Stress Awareness Month: Minimising stress at White Rose Park

It’s no secret that life can be stressful. For that reason, it’s incredibly important for workplaces and organisations to prioritise mental wellbeing and help keep stress levels to a minimum.

Though stress impacts people in both their personal and professional lives, workplace stress is incredibly common – with 3 in 10 workers surveyed in the UK saying that high stress is detrimental to their productivity levels.

This April is Stress Awareness Month, so, let’s explore stress in further detail, including how to recognise it and what we’re doing at White Rose Park to ensure our community can manage, overcome and prevent these feelings.

Why is Stress Awareness Month important?

An annual event taking place for an entire month, Stress Awareness Month is a time to raise awareness and promote stress prevention techniques and initiatives nationwide.

One of the largest public health challenges of today, poor mental health and stress is a problem that almost everyone experiences at some point in their life. That’s why Stress Awareness Month was established back in 1992, in a bid to tackle the stigma and make mental health a priority.

Recognising stress

Unfortunately, stress is common in everyday life – it’s a natural part of being human! While some pressure in our lives can often be a good thing, and a motivating factor for many to get their tasks done, prolonged stress can be incredibly harmful to your physical health.

Mental and physical health continue to be seen as two distinct entities, with physical health usually taking priority. However, it’s almost impossible to achieve good physical health without looking after your mental health – the two are interconnected.

Stress can lead to numerous health problems, so it’s important to be able to recognise the signs – whether that be in yourself, your friends and family or colleagues. That way, you can put the appropriate measures in place to manage and overcome it.

Here’s a few signs of prolonged stress to look out for – both physical and mental:

• Headaches or dizziness
• Muscle tension or pain
• Stomach problems
• Chest pain
• Difficulty concentrating
• Feeling overwhelmed
• A feeling of constant worry and dread
• Forgetfulness

Helping our community overcome stress

There are a number of ways to combat stress, and we’re always keen to listen to our community and ensure we’re best placed to keep stress to a minimum at White Rose Park. Take a look at just a few of the ways we help support everyone on-site all-year-round.

Meditation and mindfulness

An easy, and effective, way to overcome stress is through mindfulness and meditation. The benefits of yoga are backed by science, proven to reduce stress and anxiety levels by promoting a state of mental and physical relaxation. It’s a way of focusing in the present moment, enhancing your awareness and centering your mind on something that makes you feel calm and in control – even if you otherwise don’t feel that in control.

At White Rose Park, we’re committed to ensuring our community has easy access to all these benefits. We run weekly yoga sessions every Wednesday, totally free of charge and open to all on-site.

Each session is led by one of the expert instructors from hero Wellbeing, so it doesn’t matter whether you’re a total beginner or a master of meditation – we’ve got all the equipment and expertise you need.

Good food, good mood

Stress, anxiety, depression and other mental health issues can all be exacerbated by a poor diet. We’re always keen to make sure everyone on-site has access to nutritious meals. After all, a healthy mind starts with a healthy body.

From weekly menus with a rotating selection of meals, each dish as nutritious and delicious as the last, our community never needs to look far for good, balanced food. We work hard to make sure we grow as much produce as we can locally. This not only ensures we use the very best ingredients, but it keeps food miles to a minimum, too. It’s this combination that promises high-quality nutrition, week in, week out.

Additionally, our bespoke hero Wellbeing app – open to all members of the Park community – is an exceptional resource with a library of healthy-eating recipes and inspiration. We’re all about making it easy and simple to keep on track with your eating habits. That’s one of the best ways to stay happy, healthy and stress-free.

Keep fit

The rewards of exercise are plentiful, and pretty much any form of exercise can work to relieve and reduce the negative impact of stress. It releases endorphins, improves your mood and helps you relax, ready for a good night’s sleep – which can often be disrupted due to stress. Prolonged stress is often a contributing factor towards all out physical exhaustion.

Similar to yoga, many forms of exercise can be incredibly beneficial, helping you deal with your stress and the day’s problems in a healthy way. Rather than worrying about all the stuff that’s swarming your mind, you’re focusing on your movements and pushing your body. In a bid to ensure our community can easily balance their personal and professional lives with their fitness routines, we saw it important to expand and improve our facilities on-site.

Our fully-equipped Outdoor Training Park, which features strength machines, fixed callisthenics and further state-of-the-art machinery, is perfect for the upcoming summer season for everyone on-site to relieve the stresses of the working day – whether it’s before, after or during working hours. In addition, our new multipurpose 2G sports pitch has just been laid, ready for competitive sports with your colleagues or local teams – a little bit of healthy competition is a great way to alleviate those worries.

Additionally, our aforementioned Wellbeing platform (free for anyone on-site) is home to a whole selection of video workout tutorials to access at home.

A welcoming, supportive environment

Opening a dialogue around the topic of stress and mental health is one of the first steps towards not only getting to the root of the problem, but overcoming it.

We’re all about creating a respectful, positive environment here at White Rose Park. Encouraging a culture of collaboration and discussion across every business that occupies the Park is at the forefront of our plans. That’s why we have plenty of breakout spaces dotted around the campus, so our community have chance to step away from the hustle and bustle of work to engage in an open discussion with a colleague surrounding mental health.

Similarly, we also host regular seminars at the Park where we discuss topics surrounding health and wellbeing , as well as the Wellbeing platform which is home to various resources around mental health, stress, wellness and more.

They say a problem shared is a problem halved – and talking is one of the best ways to overcome stress. And of course, if you ever feel like you’ve got more on your plate than you can handle, make sure you bring this to the attention of your manager. Their duty is to always have your best interests at heart to improve your wellbeing at work.

Staying stress-free at work

Through a combination of the above, we’re keeping health and wellbeing at the forefront of the Park. By making a consistent effort to build a campus where our community can thrive, we’re doing our bit to keep our community stress-free, happy and healthy.

By encouraging our community to recognise and overcome the signs of stress, we’re on our way to creating a positive change in workplace mental health – not just for Stress Awareness Month, but every month after that, too.