Next week is the UK Mental Health Foundation’s “Mental Health Awareness Week”, running from Monday 13th – Friday 17th May!  This year’s theme is “Movement: Moving more for our mental health”.

Movement is important for our mental health, but so many of us struggle to move enough.  In fact, 36% of UK adults say that they find it challenging to find the time for physical activity.

We know there are many different reasons for this, so this week they want to help people to find moments for movement in their daily routines.  Here are some great, simple tips for wellbeing-boosting activities that don’t take a lot of time to do:

• Going for a walk in your neighbourhood,
• Putting on your favourite music and dancing around the living room,
• Chair exercises when you’re watching television
• Use the time you spend waiting to move more – when you’re waiting for the kettle to boil; for your kids to come out of school; or for a bus to arrive

These moments will all add up and help towards improving our state of mind.

Get more tips from the Mental Health Foundation: mentalhealth.org.uk/movement-tips 

We’ll be joining in ourselves by pledging to hold our internal meetings whilst walking, instead of sitting, some will walk to work instead of driving, and we’ll also doing some miles on the work’s exercise bike during lunch breaks.   We’ll post some pictures on our social media channels in the coming weeks, so hope you can also share some of your efforts with us.

We support this amazing charity throughout the year by selling their Green ribbon pin badges in centre, and we also donate one to anyone who attends a Mental Health First Aid or Mental Health Awareness course with us.  For more information about our Mental Health courses, please click here.