Expert advice for boosting mental health
Creative director of Mindshine app – the ‘mental health coach in your pocket’
A few years ago, a lot of huge changes came into my life in rapid succession. This included my boss at work leaving, pushing me into a position of responsibility I had never wanted or prepared for.
Then my father died suddenly, providing me with another helping of responsibility, with a side order of grief.
Luckily, I had recently started
Founder of Talking Mental Health
The issue that’s affected me most is social anxiety. Some people believe this is simply a fear of social situations, but in reality, it’s much more. When it goes unchecked, social anxiety can infiltrate even the most everyday tasks - like ordering a meal at McDonald’s, speaking in a public place, or sending a text. It’s an intense fear coupled with an overactive imagination,
British Paralympic powerlifter and upcoming speaker at The Watercooler, a free two-day event on workplace wellbeing taking place May 25-26
My mental health is crucial to my performance – it’s another training tool, the same as being in a gym. And for me, breaks from social media, breaks away from my phone, and time being a gratitude practice – the simple ritual of writing a list every morning of all the things you have to be thankful for in life.
Thinking of things can be tricky at first, but like any sort of exercise, you get better with practice. After a few weeks, filling a page came pretty easily. I also got better at noticing things to be thankful for, and seeing opportunities for celebration.
It not only took my mind off my worries, but taught me to
causing you to continuously ruminate about everything that could possibly go wrong at any given moment.
To help, I went for cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), where the most valuable advice I received was to record my thoughts. Initially I was sceptical, feeling silly to be writing down all the ways a situation could pan out – but it’s helped me tremendously. I would list my predictions and then, once I came back from whatever
in the moment with those closest to me are all crucial for my mental health.
One of the hardest things to do in this high-paced, technology-driven world is maintain personal mental health. There are so many filters, Photoshopped images, and pressure to be better, richer, fitter, slimmer, more beautiful, and show the world. It’s virtually impossible to properly switch off.
But it’s like a car – if you leave a car re-frame them into opportunities for growth.
This allowed me to see what happened to me as a way to write my story the way I wanted. I didn’t get to control what happened to me, but I got to decide how I wanted to react to it.
I now have a life I never would have had without my gratitude practice.
I thank it for the decision to go for a completely different job – working for Mindshine – which I love, for my two kids and girlfriend, and for allowing me to aim myself at the good I see in life, rather than worry about the bad.
event I had been to, I would revisit the thoughts again. I can safely say that in 99.9% of cases, my predictions were at complete odds with reality and I had the physical evidence to prove it.
With more and more evidence, came more and more confidence, and eventually I was able to stop using the technique.
Now, when thoughts of public embarrassment or failure enter my mind, I have the confidence to mentally subdue them before I overthink them.
running non-stop, the engine will break, you will run out of fuel, and the car becomes useless. Mental health is the same. If you don’t switch off, don’t look after yourself, you will run out of fuel and break.
My advice: take breaks from social media, put your phone down when you’re with people, stop judging your life on social media (it isn’t real!), and no emails in bed – that’s your safe space for sleep and relaxing.