THE BEST MENTAL HEALTH IN 2025: A REAL TALK ON COPING AND THRIVING

As we begin 2025, the importance of mental health takes on an even greater significance. The challenges we face today, especially for women navigating their roles at home and in the workplace, are not just about managing schedules but also about dealing with psychological distress. Anxiety, panic, and depression are becoming increasingly common, and addressing these issues with realistic strategies is essential.

This discussion isn’t about clinical advice but a shared reflection on how we can all work towards better mental health by focusing on what’s practical, actionable, and rooted in the reality of our daily lives.

Understanding the Weight of Mental Health Challenges

The fast pace of modern life, combined with societal expectations, has created immense pressure, particularly on women. Whether you’re managing a household, building a career, or balancing both, the psychological toll can feel overwhelming. Anxiety often stems from constant worries about the future. Panic attacks can come out of nowhere, leaving you shaken and confused. Depression, on the other hand, can make even the simplest tasks feel insurmountable.

The first step to addressing these challenges is acknowledging that these feelings are valid. Mental health struggles are not a sign of weakness but a call to take better care of ourselves and seek supportive environments.

Finding Balance in the Chaos

One of the most significant contributors to psychological distress is the lack of balance. For women who are homemakers, the monotony of daily chores and the absence of appreciation can lead to feelings of insignificance. For working women, the pressure to excel professionally while managing personal responsibilities can feel like walking a tightrope.

In 2025, it’s time to redefine balance not as a perfect state but as a dynamic process. This involves setting boundaries, delegating tasks, and learning to say no without guilt. A key part of this process is prioritizing self-care, even in small ways. Whether it’s taking a 15-minute break to enjoy a cup of tea without interruptions or setting aside time for a hobby, these moments of intentionality can do wonders for your mental well-being.

Addressing Anxiety: Tackling Worries One Step at a Time

Anxiety often feeds on uncertainty and a sense of losing control. To cope with this, it’s essential to ground yourself in the present. Mindfulness techniques, such as deep breathing or focusing on immediate surroundings, can help calm racing thoughts.

It’s also important to break down overwhelming tasks into smaller, manageable steps. If you’re feeling anxious about a project at work or a family commitment, start by listing what needs to be done and tackling one thing at a time. This approach not only reduces anxiety but also gives you a sense of accomplishment along the way.

Overcoming Panic: Building Resilience

Panic attacks can be terrifying, but understanding them is the first step to managing them. Recognize that these episodes, while intense, are temporary and will pass. Learning grounding techniques, such as counting objects around you or repeating a calming phrase, can help during an attack.

Long-term, it’s essential to identify triggers and work on desensitizing yourself to them. This might mean gradually exposing yourself to situations that cause discomfort in a controlled way or seeking support from trusted friends or family members.

Fighting Depression: The Power of Connection

Depression often creates a sense of isolation, making it difficult to reach out for help. But human connection is one of the most powerful tools for combatting it. Talking to someone who listens without judgment, whether a friend, family member, or a support group, can lighten the burden.

Building a routine that incorporates physical activity, sunlight exposure, and even a simple task like journaling can gradually lift the fog of depression. Remember, recovery takes time, and small steps are just as important as big leaps.

Setting Realistic Goals for Mental Wellness

In the New Year, many of us set ambitious resolutions, only to feel defeated when we can’t achieve them. For better mental health, focus on realistic and meaningful goals. Instead of aiming for perfection, strive for consistency. Celebrate progress, no matter how small, and be kind to yourself when things don’t go as planned.

Goals like improving sleep patterns, practicing gratitude, or limiting time on social media can significantly improve mental well-being. The key is to choose what resonates with you and take it one day at a time.

Moving Forward with Hope and Resilience

As we step into 2025, remember that mental health is not a destination but a journey. There will be good days and bad days, but each one is an opportunity to grow stronger and more self-aware. By addressing anxiety, panic, and depression with compassion and actionable steps, we can build resilience that carries us through the year.

The best mental health in 2025 isn’t about being free from challenges but about learning to navigate them with grace and courage. Let this year be one of growth, healing, and the unwavering belief that you are capable of thriving, no matter the circumstances. Together, let’s make this year a testament to the strength of the human spirit.

AI IN 2025 At The Crossroads: Opportunity And Catastrophe?

 

A Sneak Peek into My New EBook on Amazon.

Hello everyone!

