For my final 666 of Mental Health Awareness Week I’ve tried to pull together some of the strands that I have dealt with over the last five days. It is fantastic having a high profile Mental Health Awareness Week, but like a dog being for life and not just for Christmas, we should actually be aware of our and other’s mental health all the time and not just a few days in May. Mental health is still seen largely as someone else’s problem and that is because we subconsciously still stick the word illness after those two words. In the same way that we all have physical health (whether we are physically ill or not), we all have mental health as we all have a mind. Just like our physical health, our mental health will go up and down. There will be good days and bad days, but that does not necessarily mean that you are ill.
Read MoreIt is a cliché but there is still a bizarre oxymoron that Metal is a corrosive and confrontational style of music, yet the people it attracts are amongst the kindest, most generous souls that you will find. It is like the music, channels our aggression and abrasion, leaving us inside with a good nature and caring mentality. This year Mental Health Awareness week is all about kindness and being kind. But what does that actually mean? As Forky would ask (go watch Disney +) “What is kindness?”. The formal definition is “the quality of being friendly, generous, and considerate”. In terms of mental health, the most important element here is consideration. You see, 40% of what happens to us we can control and 60% we can’t. But that 60% still has the same effect on us. All the actions and reactions happening around us affect us in how we feel. This includes the deeds of other people and what they say.
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