Though the COVID-19 pandemic began to recede, 2022 tested organizations and employees in new and unpredictable ways.

At LifeSpeak, we’ve continued to produce the high-quality, expert-led videos employees around the world rely on to maintain their mental health, learn to face challenges, and live their best lives.

To help your organization continue supporting its people into the new year, we’re sharing key takeaways from some the most watched LifeSpeak videos of 2022.

Below we’ll explore how employees can confidently protect their online brand, define appropriate weight loss goals, understand stress, and much more. Share these valuable insights with your people to help support them as they face 2023 with bravery and purpose.

Top Video #1: Protecting Your Online Brand

“When you build an online brand, sharing information is a benefit,” says media and digital literacy expert Jesse Miller in his LifeSpeak video, Protecting your online brand.

But it’s also important for everyone to protect their online image. Miller hears from more and more people who notice when they search their name online, they find information they didn’t realize was easily available to the public. Going backwards is tough. On the internet, content almost never really disappears.

One of Miller’s key tips is to pause before posting something online and say it out loud. If it sounds like something you would say in public, then go ahead and post it. But if not, then reconsider sharing it online.

Online concerns often extend to children being brought up in the internet age. Miller encourages parents to begin the conversation about life on the internet by asking children what kinds of photos they feel comfortable having online.

“If you start the conversation at a young age, you’ll build some very good tools to have further conversations with your kids as they venture into social media,” Miller says.

Top Video #2: Defining Weight Loss Goals

“You’ve made up your mind to eat healthier, get in shape and take better care of yourself,” says registered dietician Constance Brown-Riggs in her LifeSpeak video, Defining weight loss goals and keeping the weight off. “But how much should you lose and how fast?”

It may sound modest, but Brown-Riggs says that employees who are overweight or obese can reap health benefits with just a five to ten percent reduction in weight.

So, what are the best way to lose weight?

It turns out the best strategies are slow and gradual. They tend to be more sustainable than losing a bunch of weight quickly.

Losing weight slowly allows time for a person to develop new behaviors and gain the resiliency to handle the everyday challenges that prompt weight gain. When a person loses a lot of weight quickly, they haven’t had time to learn these valuable new behaviors.

The best exercises and meal plans vary from person to person, but Brown-Riggs encourages everyone to set realistic goals and seek support.

Realistic goals take setbacks—like a big holiday meal—into account. Support means finding people who care about your wellbeing or who are also seeking to lose weight. These people will help hold you accountable and encourage you.

Top Video #3: Understanding Stress to Prevent Burnout

“Whenever we have a difference between what we want and what we have, what can happen is stress,” says behavioral scientist Dr. Bill Howatt in his LifeSpeak video, Understanding stress to prevent burnout.

Employees can react to stress in one of two ways.

The first is focusing and solving the problem. This is a positive reaction. The second is emotional coping, which is a negative reaction. In emotional coping, instead of solving the problem a person seeks pleasurable activities to relieve their stress symptoms—like alcohol, food, or gaming.

One way to avoid emotional coping is to set priorities. These can guide professionals and help them maintain a healthy work-life balance, avoiding distress during challenging times.

Another tactic is to take a page and split it between the different areas that are creating issues, like work and home for example. Then write down where the challenges lie and what the consequences of different decisions are.

By thinking about the challenges in a calm state, employees can start to formulate a game plan that lets them anticipate future issues and problem solve before stress occurs.

Want to learn more?

This is just a snapshot of the wide range of expert-led content available from LifeSpeak.

For more expert-led education on a wide range of mental health and wellbeing topics, simply access the LifeSpeak platform.

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