Finding Your Voice

+ Mental Health Awareness Week and Mindful Movement

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Hello All

Firstly, I just want to say a quick thank you for reading this newsletter!

I recently celebrated 16 consecutive weeks of posting. As I mentioned here I thought this might run out of steam after 5 or 6 weeks but I’ve managed to keep it going (this is week 18 or 19 now) and that is largely due to the positive feedback I’ve received from readers.

If you feel like this newsletter would be helpful for someone you know who may be interested in mindfulness but not sure where to start then I’d be grateful if you could hit the share button below or just spread the word.

Mental Health Awareness Week

The UK charity Mental Health Foundation are celebrating their mental health awareness week at the moment and the theme this year is movement and its connection to our mental health.

Most of us are probably aware that we tend to feel better when we are more active but it’s no harm to remind ourselves of this from time to time.

You can check out their page on movement and mental health here or scroll to the bottom of this page to see a post I did on Mindful Movement a few weeks back.

Finding Your Voice

One of the reasons I started this blog was to make mindfulness and wellbeing more accessible. I’m not a fan of a lot of the language used around these topics (I still shudder at the term “corporate wellness”) as I feel it makes things more complicated than they need to be and can be really off-putting for people who are trying to get started with mindfulness and meditation.

The same issues go for the more general talk around mental health awareness.

With all the encouragement around opening up more about our mental health there is something missing from a lot of the advice given - finding our own language to describe how we feel.

It’s not that the language used in talking about mental health is wrong but a lot of the terms aren’t going to feel comfortable for many people to use.

I know people who cringe even at the term “mental health”.

“Self-care” will have a lot of people rolling their eyes.

And I can’t imagine the term “self-love” being used too often without drawing some funny looks.

If people don’t have language they feel comfortable using to talk about their mental health then it’s going to make it a far more difficult topic to bring it up.

A few questions that might help to develop language that suits us:

• What term would I prefer to use if “mental health” is uncomfortable for me?

• What word seems right to me to describe something like sadness or other emotions?

• Are there people I like/respect who talk about mental health in language I feel I could use?

• Bring to mind a person you know well and are comfortable with. If you were worried about their mental state and wanted to ask them about it how would you phrase the question?

These are things that we can figure out for ourselves when we are feeling OK. Finding the language before we need it will make it easier to talk about things when the sh1t hits the fan.

It doesn’t have to be an overly serious thing either, it can be light-hearted. Whatever works for you in expressing yourself.

When I’m feeling stressed I’ll often fall back on the old reliable “My head is f*cking melted!”

Not a phrase found in any stress management courses I run but it works for me.