Kat’s Movement Mission | Moving Into Happiness

Taking Mental Health Seriously

Last week was Mental Health Awareness Week, and finally it seems that the public mood is starting to take mental health seriously. It’s hard to believe that only a hundred years ago, we used to have ‘mental homes’, as places to laugh at people with mental illness as a day out! And so recently people were tortured to ‘treat’ them for their mental health issues.

Most of us have struggled

Mental health has had such a stigma for so many years, it’s hard to shake off these attitudes. It’s helpful, and I think comforting, to know that most of us have struggled with various mental health issues, and many of us go through depression or anxiety, in one form or another, at some point in our lives. I went through a very, very blue period, just before I first founded MFML, a number of years ago when I couldn’t shake off bleak feelings.

All part of being human

In a way it’s comforting to know that this is all part of being human, and that even if it’s not clinical depression that we’re going through, many of us feel overwhelming sadness or grief at many points in our life.

Working on our own mental health

Perhaps because I have been through some bleak moments, I’m very aware of my mental health, as much as I am physical health. I carefully work on my ‘mindfulness’, being aware that I am not my thoughts, that thoughts do not govern my life and that they come and go. I practice not believing the stories that I have become attached to about myself, from my childhood, and realise that this is just a narrative, and it is for me to change my own narrative.

Re-write the story

Help with Meditation and Mindfulness

This week perhaps you’ll practice your yoga with an extra attention to being mindful in your practice, and perhaps you’ll take up meditation or mindfulness, if you’ve never tried.

And do let me know how you get along in the Movers Group!