Next week is Children’s Mental Health Week, and we shall be recognising this at HSW, led by our brilliant Mental Health and Wellbeing Lead, Miss Prestifilippo. Our students will be completing an ‘Express Yourself Challenge.’
As we know, wellbeing, or wellness, is susceptible to many influences – the environment we’re in, our relationships, health, where we live, our habits and routines, finances, the wider economy, the weather. The list goes on. Some of these factors are beyond our control; things happen, don’t they. But there are some elements to our mental health and wellbeing that we can indeed control, or at least be aware of and seek to improve. The habits and routines we choose to adopt, and the challenges we choose to take on, can help us to preserve our wellbeing, because in taking control we find self-reliance, self-sufficiency and self-discipline. It is a cruel irony that the times when we feel least motivated to engage in healthy routines and habits are often those exact times when we need them most to lift our spirits. The morning when we can’t be bothered to do our daily exercise, is the morning when we need it most!
I am a big believer in reaching out to others, chatting, unloading, sharing and listening when our personal wellbeing is low, but equally I think there are benefits to taking some ownership of our own wellbeing and doing something about it. It is all too easy, and perfectly understandable, to feel a sense of victimhood, and yet the boost we feel when we take ownership can be just the lift we need to rediscover our confident, settled selves.