By Liz Paul and Stephanie Oxenford
If you’ve attended FitBloggin’ you know that the conference and the community is about much more than fitness. It is a supportive space where people gather together with the common goal of wellness in mind, body, and spirit.
At FitBloggin’ 15 this year, we lead a session called Mind Games: Depression, Anxiety, and Healthy Living. During the session we talked about stigma. Not enough people talk about mental illness and as a result people often struggle alone. We all agreed that we want to break down that stigma, but it can be hard to write about these topics. One way to make it easier is to do it together; several bloggers writing about mental health at the same time and supporting one another. The idea for the Mental Health Monday linkup was born.
Mental Health Monday is the first and third Mondays of every month, and we alternate hosting the linkup on our blogs. All are welcome to write a post relating to mental health and link their posts. All are invited to visit the linkup and read the posts.
Our first linkup had 14 posts. Not only did our MHM posts experience higher than average views and comments, but they also had people sharing stories they had not shared before. The posts were brave, powerful and touching. Our second linkup had another eight posts.
Mental health is about diagnoses like depression, anxiety, and bipolar disorder, but it is more than that as well. It is also about work-life balance, self-talk, and how you handle stress. It is about how we support others. It is about how we inspire ourselves to grow. It’s the big and little things that make up our thoughts and determine how we feel.
Every story is important. Yours. Ours. Every time we share our stories we can help break down stigma and remind others (and ourselves) that we are not alone. Join us by reading, sharing, commenting and, if you are comfortable, sharing your own story. Who knows who may find comfort in your story.
AUTHORS
Liz Paul is a wife and mother of two, working to be healthy. She lives in Minnesota where she plays, works and blogs at Prior Fat Girl. Twitter Facebook
Stephanie Oxenford blogs at Athlete at Heart about her runs, her triathlons, and her journey in healthy living. Twitter
Awesome! I wasn’t able to go this year, but this workshop sounds awesome. I write about the same kinds of things on my blog since I started it after getting into recovery from alcohol and drug addiction. Along with food and fitness, I try and build people up and talk about those tough topics. I also want to break the stigma of addiction since that is so prevalent. Glad to see others are doing the same thing!