Off Mode – The Counter

Breaking with the daily scheme of work and taking vacations is not only part of the annual routine that many may have, but it is an escape route for the stress that accumulates as a result of our pace of life, so today – more than ever – it is an obligation that we can not postpone.
Known is the profound impact that the pandemic has had on people’s mental health, generating a significant deterioration to an area that was already our Achilles heel before the arrival of Covid-19. So today it is important that, those who can, take this moment to disconnect and put themselves at the center of priorities. However, it will be of little and no use to put yourself in off mode to lower stress for a couple of days, otherwise we do not make changes in our lifestyle that allow us to lower the rhythms in which we move and how we address the emotions and feelings that, in the long run, make us sick.
According to the study “Thermometer of Mental Health in Chile” carried out by the ACHS and the UC, during 2021 45.9% of Chileans presented changes in their mood, associated with stress, so it is urgent to pay attention to these indicators that, if they present an increase during this 2022, can have important social repercussions.
During the last years for many productivity has been associated with constant connectivity, vanishing – product of the use of technology in an excessive way – the limits of the different working days and decreasing personal times. A situation that, if it occurs sporadically, does not have a great impact, but that prolonging in time leads us to an unhealthy life.
Ensuring well-being requires not only continuing to advance in the naturalization of mental health – such as the elimination of associated diseases as pre-existence in the isapres -, but also needs public policies that allocate a budget for this matter for the creation of initiatives that allow transversal access to conventional and complementary medicine treatments, of a private sector that facilitates and ensures both the taking of vacations with a real disconnection from work and the delivery of tools during the year that allow detecting and addressing situations that may alter the mental health of their workers, but – above all – that we are the ones who give more space in our lives to self-care and well-being.
 
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Original source in Spanish