Stocking up your wellbeing stores - Healthy Life Essex

The holiday season is nearly over. People across Essex will be noticing the air cooling and becoming fresher, as the smoke of summer barbecues fades away. Traditionally, autumn is a time of harvest, of gathering what you need to survive the winter. So while most people nowadays don’t have fields of golden corn to cut, nor ripe fruit to pick in the orchard, everyone can benefit from gathering and storing some positive experiences at any time of year, to see them through harder times.

At Mind in West Essex, we support people to stockpile helpful reserves and techniques to see them through hard times. As anyone who has felt stressed, low or anxious can tell you, it is hard to live with mental distress. You need a good store of positivity and barn full of determination. You also might need some helpers once in a while to round up your ability to cope with stressful situations. You may want regular assistance mending leaks in your happiness. On cold, wet days, you might like the company of people who understand when your store of wellbeing is running low.

We try to provide all of these things. Through local support and recovery work, befriending, counselling and training in West Essex, to wider support via the national Mind network, we want to help build up your store of wellbeing. If you feel we can help you do this, please contact us.

In the meantime here is a short list of things you might like to try adding to your wellbeing store.

• Think of three things that you are proud of and/or pleased about. Try telling someone about them. If there’s no one there to tell, work out how you’d tell them.

• Go somewhere you’ve never been before and see if you feel any different. This might be visiting a new room, building, footpath, street, town or even country.

• Make something. It doesn’t matter how big, how small, how complex or simple. Just make something.

• Give five people a compliment. Tell them what you like about them. Are they caring, intelligent, funny, thoughtful, sincere, helpful, brave, lively, fun or something else you like and admire?

• Do something nice for yourself. It might be going out for a meal, or making hot chocolate, or reading a magazine, watching a movie, or going for a walk, or whatever your favourite simple thing to do that makes you happy is.

You may also like to access National Mind’s information and support page which has links to a world of help and suggestions.

All best wishes for a productive, healthy and happy autumn from all of us at Mind in West Essex!