This week is Mental Health Awareness Week. Truth told, I’m a little bit over excited about the theme this year (doing good does you good) because funnily enough, I’ve been thinking about the positive impact that doing nice things for others might have on your mental wellbeing since watching this rather fantabulous Ted Talk recently:
The talk focuses on the positive impact spending your money on others can have on your emotional wellbeing, but since I don’t actually have any money I’ve been wondering whether spending other things – like time or energy – might have a similar effect; this means that Mental Health Awareness week has arrived at the perfect moment to give me an excuse to a) try this theory out for myself, b) get involved in something that I care about and c) include a link to a Frank Turner song* on my blog!**
The song is Smiling at strangers on trains which, for the record, is an awesome little song. My plan for the week, inspired by the title of this song, is simple: my daily act of kindness will be to smile at every stranger I encounter 🙂
I’m quite sure that this will be interpreted as a sign of lunacy by some of those people lucky enough to find themselves on the receiving end of my cheesy grin (I do live in London after all – sometimes just making eye contact is regarded as a sign of lunacy here) but hopefully most people will smile back and the exchange of smiles will provide a little lift and serve as a reminder that the world isn’t all bad…
* For the sake of accuracy, it’s actually a Million Dead song, but this is Frank’s solo rendition (try as I might, I can’t quite get my head around Million Dead!)
**This will doubtless be the first of many such links. For me, Sir Frank is a bit like Pringles: once you pop you can’t stop!
How do you eat an elephant? 