Mental Health Awareness Week

Hello Lovelies

Have any of you been watching the wonderful documentries on the BBC with Nadiya Hussain, David Harewood and Alastair Campbell this week ? (if you missed them click here to catch up) where they open up about how their Mental Health has had such a huge impact on their lives. Now, don’t panic… I am not going to drop a clanger in your laps or expect you too bare all either but because it is Mental Health Awareness Week this week, I thought it was a good time to have a think about how this affects us ladies and what we can do to support each other more.

Some of the most amazing thing we women have in common are our feminine qualities such as gentleness, thoughtfulness, patience, sensitivity, our capacity to love unconditionally etc. and when life pops all these wonderful emotional qualities in a pot with our undulating hormones as well, you know, those pesky rats that nibble away at us daily (and lets face it, rather more frequently for us peri & menopausal ladies !!), blend them together with the pressure of busy lifestyles and its no wonder that we can all feel up and/or down on any given day.

All these elements which make us the gorgeous humans that we are can sometimes lead to an imbalance and no one is immune, I say again NO ONE is immune, no matter how perfect someones life looks from the outside we all have issues to overcome don’t we. Whether we look vulnerable or whether we look like a superwoman, generally speaking we all live with varing degrees of negative chatter, insecurities, worries and undulating mental health. If we have a health concern with our liver, heart, pancreas or other organ in our body it would be totally fine to take time off work (and continue to be paid), have medical appointments during working hours, receive support and councelling etc.. but if we ask for help regarding anything to do with our brain (which after all is another vital organ in our bodies) the system grinds to a halt and the no entry sign is thrown up infront of our faces making it perfectly clear that no weakness in this area is open for discussion – end of. So, lets just lay it out in plain english here “Mental Health” “Menopause and Mental Health” “Womens Mental Health” are not dirty words as they affect every one of us don’t they.

So my request of you lovelies is to take a moment, find a loving ear and share a problem or reach out to someone who you think my not be as “on it” as they appear and ask three very simple words “are you OK?” that’s all it takes and the more we talk about this the more the subject becomes normalised and asking for help will become a natural process rather than something to be feared. Being the Mum to three daughters, empowering women is what I am all about because we women are surely best placed to understand the people of our sex best and when all is said and done we are stronger together so we need to take care of each other.

Our mental health is precious and no worry is too small to be shared. I love the syncronicity of my dear friends because when I am down they are there to pull me back up and when they are down I in turn do the same for them, it is the glue that holds us together at times isn’t it. And (as our Mum’s always said..) “a problem shared is a problem halved” and I can attest to that a thousand times over, so which ever end of the emotional see-saw you are on right now please reach out to give or reach out to receive particularly this week of all weeks.

Thank you so much for reading and if you have found this at all helpful then please do share with your friends and family, leave a comment below and get chatting.  I send you all much love for a gorgeous weekend. xo ?Sophie

THINGS I LOVE

Just as an aside from the topic this week, a podcast which I absolutely love to listen too is from a beautifil woman called Cindy Johns. She has a wonderful podcast called The Modern Goddess which is all about empowering women (you can also find her on instagram @cindy_johns and facebook too). One episode I have listened too three times already is all about understanding the difference between Men and Women in relation to the Sun and Moon – now to use her words “I am not going all Woo Woo on you” but it really is fascinating.

She talks about the Sun energy being masculine (Men) who are unchanging, a constant, they go from night into day and back with predictable regularity regardless of anything else where as the Moon energy (Women) ebb and flow through the month, no two days are the same, the moon is affected by the weather, the seasons all the things that undulate on a daily/monthly basis. The Moon needs the Sun because the Moon is illuminated by the Sun so it collaborates with it just as we women need collaboration and connection to thrive and so on. I thought this was such an interesting way to think of things and if you want to learn more go check out her fab podcast called The Modern Goddess and the episode is “Feminine Power of Collaboration” (17th January 2019) go check her out here.

If any of you would like to know more about what I am reading, listening too or to share what you love then leave a comment for us all to see either here on this blog or on Facebook at Webofgoodness. ??