Connect: Mental Health Awareness week 2023
It’s the Mental Health Foundation of New Zealand Mental Health Awareness Week - the theme is Five Ways, Five Days. Each day explores a different way to boost wellbeing. Thursday 21 September is: Connect.
Connect refers to making connections, or whakawhanaungatanga; often connection is associated with a sense of belonging.
While social connection is a big element of this, connection can take many forms; collegial, spiritual, cultural to name a few.
Before 2021, I spent over a decade working in hospital settings. As someone who is recharged by being around others, a hospital offers many connection opportunities. Anytime I felt a little bit restless at my desk, I’d go for a walk down one of the long the corridor. I’d keep my eyes peeled for someone clutching an appointment letter with a bewildered look in their face. (If you’ve spent time in the bigger hospitals in NZ, you will know that these people are everywhere.) I’d stop, offer some reassurance and together we’d work out where they needed to be. While those connections were often fleeting, they felt really meaningful. I’d go back to my desk with a smile on my face.
Now that I mostly work from home, my daily connections can be more limited. To get a connection boost, I need to be intentional in seeking out people. Some of my weekly strategies include;
attending a regular group fitness class
popping over to school to collect my children (even though they usually ignore me / dump their bag at my feet and run home, leaving me at school chatting)
connecting with psychologists who work in a similar way; establishing a group and having regular contact so we can work like colleagues
shopping locally so I connect with my community
being proactive in staying in touch with friends and family
And even playing the daily game connections and then sharing scores with a messager group of equially addicted friends!
Sometimes connections feel almost indulgent in a busy life - I find reframing these as essential to wellbeing and keeping life in balanced helps me make these priorities rather than nice to have. When I reflect on connnection, I am reminded of this proverb:
He aha te mea nui o te ao
He tangata, he tangata, he tangata
What is the most important thing in the world
It is people, it is people, it is people.
Art by my dear friend and talented artist, Bridget Spencer.
For more connection ideas; check out the MHAW website here
