What's your mental five a day?07/10/2008 3:20 pm

I”ve just found the Mindapples website and was so intrigued/impressed I wanted to share it.

Mindapples is a rather lovely thing – a small, social project with no other aim than to “to promote individual self management of mental wellbeing”. It wants to develop/promote/share ideas for all of us to help ourselves feel emotionally healthy and happy, and to remove the stigma that’s often attached to discussions about mental wellbeing. There are some good links to other resources about happiness and wellbeing.

They have also started a massive survey to discover what we consider to be “mental wellbeing essentials”. Inspired by the “5 A Day” campaign, which got us all aware of the basics for physical health, they are wondering what are our 5 A Day equivalents for mental health and happiness?

To find out they invite everyone to fill in their survey on line – I’ve just done it, and encourage you to do the same a) because it will help a very worthwhile grass roots mental health movement and b) because it’s actually surprisingly interesting to think about and appreciate the five things in your life that keep you sane and happy, day to day (I hadn’t realised how important some of these were to me, until now. And now that I do, I appreciate them more, make time for them more and try to protect them a bit, too).

Here are mine:

1. Reading. I have to feed that print addiction every day. Not just skimming the newspaper or checking my favourite on line sites – only proper,sit-down, no interruptions book reading qualifies.

2. Some time alone. It doesn’t have to be long – 15 minutes is enough – but I find that a bit of time alone, in silence, really restorative.

3. Some time with other people. I should qualify this as “quality time’, if I didn’t hate the expression so much, but that’s what I mean: a real conversation, proper, undivided attention.

4. Daylight. Preferably sunlight, but if that’s too much to ask, half an hour outside.

5. Sleep. 8-9 hours for preference, 7 as a minimum. I’ve never understood those people who think sleeping is “a waste of time”. It’s my favourite hobby, and one of the most enjoyable and creative activities in my day.