Health, Health, Health darling!
Just a quote from Absolutely Fabulous, but a poignant one. Health is vital.
Without being physically well, we can't be mobile, active and independent. With some conditions, there might be pain and/or inflammation which can affect us mentally. Wearing you down and changing how you fell about your day. Thus, impacting your mental health too.
Speaking of mental health, this is equally important, because without a healthy mind, how can be function? We need our mind to make decisions, recognise bodily sensations and tell us when something might be right or wrong (morally or otherwise).
How is your health? Do you feel like you're a sickly person? Do you struggle more with your mental health?
Or are you someone who never catches a cold? Never feels like their mind goes to dark places? That's great if those things are true.
Regardless, it can be helpful to think about what you might want to change (if you feel you need to). This whole blog is looking at physical and mental health and things that may help (or hinder it). If we focus on changing the lifestyle we have, the foods we eat, the exercise we do - this can all help.
But mentally, there can be other exercises for this too (this doesn't involve mental jumping jacks I promise!) Things like mindfulness, self-compassion and self-acceptance. Ever heard of these terms? They might seem cliche, cringy even! But they can help. Mindfulness is everywhere, so just type that into Google or Youtube for a video and you'll find plenty! Self-compassion and acceptance, I'd recommend Kristin Neff, she has a whole website on this and shows how we can be kinder to ourselves.
Many of us put a lot of pressure on ourselves, myself included! As a counsellor I'm not immune to beating myself up when something goes wrong or expecting a lot of myself.
So, if you're feeling a bit down, a bit tired, and frankly, just a bit shit - see how you're talking to yourself, are you kind or are you pushing yourself too much? And maybe, just give yourself a bit of a break. We all need one.
