Do you enjoy a leisurely stroll around the art gallery or museum, a night at the opera or thrashing around in the mosh pit at a death metal concert? There is good evidence that getting involved in the arts can have a powerful effect on mental health and wellbeing.

The foods we consume play a crucial role in regulating our moods, energy levels, and cognitive function. An unhealthy diet high in processed foods, sugar, and unhealthy fats can negatively impact mental health.

Excessive alcohol consumption has long been recognised as a concern amongst health professionals, both in terms of the risk of health concerns for the practitioner and also their ability to provide quality health care to their patients. If you are concerned about your drinking, you should seek support from your doctor.

Maintaining a healthy work-life balance can be a significant challenge due to the demanding nature of the dentistry. By implementing practical strategies, dental practitioners can strike a balance between their professional obligations and personal lives.

Dental practitioners face a unique set of challenges that can take a toll on their mental and emotional well-being. From dealing with anxious patients to managing the demands of a fast-paced work environment, the stress can be overwhelming. However, developing resilience – the ability to bounce back from adversity and adapt to change – can help navigate these challenges with greater ease and maintain a healthy work-life balance.

October is Mental Health Month, which provides a perfect opportunity to start a conversation about mental health and wellbeing. 1 in 5 Australians will experience a mental illness this year. And sadly, we know that 60% of people with a mental illness will not seek help.

Why is psychological safety so important in the workplace? Building a team culture where there is a shared belief that it is OK to take risks, and that you won’t be punished for making mistakes, or speaking up with new ideas or questions, is actually the key to a successful team. It is also critical for building and supporting wellbeing in the workplace.

Habits are both a blessing and a curse, because good habits can help you to rise up over time, while bad habits can send you into a downward spiral. One of the keys to maintaining good habits is remembering that it’s not just about willpower. There are lots of little things that can help to make or break your new healthy habit formation.

Thursday 12 September is RU OK Day, the one day of the year when we are encouraged to ask our friends, family and especially our work colleagues if they are OK. The message for this year is that we should wait for that one day of the year, rather that we should normalise asking about mental health and wellbeing at any time.

Encouraging healthy conversations about mental health and being more vulnerable are important steps in helping to overcome some of these barriers to improving men’s mental health and wellbeing.

Stress is inevitable, but taking steps to address it can help to ensure that you get a good night sleep so that it doesn’t affect your performance the next day.

It is important that no matter where you are in your career, from student through to experienced clinician, that you run your own race. Don’t worry about what other people might think about the choices you make, the lifestyle you lead or even the way you dress. Chances are they are too worried about their own lives to be thinking of you. So save your energy and put it to good use.

Feeling anxious is a normal response to keep us safe from danger - it’s fight or flight in action. But persistent worry or distress can be difficult to control. Up to one-third of women and one-fifth of men will experience anxiety at some point in their lives. Recent research has found that 1 in 10 dental practitioners have reported a current diagnosis of anxiety disorder, and around 20% reported ever having a diagnosis of anxiety disorder.

Living in a state of mental health is often described as a state of flourishing, with attendant positive feelings, emotions and functioning. The opposite of flourishing is languishing, a feeling of stagnation and emptiness and the absence of mental health.

Whilst healthy guilt is a normal response when we do something wrong, unhealthy guilt and shame can cause us psychological distress. It is important to practice self-compassion, address irrational beliefs and try to move awareness away from thoughts of self-criticism or inadequacy.

It is said that fear extinguishes more dreams than failure. Fear of failure will prevent you from seeking out new experiences or taking risks, so it is important to try and embrace and challenge those fears in order to grow and experience new opportunities.

The pace of dental practice can be relentless, and the stress sometimes overwhelming. And we know the impact that this can have on practitioner wellbeing. High levels of stress, burnout and work dissatisfaction and lead to many people losing their passion for dentistry. Mindfulness is not a quick fix to stress or burnout. It takes practice and training – in some ways it’s no different to training to improve your physical health. You won’t see benefits overnight, but they will accrue over time as the practice becomes easier.

As oral health professionals we are always recommending to patients that they have a regular dental check-up to ensure that we have the best chance to detect any disease early and prevent things from potentially getting worse. But it’s just as important for us to have a regular mental health check-up too.

You’ve heard of financial capital, technological capital, and human capital, but what about psychological capital? Although this resource may not be as evident as the latest equipment or the monthly figures, it plays a vital role in mental health and overall wellbeing, as well as performance and success.

Strengths are pots of gold sitting within all of us, waiting to be excavated, harnessed, and deployed. Next time you come up against a challenge or an exciting project, step outside the box and let your strengths pull you forward. We all have unique and complementary strengths, so let’s use them to positively influence our environment, instead of simply becoming a by-product of it.