could get them for their property? Did we make the interest rate so high that the investment wouldn’t stack up for a buyer? You get what I mean.

And lastly, the importance of getting good and positive input came up. Listening to a positive or challenging podcast can turn your mood. If you are not in a podcast mood then how about listening to your favourite music? I regularly switch between both.

How about mixing it up. As a team member shared, how about playing a motivational or instructional recording while walking down the beach?

There are many other avenues we could have gone down, but this is what we got to in 30 minutes.
We are remarkable amazing creations, the way that our body and mind, and dare I say spirit interact is a miracle. But in all this complexity we are also so very simple. A few moments in the sun can be the beginning of feeling just a little bit better.

I hope that something here resonates with you – go out and have a great rest of the week.