What are your strategies for advocating mental health awareness?

Na minha opinião, para que seja possível iniciar um processo de defesa de conscientização sobre qualquer tema, inclusive de saúde mental, precisamos resgatar a principal matéria-prima deste tema que seria a consciência. Tenho aprendido com a leitura do livro de @Eckhart Tolle (O Poder do Agora), a necessidade de praticarmos a consciência do momento presente para que nosso pleno potencial esteja sempre a nossa disposição, não delegando-o para nossos pensamentos muitas vezes doentios ligados a coisas passadas ou ansiedades vindouras, ambas ilusórias conforme afirma o autor, com muita habilidade na argumentação. Quando passarmos a tratar a mente apenas com um órgão e não o “senhor” das nossas decisões, tornaremos ela muito mais saudável!

Sharing your story is powerful - but only when it feels safe to do so. This means you feel ok telling others, and ok if they tell others. If you are feeling vulnerable or fragile with your experience as it still hurts, it presses emotional buttons and overwhelms please think carefully on what you say. Posts go viral, people talk, what you say may not be taken in the way you'd like, people aren't always kind - so feeling 'solid' in yourself is vital before contemplating sharing personal experiences as a means of raising mental health self awareness. But it can be therapeutic, healing and helpful. So check in with yourself and understand if you are happy to share everything, parts of your story, or only with a set therapeutic group .

Prevention is the main path, as it allows the reduction of problems linked to mental health (stress, anxiety, drug abuse and other incidents), as well as enabling the promotion and development of relevant skills, such as social skills and problem solving .

To get started in sharing your story, think about: - What parts of your story have you processed and have a little distance from, this will make it easier to practice and over time become more confident in saying more - Think about your audience. Are you talking to a trusted friend, a colleague or group? What's the impact you would like your story to make and which parts of your story will help your audience feel hope and offer tools for recovery or mental health maintenance. - Normalise talking about good mental health too not just the times when you've experienced poor mental health. What helps, how did you focus your attention on gratitude or other things that are in your control.

Everyone will resonate with each others stories differently. We may not feel inspired by one person, yet another person will share a similar concept and we feel moved. Our stories are unique and that is the most important part, the nuance. The small subtle things you might often take out because of fear of what others may thing, are often the pieces of the story that make it real and relatable. In a world where sharing difference feels scary, we need to share more about our truth. It takes courage, but I do feel it is so worth it.

We can learn in so many ways these days including completely for free online. There are many ways to challenge our assumptions and go outside of our algorithms to be open to new perspectives. The easiest way to get started is: - Ask curious questions without waiting to give your opinion or advice, just be open to someone else's experience. - Hang out with people or groups that are not your usual circle to expand what you think 'normal' is. Normality is influenced by culture, education, environment etc so get out of your comfort zone in order to really learn. - Don't be afraid to be wrong. Asking questions at work, asking for mentoring or just to discuss someone's life story and experience has the added bonus of connection and community.

I believe in helping people take action towards their un-wellness. Majorly everyone knows what mental health is! Even if they are not able to connect dots, they still know the basics and their own experience. Point is to now hold their hands and help them cross the bridge. Help them take the action towards their wellness - be it knowing who should they reach, what will it cost them, how or where should they begin or likewise. Help them take the next step! Ease the process of seeking help! Answer the basic yet vital questions they are hesitating to ask! - That's my way of advocating for mental health!

Big changes or modifications that affect many people are easy to implement. To deconstruct prejudices, demystify and change a paradigm, assertive, well-argued and consistent communication is needed, as well as opinion leaders and influencers in positions of visibility and power. We need to allocate the energy to engage people who are likely to be open-minded to change in order to start a movement of social contagion.

Na minha experiência de mais de 17 anos na área de Saúde Mental no Trabalho, posso afirmar que hoje temos muitas causas e campanhas que colaboram muito para desmistificar o assunto, aproximar o cuidado para todos, e contribuir com o bem estar e a saúde das pessoas no ambiente de trabalho. Sendo assim, apoiar campanhas e causas que lutem pelo cuidado com a saúde mental traz acessibilidade e cuidado para todos.

Self care has been banded around and often we think it is related to bubble baths and consumerism. However in reality, it is far from doing these 'nice' things to doing things that feel counterintuitive to us. Compassion is a concept rooted in the essence of humanity and is often cited in religion. True compassion is when we work towards the intention of alleviation of pain and suffering, in self and others. We may not always succeed in reducing suffering, but the mere act of attempting to can have profound effects. We are giving ourselves permission to move towards the pain, instead of running away from it. Ways in which we can practice this is by allowing yourself to feel the big emotions, rather than pushing them down.

Autoconhecimento é a base de tudo. Para mim, é o grande diferencial. Através dele não apenas melhoramos nossa saúde mental como também nossa saúde física. Para isso preconizo cinco A.R.M.A.S. : Alimentação saudável Respiração correta Meditação Atividade física Sono com qualidade Essas ideias traduzi no meu livro Autoconhecimento e o modelo P.S.A.R.