Mental Health Awareness Week 2019 is in full swing so we thought we would share the five ways to wellbeing by New Economics Forum (published by the government). Whilst we all don’t have mental illness, all families have mental health that needs to be looked after.
Evidence suggests that a small improvement in wellbeing can help to decrease some mental health problems and also help people to flourish.
Here are 5 actions to improve personal wellbeing:
- connect
- be active
- take notice
- keep learning
- give
So why not kick off with one of the actions this week? Comment below with how you and your family are going to do one of these actions!
Leeds Wellbeing Week is also running during Mental Health Awareness Week and it is a great way to connect and inspire people.
Try New things and get your dose of inspiration during Leeds Wellbeing Week
Here is a bit of inspiration by Lucile, Founder of Leeds Wellbeing Week.
When I arrived in Leeds in 2016, I arrived in a new city, a new county and a new country where I had not a single contact – I followed my husband who had a job opportunity. We got married, I quit my job and I left France within 3 weeks. Crazy? Slightly!
Having no job and no friend in a new city was exciting on paper, yet challenging in real life. The first few weeks were spent finding a place to stay and doing all the lovely administrative bits, and then what? I was on my own in an empty house with no phone and no Internet connection. I was also recovering from a very intense job where I almost burnt out. Lovely!
It was hard, but one thing helped me to find my feet in Leeds and feel comfortable (I now LOVE Yorkshire): trying new things! It was my route to recovery. I tried various Dance classes at Yorkshire Dance and Northern School of Contemporary Dance, I went to networking events and meet ups, I even tried Thai Boxing! [Painful. Very painful. I never went back.]
The three benefits of Trying New Things:
- It makes you smile: There is an adrenaline and a dopamine rush in your brain when you try new things, so the stress hormone is combined with the happiness hormone. For the best! Yes, it might be stressful at first to get out of your comfort zone. But 1. You have nothing to lose and 2. You might actually find something that you really like and that would become part of your life afterwards!
- It creates memories: The Thai boxing experience made me realise that Thai boxing was not for me. But this experience makes me laugh still! I felt so terrible and it was so painful that I had to laugh! I remember it to this day, and it is a very funny memory still.
- It gets you to meet new people: the famous sentence says, ‘if you always do the same actions you will always get the same result’. Well, if you always attend the same events or go to the same places, you will always meet the same people. Trying new things gets you to meet people with different stories, backgrounds, passions, habits… and to connect with them. And connecting is actually one of the 5 ways of wellbeing mentioned by Action for Happiness.
I was able to try so many new things thanks to all the great events happening in Leeds. Without them, I would most likely have been stuck at home.
I then created Leeds Wellbeing Week to inspire people to get out of their comfort zones as well and try something new.
Leeds Wellbeing Week is a yearly wellbeing festival, and the next edition is 13-18 May 2019, during Mental Health Awareness Week. The goal of the festival is to get Leeds’ people to experience wellbeing in many ways, at various times and in various locations. Wellbeing is EVERYWHERE, can be EVERYTHING (from walking to gardening) and for EVERYONE!
For this edition of Leeds Wellbeing Week, there are specifically 3 events designed to inspire people in Leeds:
- Design your own wellbeing strategy, Tuesday 14 May, 8:30am, Duke Studios Leeds.
This 45min workshop is a series of short exercises which will enable you to understand the basics of Wellbeing. Focusing on your own reactions to stress and the specific challenges of your day to day job, you will build your own healthy coping mechanisms and end up with your ideal ‘healthy week balance’ you can refer to in the future.
- Breakfast with added Joy, Wednesday 15 May, 8:30am, Wizu Workspace
Join Natasha McCreesh AKA The Joy Bringer, for a breakfast with intention. She is inviting you to enjoy a fresh, nutritious breakfast and through guided reflection get clear on what brings you joy.
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- Wellness Talk and Shopping with Sweaty Betty, Wednesday 15 May, 5:30pm, Sweaty Betty Leeds
Join Nat in the Sweaty Betty studio for a thought-provoking wellness workshop on the topic of growth and overcoming limiting beliefs. Nat will provide practical techniques and learnings on how best to deal with stress and enhance confidence.
Among many other events that you can browse here: http://bit.ly/leedsww19
We are looking forward to seeing you there, trying new things!
About the Founder of Leeds Wellbeing Week
Lucile Allen-Paisant is the founder of Leeds Wellbeing Week and Director of Mind It Ltd. Former Marketing Director of a fast-growing business, with a wide range of responsibilities and passion for her job, Lucile almost experienced burn-out herself and is now an advocate of burn-out prevention through wellbeing activities. She created Mind It Ltd to MAKE WELLBEING EASY and help organisations to take care of their staff using easy, impactful and powerful tools. Mind It provides lunch & learn workshops, training and consultancy.
