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Just want to share an insightful post by Worcestershire Poet Laureate Nina Lewis, in which she shares some thoughts and poems on mental health (one of which I penned myself)
World Mental Health Day in Poetry
Today is World Mental Health Day, and this is an initiative led by Mental Health Australia to challenge the perception of mental health issues and encourage us all to view them in a positive light, in a bid to reduce stigma and enable more people to seek support.
Mental Health Australia aims to:
promote mentally healthy communities, educate Australians on mental health issues, conduct research into mental health and reform Australia’s mental health system.
And their Do you see what I see? is a clever concept, using strong visuals to highlight that we all see things differently and should work together to find common ground.
Mental health is defined by the World Health Organization as:
a state of well-being in which every individual realises their own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to their community.
As Beyond Blue states, mental health is about wellness rather than illness.
For me, mental health is a delicate thing to be balanced and weighted against whatever life throws at it. Sometimes it’s tough and exhausting, so I write to help mine and travel, taking time out when I need to.
So, make a mental health promise to yourself today; it’s just as important as the physical one.
Just like you
She tries to fit in
pulls at her mouth to make it a smile
blinks her eyes hard to clear out the clouds.
She even pretends she’s alive
puts a bird in her heart so it chirps with a beat.
But she can’t seem to shut up her sadness
it speaks when she thinks that she is.
Copyright © J V Birch 2013
Today marks the start of Mental Health Week, running until Saturday 15 October with World Mental Health Day tomorrow.
The week is about shining the light on mental health by educating and engaging people through interactive events across the state, including community festivals, art exhibitions, music, theatre and seminars.
One such event is the Festival of Now, coordinated by the Mental Health Coalition of South Australia in Light Square on Friday 14 October, to bring the mental health community together, showcase the creativity used in the healing journey and reduce the stigma still associated with this multi-faceted condition.
Two of my poems, ‘Beautiful thinking‘ and ‘Session time‘, have been shortlisted for a Mindshare Poetry Award, which I’m thrilled about, but unfortunately I can’t attend the event because I’ll be interstate. But I’ll be sure to check in after to catch a roundup of the day’s program.
So get involved wherever and however you can to help promote mental health, and keep yours healthy.
Mental Health Week will run from Sunday 4th to Saturday 10th October with World Mental Health Day celebrated on 10th October.
Coordinated by the Mental Health Coalition of South Australia, the week aims to educate and engage people about mental health through interactive events across the state, including an official launch, community festivals, art exhibitions, music, theatre and seminars. The ABC will once again highlight mental health through its Mental As production, a series of television, radio and online programs to get the conversations happening.
The Festival of Now, to help celebrate World Mental Health Day, will be held in Rundle Park, Adelaide on Friday 9th October, bringing the mental health community together to showcase the creativity used in the healing journey and reduce the stigma still associated with this multi-faceted condition.
And I have been fortunate enough to have been shortlisted for a Mindshare poetry award, with winners announced at the festival and invited on stage to share their poems with the crowd.
So please mark this important week in your diaries and join in wherever you can to help promote a positive approach to mental health and if needed, maybe even improve your own. 🙂
To help celebrate Mental Health Week in South Australia, Mindshare hosted “HeadRead” on Wednesday night for the entrants and winners of their recent “When Words Come to Life” poetry competition to perform some of their work.
The evening was brilliantly compered by Jude Aquilina, a wonderful poet who has published several fantastic collections and Nina Pearce, an MHCSA administrator who has been working tirelessly to help coordinate events throughout the week.
I was the second to read, and managed to do so with confidence and without issue! I read alongside new and established poets, some with very poignant stories to tell, but all demonstrating a battle with the self and the impact of an unhealthy state of mind. The whole experience felt almost cathartic, a real sense of opening up and removing the mask that some are better maintaining than others. This took courage, and I felt privileged to be a part of it.
The session finished with showing the films of the winning entries (lookout for a little black dog, images courtesy of wonderful artist Fran Sherman). All were very different, a beautiful kaleidoscope of images and words, again with some very powerful moments that left an imprint long after the screen went dark, like closing your eyes on the sun.
It felt good to read my work, and to network, and share and listen, definitely an aspect to help maintain my own poetic mental health, and one that will almost certainly provide inspiration for future pieces.
And today is World Mental Health Day! So take some time out to check in on your current state and make that mental health promise to yourself now. It can be as easy as just taking the time to look after yourself, which could be getting more sleep, regular exercise, eating healthier meals but essentially, do whatever makes you happy.
J V Birch 