I’m beyond excited to announce that my new e-book, "AI IN 2025 AT THE CROSSROADS: OPPORTUNITY OR CATASTROPHE?" is launching on January 1, 2025, on Amazon! This book has been a labor of love, a culmination of countless hours of research, reflection, and writing to bring you a thought-provoking and action-oriented guide to the future of Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Let me tell you why this book is a must-read for anyone curious about where technology is headed, how it will impact our lives, and what we can do to steer it in the right direction.

Why This Book Matters Now More Than Ever

Artificial Intelligence isn’t just another technological trend, it’s a revolution that touches every corner of our lives. As we approach 2025, AI stands at a critical juncture:

• Will it become humanity’s greatest tool to solve global challenges?
• Or will mismanagement and ethical failures turn it into a source of unprecedented disruption?

My book explores AI's dual nature, exploring its vast potential and the risks that we, as a society, cannot afford to ignore.

What’s Inside the Book?

This e-book is structured into seven comprehensive parts, each designed to give you a holistic view of AI’s evolution, current state, and future possibilities. Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll discover:

1. The Rise of AI Technologies

From Natural Language Processing to Generative AI, learn about the groundbreaking innovations shaping our world today. Real-world examples, like AI’s role in revolutionizing healthcare, finance, and education, will leave you inspired and informed.

2. Opportunities for Transformation

Imagine a world where AI eliminates diseases, democratizes education, and drives environmental sustainability. This book showcases the industries being transformed and the career horizons AI is opening up for everyone, from data scientists to ethical AI advocates.

3. Ethical AI and Human-AI Collaboration

AI isn’t just about machines; it’s about people. Explore how ethical principles—like transparency, fairness, and inclusivity—can guide AI development and how human-AI collaboration is redefining innovation.

4. The Risks We Must Address

AI isn’t without its challenges. From job displacement to privacy concerns, I unpack the darker side of this technology and offer strategies to mitigate these risks, including robust regulations, reskilling programs, and ethical leadership.

5. AI in Policy and Governance

Can governments and organizations keep up with the rapid pace of AI innovation? My book explores global cooperation, adaptive policies, and the need for proactive regulation to ensure AI benefits everyone, not just a select few.

6. Scenarios for 2025

What does the future hold? I present three compelling scenarios:

• The Optimistic Future: AI solves global problems.
• The Negative Vision: Ethical failures lead to widespread unemployment and inequality.
• The Balanced Outcome: Humanity finds a way to adapt and thrive alongside AI.

7. A Roadmap for the Future

Practical steps for individuals, businesses, and policymakers to embrace AI responsibly. From upskilling strategies to fostering international cooperation, this section is your guide to preparing for the AI-powered world of tomorrow.

Who Is This Book For?

Are you a tech enthusiast fascinated by the latest advancements in AI? Perhaps you’re a business leader looking to harness the power of AI for growth and innovation. Suppose you’re a policymaker grappling with the ethical challenges of emerging technologies or a curious reader intrigued by how AI is shaping the world around us. In that case, this book has something valuable to offer. It provides tailored insights to match your interests, no matter your background or focus.

Why You Should Pre-Order It Today

Here’s what makes AI IN 2025 AT THE CROSSROADS: OPPORTUNITY OR CATASTROPHE? stand out:

• Engaging and Accessible: Complex ideas explained in a way that’s easy to understand but deeply impactful.
• Visionary yet Practical: Foresight into the future, paired with actionable guidance for today.
• Global Perspective: Insights from across industries, nations, and cultures to address AI’s universal impact.

Let’s Shape the Future Together

AI’s future isn’t set in stone, it’s up to us to decide the path we take. I hope that this book will spark meaningful conversations, inspire action, and empower you to be part of this journey.

So, mark your calendars for January 1, 2025, and get ready to dive into the exciting, challenging, and ever-evolving world of Artificial Intelligence.

Stay tuned for more updates, sneak peeks, and special launch-day surprises!

Pre-order your copy now on Amazon and join the conversation about the future of AI. Together, we can turn opportunity into reality and avoid catastrophe.

Author:

Erum Rehman

YOUR BEST EMPLOYEES DESERVE A STRATEGIC GRATITUDE

 

 

Generally, whenever employees work more progressively and enthusiastically in an organization, they inevitably expect to get noticed and appreciated by the top management and other related administrators. When organizational employees strive harder to meet the given targets and the set goals, they show a natural tendency to expect greater thankfulness and honor from their workplace in addition to the promised benefits and awards from the organizations. Therefore, organizations try to put great efforts into improving their relationships with their employees making the workplace more comfortable for them.

