Hello everybody 👋
It’s Mental Health Awareness Week (MHA) in the UK, and what a perfect time to get-together for our first online, mental health-focused meetup, supporting our Read-along for How to Grow through What You Go Through.
(Of course, we should all be supporting our mental health every day, not just during one week in May - and I’m sure we’ll all hear/read that a LOT over the next week - but we do still live in a time when mental health chat is kinda new/non existent for many of us, so I may as well jump on this bandwagon and use it as a chance to remind you that 📣 helping you to manage your mental health is WHAT WE DO HERE AT SHELF HELP ALL YEAR ROUND).
We’ll be going Live at 7pm tonight, all welcome and no reading required as this is an intro session to the book, and each other.
There’ll be a chance to check in and be supported by the Shelfie community and I as we explore some of the early ideas in the book with some gentle guided journalling and (optional) sharing, as we prepare to embark on this journey towards positive mental maintenance together.
Because looking after your mental health in the everyday is actually a major theme in our new BOTM, so if you’re new around here - or have been lurking for a while waiting for the right time to take the plunge (I see you! 👀) - why not join us tonight and give Monday Club a try… as far as I see it you have nothing to lose and everything - including better mental health and lovely new, growth-minded friends - to gain.
This week’s newsletter headlines (feel free to skip to the good/relevant parts):
Bookish Stuff: Is actually PODCAST Stuff this week as we launch our second pop-up pod, The Mental Sessions, this one to support the MHA theme of Movement: Moving more for our mental health, with a bevvy of brilliant advice on the hows and whys of squeezing more movement into your day/life from a host of authors and experts.
Lessons & Lightbulbs: Things I’ve done this week to move for my mental health (and how I moved from a movement as punishment mentality to movement as medicine).
Members Only: Joining info for HTGTWYGT Book Club #1 + your first reading target. Paid subscribers automatically get access to all our online events and will find the link at the end of this email. If you’re not a Paid Subscriber this is a great opportunity to upgrade and do something wonderful for your Self and your mental health….
And some admin/announcements:
It’s now less than 2 weeks to go until our Shelf Help posse will be recharging in the South West Wales sunshine at The Big Retreat well-being festival. OK, I can’t guarantee the sunshine… but it’s looking good… and I can guarantee the recharge part. Fitness, yoga, inspiring talks, adventures in art, wild swimming in the estuary, so many opportunities to move for your mental health and find your feel-good as you leave the world behind on the stunning, unspoiled western edge of Wales. Plus a signature Shelf Help workshop with your Sunday lunch. Join us!
You can now watch the replay of our recent author interview with Self Space co-founder and How to Grow through What You Go Through author, Jodie Cariss (plus loads more) over on the SHC YouTube channel).
We are SO CLOSE to being a Substack bestseller and it’s really the only thing I want for my birthday next week… so please upgrade, tell your colleagues, invite your friends and get yourself earning book-shaped rewards on our Leaderboard🏅
I hope to see you on screen tonight (and in Wales to celebrate my birthday :)) …
Toni 💛
1. Bookish Podcast Stuff: THE MENTAL SESSIONS
Our second pop-up podcast - The Mental Sessions - launches today, with 2 x mini (30-minute) episodes landing every day this week at 8am to support the MHA theme of Movement: Moving more for our mental health.
We have 11 brilliant author and expert conversations to share with you (2 x daily sessions, Monday-Friday, plus a bonus chat with Melissa Hemsley coming as soon as her book PR team allow it 😆) featuring a host of different perspectives and personal/professional experiences.
Tune in to hear from therapists (today’s episodes) women’s health experts (Tuesday), energy bunnies (Wednesday) mind-body doctors and coaches (Thursday) and somatic healers (Friday). Because the one thing all of these people have in common is that they want to inspire you to manage your own mental health by finding moments for movement in your daily routine.
2. Lessons & Lightbulbs: MOVEMENT IS MEDICINE
I had a host of profound quotes to share with you here, but having just finished a sweaty session with the Peleton DON who is Cody Rigsby I think I need to lead with his message from today:
“You might show up for your workout feeling crap or anxious. But you’re here and that means you are moving towards the SOLUTION and not just sitting in it. However you feel, showing up to move your body means you are also moving through it and past that anxiety and NOT just sitting in it and letting it consume you. Go you!”
Cody Rigsby, Peleton Don
I’m kinda paraphrasing as I was in a bit of an euphoric daze (Cody + a major pop anthem has that effect on me) but this kinda sums up everything I feel about movement and exercise.
That sometimes I won’t feel like it (quite often, in fact) and that sometimes the struggle is real (quite often, in fact), but that I always, always feel better afterwards.
And - crucially - I always, always feel worse when I don’t move.
It hasn’t always been like this. Long story short, my exercise journey looks like:
