#016 Minding our minds: why Mental Health Month is a good reminder to check-in

22 Mar

This week, it was World Mental Health Day (10 October) – an international day for global mental health education, awareness, and advocacy against social stigma.

According to the World Health Organization, 1 in every 8 people in the world live with a mental disorder or condition (characterised by a clinically significant disturbance in an individual’s cognition, emotional regulation, or behaviour).

That is 970 million people (and that was in 2019 – it is likely to be much higher post-COVID-19).

Anxiety and depressive disorders were the most common conditions. By some estimates, anxiety increased by 26 per cent and depression by 28 per cent in just one year because of the pandemic.

That is a lot of people.

Even if you have never experience mental ill-health, chances are that someone in your family, friends, or colleagues have.

And if you have never experienced mental ill-health, it is vital that you take steps to protect your mental health (and encourage your loved ones to do the same).

While we seem to check in regularly with our GPs on our physical health, we all need to give the same care and attention to our mental health.

How well do your know your mind?

How often do you reflect on your own mental health?

Mental Health Month is a great opportunity to check in with yourself and those around you.

For many of us that answers might be positive. But just like our physical health can change over time (and at different ages and stages), so can our mental health.

Our mental health can impact our physical health and wellbeing, how we connect with each other and our livelihoods.

What might start as a niggle, could become a larger problem if left unattended to

There are heaps of great ways to mind your mind this Mental Health Month (and every month!), and here are just a few:

Learn about it: what does good mental health look like? How do we improve our own mental health.

Just like we wouldn’t lace up our shoes and set off on a 42km run to get back into exercise, we shouldn’t approach our mental health with a 0 to 100 mentality either.

Suddenly sitting down to meditate for an hour, like going on a 42km run, will likely just turn you off meditation. Start small and build up.

There is tonnes of research on ways to promote good mental health – from getting outside in nature and experiencing awe, to eating more fruits, vegetables and foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids.

If you haven’t tried meditation before, give it a go!

Meditation is one of my personal favourite ways to optimise my mental health. It has had a huge impact on my ability to temper my response to stressful situations (or just to nagging children).

I would encourage you to give it a go and commit to sit for 10 minutes a day for the next week. And if that feels good, maybe sit for 15 minutes a day the following week. Often we think we don’t have time to sit for 10-15 minutes of meditation. If this is you, I would encourage you to take a peek at the screen on your phone that shows you how much time you spend looking at social media, reading the news or playing games.

One piece of Australian research found that the average Aussie spends 5.5 hours per day on their phone, which equates to 16.6 years based on the average age people get their first phone (which is 10!!) and the average Australian life expectancy. That translates to 33 per cent of our waking life.

I am asking you to try spending 1% of your day – or roughly 15 minutes – sitting quietly and watching your thoughts.

There are some great apps that will lead your through a guided meditation (like Insight Timer, Headspace or 10% Happier), but if guided techniques don’t resonate, try another technique, like Zen or mantra based meditation.

Talk about it! There is still some stigma around mental health.

The theme of World Mental Health Day 2023 is “Mental health is a universal human right.”

This includes the right to be protected from mental health risks, the right to available, accessible, acceptable, and good quality care, and the right to liberty, independence and inclusion in the community.

Ask your friends and colleagues how they look after their own mental health.

Prioritise it: looking after our own mental health is one of the most important things we can do for our wellbeing. Research shows that mental health can be improved through better sleep, nutrition, exercise and social connection.

In modern life, mental (and physical) health often take a backseat as we struggle to fit in work, home life, and relationships with family and friends. When we get busy, often the first things that fly out the window are the very things that protect our mental health – good sleep, good nutrition, and movement. When thinking about how your mind your mind, what happens when you get busy? How do you prioritise?

Often the way our society and economies are structured means that mental health is not prioritised – not by our workplaces and not by us.

Our work lives spill over into our home lives.

Most of us can now work from home. We check our email before we go to bed and as soon as we wake up, and find it difficult to disconnect.

But what if we were to question the assumption that we always needed to be ‘on’ and be contactable?

I suspect that for many of us, our bosses don’t expect us to be checking email at 10pm on a Friday night, but we ‘feel’ like we have to. So this mental health month, I encourage you to think about what would happen if you didn’t check your email before you said hello to your family in the morning? Did the sky fall in? Did you get fired?

If the answer was no, then try setting some boundaries around work and home life. It is likely that you will sleep better and have more time for the things that really matter!

Have a great Mental Health Month.

Be well

Alicia

#016 Minding our minds: why Mental Health Month is a good reminder to check-in

#017 Hidden Potential – how can we all achieve greater wellbeing?

#015 – An ode to silence