 

Appreciation and thankfulness can be given to workers in various forms. For instance, many organizations provide their gratitude to their best performers by offering them better growth opportunities, job rotations, promotions, and replacements. However, employees seek verbal appreciation and admiration even more in addition to rewards for good performance. 

 

So what should organizations do to satisfy the appreciation urge of their employees? How should they respond to their expectations?

 

In my opinion, which is largely based on knowledge bases and working experiences smart employers must always try to provide their employees, especially, the best performers with strategic gratitude. Strategic gratitude in my working experience as an employer consists of verbal appreciation being strategically aligned with organizational culture. It includes the involvement of organizational strategic authorities to carry out the process of appreciation in close collaboration with the employees. The process is needed to be carried out in both formal and informal ways. Since organizations are busy carrying out formal official procedures on daily basis, providing formal processes of appreciation on daily grounds may not be possible for many organizations. Therefore, I recommend organizations design and operate chunks of strategic employee gratitude programs periodically.

 

Now, what does this strategic employee’s gratitude program consist of? Here is a brief overview of what essential elements it should contain. Organizations may alter the elements as per their organizational needs. In addition to what an organization discusses about the goal of achieving perks with its employees, special appreciative measures must be taken by the authoritative personnel in this regard. For instance, conducting appreciative programs inviting the best performers to give a speech and have dinner, uploading their success stories as a part of an organizational social platform, and displaying the best performers’ records on billboards of various organizational departments, creating a moment of applause formally and informally for the achievers, giving a free short trip or vacations to the extra-ordinary performers, holding their special conversation sessions with the top management, allowing them to grasp more lucrative or luxurious offers by setting new strategic targets to be achieved by them, allowing them to write for the organizational newsletter or magazine, and so one.

 

One can think of new and better appreciative measures for the employees where they are being offered new opportunities to win in return for achieving new strategic goals. Organizations must try to make them feel splendid working for the organization where they get new chances to learn, improve and get better recognition for achieving more strategic targets. Employees who feel a sense of engagement with the organization tend to perform better. This raises their level of satisfaction and retention within the same workplace.  

A BRIEF REVIEW OF ROLES STRESSORS, WORK ENGAGEMENT, AND CAREER TRANSITION

In continuation of the previous articles on role stressors, work engagement, (role stressors), and career transition intentions (employee turnover), let us have a brief overview of them concerning their co-relationships.

Effect of Role Stressors on Work Engagement

In the world of research studies, the relationship between role stressors and engagement of employees at work has been analyzed from various perspectives. Role stresses such as role ambiguity and role conflict, along with job resources greatly impact employee engagement levels (Moura, 2014; Schaufeli & Bakker, 2004). Organizations have a strong causal link between various characteristics of job tasks and work engagement along with the mediating roles of role ambiguity and role conflict. One of the major causes of role ambiguity and role conflict is the level of poor inter-organizational and intra-organizational communications. Role stressors are found to be negatively related to work engagement.

Effect of Work Engagement on Career Transition Intentions

During a career transition, employees adopt a different job role and change their orientation within their organizations. These intentions of career change arise when the level of satisfaction is lowered. Job satisfaction is usually attained through higher levels of employee engagement, which ultimately lowers turnover intent. Employees’ level of satisfaction, enthusiasm about work, and level of involvement define the extent of both work engagement and turnover intentions. Rhodes and Doering (1993) proposed an inverse relationship of job satisfaction with thoughts of changing careers, which in turn positively relates to the intention to go for a job search. The subsequent intention to begin a job search on the other hand has been proven to trigger the intention to change careers. Hence, a negative co-relationship between job satisfaction and intention to change careers has been found to exist in organizations. With the inclusion of many internal and external factors, the relationship between engagement and turnover intentions has been widely researched (Takawira et al., 2014; Dane & Brummel, 2013; Juhdi et al., 2013; Klerk et al., 2014; Tims et al., 2014; Berry & Morris, 2008; Bal et al., 2011). Career transition involves a worker disengaging from his previous state of affairs and engaging in new circumstances. The mediating role of engagement in predicting turnover intentions has also been determined by several research studies predicting a negative relationship between engagement and turnover intentions (Memon et al., 2014; Alfes et al., 2012).

 

HOW TO TREAT AN INCOMPETENT EMPLOYEE AT THE WORKPLACE

An incompetent employee, simply, is a worker who most of the time fails to comply with the given job responsibilities. An incompetent worker in the first place fails to understand the given tasks appropriately and, therefore, his proceeding plan of action goes against the demands of the job. Such a person has no idea that his perception of how to do a given job responsibility does not match the actual demands of the job. It means that incompetency occurs due to the difference between an actual task requirement and the perception of the workers about a particular job task.

