Putting the well into being

As a large employer in Ireland, Zurich recognises the importance of looking after the wellbeing of our employees. We want our employees to flourish both inside and outside of work. To achieve this, Zurich has put supports in place that raise our employees’ awareness of the importance of wellbeing, educates them about what they can do to improve their wellbeing and provides them with the tools to reach their personal wellbeing goals.

Tackle Your Feelings is Zurich Ireland’s community investment initiative, run in partnership with Rugby Players Ireland (formerly IRUPA). It aims to reduce the stigma around mental health and provide people with the tools and resources to be more proactive in looking after their emotional wellbeing. With some of Ireland’s sporting heroes leading the way, we want to inspire Irish people to be more proactive in looking after their mental wellbeing, so that issues are tackled before they hit crisis stage.

If you think about it you can probably remember the last time you added some salad to your plate, went to the gym, or even just avoided a second helping of dessert. There’s a lot of information and resources out there to help you to look after your physical health and while many of us may sometimes ignore it, we rarely question the relevance of this information to us personally.

If you were asked the same question about your mental wellbeing, would you have a different answer?

A recent survey, undertaken on behalf of the Tackle Your Feelings campaign, found that only 27 percent of people would describe their emotional and mental wellbeing as excellent. And while 86 percent of people agree that they can influence their own mental wellbeing, only 51 percent of us think it’s extremely important to be personally proactive in taking care of our mental wellbeing, with one in three of us taking the time to consider our feelings only once per month or less. When we do encounter stress 39 percent of people said that they deal with it either negatively (e.g. by drinking alcohol or comfort eating) or by ignoring it entirely.

Tackle Your Feelings App

We don’t just want to change attitudes, we want to put the power to positively manage challenging times, right into your hands. The Tackle Your Feelings app, launched earlier this year, is designed to help you find what works for you so that you can proactively manage your mental and emotional wellbeing.

Fully developed from sports psychology principles and techniques, the app takes you through a user-friendly, practical programme of strategies known to impact positively on aspects of mental wellbeing, such as self-confidence, optimism and relationships. Irish rugby players, such as Jack McGrath, Andrew Trimble and Hannah Tyrrell share what they do to impact positively on their own wellbeing in short videos throughout the app. The app is available free to download through the Apple and Play App stores.