This week is Mental Health Awareness week, and in times like these keeping an eye on your mental health is more important than ever. You may think that looking after your physical health is key during the coronavirus situation, but you also need to make sure to talk about your mental health too – they are both as important as the other so make sure to help yourself and others by talking about it.
Mental Health Awareness week runs from the 18th-24th May, and the main theme this year is ‘Kindness’.
With the current coronavirus lockdown in place a little kindness can go a long way, and even showing the smallest amount of kindness to yourself, or to someone else, can help people to get through the day. Research has shown that the rewards from kindness can last long after the act itself, so there are even benefits to sharing your kindness with others such as improving your support networks or even increasing your own level of happiness.
https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/publications/doing-good-does-you-good/health-benefits-altruism
Kindness doesn’t always need to be hard, even small acts of kindness can help to strengthen your relationships with others and reduce isolation, which is doubly important in the current situation – if you can help even just one person to not feel isolated and alone at this time then you know you have done your part to help spread the happiness.
Just think, sometimes one small positive comment can make a world of difference to someone, so think about giving yourself a target to give one kind comment a day to someone this week and make them smile – you will soon learn how powerful kindness can be in these trying times.
https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/campaigns/mental-health-awareness-week
If you or anyone you know may be having trouble with mental health at this time, here are a few helplines you can use for support.
https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/helplines/
https://www.samaritans.org/how-we-can-help/contact-samaritan/