11th May - Day 51 - Wake up where the clouds are far behind me
This is Mental Health Awareness Week (10 to 16 May 2021).It is a week when organisations such as MIND ask you to join the fight for mental health ‘That means fighting for change, for fairness, for respect and for life-changing support.’
The importance of nature and wellbeing is recognised in the Mental health UK focus on 5 Ways to Wellbeing (social connectedness, physical activity, awareness, learning, and giving) and the Mental Health Foundation’s emphasis on the importance of nature, ‘Nature is so central to our psychological and emotional health, that it’s almost impossible to realise good mental health for all without a greater connection to the natural world’.
The St Wilfrid’s Centre Nature Group, established over the past year, has certainly been a success and is something we aim to continue. I know that cycling to work and really noticing the things around me has done me the world of good, providing me with all the 5 ways to wellbeing mentioned above.
When I set off yesterday afternoon in trepidation because of the earlier thunder and lightening and the wall of grey cloud ahead, I thought the journey home would be very wet. Instead, a short downpour produced an amazing double rainbow (which of course I had to stop and photograph). We certainly all need to focus on the rainbows and not just the storms in our lives and by doing so, take a moment to look at nature in our daily lives. There is often more around us than we realise. We are lucky that Sheffield provides many green spaces and trees - but more about woodland tomorrow, the impressive fact about Sheffield - and the impact trees can have on our mental health.
In the meantime, as we go through the Mental Health Awareness Week , perhaps the dreams that we dare to dream really can come true by us all campaigning for change, effective support and an entitlement to the 5 ways to well being. Perhaps the most important dream that we dare to dream is a society and community where mental health matters can be discussed and funded as much and as openly as the current pandemic.
Beyond the rainbow