It's Mental health awareness week (#MHAW17), and with that in mind I wondered what postcard my/our mental health might write to us. After all, we do all have mental health.
Later in the week there's a postcard To Procurement, from their suppliers' mental health.
I saw this postcard and it reminded me of your relationship with me!
It can often feel as if I'm the invisible part of you - always there and yet not always acknowledged.
Do you know what that feels like? To know that my own existence is denied by the very person I love and support.
Denying my existence is like denying you have a mind, or a body, or, if you've had them, denying you have children. It's a lie, and a lie you seem to feel comfortable telling.
Your relationship with me should be very similar to those you have with your children; nurturing and supportive and allowing me to flourish. Planning for the day when you don't have to look after my every need as I can now fend for myself.
I thought that the style of parenting where children are seen and not heard, told to speak only when they were spoken to, and sent to their bedrooms for some minor indiscretions, were only stories told from days gone by. Yet that's how I'm treated - in 2017 no less - told to be quiet, ignored, and pushed away.
How do you bring out the best in your children: you listen to them, you believe what they tell you, you support their strengths, you help them develop the areas they require development in, you encourage them, and you help them build their resilience and confidence. You love them.
To bring out the best in your children you don't ignore them, disbelieve everything they say, call them a liar, or act as if they mean nothing to you. You also don't bully them or shout at them when they make a mistake or don't know what to do. You certainly don't hate them.
As someone I consider to be my guardian all I ask of you is to apply your very best parenting skills, so that we may flourish, grow and succeed - together.
With Love from your Mental Health
If you like the idea of aspects of yourself writing postcards to you, you might also like my Soft Skills Toolkit where different soft skills have written postcards to you.
The aim of the toolkit is to provide discussion points for personal or group exploration of your soft skills. Allowing you to understand what options you have should you wish to develop a particular soft skill.
There's 2 versions of the toolkit - Dear Procurement, with love from your soft skills aimed at procurement professionals, and Dear Human Being, with love from your soft skills aimed at a wider business audience. It's only £4.99 for personal use, with pricing available on request for organisational use.
Alison Smith
Unlocking personal and organisational potential using unconventional tools
alison@alisonsmith.eu +44(0)7770 538159
No comments:
Post a Comment