Mental Health Minute
This article is from RISQ Consulting’s Zywave client portal, a resource available to all RISQ Consulting clients. Please contact your Benefits Consultant or Account Executive for more information or for help setting up your own login.
Stress and anxiety is bound to creep into your life no matter the mitigation. When it does, you can prepare yourself with simple and quick techniques to sooth the impact and recover quicker.
How Can Grounding Techniques Help Manage Feelings?
Grounding is a practice that can help you manage experiences such as flashbacks, unwanted memories or negative emotions. These techniques involve focusing on the present to distract yourself from anxiety and other challenging emotions.
Physical Grounding Techniques
Physically grounding yourself involves using your senses to help you navigate feelings of distress. A technique to physically ground yourself is to put your hands in water and focus on the temperature of the liquid or switch from cold water to warm water and back while focusing on the present moment.
Other physical grounding exercises include deep breathing, savoring food or drink, picking up nearby objects and moving your body (e.g., walking, running in place or doing jumping jacks).
Mental Grounding Techniques
You can mentally ground yourself with exercises that prevent mental distractions and help redirect your thoughts to the present.
Such exercises include memory games, category-thinking (e.g., listing all the types of cake you can think of), reciting a song or book passage you know by heart, and visualizing a daily task you enjoy.
Soothing Grounding Techniques
Soothing techniques can be used to comfort yourself in times of high anxiety or distress. These techniques are intended to promote good feelings that reduce or distract from negative emotions.
You can practice soothing techniques by picturing the face of someone you love, repeating compassionate phrases about yourself, spending time with your pet, visualizing your favorite place or listing positive things.
Conclusion
Grounding techniques can help you manage unpleasant experiences like distress, anxiety, traumatic nightmares and flashbacks. Try these exercises to reduce distress when you first start to feel negative emotions.
Try These Mood-boosting Activities
Negative emotions and disappointments can easily derail your activities. Although it’s common to be in a bad mood occasionally, letting negative emotions take over your day can leave you feeling worse. Instead of ignoring a bad mood, try a mood-boosting activity.
Free Mood-boosters
- Walking outdoors is a great activity for improving your mood. Spending time outdoors and being in sunlight have both been proven to boost mood. Additionally, walking can release endorphins, which ease stress and discomfort.
- Find ways to laugh, such as watching funny videos, sharing jokes with a friend, going online or watching comedians.
- Try aromatherapy to de-stress. Smells can trigger positive memories and help relieve anxiety or stress. Find your favorite scented soap, smell something that reminds you of a loved one or sample a new essential oil.
- Play cheerful and upbeat music. This can help boost your mood, ease tension, reduce anxiety and even improve certain brain functions, such as memory.
- Do something nice for somebody else, such as a co-worker or friend. Being compassionate to others can make them feel better and may improve your mood as well. Consider small favors, such as doing chores for your housemate or partner, walking a neighbor’s dog or helping a stranger with their groceries.
- Talk to people in your life who uplift you. A short call or time spent with a loved one can help you reduce tension. As a bonus, your loved one may be able to make you laugh, take your mind off your troubles or remind you that you’re not alone.
Conclusion
The next time you’re in a bad mood, try one of these free mood-boosting activities to reduce stress and lessen the impact of negative emotions.
- Published in Blog
Protecting Your Business From Power Surges
This article is from RISQ Consulting’s Zywave client portal, a resource available to all RISQ Consulting clients. Please contact your Benefits Consultant or Account Executive for more information or for help setting up your own login.
Power surges, which are sudden spikes in electrical voltage, can wreak havoc on business equipment and systems. While they may seem like minor inconveniences, power surges can have a significant impact on a business’s bottom line. This article explores the dangers of power surges, effective strategies to shield businesses from their effects and the crucial role of insurance in safeguarding their assets.
What Causes a Power Surge?
A power surge happens when there’s a sudden increase in electrical voltage in a building’s electrical system or the electrical grid. These voltage spikes are caused by different factors, like lightning strikes that discharge massive amounts of electricity into the grid or directly into buildings. Electrical grid fluctuations, such as changes in demand or power line switching, can also cause surges. Internally, power surges can happen when there’s faulty wiring, malfunctioning appliances, or when power-hungry equipment like heating, ventilating and air conditioning systems and large motors start up. These surges can spread throughout the electrical system, potentially damaging connected devices and equipment.
Identifying the various sources of power surges is important to ensure effective surge protection in commercial settings.
The Impact of Power Surges on Business Operations
The impact of power surges on business operations can be substantial and far-reaching. Financially, power surges can lead to extensive costs, including equipment damage or replacement expenses and downtime, resulting in lost productivity and revenue. Beyond the financial implications, surges can inflict reputational damage on a business, eroding customer trust and partnerships due to frequent disruptions and equipment failures. In essence, power surges have the potential to disrupt normal business operations, strain resources and harm a company’s reputation, making them a critical concern for businesses of all sizes and industries.
Strategies to Protect Against Power Surges
To protect against power surges, businesses can utilize the following effective strategies and tools:
- Surge protection devices (SPDs)—These devices should be installed at critical points in the electrical system to divert excess voltage away from sensitive equipment and prevent damage. It’s advisable to install SPDs throughout different areas of a building. The three primary zones for protection are service entrance SPDs, distribution panel SPDs and point-of-use SPDs. Service entrance SPDs prevent surges from entering the building, while distribution panel SPDs limit the spread of surges to downstream areas. Point-of-use SPDs offer targeted protection for specific assets.
SPD installation should comply with the manufacturer’s recommendations. SPDs need to be properly sized and grounded to protect equipment.
