As this week is Mental Health Awareness Week, it seemed obvious to have a theme of mental wellbeing running through this edition’s core. Weird times lead to weird reactions in our mind. As I saw on an anonymous post recently, ‘lockdown can only go one of 4 ways; you’ll come out a monk, a hunk, a chunk or a drunk. Choose wisely!’ It isn’t always that easy, so here are some resources that may help, regardless of which path you are currently taking.
Something to Share:
A great resource that I stumbled across, and shared with my team earlier in the week, is a page put together by The Mental Health Foundation called ‘How to look after your mental health during the Coronavirus outbreak’. You can share or read it here.
TED Talk That’s Inspired Me
‘The Surprising Science of Happiness’ by Dan Gilbert, author of ‘Stumbling on Happiness’, challenges the idea that we’ll be miserable if we don’t get what we want. Our “psychological immune system” lets us feel truly happy even when things don’t go as planned. You can watch it here.
Something That Made Me Laugh
Apparently laughing is one of the best antidotes to stress and I was recently reminded of this story. In lockdown we have all been a little tempted to try things at home we’ve never done before…but don’t try this! Read the story here.
What I’ve Been Reading
Caryl tends to read quite a lot around the subject of mindfulness, and I asked her for a recommendation for a book that you can just pick up from time to time to give you a pause for thought. She recommended ‘The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse’ by Charlie Mackesy. Richard Curtis described it as ‘A wonderful work of art and a wonderful window into the human heart’. Enter the world of Charlie’s four unlikely friends, discover their story and their most important life lessons here.
Quote of the Week
“Life (or golf) is not a game of perfect.”
Dr Bob Rotella
How I’ve Been Improving My Mornings
Research shows that the first minutes of us being awake are some of the most important for our overall mood for the day. If we dive into news, emails or social media, this has the potential to immediately lead us down the wrong track.
Since lockdown began, I still rise at 5:30 every morning, but feeling a little less pressure to get my exercise done before the school run or getting to the office, I have taken to journaling for 10 minutes each morning before I head out on the bike or for a run. My research (and trial and error) has led me to the following structure so far – although often I won’t do them all:
- Gratitude: 3 things I am grateful for
- Best things: 3 best things that happened yesterday
- Lessons: lessons that can be learnt from yesterday
- Today: the most important things of the day ahead
- Conscious stream: just write (learn more here).
Finance Theme I’ve Been Considering
One of the things that stresses us out about money most is the question, ‘will I have enough?’.
Whether you are 20 years from retirement, on the verge of it, or already in amongst it, the same concern runs through us. Whilst detailed lifetime cashflow forecasting is the best way to alleviate that worry, we wanted to create something quick and easy to help anyone and everyone. Enter ‘The 2 Minute Retirement Plan’ a newly revamped tool to help you determine whether you will have enough which you can try or share here. Please don’t keep it a secret!
Stay happy and healthy, and enjoy a sunny bank holiday weekend.