Your mind is a garden, your thoughts are the seeds you can grow – let’s party!

Last Tuesday, 19^th May, London had warm sunshine with a gentle breeze blowing. The temperature got up to 23C at the height of the day, and the evening stayed warm and fine until sunset. And I missed it all. I know this was the weather on that day thanks only to the London Economic weather site which logs the weather history of the capital. I should have been able to tell readers of this blog what the weather was like from personal experience. J and I had been invited to Buckingham Palace to attend one of the Queen’s Garden Parties. The invitation was in recognition of the contribution J has made to local politics and the community. I was going as the eye candy on her arm. Covid19 came along and all the Queens Garden Parties were postponed until next year. Given the Queen has reportedly cancelled her public engagements, and is staying at Windsor Castle for an indefinite period, I doubt we will now ever go.

The news, like our cancelled wedding, was one more disappointment to deal with this year. Of course, compared to the numbers of people catching the coronavirus, and the many people who have died, such disappointments may seem trivial. Against such an unprecedented global situation, they should rightly be thought of as being rather insignificant. Indeed, it somehow feels fitting that this year’s Mental Health Awareness week falls within the UK pandemic lockdown. If ever there were a time to consider the importance of looking after our mental health and wellbeing, it’s right now when so much feels out of our control.  

Since 2001, those fabulous folk at the Mental Health Foundation have organised this awareness-raising week. Every year a theme is chosen, and perhaps very appropriately, this year the theme is ‘kindness’. That is kindness that matters to others, but also the need to be kind to yourself. This can sometimes be a lot harder to achieve than we might think. Most of us develop a sense of right and wrong as we grow older and helping others is nearly always at the top of the list of what we might feel would be the right thing to do. For some people, putting others first unselfishly before themselves, is the way they have chosen to live their lives. There has been much evidence of this to be seen since the Covid19 pandemic started. 

And although those working in health and care services, fire and rescue, police and other emergency services might be the first to come to mind when we think about who this might include, there are others too. I was amazed to read last week that the Zero Suicide Alliance have reported that some 503,000 people have completed its online training course over the period of the lockdown. It’s a programme that helps people spot the signs that someone may need help in dealing with a mental health issue. Whilst it is a short training programme, it does touch upon how to promote open communication, and how to approach someone who may be considering dying by suicide. 

Globally, suicide continues to be a serious health issue. In the UK, England saw a rise in the numbers of death by suicide in 2018 and 2019. Whilst we won’t really know the true impact on people’s mental health until we are through these first phases of the Covid19 pandemic, the stress and anxiety of the pandemic will almost certainly have an impact upon people’s physical and mental health. The NHS Clinical Leaders Network published a report last week that warned of the possible devastating impact upon the long term mental health and wellbeing of health and care workers, particularly those working on the so called ‘front line’. 

Both the NHS Foundation Trusts with which I work have already put in place many initiatives to help colleagues deal with the immediate stress, anxieties and depressive consequences resulting from what they are being asked to do day after day. Great care has been taken to ensure sickness, absence, holiday and appropriate rest and recovery opportunities are monitored and acted upon. Whilst we might always be able to do more, I am impressed with the speed and quality of the professional responses that have been put in place. As I noted in my blog posting last week, many health and care colleagues are doing a fantastic job right now, but we will need them to continue doing so in the future. It’s the future mental health of our workforce that I worry about. Some of the experiences of responding to the pandemic will, for some people, have a long lasting impact. We know from many studies that often the impact of exposure to trauma (in all its forms) doesn’t begin to show for some time, sometimes even years after the initial experience.  

And it’s not just health and care workers who are likely to be touched by the experience of Covid19. The uncertainty and unpredictability which the pandemic has brought is relentless. The sense of being out of control and unable to tolerate uncertainty are common characteristics of anxiety disorders, and already there has been a rise in the number of cases being reported. True confession time, I have stopped watching the daily ministerial briefings. Partly because I think they have lost their credibility and partly because I’m trying to limit my exposure, and involvement with reading and watching news, including on social media. However, I am making more of a conscious effort to stay connected with people, neighbours, colleagues, family and so on. 

For me, and I’m sure for others, when negative thoughts and uncertainty come to mind, I try and take a bite of that mindfulness apple, and in so doing I:

Acknowledge – note and acknowledge uncertainty, as it comes into my mind

Pause – take a mental step backwards, and try not to react at all, pause and concentrate on my breathing

Pull back – acknowledge that actually I don’t need certainty in everything; these are thoughts and feelings I’m experiencing, not facts, so I need to avoid believing everything I think

Let go - imagine the thoughts or feelings floating away, as if they were twigs on a river

Explore – importantly, I explore the present moment, concentrating on my breathing, if it’s during the day, I take note of everything around me, what I can see, touch, smell, hear, and then move my thinking on. If it’s at night when I should be sleeping, I bring to mind the scene from my mindfulness bench, hear the waves, smell the sea, notice the colour of the sky, the sand and waves, and when I have that picture in my mind, I’m able to move my thinking on. 

Strangely, when I heard the news about the cancelled Garden Party, I tried to bring to mind my memory of the only other time I have been inside Buckingham Place. The occasion was my father receiving his MBE from the Queen. I can only actually remember the sheer luxury of the toilets and the fact I was proudly wearing my Greenpeace lapel badge in silent protest. However, I’m almost certain the Queen won’t remember me though. Perhaps I will be able to make an impression next year….