Mental health and kindness ....
This week is mental health awareness week, with the current times we are in there are lots of people’s mental wellbeing that is being tested, so by having these open conversations it helps remove the stigma.
Mental health can be complex and affect people in so many different ways, no matter how bad things are remember there’s always hope.
IT’S OK TO NOT BE OK. Once we can own that we give ourselves the opportunity to change, often we get stuck in this place because we are too afraid to go right into it.
The theme of this week is kindness, and right now kindness really is key. Kindness has to first begin with ourselves too, which is something we are never really taught to do. We are taught to give it, but receiving and being kind to ourselves is often very low down on the list and this will have been since childhood.
When we approach something with kindness it really does make the difference in how we respond as we feel more held and safer.
I spoke about this recently on a video I made, that shame is often a big factor with mental health, we all have this feeling that somehow we shouldn’t be experiencing this or if its coming up again we feel we’ve failed that its back. We need to release the shame, shame will keep us stuck in a loop and I know because I’ve been there. Check out the work of Brene Brown she is a shame researcher, and has written some great work on this, and her books are very easy to read.
Sharing your shame with someone who feels safe helps us release the shame because they make us feel seen safe and held without even needing to give a solution. The truth is we need this as a starting point because this creates a safe foundation for healing which is vital. Very often people, haven’t created those strong safe foundations so things swing up and down.
Finding relief in a positive way is where it can begin.
HEALING ISN'T LINEAR, REPEAT THIS AND REMEMBER THIS.
Healing, like life, does not run in a straight line, it’s like spiral so to speak. Very often as we peel back the layers, things will come up when we are ready to face them or be able to see with a new level of awareness. The truth is sometimes we just aren’t ready, and this is where being kind comes into it.
WE HAVE TO MEET OURSELVES WHERE WE ARE AT.
This is the only way, kindness is medicine and a theres even a science backing it, check out the work of Dr David Hamilton PHD to learn more about this, David has been a podcast guest you can listen to us on this website under the podcast section.
As humans we tend to struggle with receiving because we don’t want to be seen as someone who’s greedy or taking. However, learning to receive will open you up to healing so this is an important place to begin with.
Asking for help is a big thing and is essential to move forward. This is why learning to receive is important because we can be more open to that help.
Bumps in the road aren’t you failing or doing anything wrong, I know people struggle if they have a blip. Sometimes the bump or blip is a pause and can be a time to integrate. This time is as important as the moving forward, and it allows us to flow rather than push. There's an invitation to invite grace in, and find it wherever you are at.
Understanding we are all different, what will work for one person may not for another, being kind to yourself with this and being kind to others is important, we have to drop the judgment.
We will all have our own experiences and journey with it, once we open up to this it makes things a bit easier as we tend to be less hard on ourselves.
We have to learn to listen to our heart and learn to trust ourselves. Since childhood we’ve often sought this outside of ourselves because we aren’t taught to trust ourselves, so this is a journey back to ourselves and that can feel quite intense at times, which again is why it’s important to use lots of kindness.
What’s most important on this journey is surrounding yourself with good kind people. I know for me, this has been and is still very healing.
I am sending so much kindness and love to whomever reads this, if you’re struggling I see you and you’ve got this. Trust the process and remember kindness matters.
All my love
Hannah X