Last week is one of the most important in the year for me – Mental Health Awareness Week.
I have written about this before, so please bear with me whilst I talk about this some more. It’s important, it’s our health, and we need to remind each of this every single day, not just this week.
This year the campaign focuses on nature in particular and how this can truly help and improve your mental health.
In fact the Mental Health Foundation has carried out research which suggests that 50 per cent of adults have found being close to nature improved mental health, four out of 10 people said nature made them feel less worried and anxious, and finally, two thirds of people said nature helped them experience positive emotions.
As a rural county and predominantly farming area we are extremely fortunate to be surrounded every single day by nature, animals and wildlife, but my biggest question is how many of us are taking our time to immerse ourselves within it compared to taking it for granted?
The life of a farmer is busy, chaotic and often stressful.
In 2019/2020 alone there was a total of 133 suicides registered in England, Wales and Scotland; all whom were working in farming and agricultural related trades.
To lose 133 important and loved individuals within our community in such a short space of time breaks my heart. I will never get used to hearing those figures and this is why I do and will keep talking about mental health and opening up opportunities for us all to take a step back, and open up conversations that could save lives.
But let’s not just tie this conversation down to those in agriculture. In England and Wales alone there were 5,691 people should took their own lives in 2019, a terrifying average of 18 people per day.
To put it bluntly suicide is one of the biggest killers within the UK right now.
We are all guilty of saying we will take time off and then we never do.
Myself and my fiancé are normally fairly good at making time, but in all honesty the last few months we’ve been terrible for it and it’s taken me until recently to understand why.
We would regularly make a plan to have a ‘chilled day at home’ and of course what would happen?
Halfway through the day we’d find ourselves just doing one odd job outside, which turned to four and suddenly it’s turned into a full working day.
We were not taking time to relax, clear our minds, and forget some of the pressures that come with running two businesses. We realised it wasn’t the farm or juggling life in general – it was us, we were not prioritising ourselves.
We had to be honest with ourselves that if we didn’t have the willpower or discipline to stay at home and relax, then we needed to remove ourselves from there.
For us being in nature and enjoying it comes in many different forms, from wake surfing, to walking, to sitting with a coffee or even a pint and chatting life away.
Some of those things are adventurous while others are very calming, but all those things give us head space, perspective and a sense of enjoyment.
Mental health and our wellbeing is just as important as our physical health.
We need to be kind to ourselves.
If you do one thing after you finish reading this, please check in with yourself.
If you’re not feeling great, or you’re struggling, please don’t hope tomorrow will be better, take some positive actions today.
Never be afraid to say you need help, never be afraid to open up. We all have mental health, and at some point throughout everyones journey there will be times when we need those around us to help us up and support us.
We must all play our part to make sure the stigma around mental health is shattered.
Today we can shine a light on mental health, we can have open and honest conversations and we can have more unashamed conversations that help people to understand that it’s normal at times to struggle with mental health and that there is always help and support at hand.
Check in with yourself. If you’re ok, check with the people in our local community.
Together, we are the answer to reducing suicide rates in our industry, as we are there for each other and are honest enough to say that it is perfectly normal to not always be ok.
