On World Mental Health Awareness day, it's timely, to acknowledge that life can weigh heavy for all of us and I would like to give that the space it deserves.
Life rarely goes exactly the way we plan, often it’s our reaction to those outcomes that can shape our mental health.
Past experiences often dictate a pattern of thoughts that we naturally loop back to when we find ourselves with particular emotions, moods, or thoughts.
Our cultures encourages a huge amount of thinking, planning, analysing, progressing; activity that has us spending a lot of time in the past and the future, which can as a result create a lot of fear & anxiety.
Never underestimate the impact of external situations around the world on your mental health. The pandemic, war, sickness, poverty, energy prices, global warming, recession, the markets, can all contribute to feelings of unease, questions of safety, security, leading to fear, anxiety, and depression.
What can we do to support our own mental health and in those we love?
Let’s talk. Speaking to someone we trust can shed some light on our experiences and make them feel more tangible. Being in your own head can be all consuming and utterly overwhelming.
There might not be an immediate solution, but dense emotions like fear and anxiety can hold a lot of weight and make us feel very alone. By sharing, we can allow them to feel lighter and we can begin to look for a way of managing them.
Can’t share? That’s totally understandable. Sometimes we just can’t formulate the words, but it can be easier to write them down. If we can get them onto paper and out of our heads, those feelings can become more manageable.
Feeling alone in your experience? That is normal too. If you don’t have someone you can trust to listen to you without judgement, try one of the many mental health charities like Mind, who are well equipped to support you, in however you’re feeling.
Often in troubled situations, with those feelings of fear, anxiety or low self worth, it can be easy for that internal voice to get very loud and it might not be kind. It can be downright awful.
In those moments, it can be valuable to utilise breath, movement & meditation practises, to shift your attention from the mind and into your body; creating greater presence and liberating you from the negative thought patterns that can be overwhelming.
Need a little help with this? Please reach out. I would be delighted to support you.
I suffer, severely at times, with anxiety and depression. I know that it’s the attachments to the thoughts, the experiences, the emotions that prevent me moving past them. I am not my thoughts, but being caught in those familiar loops can take time, patience, love and guidance to work though.
On the daily.
In just 1 minute, we can take our attention back to the body and find a moment of presence. A moment of peace.
Your mind is hard wired for thought, that’s it’s job. You won’t stop it, but we can decide when we allow the mind to be lost in thought and when we want to quieten the mind and be more present.
Notice your breath, how does it feel in your body? Does it have a quality? A texture?
Is there a space in your body where the breath feels most obvious? The rise and fall of your belly, or your chest? Perhaps the sensation of the breath at the entrance to your nose?
When your mind wanders, as it most certainly will, come back to your body, your breath, just as many times as you need. It’s the coming back, that’s the practise.
Be well friends. Sending Love x