I’ve not had the best of weeks.
Everything seemed grey and each way I turned I couldn’t see any colour. I’m super-positive usually and my own advice to any of my friends who are feeling low or fed up is that good always follows bad and you have to try to look for the light in the dark, no matter how small. But this week I couldn’t see any of that. There was no pinprick of light.
I realised that I am useless at taking my own advice. If I can offer any parent a piece of advice, it is that you can’t pour from an empty cup. You can’t look after your family or in my case my family and the people I work with, if I am running on empty. And my cup was empty. Bone dry.
And I’m not one for sharing my feelings with anyone. I keep it in because in the grand scheme of things, my life is wonderful. I get to go to work every day with a brilliant people and do a job that is not even a job, I get to follow my passion every single day. I have children who inspire me daily and a wonderful caring husband. Who am I to feel down about life? So I keep it to myself.
I worry about everything. Even more so these days. I worry about my children’s mental health, my parent’s health and not being able to see them as much as I want, I worry about my business constantly, I worry about the team and if they are coping ok in these strange times, I worry about our community of parents who are stuck home with their babies and I worry big time about climate change. Paul calls me a worry-bomb. The biggest thing that I worry about is, the lack of empathy and fear that we are living in these days.
But this week I did follow another piece of my own advice. I talked and I shared how I was feeling. And it felt good and I was met with such kindness and I was actually sent home from work to have a bath and a read. So I did just that, cuddled my children and laughed at a funny film.
And just that filled up my cup.
It’s Mental Health Awareness Day today and this is why I am sharing this. It’s not easy for me to share my feelings but as I feel so much support in this community and I want you all to know that we, as a team, are here for you too.
Please remember you’re never alone. Reach out, connect, share your feelings and let’s keep these conversations going to normalise our emotions. We’re always here for a friendly ear!