By Tiarra De Soto
(poster by Audrey Rendora)

Work environments change their culture rapidly throughout the years, and right now, mental wellness takes a big part in the modern work culture. Like it or not, our efficiency at work is dependent on how our mind is reacting to things that are happening in our life right now. Luckily, we have the capability of managing our mental well being.

On 15th of July, 2020, Penbrothers hosted a webinar entitled #WorkSmart: Redefining the Hustle Lifestyle and it tackled the correlation between mental wellness and work efficiency. Attended by dozens of people from various professions via Zoom, they got to learn from Dr. Ronald Del Castillo — an expert on mental health, public health and social policy and he is currently a consultant for the UN World Food Program. Most recently, he was an associate professor at the University of the Philippines Manila. He was trained at Fordham, Stanford, Harvard, Tufts, UCLA, King’s College London, and the National University of Singapore. In recent months, he has presented in conferences in Buenos Aires and Tokyo. Later this year, he will present at the World Congress of the International Association for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in Singapore. Dr. Del Castillo is a member of the Philippine-American Academy of Science and Engineering.

Starting off with words of reassurance — “All kinds of feelings are perfectly normal, common, and acceptable”, the highly esteemed speaker was telling the audience that all feelings are valid. The definition of mental health was also brought into account that everyone experiences highs and lows that can affect their mental well-being, and the person has the authority to change their mindset towards that certain stress.

“When you change the way you think about stress, you can change
your body’s response to it.” — Dr. Ronald Del Castillo

Dr. Del Castillo explained the benefits of turning the way we think about stress and how it affects our bodies. It was also discussed how people can actually turn the mindset around like writing down in a journal, stating 3 things that one is thankful for, calling a loved one, and more. Just like in work environments, people need to feel mentally at ease in order to gain productivity in their daily workload. As our activities at work affects our well-being, this insightful webinar provided the audience pieces of advice on how to deal with the work stress, whether they work in the office or if they work from home. With working from home, a person can still feel the stress from the other side of their computer screens — a good way to handle this is to have a good community with your organization and to create a relaxing work atmosphere. Community building is one of the ways to help one another in this very sensitive time.