- Uninterruptible power supply (UPS)—A UPS is a type of device that powers equipment nearly instantaneously in the event of grid power failure, protecting the equipment from damage. Implementing a UPS can provide a temporary power source during surges or outages, allowing for safe equipment shutdown.
- Grounding and bonding—Proper grounding and bonding of the electrical system can reduce the risk of surges caused by electrical faults.
- Regular electrical maintenance—Regular inspections and maintenance can help identify and address potential issues before they lead to surges.
- Employee training and awareness—Educating employees about power surge risks and establishing protocols for immediate response can minimize damage and downtime in the event of a surge.
By adopting these strategies and tools, businesses can significantly enhance their protection against power surges and avoid potential financial and operational disruptions.
The Role of Commercial Property Insurance
Even though preventive measures are essential, power surges can occur unexpectedly, and accidents can happen. However, there is good news for businesses. Commercial property insurance policies and appropriate endorsements can help cover the financial losses that result from power surges. Here are some of the benefits of such coverage:
- Equipment replacement coverage—Insurance can cover the cost of repairing or replacing damaged equipment.
- Business interruption coverage—If power surges cause downtime, insurance may compensate a business for lost income during that period.
- Spoiled inventory coverage—Insurance may cover the cost of spoiled inventory that results from power outages.
Conclusion
To ensure smooth operations, businesses should take proactive measures to protect against power surges. This can be achieved by implementing surge protection strategies and acquiring the appropriate insurance. By doing so, businesses can safeguard their assets and maintain productivity even when faced with power surges.
Contact us today for additional guidance on commercial property risks.
- Published in Blog
Electric Vehicles Present New Insurance Challenges
This article is from RISQ Consulting’s Zywave client portal, a resource available to all RISQ Consulting clients. Please contact your Benefits Consultant or Account Executive for more information or for help setting up your own login.
Electric vehicles (EVs) continue to gain traction in the U.S. auto market. Last year, Americans bought nearly 450,000 EVs—an 83% jump over 2020. With many federal and state governments pushing for lower CO2 roadway emissions, EV demand is expected to soar during the next decade.
This has commercial fleet owners wondering what a world without gas- and diesel-powered vehicles might look like, particularly when it comes to the potential exposures EVs could create. This article discusses the risks that could impact insurance costs for EV fleets.
Unique EV Risks
Because EVs tend to cost more than standard automobiles, their insurance rates are usually higher. However, other factors unique to EVs could also make insuring them costlier. Such factors include:
- Cyberthreats—Like most new cars and trucks, EVs offer connected car technologies such as Wi-Fi, data sharing and semi-autonomous systems that leave them vulnerable to cyberthreats. However, the public charging stations EVs rely on to recharge their batteries add another layer of risk. Charging stations may serve as an entry point for malware attacks, data theft, system outages, bugs and glitches. What’s more, once a data breach occurs in a single vehicle, it may be easier for a malicious party to access the rest of the fleet.
- Battery problems—There are several risks associated with EV batteries that can potentially impact commercial fleets. For example, battery manufacturing defects can lead to large-scale vehicle recalls, putting fleet owners at an increased risk of business delays. Additionally, under certain conditions, lithium-ion batteries that power EVs can ignite or explode. Notably, battery fires burn longer and hotter, release more toxic fumes and liquids, and spread faster over a larger area than traditional fires. Such an incident would create a whole new set of insurance challenges.
- Pedestrian accidents—One selling point of EVs is they run quieter than gasoline-powered vehicles. Unfortunately, this lack of audible engine noise may also put pedestrians at greater risk of being hit if they fail to hear an approaching EV.
Other Considerations
While uncertainty about new EV technologies will likely drive up insurance premiums initially, expectations are that prices will stabilize over the long term. Meanwhile, several other concerns will need to be addressed before EVs become scalable. These include the following:
- Scarcity of repair shops and parts—Very few auto shops can handle EV repairs, so it may be difficult to find timely service. Further, shops that do fix EVs often have trouble locating parts. This is partly because four key elements essential to battery technology—cobalt, graphite, nickel and lithium—are currently in short supply. Even if supplies can eventually catch up with surging demand, EV auto shops will remain at risk for supply-chain delays, as these rare elements are sourced from distant regions all over the globe.
- Costlier repairs—Most EV parts cost significantly more than parts for gas-powered vehicles. Batteries are especially high-priced and vulnerable to harm. An accident that might be a fender-bender on a standard car could result in an EV’s total loss if the battery takes serious damage. Adding to costs, EV repairs usually require more labor hours. This is in part due to EV technology’s increased complexity as well as auto mechanics dealing with the learning curve of working on unfamiliar machinery. As a new generation of technicians gains experience, repair times should shorten.
- Extreme weather concerns—It’s unclear how much of a role extreme weather will play in EV battery performance. Under severely hot temperatures, batteries, on rare occasions, have been known to ignite or explode. Under cold temperatures, batteries hold their charges for a shorter period of time. However, it’s unknown whether these drawbacks are significant enough to make EVs impractical in certain weather conditions or climates.
- High voltage hazard—A number of high-voltage electric cables run throughout the body of EVs. When an accident occurs, exposed cables could cause serious injury to passengers or first responders trying to free crash victims from damaged vehicles.
Conclusion
Although it probably won’t happen overnight, EVs seem positioned to dominate roadways sometime in the near future. Commercial fleet owners who start thinking about EV insurance challenges today will be better positioned to thrive in a post-fossil-fuel landscape.
Contact us today to learn more about insurance for EVs.
- Published in Blog