It is Mental Health Awareness Week

This week is Mental Health Awareness Week in the UK. Its run by the Mental Health Foundation, and this year has a theme of kindness. I’ll be posting daily some personal thoughts and experiences, tools and tips about mental health and kindness and it would be great to start some conversations around the company.

One of the things that I have noticed, all around the world, is that acts of kindness are still out there – and they seem increasingly common and genuine. Amid the fear, there is also community, support and hope. Sometimes you have to dig for them in news bulletins that are often quite traumatic. But they are there and I have seen them out and about in my own environment. I went on a long walk yesterday around my home and had conversations with the people I passed. Actual conversations. We asked each other how we were doing. And we were genuinely interested in the answers. I came home feeling really positive both from the sun and the nature I had seen, but also because I felt a real connection to my community that I definitely wasn’t aware of when I was rushing about to catch my train to work.

I don’t want to brush the stresses and strains we are feeling in these weird times under the carpet. But I genuinely do sense the compassion that is out there and it is one of the things I fervently hope that we keep a firm grip on as we come out of the other side of this pandemic. Kindness could transform our schools, places of work, communities and families.

So today this is just a note to remind us all to take note of the kindness about us. Maybe take a moment in the evenings just to think about five things that you are really grateful for. It won’t end the pandemic any quicker, and it won’t remove the stresses and strains we are under but it may help us remember the support and positivity that is around us.