Your MOT is due & #MyWholeSelf

Hello everyone – how have you been? Half-way into March already! Can you believe it? But the lighter mornings and evenings are a real bonus, aren’t they?

I’m loving it with Bonnie and we are now doing some early morning training for a walking trip I’m planning later in the year. Having something to look forward to, aim for, train for, plan for and dream about is incredibly helpful and positive for our mental health, rather than focusing on so much bad news that is around at present. What are you looking forward to? What can you plan for to occupy your wandering, inquisitive, obsessive mind?

Spring isn’t quite sprung here yet… but it’s a great time to check yourself over and see how you are doing after the long winter and change in routine. Use this graphic as a prompt to see how you are and maybe adjust the balance in your life so that you are running smoother, more efficiently and getting more miles per gallon (we certainly need to be with the soaring fuel prices right now!)

Variety is the spice of life and I’m interested in so many things – which is great to change it up every now and again. I like to dip in and out of my hobbies and interests. I don’t need to be amazing at them, as long as I enjoy them. What do you get up to? Are you fancying trying something new this year or maybe getting back to something that you haven’t fully engaged with for a couple of years?

Keep Learning (one of your 5-a-day)

Learning something new in these hobbies is great too (one of the 5-a-day for positive mental health). Here’s what I’m learning about in the next few months:

Front crawl – wild swimming

Chain adjustment & fixing a puncture on my motorbike

New software platform for charity

Suspension overhaul or soft top conversion for Andy’s Landie – decisions… decisions…

History, culture, food around the GR11 walking route…

Be yourself – embrace who you are.

Ever feel like a square peg in a round hole?

18^th March is #MyWholeSelf day and it’s all about encouraging us to rock up as we are – being our whole self, whether at work, our family or with our friends… This is about normalising the conversation about our lived experience, our mental health and what we enjoy in life.

I totally love this because it means to me that ‘It’s OK to be you!’

So many of us try to fit in somewhere or try to fit the mould, but we are all individuals, and it is much more empowering to actually just be yourself and embrace your individual view, experience, likes & dislikes. You are worth celebrating.

Have a look at the resources which could help you change our culture & normalise the conversation about mental health and celebrate that we are all humans on this journey called life. 

https://mhfaengland.org/my-whole-self/

There are lots of things you could try and introduce – how about a ‘desert island discs’ approach to getting to know each other better? Click the link above and have some fun making some positive changes where you work, volunteer or enjoy your hobby.

I’d love to see your selfie – please tag me in your social media when you share yours for #MyWholeSelf day 18^th March. 

Use your imagination & have some fun. Being creative gives us positive vibes and helps us forget about a lot of other things that are going on in our lives.

Take care and stay wonky – it is OK to be you.