It feels like I have been very quiet for a while, I haven’t shared much about any of my work, either the yoga and well-being side or my creative business as a photographer. No huge reason or drama, I just find at times I need to be quiet and listen…to myself, my clients, friends & mentors both online and in the real world. To have times where I step back from the ‘noise’ is an awareness of myself I have come to realise that I regularly need. I also can very easily forget about social media, websites & being online! It’s not the most comfortable place for me and I often agonise about what words to put in a post, inevitably ending up leaving it unpublished, however today here goes...
Last week was #MentalHealthAwareness week and I really wanted to acknowledge it, now I know there’s a week for everything in the media these days but you do have to admit good things come from them. For instance look at @ThisIsDavina Menopause awareness campaign or literally this week also @BoweBabe phenomenal awareness & pound note raising work and we have seen the same with breast cancer, stroke awareness etc.
So a thought around Mental Health Awareness or if I may; developing WholeSelf Health awareness (not sure that’s going to catch on but bear with me..)
Developing a sense of ourselves, being in tune with our physical & mental health is so very valuable – you start to know when a pain, lump or your poo is not right, your instinct begins to tell you when to seek help or another opinion & most importantly when not to ‘leave it’ Equally self-awareness of our mental health or as I prefer to think of it, Energy (Prana in Yoga – LifeForce) is equally valuable to us, especially sometimes at a subtle level, the small signs that are easy to ignore at first, insomnia, comfort seeking in addictive behaviors, unprocessed grief, tiredness, attention constantly on work or others to avoid looking inwards, self-limiting beliefs, internalising our feelings, loneliness, memory issues are just a few that can build to much bigger crises in our mental health.
The whole umbrella of mindfulness can sometimes feel like a big confusing woo woo concept that’s just for people that drink green juice or do Yoga but it really isn’t – it’s more like a beautiful box full of different ways to approach our lives that’s open to all. Sometimes we just need to listen to ourselves to work out what we need to take from that box or to where we need to turn. Mindfulness practices can be the guide, the lighthouse in temporary darkness. Cultivating being still, being quiet & listening to what comes to the surface, we become aware of our mental energy and giving it a little attention will repay us over and over, not only in the health of our minds but also our bodies. And if your quiet is through moving the body - running, yoga, boxing any form of exercise really then you will gain double the benefits.
Of course there are things we cannot avoid, control or have to face, life is not always simple or gentle enough to allow finding the time to maintain our practices easy, its exactly as in our physical health or fitness but making them a part of our living we can have more resilience, more tools to call on and much more knowledge of ourselves and didn’t someone once say Knowledge is Power?!? Awareness certainly feels like it sometimes to me, listen to yourself it matters & so do you. Namaste x
