It's Remembrance Sunday and always a time for our country and the world to reflect on what our relatives, our families went through, for the freedoms we have enjoyed and lived our lives by.

I AM WEARING A POPPY

I am still

I am calm

I am quiet

I am wearing a poppy today

I am thinking of soldiers and families

And of times they were far away.

I am still

I am calm

I am quiet

I am wearing a poppy today

I am thinking of all the fighting,

And the peace that we have today.

S Ryan

Sadly there are many countries who are still experiencing war, and peace and quiet will be something they can only dream about, so when we take moments to reflect on our history, I will also be thinking and hoping for them. 

In respect of the day, this week’s Newsletter is short and sweet.

Do you worry about your balance? 

This is something that we should all be working on, as it is a sense that starts to deteriorate when we hit our 30s. 

There are simple things that you can do every day to help eg, standing on one leg to brush your teeth — 1 minute on each leg. 

This is a really easy thing to do, but here I share a 5 minute sequence to challenge and improve your balance.

To begin you may need to have a chair or be by a surface you can hang on to for help, but aim to do the sequence without any aid.

As with every Exercise Of The Week, work appropriately for your body, and keep away from pain.

As the whole weekend has been about Remembrance, I thought it would be a good time to talk about mindset and memory. 

Generally our thoughts and feelings are based on experiences that we remember, and file in our heads. This is how things can build up, particularly if your experience has been a bad one, surrounded by negativity and trauma. It could involve other people, it might involve an event, an action that ended badly, and can be deeply set in our souls. This is why soldiers coming back from experiencing war need so much mental health support. 

It seems crazy to think that they can move from a space which is battle-torn, where they have seen bombs, people dying, children suffering and simply put that to one side when they return to civilian life. And yet this is what many had to do when they returned from WW1 and WW2. I remember Mum talking about when Dad returned from serving in Burma in WW2 that he had changed, we possibly understand more these days about why that may have been the case, but at that time there was no support. It was also not really talked about, Dad didn’t ever talk about what he had witnessed — he talked about playing football, and recognising the importance and support of the Gurkas — but he didn’t talk about dealing with dehydration, foot-rot, getting lost in the jungle, being inches away from the train that was blown up that killed so many. 

The traumas that he experienced weren’t discussed, but he lived with them in his head and this definitely affected how he lived his life. He wasn’t interested in taking risks in life, he wanted to be surrounded by his creature comforts, and he always wanted his family nearby. He wanted a simple life, never stepping out of his comfort zone … unless it was for and on behalf of other people … he was a big ‘team’ man, and always showed concern and compassion for others. 

I often think about how his life might have been different — and indirectly our’s, his children and Mum’s — had he been offered some kind of psychological support. 

So perhaps over the weekend you may be remembering things that you have been going through, and thinking about how they are affecting your life choices right now, and are you letting them keep you fixed? This might be a time to make some choices and decisions about whether or not you want this to change, and if so, how you can action it. Remembrance and reflection a great time to start thinking about this, be inspired by those people who fought for change.