Always aware of our mental health

THIS week we’ll be aware of our mental health. Next week we’ll be aware of our mental health.

Today, tomorrow, all day, every day we will be aware of our mental health.

We might not want to be, we might actively try not to be.

We can avoid, distance, disassociate, numb and run away, yet we’ll still be aware of our mental health.

We might be anxious, stressed, hate our jobs, be lonely, angry, sad or depressed.

We might be excited, pumped up, love our jobs, feel like we belong, passionate, happy and accepting of ourselves.

No matter, we’ll still be aware of our mental health. There will always be something we’re not talking about, something we’re defensive about, somewhere we won’t go.

There will always be some stigma, a scar, a wound, some hurt that has not fully healed.

There will always be a growing edge, something bugging us, something keeping us awake at night, an idea for a way of life could be that little bit different than now.

We’re human, we’re imperfect, beautiful, complex, insecure, ever-changing, messy – that’s what makes us, us.

So it will be mental health awareness week again and again and again.

Until we realise that there is no destination or goal or endstate. No enlightenment or homecoming, no magic pill or silver bullet.

There is only one constant – us. We’ll still live on, have hard times, good times, fall in love, fall out of love and all the rest of it that life will make of us and throw at us - and we’ll be aware of all of it and more.

There will always be mental health awareness week, there will always be mental health, good, bad, sad, ugly.

This is it. This is it. This, being aware, being present, acknowledging something whatever that is. There is no goal, no destination, just a constant process of awareness, listening, understanding and accepting that we are human, we all have mental health.

This is mental health awareness week and it really is every week and will be forever.

JAMES ROUTLEDGE