Mental Health Awareness Week 2021
14 May 2021
Mental health is something that we are all guilty of overlooking. When someone asks if your healthy you might go on to explain how you haven't been sick in a year, or that you exercise every day, you might start telling them about the new diet you've started. However, we fail to regularly stop and think about our mental health, how we are feeling in our mind. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this has become an area that has seen a lot more attention. With concern around loneliness and depression due to the lockdowns and the uncertainty of employment becoming a huge stress for people, the last year has tested us all.
One outlet that has helped people all over the country is the outdoors. In the United Kingdom, we have been blessed with an amazing countryside, nature trails and other ways to get ourselves out into nature. This week for Mental Health Awareness Week we asked our team to do three things:
- Experience nature: Take time to recognise and grow your connection with nature during the week. Take a moment to notice and celebrate nature in your daily life. You might be surprised by what you notice!
- Share nature: Take a photo and share it on Teams highlighting the connections you’ve made during the week, to inspire others. Join the discussion on how you’re connecting with nature by using the hashtags #ConnectWithNature #MentalHealthAwarenessWeek.
- Talk about nature: Join the discussion on how you can help encourage people to find new ways to connect with nature in your local environment. Send us a sentence describing why you love that photo and your connection to nature and we gather them together as a group to celebrate our shared appreciation.
Below we've included some of the pictures our team have shared over the week.
Elvaston Castle
Black Rock
Sussex Downs
Remember that if you are struggling with your mental health and aren't sure who to talk to, a list of services can be found here.
By Conner Thornewill