Amit Sood: Summarizing the whole of well-being research, it is simply this: you want to tell your genes and immune system, “I’m having a good time on this planet.”
This type of positive outlook which can be learned tells your genes to switch from inflammatory to anti-inflammatory actions and boosts your antiviral immunity. The opposite is also true: when we feel miserable or have a negative outlook, inflammation goes up, and antiviral immunity goes down.
Amit Sood: I would tell them to continue to keep looking at mental and behavioral health holistically, focusing on prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation. Instead of focusing on productivity, focus on purpose, cultivate compassion, and give employees the agency to make decisions.
Helping employees find their purpose and meaning can drive productivity. And people who are compassionate and caring tend to learn skills better and become more competent. Also, the more autonomy employees feel, the more likely they will blossom in what they do, and the more engaged they will be.
It’s important to keep in mind what makes employees tick. What really keeps them going is a sense of control and a sense of purpose. And if you give them both, it can help combat the cognitive overload that we may all be feeling.
Amit Sood: One approach is based on having perspective. We have a practice called “kind attention,” where you assume that everybody is struggling in some form or another. With that awareness in mind, it can help bypass judgment of others and, in its place, produce a sense of empathy—a silent good wish—even before you get to know the person. Doing that preemptively creates a stronger connection and bond with another person.
Reconnecting with shared purpose, kindness, and gratitude
There is also a lot of support for transformation through gratitude. I believe that when gratitude and kindness become part of our breadth, then the physical distancing and the mandates matter less because the potential to feel connected to the person you’re talking to remotely can be just as strong as it would be talking in person. If you’re dealing with a difficult transactional or potentially adversarial meeting at work, you can preemptively try asking yourself, “Why am I grateful to the person I’m going to meet?”
Amit Sood: The uptick in psychological resilience seems promising as we become more comfortable with things being less controllable. And with lesser stigma related to mental-health issues, I hope we can preserve our growth as we emerge fully from the pandemic by validating each other with gratitude and kindness.