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It is great to see social media full of events and information on #MentalHealthAwarenessWeek 2018. I am pleased to have been able to participate.

On Monday I was invited to speak at two leading companies in London. First I was at Bird & Bird lawyers, London branch. Nick Elston, Sylvia Bruce and I were part of a panel lead by Zoe Sinclair from Employees Matter to speak to 85 of their team about mental health.

Thanks to Nick for this photo he posted on his Twitter feed!

Nick, Sylvia and I briefly shared our stories of mental illness and recovery. It was interesting to hear the different experiences covering perinatal mental illness (me), anxiety and childhood OCD (Nick) and suicide (Sylvia).  It was an  honour to be with others who have recovered and now inform, inspire and empower others. I know that we could have all spoken for much longer and Zoe did a great job keeping us on track. I do hope that the Bird & Bird employees left the session with a greater awareness of mental illness and ways to improve their own mental health.

I then went on to my next session – at Nickelodeon TV. I could see that they have embraced ‘the senses’ in their working environment. Even the outside wall was made of plants!

Inside, the building equally appealed to the senses with a modern layout, artwork and furnishings. In the conference room there was a wall full of leather envelopes, inside of which were messages. I picked one out and it was about #MHAW.

I had been invited to speak by their parenting group of employees and also their new mental health support team, APPROACH. These are employees who have done some additional training and their role is to offer support to colleagues, in addition to their usual jobs. What an excellent idea!

I was asked to share some details about perinatal mental health, my story and what can be done to help young families. This also included dads and partners.

Some people find that a visit to a psychologist can help with new parenting, for example, look here.

So that was my my public contribution.. this is my personal one. I confess that today I had to use some of my own techniques to ‘get moving’.

Last week I enjoyed a wonderfully relaxing week in some sunshine. It was a feast for the senses. I enjoyed the warmth of the sun as I listened to my favourite music by the pool; I ate and drank some very tasty things; I saw some beautiful scenery and experienced some delightful aromas, especially jasmine by the apartment door. Bliss.

On arrival home on Saturday, I was telling my Mum that I was feeling so well … then spent most of that night in the bathroom! I still felt quite washed out when I did my talks on Monday. Yesterday I felt energised because I was appreciating food again and caught up with some admin and my book keeping job. This morning I was able to have a gentle start and honestly felt like doing nothing. I could quite happily have sobbed and stayed under the duvet. No rational thought – just a bit of a downer and probably a backlash of the bug I had at the weekend. I knew that staying in bed today wasn’t an option that I ultimately would feel happy with. I had needed to for most of Sunday to ensure my body could manage the journey and talks in London the next day.

I asked myself this morning what I would suggest to someone else … and gave myself the tip ‘when you don’t feel like doing anything, just do something’. 

I knew I had holiday laundry to put away, so I got up and simply started with that…

It has worked and I am back into positive and productive mode 🙂

Plan B would have been to have appealed to my senses, starting with music that I listened to last week. I think I need to go and treat myself to a jasmine plant!

Here is a link to a blog with some other ideas when you don’t feel like doing anything.

We all have ups and downs in life and in our mood. Managing our mental health is just as important as our physical health. What will you do today to help yours?

Elaine 🙂