Tag: Building Resilience

Many people who have experienced tragedies and hardship, realized in the end that those were opportunities to learn about themselves; ‘what doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger’ is a famous quote reflecting that every failure may teach valuable lessons to ourselves.

Life provides us with endless opportunities to deal with unforeseen circumstances. To find the strength to change the circumstances around us, first and foremost, it is important to change our own way of thinking and develop a positive but realistic attitude toward ourselves, appreciating our worth.

Mental health issues among seafarers is an increasing area of concern, AMSA notes, considering that long periods of time separated from family and friends, long work hours, shift work and fatigue, along with the general operational hazards of seafaring, can all play their part in creating a stressful environment.

In a detailed guidance, AMSA highlights the importance of providing adequate sources at a company level to manage the risks of fatigue. Duty scheduling and planning to control work and rest hours is one of the critical issues in managing fatigue.

In a detailed guidance, AMSA highlights the importance of keeping both seafarers and the company informed about any fatigue hazards in day-to-day operations. In this context, open communication and feedback on reports about fatigue related events are vital in improving fatigue management onboard.

Not all people are the same and subsequently, their body does not respond to fatigue at the same way. That means, individuals may become fatigued at different times and to different degrees of severity, under same circumstances.

To enjoy a good quality of life, we must ensure that we are healthy and strong. Health is wealth; when we prefer making healthy choices, these become habits and part of our daily life and in turn, the benefits are many. A healthy lifestyle can make a big difference and therefore, putting physical fitness and a healthy diet on top is vital.

While it's healthy to have some stress in our life, too much can be detrimental to our well-being. Stress is actually our body’s automatic reaction to threat and is essential for survival. It makes its appearance when someone feels overwhelmed and unable to cope with a situation. However, these feelings can result in reduced work performance and health problems.

Workload is considered as one of the factors likely to induce fatigue especially when combined with long periods of wakefulness and long duty hours.

Our body has its own internal clock, or circadian rhythms, that signals when to stay awake and when to sleep; As a result, travellers are affected by jet lag that can cause daytime fatigue, an unwell feeling, difficulty in staying alert as well as gastrointestinal problems.