Emotions carry information from our body to our brains, telling us what’s going on in our internal and external environments. They are fast, fluid, and dynamic, and when we learn to accurately read our emotions, we can harness all the information they’re trying to tell us. Try to welcome more positive emotions into your day, such as gratitude, joy, appreciation, calm, fulfillment, enthusiasm, and inspiration. And don’t let them pass too quickly. See if you can stretch them out and savour them; your wellbeing will thank you for it.

As a profession that advocates for prevention over cure, it can be surprising and saddening to know that the same approach isn’t applied to clinician wellbeing. With mental health concerns rising amongst dental professionals, it’s imperative that we focus on clinician wellbeing now more than ever. Adding tools to their wellbeing toolkit is a great start, and one of those tools is resilience.

Humans are inherently wired to move towards a goal or purpose. So, if you are experiencing a goalless floundering state it doesn’t just feel bad, it literally is bad for your wellbeing and psychological health. How do we shake things up and get you out of the rut you’re in? Through the science of goal setting.

Emotions aren’t good or bad—they just are. They are an automatic response to a given situation, and we don’t really have the ability to control our emotions. But we do have the ability to control how we respond to our emotions.

‘Saying no is not letting others down. It’s standing up for yourself. Setting boundaries isn’t a display of disrespect. It’s an expression of self-respect.’ Adam Grant

We are conditioned to say yes, and to help others out, but sometimes that comes at the expense of our own wellbeing. Learning the importance of setting boundaries and saying NO is an important skill.

When was the last time you took a holiday? Already we are nearly halfway through the year. Christmas and New Year is but a fading image in the rearview mirror, and the end of this year still feels like a lifetime away. Even for those with children, school holidays are not always the most relaxing time to take a break from work and unwind. Many people working in the dental profession fail to take enough time off work. Holidays don’t need to be expensive. You don’t even need to travel. The key is to switch off from work and take the time to relax.

Are you obsessed with your work? Most dental practitioners love the work that they do and feel extremely passionate about helping their patients improve their oral health. When work aligns with our values we can achieve a state of balance that boosts our positive emotions and improves our wellbeing. However, sometimes we become obsessed to the point that we believe that what we do is so important that it takes over our life, creating anxiety and tension that can negatively impact our wellbeing.

Social media is playing an increasingly larger and important role in our lives, both personal and professional. Sadly, for some people, social media can be a toxic environment that is more detrimental than beneficial. So whilst it can be a valuable tool for dental professionals, it is important to be mindful of some of the pitfalls, particularly in the way that it can impact on our mental health.

Receiving praise makes us feel good. It’s nice to receive recognition for a job well done, and to feel appreciated. But did you know that expressing gratitude to another person can also improve your mood and wellbeing? Being grateful shifts our focus from the negative to the positive. Negative thoughts focus on what is lacking, whereas positive thoughts focus on what is present and good.

The one constant in our life is change, and we only have to observe the world around us now to see how much it has changed from the world of our childhood. Yet we often have difficulty imaging how we will change in the future. Although many of us plan well for our financial future, we sometimes forget to invest in our personal future. The rest of your life starts today, and the changes you make now will benefit you far into the future.

Happiness is a key part of our wellbeing, and an important factor in our ability to flourish. More money isn’t always the solution. But more time often is.

If you are experiencing struggles, it is important that you seek professional help for your mental health. Mandatory notification should not be a barrier to seeking help, but if you are worried, speak with your treating practitioner about your concerns.

Are you working as a dental practitioner? Then chances are you are a perfectionist, since it is a trait that is common in this profession. However, perfectionism can be a double-edged sword. It can act as a trigger for anxiety or burnout, as you constantly push to achieve better and better results. The key (and challenge) is to figure out how to harness the benefits whilst at the same time mitigating negative aspects of perfectionism.

A healthy diet is an integral part of not only our overall health and wellbeing, but also for our mental health too. There are two important aspect to the dietary impacts on our mental health - healthy eating can help to improve our mood and wellbeing, but sometimes we can slip into unhealthy eating and drinking practices in response to our mood or mental health.

Many people view sleep as just something the do at the end of a long day. But it’s important to think of sleep as an important investment in your wellbeing. Every hour of sleep that you bank each night will give your body and mind valuable returns in the future. Similarly, losing 90 minutes of sleep in a night can cost you up to a third of your productivity the following day. Think about how important that is for a dental practitioner who must be able to remain alert and focused all day.

Up to 60% of people with a mental illness will not seek help, often because of the stigma associated with mental health. The view that mental illness is a sign of weakness, or that it’s not a real disease. So people suffering with a mental illness feel ashamed, they hide their symptoms and don’t talk about it. And most importantly, they don’t get the help or treatment they need. We need to have open and honest conversations about mental health so that people will seek help when they need it.

Oftentimes, self-efficacy, or confidence, is misunderstood as something that we’re born with. You’re either a confident person or you’re not. The research paints a more nuanced picture, and shows self-efficacy to be a developable skill,

Feeling anxious is a normal response to keep us safe from danger - it’s fight or flight in action, and it’s a feeling we all experience at some time in our lives. But persistent worry or distress can be difficult to control. Anxiety can interfere with how we go about our everyday lives and make it hard to cope with ‘normal ‘challenges. Anxiety disorder is one of the most common mental health issues in Australia, affecting up to one-third of women and one-fifth of men at some point in their lives.

Burnout is being increasingly talked about across the community, and particularly in the health professions. Research shows that 1 in 4 dental practitioners have symptoms consistent with burnout. It’s common to hear people now talking about how they have burned out or are feeling burnt out. So we need understand what burnout is, and what it is not.

Research shows that mental health issues are more common in the dental profession than the general community, and it’s likely that we work with colleagues who might be struggling with their mental health. One thing that we can all do is strive to creating a supportive and mentally healthy workplace in order to support our colleagues. It also helps to support our own mental wellbeing.