Mindful May

Tomorrow sees the start of 'Mental Health Awareness Week' (9-15 May) with this year's theme being loneliness.

Throughout my blog, I'm going to use the terms 'mind health', 'mindfulness' and such words.  Personally, I don't like the term 'mental health'.  When my grandad was alive, he went through a period of depression and back in those days, 'mental health' had very negative connotations around it.  Of course, we have come a very long way since then but it's still a term I'm not fully comfortable with.

I'm not going going to talk about loneliness per se but I am going to touch on how important it is to feel part of something.

In my role as a PA, you belong everywhere yet nowhere, you feel on the periphery yet central, you're part of everything yet nothing.  When you have a very different role to everyone else, it's easy to fall into the trap of feeling like you are not part of the team.  You couldn't be more wrong, you are very much part of the team.  

Isn't that exactly what a team is?  People with very different strengths and skills, coming together and becoming something even stronger.

Don't fall into the trap of thinking you're not contributing because you do something completely different to what your colleagues do.  This is why it's so important to be mindful of the impact you have on other people.  We don't see it or recognise it ourselves.

Our minds start to play tricks on us, we start going down the rabbit hole of thinking we're not good enough or not contributing enough.  STOP!!  I bet you don't think that about others do you?  No, so why think that about yourself!!

Start to re-write the script in your mind:

"I don't feel like I contribute in the same way as my colleagues" - No, you don't and there's a very good reason for that.  YOU have other strengths and skills to offer to the team.  

"It was nothing, it only took me 10 mins" - That 10 mins task could have taken your colleague 30 mins.  That's why they asked you to help because they knew you could do it quicker and save them some valuable time.

"I don't feel like I belong in this meeting with very senior people" - You have been asked to be there for a very specific reason so sit tall and proud.

"I don't know enough" - No, you don't know everything is what you mean and that's impossible.

"I can't do this" - Erm, do you actually want to do it?  We all have different strengths and weaknesses.  In reality, our weaknesses are usually something that we don't actually want to do, so why waste time on them?  Do enough to get by in your weaker areas but focus on your strengths and what you enjoy doing.

'Mind Health' for me means building self-belief and resilience within myself so I'm then able to support others.  It can mean many different things to many different people so take some time to discover what mind health means to you.

I'll be back in 'Joyful June'!

#2022

#MindfulMay


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