Listening is a skill most of us, if not all of us, think we posses. Most people with customer-facing roles or caring roles are trained to listen. We grow up being told to listen to instructions or to pay attention. But how well do we honestly do this? One time running a non-judgemental listening activity […]
Best Practise for Supporting Someone in Distress
Is supporting someone something that happens often? Many of us may wish to support someone in distress. But fear that we do not have the skills to do so. Our main fear may be that we could make the problem worse. But as a society we so often underestimate how much is needed to provide […]
Poem
“Hear the tragedy in my words See tears flow from my pen A poetic discourse sprawling free As I’m feeling fragile once again Dark ink crawls across the page Revealing emotions I refuse to feel Black splashes of truth from the ether Preventing denial of the real Chinks in the armor released by rhyme Opening […]
Why Self Care is Everyone’s Responsibility
If mental health is everyone’s problem – which it is – then self care is everyone’s responsibility. The oxygen mask on the plane metaphor may feel tired. But. They’re right. We need to put our own on before we help others. As a member of society, as a parent, a friend, a sibling, a child, […]
On the Nature of Loneliness
I think we’ve all been lonely at times. It’s part of the human experience. Potentially it’s something that we might have to accept. In an ONS report in 2018, it was found that 9.8% of young people aged 16-24 and 11.3% of young people aged 10 to 15 years said that they were often lonely. […]
Depression Daze #4: Advice That Helps
There seems to be endless websites and blogs full of well-meaning people writing about what doesn’t help. I’ve read dozens of articles titled ‘what not to say’ or ‘unhelpful things to do’. There are also lots of articles with amazing advice about what really helped them. I thought I’d share my own thoughts of what […]
Achieving Our Best Life
Following on from my previous post entitled ‘living our best life’ you’ll be pleased to hear I’ve had further revelations. I called living our best life a journey of a lifetime which made we wonder the following. When have I achieved my best life? And how will I know? Will I continue to work endlessly […]
Living Your Best Life
This seems to be an all too common phrase at the moment. But what does ‘living our best life’ mean? What does it look like in practice? I’m sure I’m not the only one wondering this. When I think about this elusive concept I think I’m meant to feel inspired. Sometimes I feel up to […]