Mental Health Awareness Week
Mental Health Awareness Week has been running all this week, from 10th – 16th May. This year the theme for Nature. At Waterloo Community Counselling we are encouraging our staff team to spend some time in and around nature as they go about their lives this week. Take a stroll in the park, plants some seeds or flowers in your garden or, in the case of one of our counsellors: spend some time with a family of ducks and, in the process, learn something about the power, yet, fragility of the natural world and its capacity to impact our everyday lives…
I am handing over to Antonella who is kindly recounting her dramatic ducky tale…
…For the third year in a row a duck has decided to create a nest in one of the planters on our terrace.
We watched her with interest and a lot of affection as we believed it was the same duck coming back for the third time.
At first she inspected the ‘premises’ and found a planter with overgrown grasses which gave good cover, then started laying one egg a day and then sat on the nest for 28 days, hardly ever leaving it to make sure that the eggs stayed warm. Her dedication and effort was remarkable and during the early May bank holiday one morning she appeared walking on the terrace followed by 14 ducklings. This year we were better prepared with special duck food and water, but it was not enough to make the transfer to the pond in the park an easy exercise.
After 7 hours of failed attempts we managed to put all the ducklings in a basket and walked to the park opposite our home in the hope that the mother would see us and would follow. Which miraculously she did! She landed on the front lawn where she was reunited with the little ones. She then walked them to the pond under the eyes of dozens of very surprised onlookers.
Sadly this year the story does not have a very happy ending. As soon as mummy and baby ducks reached the pond they were attacked by the other resident birds and had to hide under a bush. A clear reminder that new comers are not often welcomed.
Life has been very difficult for ducklings in the pond and it appears that many fell prey to the the hungry advances of omnivorous opportunistic birds. Nature can be at times very harsh.
However, Mummy duck is still in the pond, now flanked by three eager males and perhaps she will lay more eggs. A real example of resilience. We will keep an eye on the developments.
I felt very invested in the life of the duck and gave me a very good excuse to get off the screen and relate to something ‘real’.
The ‘sad ending’ was a good opportunity to practise letting go as in this time of unusual loss it has not been easy to do so.
I still check every day how the mother duck is doing and that gives me an excuse to go out, walk at my own pace and switch off.
On Thursday the WCC administrative team spent an afternoon in the garden of our office in Waterloo. We planted troughs of flowers and cleaned up the litter thrown over the fence by passers-by. We hope the marigolds, lavender and others flowers will attract bees and another lovely little critters into our garden.
We were glad to be able to make time to mark Mental Health Awareness Week and to spend some time in nature – even if just on our small patch of grass outside of our office in central London!
We can often forget to carve out dedicated time to spend in nature, especially for those of us who are glued to our computer screens for much of the day. This being said, it is also the case the during this last year of social isolation many of us have used our green spaces more than ever before. I think one of very few positives from this last year is that many of us discovered a new found respect for our natural surroundings and we started to recognise the importance of nature in maintaining good mental wellbeing.
At WCC we were certainly overjoyed to be spending time outside, potting plants and we are excited to see how our flowers flourish in the coming weeks. We encourage our colleagues, clients and quite frankly, everyone, to spend more time in nature. It will do you the world of good.
You can visit the website for Mental Health Awareness Week for a whole host of excellent tips, resources and ideas for how you can spend time in nature!
Here are some pictures of what we go up to:
