Moving more for your mental fitness

Mental Health Awareness Week 2024 

By Emma Connolly, Health & Wellbeing Specialist – Business Growth Hub

Movement is important for our mental health. But so many of us struggle to move enough. We know there are many different reasons for this, so this Mental Health Awareness Week we want to help people to find moments for movement in their daily routines. Going for a walk in your neighbourhood, putting on your favourite music and dancing around the living room, chair exercises when you’re watching television – it all counts!  

I joined GC Business Growth Hub in November last year as a Wellbeing Specialist. I genuinely care about people’s wellbeing and that’s why I work in this area. As part of my role, I engage, support and guide businesses to improve the wellbeing of their workforce, giving them the tools they need to implement or improve on their existing wellbeing strategy.  Healthy workplaces help people to reach their potential, feel safe and respected. The benefits are endless! 

If you take small but consistent positive actions everyday, they start to become a habit and contribute to your overall wellbeing and that’s why movement is important for our mental health, being mentally fit is just as important as your physical fitness and more and more people and businesses are starting to recognise this.  

So many of us struggle to move enough, and there are many reasons for this, that’s why I'm taking part this year in Mental Health Awareness Week. It takes place from 13th – 19th May and the theme “Movement: Moving more for our mental health”, really resonates with me. Everyone can find a way to move for both their body and mind, in a way that suits them to benefit their mental health. In my spare time I like to attend yoga classes, which is great for my mental fitness and is good for my posture after sitting at a desk all day. There are lots of great, free videos online if you’d like to give yoga a go, one of the best ones is Yoga with Adrienne – who has a range of videos for all abilities.  

Exercising is great for both our body and mind with research from Mental Health UK showing that 56% of people find that exercising regularly helped them to alleviate stress and prevent burnout in their lives.  Studies show that movement and physical activity helps our mental health by: 

• Managing stress 
• Improving our mood  
• Improving sleep 
• Improving self-esteem 
• Encourages us to set and achieve goals 
• Meeting new people and spending time with others. 

However, there can be barriers to movement and so this year’s them theme of ‘movement’ is all about moving your way.  It could be something as simple as getting off the bus, train or tram a stop early, moving during a 1-2-1 meeting, or having a little dance while you wait for the kettle to boil.  

Why not see what suits you during the week and if you like it, you could even move more going forward. 

Mental Health Foundation UK are running a virtual ‘Around the World’ challenge on Strava, if you’d like to get involved, you can find out more here. 

With May signalling (usually!) warmer weather I wanted to signpost colleagues to local walking routes and resources to encourage getting outdoors if you’d like to.  These links can be found below: 

Greater Manchester 

Walking routes and trails in Manchester | Visit Manchester 

National  

Find a walking route - Ramblers 

UK footpaths, bridleways and byways online map | FootPathMap.co.uk 

Walking Route Planner - plotaroute.com 

Find a walk near you | The Wildlife Trusts 

Find your perfect trail, and discover the land of myths and legend - National Trails 

Don’t forget to fill out your bingo card and be in with a chance to win some HIVE vouchers. Let’s all actively take steps to move more.