Why Self-Care Isn’t Enough to Achieve True Employee Wellbeing at Work

What’s the key to employee wellbeing in the workplace?

While articles focus on self-care tips like sleep, movement, and hydration, true wellbeing begins when employees understand how their subconscious beliefs shape their wellbeing.

When you explore Google for insights on employee wellbeing in the workplace, you’re bound to find numerous articles emphasising the significance of self-care. These pieces highlight how crucial it is for employees to prioritise their wellbeing to enhance resilience and ward off burnout.

These articles are packed full of great advice, underscoring the benefits of regular breaks, encouraging lunchtime walks, and the importance of physical movement, stretching, and staying hydrated.

Discussions on the necessity of adequate sleep and strategies for achieving restful nights, including sleep hygiene tips, are common. Some articles might even touch upon nutritional advice, advocating for a balanced diet for optimal physical health, and exploring unconventional methods like cold water swimming or stimulating the vagus nerve for wellbeing.

Why Most Employee Wellbeing Advice Falls Short

While this plethora of advice and the emphasis on implementing these strategies consistently are beneficial, it’s crucial to recognise that these self-care measures only scratch the surface.

The underlying factor that affects employee wellbeing, shaping how employees present themselves in every moment, transcends self-care practices and instead lies in the operating system running the show – the unconscious mind.

We all have conditioned ways we think, act, behave, and feel and these conditioned responses that are running the show around 95% of the time. And the truth is, most people aren’t aware of their conditioned responses – which means we can’t change what we can’t see!.

Most people have a reasonable idea of what they need to do to maintain positive health, but it’s the beliefs they hold that can prevent them from applying this knowledge.

The Role of Conditioning in Employee Mental Health

The experiences, traumas, and challenges we faced in childhood led to the creation of limiting beliefs about ourselves. These beliefs, though formed innocently, construct a narrative that influences every thought, decision, and action in our lives.

The result is akin to a smartphone app; it can only operate according to its programming.

Unfortunately, many individuals live their lives controlled by these subconscious programmes without ever recognising or challenging them. This lack of awareness can lead to lives filled with frustration, pain, struggle, the need for control, anxiety, depression, and much more.

Despite the focus on mental health awareness in recent years, there’s often the missing piece of the jigsaw puzzle – how the mind works. Yet it’s seeing this for myself when I was working in HR and studying psychotherapy and hypnotherapy that led me to leave behind my HR career and take the knowledge of the mind and body back into the workplace with my resilience training.

I recognised that despite all the efforts to reduce absence in the workplace, people couldn’t help themselves if they didn’t understand what was driving them over 95% of the time.

Burnout Isn’t Just About Overwork: Meet Stacey

Consider burnout, commonly attributed to factors like workplace culture, unrealistic expectations, and overwork. While these are contributing factors, they aren’t always the root cause.

Take Stacey, a 32-year-old digital marketing account manager, as an example. Her ambition and long hours are driven by a deep-seated belief that she isn’t enough. Despite her hard work, she struggles with self-criticism and a need to control, ultimately leading to burnout.

After a forced break and some attempts at self-care, Stacey returns to work, but old habits soon resurface. This cycle continues because the real issue isn’t addressed: Stacey’s underlying belief that she isn’t good enough.

From Tips to Transformation: What True Workplace Wellbeing Training Looks Like

I’ve seen this pattern repeatedly with people I’ve worked with one-to-one, and in my own journey. It wasn’t until I started to study the human psyche that I became aware of the many beliefs and conditioned responses of my own that had been the driver behind my long working hours and constant need to prove myself.

Without this insight, we can’t create true lasting change. We only need to look at New Year Resolutions for proof of this! The reason that over 80% of the fail, is because the underlying structure – the unconscious mind and its habitual thinking, emotional responses and beliefs, haven’t changed.

Why the Unconscious Mind Must Be Part of the Conversation

This is one of the reasons why our wellbeing webinars delve into the human psyche, enlightening employees about the unconscious mind’s role in governing our actions nearly all the time. By illuminating this internal operating system, our wellbeing training empowers employees to initiate meaningful changes, fostering healthier decisions for their well-being.

However, without this foundational knowledge, employees may leave training sessions with useful tips but find themselves hindered by underlying beliefs and mindset barriers, preventing consistent application.

Creating Sustainable Change Through Deeper Awareness

In an era marked by escalating stress and burnout levels, it’s imperative that workplace wellbeing training ventures beyond surface solutions to address the root causes. By equipping employees with the tools to reshape their mindsets, we unlock the true potential for lasting well-being transformation.

Ready to Transform Employee Wellbeing?

Want to transform your workplace wellbeing strategy from surface-level advice to deep, lasting change? Let’s talk about how our workplace wellbeing training and employee wellbeing webinars can help.

Book a call and discover employee wellbeing that creates lasting change and transformation.