Unless you’ve been living under a rock you’ll know that we’ve just had Mental Health Awareness Week. It’s a great initiative by the Mental Health Foundation to normalise talking and thinking about mental health!  

Pop quiz – how many Kiwi adults do you think will, in their lifetime, experience a major mental health problem?  

According to Ministry of Health, it’s 47% of us.  

But data from the Dunedin Longitudinal Study suggests this figure might be closer to 80%. So that means most of us will experience some mental health problems in our lifetime – that shows it’s pretty normal!  

This year, Mental Health Awareness Week’s theme is Top Up Together – focusing on how to “top up” your mental health with others, which can help protect us against developing mental health problems. 

To top up our mental health we can use the 5 ways to wellbeing: Connect, Be Active, Take Notice, Keep Learning, and Give. I wanted to share some of my tips to top-up in each of the 5 areas:  

• Connect – very 3rd Thursday of the month me and a bunch of friends get together for “Thirsty Thursday” at our local. Some of us have a beer, some have a soft drink – it doesn’t matter. Sometimes there are 6 of us sometimes 16 – whoever can make it, makes it. We talk about everything from how to cook brisket to the state of cricket in NZ to what makes a “good” or “bad” person.  
• Be Active – try and make this an everyday habit. I go for a 45min walk every morning at 6am. It’s now so much of a habit that I need to do it otherwise I really notice it  
• Take Notice – I’ve just sparked up my mindfulness practice again  
• Keep Learning – I’ll use my lovely wife as an example here – she’s halfway through an online Te Reo course – she’s doing this together with others  
• Give – give time, or social support, or resources to help others – can be volunteering at your local soup kitchen or coaching your kid’s sports team or helping replant native bush. In a few weeks time I’ll be helping out at the St Michael’s church fair in Kelburn – giving some stuff and helping run the white elephant stall. Lots of research shows that the act of giving is just as helpful to the “giver” as to those receiving the help  

The challenge for listeners – how can you top up your mental health together with others. And check out www.mhaw.nz for more tips! 

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