Reflections on the link between mindfulness and community, to mark World Mental Health Day 2022

Ashleigh Halpin, a HR and Mindfulness consultant who recently hosted a session for Lawscot Wellbeing during Mental Health Awareness Week, reminds us of the importance of mindful interaction for World Mental Health Day.

This year's World Mental Health Day, 10 October 2022, has a focus on making mental health a global priority for all. In this blog, I want to tie in my experience in mindfulness into this year’s larger theme, to talk about the role of community in mental health awareness.

In the practice of mindfulness, we refer to a phrase known as "common humanity", this principle in mindfulness is related to us as human beings all coming together for one common reason. Many of my mindfulness clients I teach at retreats and in groups are all from very different backgrounds, family and relationship situations and different job roles, but the one thing that brings them together in a close-knit group is mindfulness practice. Where they come together in a group to focus on their own emotional wellbeing.

Common humanity also affects us in other ways such as life events like the recent global pandemic, the war in Ukraine and now the current cost of living crisis. We may or may not be hugely affected by all these global issues but most of us in some way have our lives touched by this. There is so much news about these issues it is almost hard to avoid its implications, even if you have not been directly impacted. When other human beings are affected by a crisis it has an energy around it that most of us can feel in some way and we can absorb negative energy without always noticing it.

With a focus on mental health awareness globally, I think it is important to note that it all begins with us as individuals. We all have an individual responsibility to look after our own mental wellbeing with the help of resources and services around us. As human beings we have never been expected to deal with life challenges alone, and it's important we build a community of people around us that we can lean on in harder times.

All that said, if we as individuals take one small step each day to emotional wellness, just that one thing that would help with our self-care in some way, the global issue of mental health would improve. In mindfulness practice we often talk about the "ripple effect" of mindfulness. When I start every 1:1 journey with a client I love to hear how the impact of their journey influences others around them and how their own mindfulness practice and the things I teach start to ripple out to others.

It is also important to note that since we have "come out" of lockdown, our world has changed and whether we like it or not we now live in a hybrid world, especially in the workplace. We have gone from a world of working in the office to commonly working exclusively from home during the pandemic, to now re-adjusting to the world of hybrid working. The pandemic has had an impact on so many lives in so many ways, but a huge impact has been on mental wellbeing as a collective.

The feeling of isolation was a real thing during these times, and some of us may have got used to hiding away from the world behind a screen. It was only last week that I went to my first in-person networking event since the pandemic, and I personally think face to face events now create a level of social anxiety that might not have been there before. I find that when anxiety crops up in my life (which it does, and anxiety also exists for everyone) that the best approach is to invite and welcome the anxiety in, because pushing it away or "stuffing it down" only makes matters worse and can lead to panic attacks or longer lasting mental ill health.

Ultimately, remember that being around others can help our wellbeing. As human beings the very nature of our existence is about human connection, it is in fact one of our basic needs, therefore it is important we each build our own community of support around us.

Reach out to someone today and make that daily connection!

If you have found any of this helpful, I offer an 8 week online self-teach mindfulness course, which you can use anywhere, anytime, for lifetime access.

Or if you would just like to follow some free mindfulness content you can catch me over in LinkedIn "Ashleigh Halpin".