Stress, anxiety, burnout... Nearly one in four employees report poor mental health, according to the latest figures published by Ipsos in January 2025.

So how can you preserve your mental and physical health and that of your employees in these conditions? Tal Ben-Shahar, writer, lecturer and speaker for the EVE Program on Positive Psychology, and Nicolas Magnant, director of the Alterhego firm specializing in the prevention of psychosocial risks and the development of the quality of life at work, give us their expert advice on the issue. Here's an overview.

The importance of recovery

The world of work as it exists today, and more broadly society, is made up of oversolicitations, of injunctions to produce more and faster and more quickly. "However, our bodies are not made to be kept under pressure over time," says Tal Ben-Shahar. What we are sorely lacking today is the recovery time. "When we work out in the gym and strain our muscles, we actually get stronger, if we also give them time to recover, between sets and between workouts," says the speaker. Similarly, stress outside of the gym should be accompanied by time to recover. It is therefore essential to be able to release the pressure on dedicated times if you want to progress. But also and above all to stay healthy.

Establish concrete daily habits

Ensuring restorative breaks involves several levels of action. "The first is to take a 15-minute break every two hours," reveals Tal Ben-Shahar. This can take the form of a walk, a meditation, a coffee with colleagues or friends... Anything that can allow you to disconnect from your concerns. A second level of action involves exercise.

"You have to realize that three 30-minute sessions a week of aerobics has the same effect on our psychology as the most powerful psychotropic drugs ," continues the expert. And moreover the effect is the same since it allows to release and diffuse well-being hormones in the body. Finally, on a more global level, quality sleep is vital to the recovery of the body and the psyche. "However, our era tends to completely neglect this primary need," laments Nicolas Magnant.

Listening to yourself to listen 

It is crucial to rehabilitate the notion of listening to oneself in order to be aware of what one feels and to learn to listen to one's emotions. "Not to manage them as we often hear, but to hear the signals that our body and mind send us," reveals Nicolas Magnant. A step that is all the more powerful if we talk about what we feel, what we think, what we live. "Because putting ailments into words is already an act of care in itself," confirms the director of Alterhego. This makes it possible not to let resentments, feelings of anger, sadness, frustration set in at the risk of seeing them impact the body.

The specialist in the prevention of psychosocial risks also uses the work of Carl Gustav Jung to discuss the benefits of listening for oneself but also for others. "You can't go further with others than where you went with yourself," he reminds us. In other words, you must first develop your own sensitivity to begin a process of self-understanding... if one wants to begin to understand others.

Questioning one's relationship with health

It is well known that a vision carried by the culture of a society has a direct impact on an individual's thought mechanisms. "And when it comes to health, we are marked by an imaginary of resistance, endurance and surpassing oneself, which pushes us to appreciate and value our ability to endure pain," observes Nicolas Magnant. It may therefore be interesting to put this vision into perspective to question one's own relationship to health.

"In ancient China, you paid your doctor at the end of the year if you stayed healthy," he continues. So why not conceive of health not as not being sick, but as being in good social, psychological and physical health? "This would imply perceiving care not as a single repair for excess but as a means of cultivating health as a whole," encourages Nicolas Magnant. A sidestep that is all the more interesting in his eyes because it is easier to maintain our state, which is basically good health, than to repair ourselves once the physical or mental illness has been overcome.

Creating a culture of co-vigilance

Everyone has a role to play in paying attention to the physical and psychological state of those around us on a daily basis. "But the company also has a responsibility to organize it and create an environment where employees feel authorized to share their feelings, where dialogue can emerge in complete safety," says Nicolas Magnant. This involves, for example, management and its ability to delimit a space where this expression is possible. Because it is also (and especially) with the framework that a real culture of co-vigilance can be established.

This is not the only advantage. Opening these spaces also makes it possible to generate links and therefore to work for the social health of everyone. "Because we are social animals, the link is an essential resource factor for the quality of life of employees," concludes the director of Alterhego. It brings support, energy, recognition. So we might as well mobilize it properly.