Let's talk about movement this Mental Health Awareness Week 2024
May 13th – 19th is Mental Health Awareness Week and this year the theme focuses on movement and action. This week was set up to give people time and space to talk about their mental health, providing an understanding of mental health and reduce stigma.
What is mental health?
Mental health is something we all have! We experience mental health in terms of how we feel, what we think about and what we do. However, we might experience, “blips”, “down days”, “feeling more anxious and worried” and this can lead to us experiencing a change to our mental health. We might notice that we are feeling sadder and more anxious daily or noticing more negative thoughts in our mind and that we might not be doing as much. We know that when we aren’t feeling like us the first thing that disappears are our hobbies and the things we enjoy.
Our mental health is just as important as our physical health. We need to look after our minds and bodies and how we do this varies from person to person. We might engage in self-care such as:
Watching cooking shows on TV or relaxing watching Netflix in the evenings
Having a warm bubbly bath
Walking the dog
Cooking a new meal
Practicing mindfulness
Using relaxation and breathing techniques
Exercising such as running, swimming, yoga or even chair exercises
Spending time with loved ones or on our own
Being with nature such as gardening or going for a walk in the countryside
What is important is finding something that works for us – it’s estimated that 1 in 3 of us will experience a change in our mental health at some point in our lives. It might be for a short period of time, or it might stick around for a little longer. However, you don’t need to experience it alone. There is a variety of help and support in the community – it’s finding the right one for you.
How can movement and action be helpful?
We know that movement and exercise can be extremely helpful for our mental health but often we might not know where to begin. Our minds and bodies are interconnected. There has been lots of research conducted which talks about how movement can be helpful in lifting our mood and managing stress. We don’t need to be running a marathon (although for some they aspire to this!) but general movement throughout the day can be helpful in reducing stress and getting the blood moving around our body such as chair exercises, walking or gardening.
Research has shown us that physical activity can help us with:
Managing stress levels
Helping us to sleep more efficiently
Reducing isolation (especially if we’re meeting new people and socialising)
Helping our memory and brain function
Managing symptoms of anxiety and depression
How can I build up movement or exercise?
There are lots of different types of physical activity and movement and it’s finding one that works best for you (think about something you enjoy and what you’re able to do). Once you’ve found something that you want to try, it’s important to set realistic expectations and goals for yourself. You may find that you feel more tired to start off with and it’s important to slowly build up any movement.
We often introduce the concept of pacing – we all do some sort of movement or activity throughout the day (whether that be the cooking, walking the dog or doing the laundry) and if we think of our energy levels as a tank, each activity we do during the day reduce the energy in our tank (some more than others). We aren’t always aware of how our body feels but if we’re doing too much, we can feel uncomfortable and tired as our energy reduces. To manage this, we want to pace ourselves to help our energy last longer. This will help us to balance our activities alongside resting.
To pace ourselves we need to go through the following steps:
1. Setting realistic goals and expectations in line with our values and breaking our goals into smaller chunks
2. Setting our limits and listening to our body
3. Sticking to our limit, we might set a timer to make sure we’re not overdoing our activities and have a range of restful activities we can use.
4. Keep going!
It’s very important to speak to your healthcare provider, GP or medical team before starting or increasing activity levels especially if we have a physical health condition.
What other support can I receive?
If you’re noticing that you’re finding movement or exercise challenging whether that be due to a physical health condition and/or motivation you can find out more about this on our website. We offer psychological therapy for those experiencing anxiety, depression, and physical health conditions both in person and online (video and telephone appointments which means you can access this from anywhere in the UK!). We offer initial telephone appointments which can be booked online through our website at a time and date that works for you, this means we can talk through what treatment options would be most helpful for you and what the next steps would be.