It’s Mental Health Awareness Week 2021 and it’s never been more important to talk about who and how we are. This year, the theme for the week is ‘Nature’ and the endless benefits of free, fresh air.

Across the country, many of us are working from home, furloughed or out of work and so our usual outdoor commutes and routines have been disrupted for a long period. Mental Health Awareness Week encourages us all to reconnect with nature and the great outdoors. Whether its a wander around the back garden, a trip to the local park with the family or even getting around to weeding the front path (we’ve all let that go for a few weeks). This national week of awareness gives us renewed focus and an opportunity to celebrate the mental health benefits of being around nature in our local communities in a range of ways.

The Women’s Organisation staff have been looking at getting back into good habits now that lock down is beginning to ease. Park Run will soon return to our local parks so many of us are lacing up to attempt to get fit, the #WeWill campaign has been launched on Instagram to help enable women to run safely (more here) and we’re lining up a whole new stack of books to help us relax after work, (check out what we’re reading here).

Not everyone can get out and about, but that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy nature. Rain or shine, there’s nothing quite as uplifting as bird song. Whether you’re up with the larks or like to throw open a window to listen to the chirping while you work from home, we highly recommend this nifty little page from the RSPB, bird listening is all the rage these days. If you’re a pluviophile and love nothing more than the sound of rain, Youtube is awash (see what we did there) with rain sound recordings here, another great way to relax your mind. Finally, we’re huge fans of Zoo live camera feeds and none more so than the Live Penguin Cam at Edinburgh Zoo, watch here.

Mark Rowland Chief Executive of the Mental Health Foundation, which hosts Mental Health Awareness Week said: “Since the beginning of the pandemic, millions of us turned to nature to help us get through lock downs and our research shows that good mental health depends on us being able to connect with nature in some way and its power in both prevention of and recovery from poor mental health. We also want to highlight the huge disparities between who is and who isn’t able to access nature. We want the week to explore how everyone across the UK can connect with nature and experience the mental health benefits wherever they live.”

Doing something good for ourselves is a lovely feeling and it’s a practice we should do more often. Accomplishing something new, whether it be learning a new skill or expanding our knowledge is also a real confidence booster. With the easing of lock down and better weather (hopefully) on its way, we’re feeling optimistic and inspired to take on new challenges.

If this sounds like you too, we have a whole range of free, online well being courses available for men and women living in the Liverpool City Region. From 1 hour sessions on topics such as Kick Starting Your Confidence and Sorting Out Your Stress to our 4 week Change It BBO course which focuses Money & Mindset and more, we have a course, workshop or webinar to help you improve your well being.

Here’s 5 well being courses coming up at The Women’s Organisation, this summer:

One Hour To: Sort Out Your Stress

Feeling overwhelmed is a natural response. Learn how to manage stress and move forward in this snappy one hour session. Find out more here. 

One Hour To: Activate Your Assertiveness

This one hour course will give you the tools and strategies you need to become more assertive! Find out more here. 

One Hour To: Recharge Your Resilience

When life knocks you down, learn how to get back up again. One hour to learn strategies for picking yourself up and moving forward. Find out more here. 

One Hour To: Kickstart Your Confidence 

Why do we lose confidence and how can we build it back again? One hour full of tips, tricks and strategies for being a more confident you. Find out more here. 

Change It: BBO

This 4-week programme is open to anyone who is not in paid employment & living in Liverpool City Region who is looking to change their life. Week by week this programme will help you to build a toolkit of strategies that you can use to make the changes you want. Find out more here.

 

To find out more about what’s on at The Women’s Organisation this summer, head to our dedicated Eventbrite page here or call us on 0151 706 8111 for more info. 

For more information about The Mental Health Foundation, head to www.mentalhealth.org.uk or follow @mentalhealth on Twitter.