Mental Health Day Blog-Post

Mental Health Day - and it seems to me the best we can do right now (perhaps always?) for our own mental health as well as that of others, is to model how it is possible to live as happily and kindly as we can in times of chaos and stress.

We cannot totally control the environment, and it is impossible to be 100% safe right now although we do our best - but isn't this always true, as there is always something unpredictable around the corner? This said, we have gone to huge lengths to make things safe on site, have reduced our footfall, have limited the duration of sessions, cut the number of people per room, have implemented a HUGE cleaning programme before and after every session, have moved onto virtual platforms, and have even developed our own contact-tracing system to complement the official ones - and then there is the 8-page Covid-Health and Safety Policy. Jane keeps this and us in check and ensures we are always as up-to-date as we can be.

But ultimately we have to accept that there is no point in dwelling too much upon what we cannot affect. Once we have done what we can - we then need to devote our attentions to being kind to ourselves, being kind to others and finding a way to be joyful -whether this is through music, art, drama, nature, people, love, playfulness etc etc . If we wait for life to get back to what it was, put everything on hold whilst looking forward to when things 'get back to normal' then precious time trickles through our hands.

I am not advocating we just do what we want, like I said above, we do what we can to be safe, but there is a balance to be achieved here, and each person will know what they can do to change things a little within themselves. We can only live in the now and when it comes down to it we are the sum of what we do, our relationships with others, and the amount of kindness we have added to the world. This does not 'go on hold' because there is a pandemic!