Love the skin you're in – Mental Health Awareness Week 2017

It was World Naked Gardening Day over the weekend.  The intention of this day is good, clean, fun in the sun, and a move towards becoming more comfortable in our skin with “non-sexual nudity.”  Unlucky (or you could say lucky for some) we were hosting a small BBQ gathering that day with friends.  Always being one up for a challenge, I was keen to get involved and also keen to know who was up for joining in.

 

I was surprised that the majority were cool with it.  To be honest, I probably once would have found this a bit weird. I used to turn my nose up at nudist beaches.  Why though? There is actually something quite liberating about getting the kit off without needing to get freaky.  For one – look how happy and free babies are when we take their nappy off on a hot day and let them run around.

I’ve swam naked in private pools and the sea and it feels so much better.   Yes, some people will go to a nudist beach just to get their perve on but that’s just life.  You get pervs everywhere – in fact we are all capable of it to a certain extent.  Some are just creepy with it though. Last weekend, as I went running with a friend,  a guy started rubbing his hands together with a strange smile and muttered to us how ‘gorgeous we looked in our running gear’.  It was disgusting, let’s just say we upped the tempo to 5 minute miles until he was WAY out of sight.

Sometimes we can take ourselves far too seriously.  We waste so many hours in the day worrying about what people think.  Perhaps we try and change to please others.  I recently heard someone say

‘I can’t be seen to have fun, I am in too senior a position at work’.  

Some of the wildest people I know are earning crazy high salaries.  I say be you. If you like to dance, sing, let your hair down – just do it.  Don’t sit quietly in a corner at the work night out worried about what Managers or clients think.  If you are a dancer – dance.  If they try and sack you for bad dance moves – take them to court.

The first annual World Naked Gardening Day event took place on September 10, 2005 (my birthday). In 2007, the event date was moved to the first Saturday in May where it still takes place to this day.  Lucky for us, it was a scorcher of a day.

Do you take your work too seriously?  Your passions too seriously? Are you crossing the line between passion and obsession?  Take some time to chill.  Some of the best ways to chill are free and often involve being ‘at one with nature’.

Some ideas below:

Go skinny dipping – be it a lake, a secluded beach, a nudist beach, a paddling pool in your garden (my friends can vouch for this).  Take a few moments to feel the water on your skin.  Look up at the sky and enjoy the moment.

Put on your favourite tunes and dance around in the kitchen like nobody is watching.

Take time to open your mind and really listen to things from a new perspective.  Try out a new restaurant you wouldn’t normally go to or a recipe you wouldn’t normally cook. Mix up the routine just for a change.  Sometimes we get so stuck in our ways that we fail to make progress.

Don’t stereotype people or put them in a box as ‘boring’, ‘crazy’ or ‘arrogant’.  Take some time to really listen to other points of view.  You are only interesting if you are interested and you can’t develop and grow if you are too set in your own views.

Go skydiving or try a new adventure sport.

Have a karaoke night – just don’t hog the mic.  Pass it around.

Go and see some live music.

Jump up and down on a trampoline with the kids.

Get up early enough to see the sunrise.

 

Enjoy,