There Are Moments When Even I Can Struggle to Find The Balance at Times
On of the things that I have occasionally spoke quite openly about, and without any shame or remorse I might add simply because I didn’t feel any when I first started talking about it. And I still don’t know. I am in fact banging on about both our Minds and Mindfulness.
The topic of Mental Health.
Over the past year or so when I have sat down and watched TV, listened to conversations about work or anything else that’s just happened to grab my interest.
Even Roman Kemp’s mentioned it many times and I think it’s good that he’s actually being so open and honest about it and not treating it as a taboo topic. In the interests of our minds, I just say, to hell with typical attitudes and get talking. The worst-case scenario is mental breakdown and/or death, and by that, I mean suicide. Other outcomes are a long and painful road of mental and psychological troubles
For me, this is something that I have rarely spoken about, from a personal perspective that is, though thankfully it didn’t lead down a dark path. Though i did go through a merry-go-round of moments with anxiety. When I watched a TV programme, Countryfile to be exact, the subject of Mindfulness was frequently mentioned.
Well apart from having its own website the techniques of the process have been talked about. They involve The 5 Steps
- – First Mindfulness Exercise: Mindful Breathing.
- – Second Mindfulness Exercise: Concentration.
- – Third Mindfulness Exercise: Awareness of Your Body.
- – Fourth Mindfulness Exercise: Releasing Tension.
- – Fifth Exercise: Walking Meditation.
From looking at the list I have only ever used the 2nd one the most, the fifth I only ever used if I was out and about somewhere but I suppose you could argue that that also counts. The 1st and 3rd I barely used at all, not because I questioned about whether they’d help, but because I just couldn’t be a***d.
The last time I used these was not that long ago this year but also over 5 years ago when I was between jobs and wondered if I’d ever get myself back into the working world.
I even made a little post about it in my blog Adam’s Journalwhen I was in a somber and something depressing place and genuinely wanted somewhere that I could just type my thoughts and leave them until I felt ready to revisit them again
In the post I spoke openly about the Anxiety I coped with for two months whilst between jobs. The mental anxiety of suddenly being unemployed after over a decade of being in a job (but necessarily one I enjoyed or felt any kind of fulfillment in) to suddenly not having anything. The anxiety of having to sign on (not something that even I would recommend lightly just so you know) whilst looking for work and having to have weekly meetings at the Job Centre to prove that I was actively seeking work.
To balance it out there was the upside with getting interviews but then there was the downside where I talk about the seemingly never-ending rejections. To cut it short there ending, for back then, was positive but the general gist of what I am trying to point out here was all the roller coaster-esque moments I was dealing with in my mind
According to mental health charity, Mind, around 1 in 4 of us do suffer with mental health related issues but haven’t been able to get support.
Though the support is out there I have never sought any, not because I felt too ashamed or considered it too much of a hassle, but because I didn’t view my issues as that server. Don’t get me wrong, I know that there are many people who’ll have thought that their mental state wasn’t that enough to warrant it, but for me I knew what my anxiety causing problems were. Just a case of dealing with the prime idiots who I considered to be my Grief Mongers. Basically, the eejits who were the cause of my problems.
But having said all I do take my mental health quite seriously, and I think some of it comes from a variety of places; watching multitudes of people linger over the heads of friends and family and seeing how it affected them; my own life experiences and slowly realizing that unless I spoke our nothing was ever going to happen; and of course slowly arriving at the actual realization that the so-called infamous British Saying ‘Boys don’t cry’, ‘man up’ and the term ‘stiff upper lip’ were basically just complete and utter garbage.
If history has indeed taught us anything it’s that ignoring the problems that haunt us mentally does us way more harm than we realized. Also, sticking your head in the sand like the Ostrich isn’t even remotely helpful either, the trouble is still there and doesn’t shift because you’ve buried your head.
In other words, we shouldn’t be shoving our heads in the earth and we should just do away with the so-called British traditions of ‘boys don’t cry’, ‘man up’ and ‘stiff upper lip’ Co’s let’s face it, they’re complete and utter rubbish and belong in the bin.
