Mental Health Awareness Week isn’t just for today, it’s for every day

As 2020’s Mental Health Awareness Week draws to a close, we were reminded that actually, there isn’t a time limit on thinking about this incredibly important topic. At a time when we are all facing unparalleled challenges, our mental health has come into even greater focus and throughout this week, the Fireworkers have been tweeting their own personal ways of caring for their mental wellbeing, this week and always.

Here, we thought we’d share our insights on what’s helping us behind the scenes, day in day out, to protect our mental health.

Yoga and Pilates

Our co-founders Clare Wall and Andrea Hounsham along with senior consultant, Clare Homer are huge advocates of yoga and Pilates. Clare Homer finds yoga and breathwork before her working day begins puts her in a really positive and calm frame of mind. Meanwhile, Clare Wall enjoys a weekly lunchtime Pilates session to clear her head, ease the neck and shoulders from sitting at the laptop and re-energise her mind. Andrea highly recommends ‘Yoga with Adriene’ who offers 10 and 15 minute bite sessions, helping to keep it real and not too serious: https://www.youtube.com/user/yogawithadriene

Walking (with or without a dog!)

Our associate director, Sara Donnelly finds a nice long walk at the end of her working day an incredibly relaxing and soothing way to start her evening with her family and switch off from any stresses the day may have presented. While Clare H and Andrea enjoy strolls with their dogs.

We stumbled across this really helpful site which has a comprehensive list of walks as well as up-to-date guidance on Covid-19: https://www.walkingbritain.co.uk/walking-covid-19.php

Reading

Most of us Fireworkers value the headspace reading a good book can bring. When we are working in the office, you can often hear us sharing tips on our latest reads. In fact, perhaps we should set up a virtual book club! Recent Firework favourites from traditional hard back books to those featured on Audible include Our House by Louise Candlish, Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens, The Switch – a follow up novel to Beth O’Leary’s best seller Flat Share, Little Fires Everywhere – which we believe is being turned into a film or TV series, The Husband’s Secret by Liane Moriarty and This is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor by Adam Kay.

Cooking

While some of us may find this a bit of a chore, Andrea finds cooking Thai food a real mind pleaser – not only does she find it relaxing, she and her family get to enjoy a delicious meal at the end of it. Here is her favourite recipe: https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/tom-yum-hot-sour-soup-prawns

Music

The entire Firework PR team swear by music to bring an inner peace and calm. Clare Wall has been glued to her headphones since the start of lockdown, and maintains it is her ‘lockdown playlist’ that is getting her through this very challenging time. Why not take a listen to it yourself? https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6S33eFfEqj0mWLtNHNwMZf

We recently discussed our top tips for podcasts too which we find also helps when we are trying to wind down.

These are just a few of the ways we look after our mental health here at Firework. The key thing to remember is that we must all strive to find the one or two activities that will help protect and restore calm to our minds from the stresses and pressures of every day, and no more so than during a global health pandemic.

We are a team of B2B PR and tech PR specialists working with national and international clients across the globe. Whether you are looking for PR advice related to your response to coronavirus, or are thinking beyond the present and want to start planning for the post-recovery period, please get in touch for a no obligation chat. Drop us an email – hello@fireworkpr.co.uk or call Clare Wall on 07974 161127. For our latest updates, follow us on Twitter @fireworkpr