This week is Mental Health Awareness Week. It’s a week that is hugely important, as we still have such a long way to go before we’ve broken the stigma that surrounds mental ill health. Last year, I wrote a post for Mental Health Awareness Week claiming that I was going to start sharing my story of living with depression, beginning with my nervous breakdown and diagnosis. Yet, these posts never materialised. Writing your own tale of living with depression is…
This week is Maternal Mental Health Matters Week. It’s a week dedicated to raising awareness of maternal mental health and supporting women and families affected by perinatal mental ill-health. As part of Maternal Mental Health Matters Week I’m joining forces with one of my best blogging buddies, Rachel from Mummy in Training, to bring you our top ten self-care techniques. Rachel and I will each be sharing our five favourite self-care techniques. So you’ll only be able to get the…
I recently wrote a post about why I’m passionate about our children developing emotional intelligence. I believe it’s crucial for them to understand their emotions and know how to deal with them correctly. To help us on this journey to developing Little Mister H and Little Miss H’s emotional intelligence I will be working with Skylark Learning. And we will be using their My First Emotions Box to help Little Miss and Little Mister become emotionally intelligent. As part of…
As a society, we value intelligence. And once our children start school we want them to do well academically. We help them learn to read and we show them how to write their name. Evenings are spent practising spellings and times tables. Yet we rarely teach our children about emotional intelligence. From an early age, we shhh them when they cry. We tell our children to be quiet when they’re angry. And we often use negative language to describe their emotions. They’re…
There are times in life when you have an epiphany. When the stars align and a series of events occur. These events make you stop in your tracks. Look inside yourself and take a deep breath. All of a sudden something that has just been out of sight comes into view. And the world makes sense. Now… this minute… as I write this post … is one of those times. About Time & Deciding To Lead A Slow Life The…
This is a collaborative post Your mood is an incredibly important part of living a healthy lifestyle. When you’re in a bad mood things tend to slip. You get less done, you procrastinate more, you lose focus and you don’t get enjoyment from things that usually make you happy. You’re also likely to overeat and avoid exercise which can lead to you becoming unhealthy. It’s also contagious. What starts as a bit of a bad mood, can spread. You might…
This is a collaborative post For many people, happiness seems to be a very elusive state of being, always flickering in the distance but difficult to get your hands on. There are various obstacles along the road you need to overcome. And though these obstacles are individual to everyone, there are some common themes which come up time and time again. I hope that this blog post, exploring some of these common issues, will help you to find happiness and fulfilment.…
Trigger warning: this post mentions depression, anxiety, taking antidepressants, self-harm and attempted suicide. If you have personal experience of any of these then you may find this post distressing. Next year will be the twentieth anniversary of my diagnosis of depression. It will also mark almost twenty years of taking antidepressants. That is huge! It means that I’ve suffered from depression for the majority of my adult life. If you’ve read this blog before then you’ll know that I’m very…