The Mental Health Edition: Do More With Less, Simplify Your Approach, Workplace Wellbeing & More

Oct 06, 2024

Welcome to the Outside Performance newsletter. Each week, I write about topics, people, and ideas that I find interesting and inspirational. Following my own curiosity to ignite the spark in others. Join by subscribing below:

In today’s edition:

Quote - Simplify Your Approach
Framework - Focus on Less
Article - The Importance and Benefits of Nature in the Workplace
Poem - The Peace of Wild Things
Post - 8 Japanese Techniques to Stop Overthinking Everything

Quote

“It’s not the daily increase, but the daily decrease.” - Bruce Lee

This week on 10 October we celebrate World Mental Health Day 2024.

Sometimes, the different lives that we lead - parent, spouse, friend, colleague - lead us to into periods of unnecessary overthinking. Fortunately, today the world is becoming a lot more accepting of the reality that exists for every human on the planet: all of us have times when we have poorer mental health. This is the human condition.

I love how simple this week’s quote is. It tasks us with getting clear on what really matters to us and what gives us purpose in life; to cut out the noise and get to the essence of life.

Check out 5 key points on how to reduce overthinking in the section below 👇

Framework

Focus on Less

“It’s Not Daily Increase, But Daily Decrease” -

Lee believed that true mastery comes from stripping away unnecessary tasks. In life and work, this means focusing only on what truly matters.

“Simplicity is the Key to Brilliance” –

Where can you advocate for the straightforward over the complex? Whether in problem-solving, communication, or daily routines, simplicity helps lead us to greater efficiency and better outcomes.

“Efficiency Over Complexity” -

Lee designed his martial art philosophy (Jeet Kune Do) around the idea of using the most efficient movement to get maximum results. Cut out redundant work, meetings, processes. Instead, think about what activities can you complete today that will have the largest impact on your life, wellbeing and personal goals.

“Be Yourself” –

When we are our authentic selves, life gets a whole lot easier. For Lee, he encouraged people to strip away society’s expectations, pretences, or complicated identities and focus on just being you; freeing you from unnecessary mental clutter and leading to a more content, grounded life.

“Absorb What Is Useful, Discard What Is Not” –

Instead of overwhelming yourself with excessive information or methods, focus on the knowledge and techniques that truly resonate with you.

Article

The Importance and Benefits of Nature in the Workplace

Let’s conduct a quick experiment: take a look at the below photo, imagine yourself in the photo, and take some slow and deep breaths whilst you do so. Notice for a moment how you feel:

Hopefully, you will have benefitted from a few moments of relaxation in what may be an already very busy day and week.

However, I wanted to just show for a moment how impactful nature can be on our day and, given that our lives are a culmination of the days that we live, equally impactful on our lives if we experience it every day.

Being in nature and surrounded by nature is central to human existence. We have evolved in nature and it is only very recently (in evolutionary terms, at least) that we have been living in more urban environments.

This week’s ‘article’ is less of an article but more of a guide to the 14 patterns of biophilic design (read: nature-inspired design) as applied to workplace or other built environments. What is of particular interest is the response that certain environments automatically produce in us - this relies less on the genius of the designers, but more on the genius of our evolution in natural environments.

Nature, at its core, taps into our limbic system which is our earliest brain, regulating emotions and feelings.

If we want to find ‘new systems’ of productivity, wellbeing and great mental health, then learn a lesson from a system that has worked well for millennia: nature itself.

The “14 Patterns of Biophilic Design” highlights how incorporating natural elements into built environments can improve well-being and productivity.

The patterns are divided into three categories:

Nature in the Space (e.g., visual connections with nature, natural light, water features),
Natural Analogues (e.g., biomorphic forms, natural materials), and
Nature of the Space (e.g., creating prospect, refuge, and a sense of mystery).

These principles are designed to enhance health, creativity, and comfort in the spaces we inhabit.

For more details, you can view the document here or click on the title above.

Poem

The Peace of Wild Things

Wendell Berry is an American novelist, poet, essayist and environmental activist. One of his poem’s (The Peace of Wild Things) is a perfect accompaniment to the philosophy set out above: namely, that in times of stress, hardship, or worry, nature has the amazing ability to help us put everything back into perspective.

If you find yourself this week (or indeed at any point) in a place where ‘despair grows in you’ or ‘taxing yourself with forethought’, take solace in nature. It will not let you down:

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When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

Post

8 Japanese Techniques to Stop Overthinking Everything

Continuing the theme of human wellbeing this week, we are going to finish this edition with Dr Marcel Vollmer’s post on LinkedIn which provided 8 techniques you can use to stop overthinking everything. Take a look through, something of use here for everyone. I have posted the post below, and also the first photo from the post, on Ikigai.

That’s it for this week’s edition, I hope you enjoyed it.

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