Kibar Holding as one of the leading industrial enterprises in Turkey has introduced a webinar series in order to improve interactions with the employees during the pandemic period as well as ensuring the sustainability of the Group's activity culture. The first guest of the webinar series “Kibar Let’s Talk”, which is available on YouTube exclusively for Kibar Group employees and their families, was Prof. Dr. Kemal Sayar, a renown psychiatrist and a writer. Prof. Dr. Sayar provided the participants with essential tips about maintaining one's mental health as well as communication among family members during the pandemic.
Kibar Holding introduces a webinar series special for the pandemic period. In “Kibar Let’s Talk”, a talk show series dealing with various aspects of lifestyle, education, and technology by the experts as guests, the live stream of the first guest, namely, Prof. Dr. Kemal Sayar, a psychiatrist, lecturer in Marmara University Faculty of Medicine, Psychiatry Department, and a writer, received great interest. In his talk, Prof. Dr. Sayar shed light on essential subjects such as maintaining one's mental health during the pandemic, conscious parenting, development of higher motivation within the family, and being able to keep the family strong during challenging periods. He also provided answers to various questions of the participants.
Defining the pandemic period as the greatest social experiment of all time, Prof. Dr. Kemal Sayar says: “Covid-19 period is the greatest social experiment of all time. Taking a heavy toll on people throughout the world for more than a year, the pandemic has also caused a major global crisis in mental health. Studies indicate that various symptoms in people such as being prone to depression, bad temperament, agitation, anxiety, and nervousness have significantly increased. Inherently, every family is affected by the pandemic at a different level; however, there are also certain experiences common to all families. Fear, uncertainty, and the requirement for staying at the same residence for an extended period cause certain challenges in maintaining a peaceful environment among the family members at home".
“Be compassionate to yourself”
Emphasizing that almost every individual has experienced various stress situations even before the pandemic, Prof. Dr. Sayar said: “Among other stress factors, we also have additional stress introduced by the pandemic and therefore, we suffer from a collective trauma. Emotions exist in order to react to the situations in our lives. Therefore, we need to be compassionate first to ourselves and then our beloved ones about our feelings" and emphasized the importance of "self-compassion".
“We need to follow a reliable information diet"
Pointing out the importance of obtaining information from reliable sources, Prof. Dr. Sayar reminded that misleading and distressing audio records as well as concerning news were rapidly shared especially in chat applications and said: "Media literacy is critical. We need to follow a reliable information diet, in other words, we need to follow accurate and reliable news sources. We should avoid any areas to cause us worry unnecessarily. Worry is a natural feeling; however, it is important to manage and restrain such feeling. For instance, set a one-hour time period on a daily basis and worry about things only during that time period. Let's call this time period the "Time to Worry". Accept your thoughts and emotions without any judgement. Maintain your daily routines as routine is your friend".
"A healthy family is the one who finds the optimum solutions to resolve any problems"
“Occasional conflicts among family members whom we interact on a daily basis are inevitable especially during these days as we spend most of our time at home. A healthy family does not mean a family who does not experience any problems. A healthy family means a family who is flexible and able to solve their own problems. Raising one's own voice is not necessarily bad; it is a spark of life. What is important is to have an efficient dialogue without offending or insulting anyone and find a solution to our problems to embrace each other and continue our lives even in such cases where people may occasionally raise their own voice. A healthy family is the one who finds the optimum solutions to resolve any problems" and Prof. Dr. Sayar also emphasized that parents should act in a consistent manner to set an example for their children and only in doing so, the children would be able to manage their own emotions and achieve psychological resilience.