Mental Health Awareness Week – Be Kind to Yourself!

Hello and welcome to my blog on Mental Wellbeing.

We are celebrating the Mental Health Awareness week this week and so I wanted to reach out to everyone out there joining in celebrations.

We all have mental health and we all come across difficulties and challenges at some point in our lives. I am a great believer in that there is no shame talking about our mental health. Right now, more than ever, it is so important that we look after ourselves and our minds. So let’s make your mental wellbeing a priority this week and BEYOND. Let’s start being kind to yourself if you have not already done so. It’s never too late or too early to start looking after your mental health.

Mental Health Struggles

Mental health difficulties

The whole planet is going through a very difficult time right now. We are all going through a period of big changes all happening at the same time. These are very challenging times, bound to have impact on our mental health.

Many of us have been separated from our friends and families – children, parents, siblings, partners, grandparents. Many of us have been stranded abroad not being able to get back home. Many of us have lost our loved ones. Many of us have lost our businesses, jobs, homes. Many of us have lost our routine. Many of us have lost purpose, confidence, trust, motivation and drive.

This pandemic is certainly causing more than just a physical illness. It has left many  feeling lonely, stranded, hopeless and lost. Please, remember to give yourself a break and be kind to yourself and to others. Being kind to yourself is not selfish or self-centred. It is everyone’s basic need for healthy functioning. It is not something everyone can do easily. It took me years of practice and I am continuously working on it every day. The hardest thing is to start. Once you have started it becomes more familiar and easier overtime.

Tips for Self-care

So, this week, if you have been struggling recently or for a while, try and give your mental health a little holiday. I know this is easier to say than do. It could just be as little as 5-10 minutes each day.

Whether it is doing some:

  1. breathing exercises to help you get your stress and anxiety levels under more control or
  2. buying a notebook and starting your personal journal. Journaling is a great way to ‘off-load’ or ’empty your head’ if you like. It is especially useful when feelings, emotions and thoughts get all a bit too much and your head feels like one big jungle. Write it all out on a piece of paper. It’s proved to have some amazing therapeutic benefits.

It could be as simple as doing one of the two or both activities. If you practise these every day or just a few times a week and you really engage in the process, you will be able to see and feel huge benefits to your mental health sooner or later.

Selfcare is key

If you have a little bit more time then going for a run, doing yoga, painting with water colours, reading your favourite book, having a bath or playing a guitar could be what you are looking for. Anything you enjoy and you do not do enough of. Whatever that might be, just make sure it works for you. Make sure you get something out of it for YOURSELF AND YOURSELF ONLY! Make sure it brings you some calm and joy.

Learn to Love Yourself

By doing something for yourself each day, no matter how little, can bring some amazing benefits to your mental wellbeing. We often give so much to others and spent time with or on others that we forget about ourselves and our needs. It is so important that you make yourself a priority each day. Make sure you feed your needs and give yourself what you need whatever that might be. Give yourself some love. Because if you don’t, eventually you will run on empty and you will ‘burn out’. When you allow the time to be kind to yourself, your kindness towards others goes even further. But you have to start with yourself. Look after yourself.

Happy Mental Health Awareness week!!

If you feel like your life has gone off the track and you need to get back on it, counselling will help. If you are not enjoying the things in life you used to love and your mental health is suffering, get in touch with me via my enquiry form to find out how counselling with me can help you.

Visit simplytalkcounselling.co.uk for more information about me and my counselling services in Manchester.

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Sonia T.
Person-centred Counsellor
MBACP, MA in Clinical Counselling

Mental Health Awareness Week – Be Kind to Yourself!

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