Follow Up – Mental Health Awareness Week 2020

Hello All,

Last week was Mental Health Awareness Week 2020 – promoting Kindness – and I blogged my thoughts about it.

Mental Health Week – 18th to 24th May

Suggested Actions for Mental Health Awareness Week

These were the things I thought I could do;-

• Be Kind
• Get Outside
• Eat More Fruit & Veg
• Contact Friends
• Clear My Work Area
• Reduce the Pressure on me

So how did I do?

Be Kind

The suggestion I had was that I could bake some biscuits or cakes for my neighbours. I have to be honest here. I didn’t success in this. I did bake some fairy cakes AND I delivered them to my neighbours. The problem was that I just didn’t have time over the week and I only managed this on the 25th. I’m still taking this as a win!

Get Outside

I’d say I did this every other day. Over the bank holiday weekend I did manage to get outside every day – and in the sunshine this really helped my mental health. I will try to improve on this and get out everyday. Even if it is only for a couple of minutes.

Eat More Fruit/Veg

Now I *DO* eat Fruit and veg, I just think I could eat more. I’d say I stayed at about the same level, but I did add another veg to the roast dinner I made yesterday so I think I should take that as a good thing.

Contact Friends

All week I searched for my postcards. I know I have loads of them somewhere and I just couldn’t find them. On Sunday Night I managed to locate them in a pile of papers. Postcards written AND stamps attached. I forgot to take them out when I went for a walk on Monday so I will post them this evening. If I can find a postbox. There has to be one near here somewhere.

Clear My Work Area

Another incomplete task. I have started it but it is quite demoralising and every time I feel like I’ve cleared more of it, I find another pile of paperwork or things that need to be filed away. I did manage to move a huge roll of bubblewrap off the bed. Plenty more to do – including re-clearing my desk. I’ve cleared this desk every other week but within a day it gets covered in papers/wires/things/rubbish. I have also managed to break my shredder so I need to throw that out AND buy a new shredder.

Reduce the Pressure on Me

This didn’t happen at all. At work, they moved my annual review submission deadline from the end of the month to the middle of the week. Suddenly I’ve got to re-write my annual review, still do my day job, tidy up and work out how I’m going to do everything else I feel I need to do. Maybe this week will be better. I suppose I’ll get my annual review back at some point telling me I was an adequate employee.

Today this tweet came out and reminded me that you are known in your company by your employee number – we are nothing but ‘…human capital stock…’. I am thankful that my company isn’t rushing to get us back into the office.

White House adviser Kevin Hassett: "Our human capital stock is ready to go back to work." #HumanCapitalStock pic.twitter.com/Yl9KwJf6KP

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 25, 2020

About 50/50 for Mental Health Awareness Week

I suppose that isn’t too bad. I’m glad I got to do the things for other people. That made me happier and I guess that is a positive for my mental health. I’m not really suprised I didn’t succeed so well with the things that focused on me – Its a coping mechanism that has done me just fine (it hasn’t) and I’m sure I will stop using it soon (I wont).

The Reverend’s Final Thought.

Kindness was the theme of this year’s Mental Health Awareness Week and I certainly feel that I managed to be kind to other people. Now if someone could share the secret of being kind to yourself, I’m more than happy to hear it. My email/Twitter/comments are open for you to share your secrets!

And to end on a happier note, here is the message from my neighbours. Makes it all worth-while.

🙂