Stay Golden!

Read Time:2 Minute, 3 Second

By Harriet Russell

Kintsugi (金継ぎ, “golden joinery”), also known as Kintsukuroi (金繕い, “goldenrepair”), is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with powdered gold and silver.

Dear beautiful readers,

I wasn’t planning on writing anything today but I have been so inspired reading people’s warrior stories these past few days that I felt compelled to put pen to paper.

It’s said that when you replace “I” in illness with “We”, illness becomes wellness. I love that Mental Health Week means that so many people are talking about Mental Health. I believe talking about it is key. If we all talk about it, it normalises it, which helps with acceptance. Acceptance for those suffering, for those too scared to seek help, which also would mean less stigmas. This would in turn help with overcoming, managing and owning a mental illness => wellness! Win win!

Providing Hope

I recently met someone who’s job title in French is Méditeur de Santé Pair. A bit of a mouthful I know, but it was an encounter I found to be inspiring. It is a very new job role, with only 34 people in the whole of France currently occupying the position. Anyhoo, they are counsellors who provide support to people with a mental illness and their families. But more than this they are there to provide hope.

How’s that, you say?

Well, these incredible people also have a mental illness and have at some point been a former patient at the hospital in which they are now part of the medical team. So they too have known tough times & can relate to a lot of the various struggles you may be facing. These people have managed to overcome, what can at times seem, insurmountable. They have successfully learnt to live with the illness and taken complete ownership of it, they have managed to get an independent life back. They have gone on to retrain and obtain a degree for the job they are now in that allows them to help others with something they have first hand knowledge of. (See quote above)

All in all I thought it was a pretty cool meeting and it left me with a lots of admiration but also a lot of hope and thinking of possibilities. Thumbs up to that. ?

Anyway, I am thankful for Mental Health Week and to everyone who’s been a part of it.

Stay golden beautiful people.

H xo ?

Reproduced with permission, originally posted on herpineapplestory.com