Over the last couple years particularly post Covid, mental health and well being have been at the forefront of our discussions. Personally after speaking to a lot of my friends and family it is evident that covid made a lot of us re evaluate our lives and focus more on what is important. It also got us talking more about our mental health as we were all going stir crazy locked inside our homes.
I have always been a career focused person particularly as I became a teacher I would never go out on a 'school night' because I always had so much prepping and planning to do but also because I felt I needed to be on top form for my students both to ensure I was able to maintain health and safety (as my subject was practical I needed to be alert to prevent any accidents happening), but also so I could ensure I was prepared for whatever the craziness of teaching was going to throw at me. On reflection of this, this was really unhealthy as I became all consumed with work and never allowed myself to just breathe, socialise and enjoy life.
I never really thought about my own wellbeing before until I became a mum. The first lesson I have realised is that I can not be the person or mum I want to be unless I focus on my own mental health and wellbeing. I am not going to lie I am only human and sometimes when I become overstressed I can loose my shit. I have been slowly teaching myself to recognise my triggers and keep reminding myself that everything is not as big as a deal as I currently feel it is. I still need to work on this a lot more but I have learnt to take some time out of the day to dedicate time both to my son and myself.
Something else I tend to use when I feel myself becoming overstressed is a app called calm. www.calm.com I use it for both myself and my son. Its a great app that can be used as a sleep machine, it can also tell stories both for children and adults as well as play calming music or take you through meditation courses. I also used to use a app called headspace www.headspace.com and as a educator and in certain other work sectors you can get this for free!
Coincidentally this week I took some time out for myself and spent a day at the spa. Its so important to just take the time out and relax. I had a really lovely day but I do really struggle to just forget about everything and relax, the whole day I was thinking about what I needed to do when I got home. As I was lying on the massage table I realised that I had a problem there was lovely calming music playing throughout the spa and all I could think about was what should the next topic be for my blog? When can I start my next sewing project? I kept trying to blur everything out of my mind and just think and nothing but then I kept having the thought of thinking about nothing. It took me about 40 minutes into my massage to truly relax and just focus on the ambiance around me, once I finally allowed myself to do this I felt truly peaceful but annoyed at the fact that I only had about 5 minutes left of my treatment.
So the reason I choose Mental health and wellbeing as my focus topic this week was mainly because my amazing brother in law ran the 2023 London Marathon this week. He was running for the charity mind for anyone who has not herd of mind, mind are a mental health charity who support others with their wellbeing. Along with my family we went down to London to support him.
I have never been to the London Marathon before I regularly get a glimpse of it when it is on the TV each year but to be apart of the crowd and in some way be part of the runners experience it was truly inspiring and emotional.
Every runner at that marathon was so amazing its such a tough task to complete and such an accomplishment to achieve. This was my brother in laws first time running the marathon he managed to raise over £2000 for the charity and completed the marathon in just under 5 hours, to run for that amount of time is just astounding. It is something that I would love to do but for anyone who knows me the thought of me running a marathon is just laughable but we will see.
It was a great day we met him and supported him from different check points, the charity itself and the volunteers were lovely we went to the mind stand at the halfway check point and were given maracas and balloons to hold and wave, the atmosphere and support that the charity where giving to all the runners especially those who were running for mind and gaining special shout outs was truly amazing. The mental ability and motivation that each runner had to maintain to reach the finish line was surreal.
You can read my Brother in Laws story and donate here, he has exceeded his target but you can never give enough support.
www.justgiving.com/fundraising/ross-bratchley
Its important for us to look after our mental health and wellbeing.
Quote of the week- Being able to be your true self is one of the strongest components of good mental health.