Who is looking after you?

Things are difficult at the moment with winter coming and COVID-19 on the rise again. Many things are uncertain and everyone is affected in one way or another. Often we strive for perfection and a future goal but in reality, we need to focus on now, and how we can look after ourselves better. I like to be busy and can often be found ensuring everyone else is ok and catered for, leaving myself last, usually with little time to relax and unwind.

Now and again I stop myself and think, hang on, ‘what about me?’. Sometimes I feel a little selfish but more and more I realise I need to focus on me, my wellbeing, my mental health. Sometimes I just need a bit of space and thinking time and other times I want to talk things through.

What about you who is looking after you and what do you do to unwind?

I love to exercise enjoying the feeling of leaving my worries behind while being immersed in the activity, as well as the satisfying feeling of wellbeing afterwards having achieved my goal. Lately, I have also found a similar sense of wellbeing after volunteering. Taking time out to help other people, connecting with others in a way that means so much more at the moment, especially with the lack of the usual social contact that we are used to.

Saturday 10th October is World Mental Health Day and an opportunity to reflect on your mental health and that of others around you. I think most people are beginning to recognise the need to look after their own wellbeing now and everyone will have different ways of doing that whether it is through exercise, volunteering or just finding some time to relax.

However it's just as important to get a better understanding of mental health and understand how anyone can develop problems, but you can get over them or learn to live with them.

No one really knows what is around the corner especially now, so educating yourself will not only help those around you but also helps you to understand and recognise how you feel and why you react in certain ways.

For more information on World Mental Health Day visit https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/campaigns/world-mental-health-day

#Mentalhealth #timetotalk #wellbeing #exercise #volunteering

Caroline