You have heard plenty in the past about the work/life balance – but what about the work/health balance? While it is not necessarily clear cut to say that working more means having less health, there is something of a link there which is worth looking into if you want to try and make the most of your life. Your health is obviously the most important thing to you in the world, and as long as you are living in a way which pays respect to that, you should find that you are moving in the right direction. But there are many ways in which your work can get in the way of that, and it is a good idea to try and look into what you can do to stop that from happening too much. In this post, we will look at some of the ways in which your work and your health are related, and what you can do to make sure you find the right balance.
Choosing A Job
Let’s be honest: most of the time, people choose jobs based on circumstance and chance rather than a top-down kind of objective approach. That is the nature of working in the world today, and that is the reality for most people. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t choose to try and put a little more effort into finding a job that you will hopefully love, and one which is not going to cause you too much strain or trouble with your health. If you are thinking of switching jobs or getting a job, you will want to keep your health at the forefront of your mind. As long as you do that, you should find that you are much more likely to get hold of a job that will be fairly good for you, or at least not do you too much harm. Again, this is not always possible to do, but insofar as it is, you should make sure that you are happy to make the right choice and always put your health first ahead of any job.
Working Safely
An important way to make sure that your work is not going to negatively affect your health is by focusing on what you need to do to work safely. The more that you are able to work in safety, the more likely it is that you will keep your health where it needs to be, and that’s obviously what we all need and want. There are many things to consider here to make sure that you are working as safely as necessary. For a start, there are likely to be a number of health and safety rules which you need to adhere to in your workplace, so make sure that you are aware of these and that you appreciate what they mean and really entail. You should also make sure that you approach your work with common sense and don’t do anything unsafe on purpose, and that you don’t do anything physical which you know you probably can’t do. Remember that your employer has their side to keep up here too, and if they don’t then you should seriously consider contacting a personal injury lawyer to get their legal assistance. As long as you do that, and you work safely, you can at least be sure that your work won’t cause you any actual injuries, which is a hugely important thing to be aware of on the whole.
Taking Regular Breaks
One of the ways in which work can affect your health is if you work too much, an affliction which many people find that they adhere to from time to time. If you do work too much, then it will only mean that you are going to cause your body and mind to experience much more stress, and that will inhibit the function of your immune system to the point where you are considerably more likely to develop an illness at some point in the future. This is clearly no good for you at all, and absolutely not worth the extra working hours. Instead, you should aim to take regular breaks wherever you can, so that you can be sure you are going to keep that stress as low as necessary, and not allow it to become too much. There will be a legal requirement for break time which you should follow, and hopefully your employer will let you take a little more too, so make sure that you are happy to do that if you want to really look after yourself. Taking breaks is essential for your health.
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Eating Well
Many people fail to eat properly when they are at work. This might be because they are rushed off their feet and they don’t find it easy to get hold of good food, or it might be that the stress of the day means that they crave fast food. Whatever the underlying reason, you need to try and make sure that you don’t go too far down that hole. Instead, try to make a point of eating as well as you possibly can when you are on lunch break and other breaks. You can do this by preparing a healthy meal at home which you bring in, or simply by making sure that you make a point of making better decisions when you buy your lunch. The healthier you eat during the working day, the better off your health will be on the whole – and you will also find that it makes it much easier to carry on working without getting too overwhelmed or stressed too. Food is one of the most important parts of this whole process, and you should make sure that you treat it as such. Your diet is the central pinnacle of your health, especially when you are already stressed from work.
Understanding the relationship between work and health and taking the steps above will help you to lead a much healthier and happier life!
•How do you balance your work and health life?
This post was a collaboration.
Thank you for reading!