 

Being an incompetent person is not by choice, rather it’s built up on common sense and analytical capabilities along with a behavioral mindset of a person.  The particular behavior of a person is dependent on the ways a person is being brought up. Moreover, it is also the mindset of an incompetent person that acts as a permanent and constant source of failure when any kind of job responsibility is given.  

Incompetency at Its Peak

An incompetent employee at the workplace creates awkward mistakes and embarrassing situations for himself and other colleagues. They sometimes become the main factor in creating bottleneck issues in accomplishing the combined job roles. At their extremes, they are capable of unintentionally making the organizational system stuck and liable to its stakeholders.  The bigger issue with them is their stubbornness towards adapting themselves to the work environment and the job requirements.

Retaining the Incompetent

Since incompetent employees are prone to make frequent blunders and sometimes irrecoverable errors, many organizations resist retaining them. They take such harsh decisions because most of the time retaining them costs them even more than losing them. Employers and mentors feel great resistance from them whenever they try to make the incompetent employees realize their mistakes. Incompetent workers are found to be good at making excuses for their faults. They are prone to make false accusations about their colleagues for their pending or spoiled work.

 

Developing the Distinct Ones

However, for the mutual economic benefit and bringing improvement to their incompetent employees, many employers give ample chances to them before demoting or terminating them. Many mentors try to keep them in their current job positions with the same job responsibilities for an uncertain period. Nevertheless, the incompetency of the employees ultimately leads them towards elimination from their workplace.

When organizations terminate working relations with such employees, they unintentionally mark a stamp of incompetency on them which makes an ending to their careers as well as any chances of improvement. Therefore, all organizations need to devise special strategies for the development and growth of incompetent employees rather than expelling them from their firms. They need to plan distinct job roles and responsibilities for them. As in schools and colleges, students who need special attention are given extraordinary attention for their improvement rather than preferring to expel them, the incompetent workers also deserve to be treated with a sense of responsibility to gradually develop an abundant competency set within them. When organizations provide massive-budgeted training and development sessions to all of their employees, why cannot they just make extra efforts and costs to cater to the developmental needs of their incompetent employees? We have to understand our social and ethical responsibilities to snub the indolent habits and attitudes of such employees and make them better working partners for the whole working community. hence, giving resourcefulness to incompetent workers is the best socio-economic solution.

WHAT TRIGGERS EMPLOYEE TURNOVER?

 

Employee turnover issues have always been a critical issue for management for long. An employee turnover gives greater loss to an organization than any other organizational factor. That is why companies are always striving hard to make employee retention one of their top priorities.

Career Transitions

Turnover can be categorized more precisely into the term “career transition”. This career transition is activated within employees when they feel their identity has been challenged, ignored, or treated undistinguishable. It is a process or period of the simultaneous ending of a previous relationship with certain role identities and the beginning of a working relationship with new work roles. Both the personal life and organizational factors are responsible for triggering the intention to transition a career in a worker.  

 

Kinds of Career Transitions

Latack (1984), proposed three forms of career transition:

(a) Intra-organizational transition (e.g., moving oneself from one division to another within the same organization),

(b) Inter-organizational transition (e.g., moving oneself from one organization to another), and

(c) Inter-professional transition (e.g., occupation change).

 

Career transitions or career changes triggered by factors within organizations include the transitions in task, position, and occupation (Heppner et al., 1998). A change in task is defined as a shift from one set of tasks to another within the same job type and same workplace, whereas a change in position is considered as a shift in job type with the same employer or to a different organization. Nevertheless, a change in occupation means transitioning from one profession to another or engaging in entrepreneurship.

 Career Transition Intentions

Any kind of career transition or turnover is used as a strategy to escape the existing situation. Perceptions are the depiction of human behavior and roles. Perceptions built upon the grounds of task significance in a workplace also determine career transition intentions. The turnover intention is associated with predictors like organizational culture, job demands, independence, identity threat, work effort, and attitudes. It is the extent to which an employee plans to leave his current workplace. The turnover intention just begins before the actual turnover takes place. Therefore, there is a strong need to identify those turnover intentions as soon as possible and devise appropriate strategies to counter those intentions.

 

My next articles are going to reveal in detail the impact of role stressors on career transition intentions and also the effect of work engagement on career transition intentions. 

EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT OR WORK ENGAGEMENT? Identify Your Organizational Issue

Employers all around the world are struggling to devise effective strategies for their organizations to cope with the emerging issues of employee engagement. Employee engagement has always been the main concern of top management as the relationship between organizations and their employees revolves around it. In simple words, it encloses an organization's and its employees' mutual effort regarding a healthy and productive working environment.

