It really is time to talk...

Hi all,

Sometimes I am not a great fan of sitting myself down in a quiet place to write what is on my mind, or what I feel needs to be talked about. I would much prefer to be outside, swinging in the trees, planting trees and putting up bird boxes, in other words each blog post needs to be mean something to me for me to actually write on here (which I am sure you can tell if you have read any of my previous posts).

Originally I had planned to write a bit about what I am planning to do next, but then this news story (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-24818048) has shot into the media today and it has put many thoughts and ideas into my head.
If you have not read the article, a new report and review of medical records has shown that depression is now the second biggest cause disability in the world, pretty crazy ay? (No pun intended).

One thing is for sure and that is mental illness cannot  be under-estimated or ignored anymore, it is a debilitating disease that will effect 1 in 4 of us for some parts of our lives.
But, what I am always asking myself is why? Why is depression on the increase? Why are people becoming more unhappy? This is the key question, one that we all must ask ourselves…why is mental health becoming more common? Then a whole range of issues come into view, solvable ones.

Personally, I feel it is the way we live our lives, our hectic, non-stop, stressful lives that are topped by the pressures brought to us by technology. I know from personal experience that I sometimes get swept up by social media and sitting in front of screen, letting my mind compare myself with everyone and everything, which does me no good whatsoever. How many times have we all compared our lives with our friends on Facebook? It does us no good at all and will only lead to negative opinions of ourselves.
I really feel that we need to put less focus on material wealth, money and what we have and more on inner wealth or depression will become biggest health issue across the globe, as our lives become more hectic, more stressful and more distant from what we really want.

I know that I have not been too happy as of late because I feel trapped, like life is passing me by and that I am not doing enough of what I love. Yes, my mind has distorted this to a certain extent, but I do think the core issue of not leading the lives we want is one of the core factors for depression.

The solution? 4 day working weeks, 1 day to volunteer with charities, less technology, more green open spaces and more family time.
A quick sentence to an awfully complicated subject but the research is there to help us, especially when we look at the benefits of the natural world. A variety of green, open, wild, spaces means a healthy vibrant community and that is backed up by ALOT of science.
We are all different, but I know I am at my most happiness when I am outdoors and there is nothing but piece and quiet and I finally have time to myself.

It really is time to talk about how we live our lives, how we can can things for the better and how the natural world can help us with this. I am not trying to preach the natural world, I just think we all deserve to be happy as life is too short not to be, but at the moment we seem to be going the other way.

SLQ