Kia ora Whaingaroa! This month marks Mental Health Awareness Week from the 18th to the 24th of September. Instead of an interview I thought it would be a good time to check in and reflect on the first half of the year as the sun comes out again and we move into spring.
The theme of Mental Health Awareness Week this year is ‘Five Ways, Five Days’. Each day of the week will focus on a different way to improve your mental health; take notice, give, be active, connect, and keep learning. I really like this approach and know from my own experience how important each of these things is, but ‘keep learning’ has really stuck with me.
The first six months of this year felt like a major slog through the mud for me and many others. We missed out on a real summer, the rain has been heavy and persistent, the effects of the pandemic on our psyche are still playing out, there’s a recession and a cost of living crisis and the world continues to feel like it might implode tomorrow. As a person who is empathetic and struggles sometimes to protect my own energy, all of these elements caused me to withdraw and go inside my little shell and hibernate until it felt safe to come out again. I’ve been really trying to ‘keep learning’; to take all the change that is going on in my life and in the world and learn from it and continue to grow. It’s not easy! I can tick off giving and being active and connecting but sometimes it’s the inner reflection, the growing and forward momentum that is the hardest. As we head into the warmer months, I’m trying to remember to learn from the seasons in our life when we need to withdraw. Taking some time out to yourself to sit with your feelings and to reflect and to figure out how you need to grow is so difficult but also the only way to become a genuine, kind, and content person. And that’s exactly what I’m trying to do out here!
There have been some big losses for our community in the last couple of months and I am hopeful that our collective sadness can become a tool for change. Losing someone close to you to suicide is deeply heartbreaking, yet unfortunately something that many of us have experienced. I was talking to a friend and wondering aloud ‘what are we meant to do about this?!’, before I realised that we are doing something. This community is trying really hard to have open conversations about our mental health, to provide resources, to offer a helping hand. I was invited up to Raglan Area School to speak on a mental health panel for the senior students last week. During the panel I spoke about how the Mental Health Toolbox started and how the grief of losing my friend Brownie prompted me to publish and distribute it. I was invited to the panel by Grace Mindoro who was a good friend of Rudy’s and who is now using her grief to provide mental health awareness for our rangatahi. It was awesome to speak on a panel with ex students, current students, and health professionals, to a group of attentive teenagers. These open conversations are really important and we are lucky to be able to deliver mental health education to a generation who will hopefully grow up with healthy tools in their toolboxes.
I’ve been reflecting a lot lately on the Mental Health Interview series and what it means to me personally. Doing the interviews is a chance to sit down with people who I’ve always said hi to on the street and to ask them some real questions. I get so much out of it myself and I have even taken on Ange’s mantra from the last issue, ‘ease and grace and push on through’. Creating a genuine connection with each interviewee is fulfilling and reminds me that we all struggle with our mental health at times. What I am most blown away with every time though, is the courage and vulnerability that each of these people offer to me and to our community. When I thank them for their thoughts and their energy, every single one of them says to me how scary it feels to put that out in the world but that they want to do it to help someone else. Also, the awhi they get from the community after their interview has been published is always full of kindness and understanding.
When I get overwhelmed with the world, I like to zoom in a little bit. Hunter gatherer societies never operated with more than 100 people. This is because we aren’t cut out to care about more than that, we don’t have the energy. If we look at Raglan as our little community where we can truly be present and look after each other, and tune out all the noise from the rest of the world, then I think real change can take place here. And actually, it already is! I am so grateful to be a part of this change and to share these stories with you all.
As we head into summer, let’s remember the five ways to look after your mental health; take notice, give, be active, connect, and keep learning.
Raglan Naturally is helping to organise a walk around the three bridges to mark Gumboot Day on November 4th so please keep an eye out for more details on that.
And if you’re interested in sitting down with me and being involved in the Mental Health Interview series, please reach out! I would love to hear your story and hopefully pass it on to someone else who can learn something from it. Email me at rubymgibbs@gmail.com.
That’s all from me this month and I look forward to sharing my next interview with you all.
Take it easy,
Ruby
