Mental Health Awareness Week 2019

Friday 17 May 2019

You may be aware that this week has been Mental Health Awareness Week. To help raise awareness of mental health problems, which may affect any one of us during our lifetimes, Blacks Solicitors arranged a number of talks and activities for its staff.

Massages

To kick off the week we arranged for a massage therapist from Song Thai Spa to attend our offices and provide massages for anyone feeling like they needed a bit of extra TLC. Whilst massages are a great way to physically relax, they also help to relieve tension which in turn can help to reduce stress.

Combating Stress and Anxiety

We invited a representative from Stable Base along to talk to us about practical ways to combat stress and anxiety. During the session they led a 10 minute meditation, which included bringing our attention back to the sensations in our bodies in order to calm the thoughts in our minds.

Staff commented on how calm they felt after the meditation and I will definitely try to incorporate it into my life!

Yoga

Our staff also had access to a fantastic yoga instructor from Firehouse Fitness who took us through a class designed for all ability levels in our offices after work. There have been many studies about how physical exercise has a positive impact on mental health.

Personally, I love yoga and was really pleased to be able to walk a few metres from my desk for a yoga class!  It’s a fantastic way to exercise, as the focus throughout is on your breathing.

Blacks’ Charity of the Year

We were also delighted to host Leeds Mind who discussed the services they offer and to help generally raise awareness of mental health issues.

The Importance of Sleep

I think we can all agree that sleep is one of the pillars of good mental health, with studies linking poor sleep to heightened stress.

Many things can impact negatively on our sleep patterns and this can affect how we navigate the day ahead. We therefore rounded off the week with a talk by Hero Wellbeing about the benefits of sleep for our mental health.

 

We can’t underestimate the importance of looking after our mental health and here at Blacks we have loved participating in Mental Health Awareness Week. Many thanks to our guests who have contributed and to helping raise awareness amongst our staff!