Healthcare Health Day: An opportunity to deliberately check in yourself

Today is the day of emotional health awareness. An opportunity to deliberately check in yourself. Talks with relatives to see how people around them are doing around them and maybe share with them how they are doing.

I thought about it all weekend because I have a bit of a dip in a pretty good shape. It was the anniversary of my Nana's death last week. 6 years. She died just four weeks after the birth of my son and she never met him, and although she was in a home and was in great decline at that time and was still one of my greatest regret. My Nana was my safe space, the stove of chocolate cakes and roasts and the hugging switch that smelled in the first ten years of my life, perfume and cigarettes. I noticed this last week or so that I was not in great form. It became clear to me that I have eaten more sugar than usual for some time since the beginning of the year, and when I had turned alcohol upside down since last September, I had the strange glass of wine or cider and it feels a bit of chicken and Egg. Can the increase in consumption to be done with stress or the stress with the upswing? It's hard to say. This is how these things are intertwined.

It is so easy to bury these feelings in cakes or whatever the crutch of jour for them. Convince yourself that you are doing well and the main we are. We all cope with, we are all about keeping everything up to date, but how often do you have a conscious mental clarification?

My husband came back from a match this weekend and said that the trains had been delayed on the line due to a person. A much too regular event, desperate when you are the driver, even more desperate if you are the cause. I wondered if this person knew today that today it was emotional warming of health. If you might have known, it might have been the catalyst to have a conversation with someone about how you felt.

How do you prefer readers? …

… when you said 'good', I'll ask you again. How are you … Really? …

I invite you to write a list. Three things that bother you. Then write three things for which you are grateful.

That's it. No solution or conclusion. Only facts. Three things that disturb you and three things you are grateful for.

My last request is that you focus on the list of things you are grateful for.

Sometimes the simple writing of these lists can be the trigger for the river, which we urgently need a reset. The negative list can flow more easily – our thoughts tend to do what we reject. The gratitude list could take more effort, especially on days when the world feels difficult. That's okay. This is a person, but the trick is to start small. Big thanks for your bed, your breakfast, your headquarters in the tube, your super soft socks, your trustworthy backpack, you (Fill out the gaps) because really, no matter how big things can get, we have so much grateful.

My Nana always said that “this should also happen” and sometimes I repeated it as a mental mantra when I am up with my son all night or when I feel deep. She was right, she was always right, in the middle of emotional storms it is important to remember that sunshine exists. That is why we need these check-in days, these deliberate breaks in our rush through life, these opportunities for discussion.

To the person in the train line – I wish you found your break, your moment to reach. For everyone who reads this who recognizes this darkness, please know that, although your pain is unique to you, you don't have to carry you alone. There are people who want to listen to them in this storm until it is over, they only have to take this first step towards them.

This is not about repairing everything. It is not about force positivity or this chocolate cake (or the wine or whatever helps us) sometimes not being the easiest answer. It's about recognition. It's about “I'm fighting to fight” and knowing that these words don't reduce us. It is about remembering that there is their own list for everyone who seems to have everything together.

Today I invite you to be gently with yourself on this day of emotional health awareness. Share your list if you can. Listen when someone shares his. Remember that emotions – all – the greatest gift to be alive, the wonderful part of human being. And sometimes it is the first step to take them easier, only name them and observe without judgment.

And if you read and think “I'm fine” – Well, I'll ask you again as my Nana would have done: how are you, really?

With all my love

Athene X