Embracing Employee Engagement

Employers usually focus on building strong organizational culture, leadership, rewards and recognition, and professional growth of the employees. This is a vast category within human resource management and a tremendous amount of research work and theories about it have been established until today. Yet, employee engagement has eternally been the most challenging matter even for large multinational organizations.

Identifying the Real Obstacles

When organizations fail to identify problems of their employees accurately within the working environment, they cater to those issues which might not be the real causes of organizational problems. Because of this false identification of the impediments within the organizations, employers have to face both short-term and long-term complications in maintaining relations with their employees. Consequently, despite putting extravagance efforts into building up the employee engagement policies, organizations fail to meet their set goals in this regard. This mistake occurs due to many miscalculations and wrong evaluation procedures. However, one of the reasons is that organizations have started to consider every rising concern within the category of employee engagement. Without deeply analyzing the root causes of the organizational issues, the top authorities begin to devise plans and policies relating to employee engagement. The biggest dilemma is that employers being too much concerned to maintain high employee engagement, unintentionally overlook the underlying obstacles and misunderstood them. 

Misinterpreting Employee Engagement

A common mistake that many organizations make unconsciously is that they confuse work engagement issues with employee engagement issues. When work engagement problems are needed to be treated distinctively, organizations cater to all engagement problems under the same roof. They misinterpret employees’ concerns and overlook the fact that work engagement is somehow different from employee engagement. Several research studies have presented respected theories in this regard, yet, the difference is still unpopular and insignificant among the employers of various organizations for different reasons.

Knowing the Difference

Work Engagement is a set of as positive behavior with an optimistic mindset towards work. This kind of optimism is prone to yield positive work-related outcomes for an organization and the employees themselves. Work engagement is related to the behavior of employees specifically towards their work for the organization. The term work engagement was first used in the 1990s when organizations started to modernize their structure while bringing major functional transitions and structural changes within themselves.

Work engagement is found to be specifically related to the Burnout-Antithesis Approach. When employees feel a sense of engagement with their work or workplace, they are consequently more energetic and effectively connected with their work. Work engagement brings encouraging outcomes for the organization and its employees. However, when employees feel burned out and exhausted from their work routine, their engagement with their jobs gets negatively influenced. Several research studies show that work engagement directly affects job performance. Various dimensions of work engagement (vigor, absorption, and dedication) have a positive impact on the most critical dimensions of an employee’s job performance, for instance, task performance, contextual performance, and counter-productive performance.

In various research studies, employee engagement is explained as involvement, commitment, passion, enthusiasm, absorption, effort, dedication, and even satisfaction with the organization. Whereas, work engagement is related to an employee’s psychological devotion, particularly towards job responsibilities.

Reasoning

An employee may be happily engaged in his workplace/organization but may not necessarily be engaged in his work, consequently, might not be more productive. Whereas, an employee who is more engaged in his work, irrespective of how less he is attached to his organization, may be more productive and qualitative. Therefore, organizations need to conduct periodical internal surveys to identify whether their employees are dealing with either work engagement or comprehensive engagement issues with their organizations.

As work engagement is a positive and satisfying work-related condition characterized by vigor, dedication, and absorption as described by Schaufeli and Salanova in 2002, the retention of such work-engaged employees seems to be the most desirable aspect. All these attributes relate to the affective-cognitive condition of employees. The High level of energy and mental resilience is related to Vigor along with a willingness to bring more efforts, Involvement towards work, a sense of importance, enthusiasm, inspiration, pride, and challenges related to Dedication. Absorption is referred to as being completely determined and happily absorbed in work.

The three different levels of employee engagement in a particular workplace verily exist in those situations where an employee perceives his autonomy and work attributes much desirable. Shuck, in 2011, conducted a meta-analysis of 213 studies and discovered four approaches relating to engagement: The Needs-Satisfying Approach, the Burnout-Antithesis Approach, the Satisfaction-Engagement Approach, and the Multidimensional Approach. The roles of engagement in the forms of independent, dependent, moderating, and mediating variables have been explored since the origin of engagement theory until recently (Soieb et al., 2013). The term engagement is found to be moderately and negatively correlated to turnover intention whereas work engagement mediates the relationship between job resources and turnover intention. This specifies that when the job becomes more resourceful, the levels of work engagement rise, and the intention to quit the job lowers (Schaufeli and Bakker, 2004).