My mental health

Mental Health is something we hear about at work, in the media, talking with friends, all over really, on an almost daily basis. It’s something we all have and for me it’s best described as being on a continuum. It’s forever changing. Sometimes we describe it as ‘good’ when all is well in life and sometimes as ‘bad’ which speaks for itself.

Years ago when I was working as a counsellor this certainly wasn’t the case. I’d have conversations about this in a work capacity every day. But it didn’t seem to enter the lives of those around me who were not in that type of environment.

Times have changed now and so it’s something we hear a lot about. Something we HEAR about. Yet is it something we TALK about? I can’t help but feel Mental Health is still something “out there”. Something in sight but still at arm’s length. You see, we can hear about it, agree with its importance, even offer words of support and encouragement to others then we are part way there to us all having better mental health.

But we’ll only ever be part way there until we apply this to ourselves. And this is the part that I still don’t think we’re very good at. We need to ask ourselves ‘how would I describe my mental health?’

‘What do good and bad days look like for me?’ ‘how do I look after myself mentally and physically?’ and ‘what can I do to support having better mental health?’

And we can only ever ask ourselves these questions because for every individual in the world a different response will be given. We can support and encourage others, even pick up tips and advice. But the real difference is made when we can understand and self-manage.

None of us are above asking ourselves these questions. No matter who we are or how ‘sorted’ we think we’ve got it.

Yet doing it can make a massive difference to our lives every single day. So, I’d like to encourage everyone to listen, talk and apply all of that to themselves.

Start with answering 3 simple questions:

What is my mental health like?

What does good mental health mean to me?

How do I look after myself mentally and physically?

And keep asking. The more you do it the more insightful your answers will be. And that will start to shape better mental health.

And that will make our world just that little bit better.

Holly