Finding (Re)balance in Bath
In February I was invited to be part of the launch of the Rebalance Festival of Wellbeing, hosted in Bath. At the glamorous Gainsborough Hotel, I ate canapes, drank sparkling water and talked to an extremely welcoming audience, comprised of organisers, sponsors and other wellness practitioners, about mental fitness. The Festival – three weeks of movement and mindfulness – kicked off the next day across the city, a world heritage site that has been associated with wellbeing for two millennia.
Speaking at the launch of Bath’s Rebalance Festival of Wellbeing
Hundreds of events across the schedule meant there was something for everyone, from the likes of Made In Chelsea’s Mille Mackintosh launching her new book on sobriety and talks with nutritionists, to networking walks, office pilates, fitness classes, and even laughter yoga. Yup, it’s a thing and seriously good fun too – Stephanie, who hosts the laughter workshops, interviewed me about READY, SET, LIFE on Radio Bath and I got to attend one of her sessions. There’s a whole load of science behind how simply laughing can make you feel better and I left feeling genuinely uplifted at the power of a good chuckle.
I hosted my own talk later in the Festival’s schedule, welcoming a lovely group to an intimate auditorium in the city, where we had fun getting a volunteer to – entirely willingly – reenact the stress positions that the recruits are made to do on SAS: Who Dares Wins, as part of the infamous interrogation stage. To be fair to Lizzy from the National Trust, 21 mins and 24 seconds was an epic time for standing with her arms held out straight.
Mock-torture scenario aside, I explored in my talk how we can all be more ‘mental’. No, not the nuthouse – if I’m allowed to say that – type of mental, but the spending-more-time-with-our-thoughts type of mental.
“Why on earth would I want to do that?” I hear you cry. I can understand the reticence, given – as I point out in READY, SET, LIFE – “We have somewhere in the region of 60,000 thoughts a day and these are predominantly negative because of the mind’s survival instinct to protect us … No, don’t do this, it’ll be hard. No, don’t do that, it’ll be tiring.”
But thinking about thinking – which sciencey people call metacognition – doesn’t have to be this overtly negative. It can simply be spending a bit of time consciously assessing how we feel.
Doing so teaches you to start recognising the emotions you experience as a result of different situations and learning what you can do about them. It’s mindfulness, but you don’t have to worry about having to light candles, sit cross-legged with your thumb and pinkie touching, and hum to an eight-legged elephant. Although if that’s your thing, don’t let me stop you. Keep it simple; we’re all short on time, so do it while the kettle’s boiling instead of watching videos of a vizsla balancing a satsuma on its nose.
Mindfulness can take different forms, from switching off from day-to-day stresses by doing something that you enjoy, to more focused meditation. Among these forms, a few minutes of honing your self-awareness can be a daily practice to help build what I call mental fitness.
This is the ability to get through the challenges that we face on a daily basis. It’s managing the difficult situations without our emotions getting the better of us, but it’s also recognising the good situations and fully appreciating them. It’s riding the ups and downs on the rollercoaster of life.
When you ask yourself how you feel, why you feel that way, and what you can do about it, you also begin to understand what makes you tick. You can do more of what makes you feel good and less of what makes you feel crap. You can iron out worrying niggles. You can overcome psychological fears that are only based on the unknown. You can take a more considered approach to making decisions, based on what you can and can’t control. You can be more connected to and engaged with those around you. You can thrive.