Mindapples

We've been thinking about pressure and stress ahead of our Handle Pressure workshop with students and staff at Jain London School of Management this week.

📣 Did you know that stress is not inevitable! That's pretty good news in our book.

Whenever we face a pressurised situation, we can react in one of two ways.

💥 If the situation feels too much to handle, we may fall into stress or panic.
✨ If we feel we can handle it, we may actually find it exciting.

Our perceived ability to handle situations comes from our resources, the tools and skills we use to manage challenges. Your resources include anything you use to accomplish tasks, like:

🍏 Your knowledge, skills and abilities.
🍏 Your self-belief and confidence.
🍏 Your adaptability and ability to learn.
🍏 Social status and support relationships.
🍏 Money, tools and physical assets.

🛠 Map out your resources, because they are tools for managing stress.

More on our Handle Pressure module here:
https://mindapples.org/you/yourmind/handle-pressure/

April to June can bring times of stress for students and staff at universities as exam pressure builds and coursework deadlines ebb closer.

We work with our university partners at this time of year to support students and staff to understand the psychology of pressure and stress. By learning to manage our resources and take on pressures safely, we can avoid stress and stay motivated and effective in life and studies.

We're really looking forward to welcoming students and staff from Jain London School of Management to our Handle Pressure webinar next week where we'll explore:

🍏 Stress is a natural response but it is only designed for emergencies and is harmful to our health in the long term.
🍏 Stress and negative emotions can distort and narrow our focus and we need to consciously correct for this.
🍏 If we build our resources and keep a sense of perspective, we can turn pressures into challenges and avoid stress.

We had a fantastic time with students and staff at SP Jain London School of Management delivering our Feed Your Mind masterclass.

We started the session with the same question we've been asking for years, "If we can take care of our bodies by going for a run or eating an apple, then what is the equivalent for our minds?"

We explored the many factors that affect our minds. Our primal instincts, emotional responses and physiology all influence our thoughts, and so too do the physical and social factors around us.

Exercise, diet, sleep, light, noises, distractions, and even our own thoughts can all affect how we feel, for better or worse. The people around us influence us too, sharing emotions and providing support. By becoming more aware of these factors, each of us can maintain our wellbeing and find the conditions for us to thrive.

And we had a great discussion about what we do makes a difference. Making time for relaxing or enjoyable activities is good for us, boosting mood, reducing stress and anxiety and improving health. Building simple ‘mindapples’ into our daily routines can help us stay mentally healthy, maintain our wellbeing and be more effective in life, studies and work.

Find out more about our Feed Your Mind module here:
https://mindapples.org/you/yourmind/feed-your-mind/

So many things to look forward to this weekend!
🎉2 bank holidays woohoo
⏰ brighter mornings and lighter evenings ☀️🚞🌅🏡
🍫Maybe even the odd chocolate egg...or two 😜
What do you have planned that's good for your mind?

No student should be held back by their mental health.

Let’s use to make student mental health a university-wide priority.

Mindapples has worked with universities for over a decade. Our peer-reviewed training and resources support all students and staff to take a proactive and positive approach to looking after their mental health and wellbeing.

Our vision is of a world where taking care of our minds is natural and normal for everyone, and we do that by sharing knowledge and encouraging stigma-free, practical conversations about the positive side of mental health.

Let's get the nation talking about student mental health!

Student Minds University Mental Health Advisers Network

Here are 5 simple ways to take care of our minds, how do you take care of yours?

Go outside
Natural light, particularly sunshine and green spaces, help your mind stay calm and energised.

Eat well
A healthy diet isn’t just good for your health, it can help keep your mind fresh and focussed too.

Drink water
It’s easy to do, but easy to forget. Build a habit of drinking water during the day to refresh your mind.

Take exercise
Whether you prefer gardening or kickboxing, a little bit of exercise every day is great for your mind.

Sleep more
Try to get 6-8 hours a night, regularly, and if you haven’t slept well, go easy on yourself today.

What do you do to take care your mental health and wellbeing? This is a question we'll be asking our friends on Monday!

Our whole university approach to mental health and wellbeing is proactive, positive and encourages open and comfortable conversations about mental health.

We want to make looking after our minds as natural as brushing our teeth!

What we do affects our mental health and wellbeing, so how do our daily routines influence how we feel, and what can we do to take better care of our minds?

We'll be exploring this question with students and staff at SP Jain London School of Management on Monday when we deliver our Feed Your Mind masterclass. We can't wait to meet everyone and find what you do to take your of your minds!

Our educational approach helps students and staff learn about their minds and develop skills for self-management. We don’t believe in telling people what to do: this is about helping people manage their own minds and make informed choices about how to take care of themselves.

Find out more about the work we do with universities here:
https://mindapples.org/charity/universities/

Have you ever tried looking for small details? Next time you go outside why not give it a go? It could be trees, flowers, birds, buildings or doorways. Why not see what you notice and as an added bonus it's a great way to get some exercise and fresh air. 👀

Brrrr it's chilly 🥶 What Mindapples are you doing to keep you warm?

Being outside in nature is one of our favourite Mindapples and the spring flowers are well worth a trip outdoors in the cold.
What's the 5 a day for your mind?

So many of you tell us how you regularly give your time to help others. 🙏🏼
Did you know that giving is one of the and can be just as rewarding for the giver as the receiver?
Is there something you can do today to put a smile of someones face? Wh not give it a go and see how you feel afterwards.

❤️🍏

We ❤️ being inspired by other people's . What's the 5 a day for YOUR mind? Let us know in the comments.

📣Although it is children's mental health week this week we have a request for all of you with a parental or carer responsibility.

We've been sharing our schools programme with staff from well over a 100 UK schools over the last year.

We share tips, the latest neuroscience, anecdotes and lots of resources to encourage staff and pupils to understand their mind and how to better care of it.

Great, you ask but how can I help?

We know that by talking about mental health and wellbeing at school from an early age or at home normalises the topic and reduces the stigma so we're asking YOU to get involved.

We want YOU to ask questions, share and discuss your own 5 Mindapples (things you do regularly to take care of your mind) and discuss how you look after your mind on a regular basis.

Then we want you to make sure you all do your Mindapples regularly and if things get tough.......remember those 5 hashtag .🍏🍏🍏🍏🍏 SIMPLE 🙏🏼

hashtag hashtag hashtag

Here at Mindapples we love seeing how creative people are when talking about their Mindapples. What do you do to take care of your mind?
🍏

🍏🍎It may not be apple season here in the UK yet, but you can grow mindapples and talk about mental health in your workplace all year round.
Enter code Newminds for 10% off all our toolkits and trees until the end of the month 🍏🍎

Large Mental Health & Wellbeing Toolkit: Promote wellbeing in your community • Mindapples • Tools for promoting wellbeing and mental health The Mindapples shop provides resources for campaigners, schools, universities and charities to promote mental health and wellbeing

This we're revisiting a fun activity we shared with Essex Children's University you might want to repeat at your school or youth organisation.🍏
Children's University👇🏼

Children's University: a Mindapples Challenge • Mindapples • Apps, eLearning and workplace training for wellbeing and resilience Mindapples provides a mobile app, workplace training, webinars and eLearning to help people and organisations manage their minds and improve their wellbeing.

🛒 Just a reminder that from now until the end of February we're offering 10% off all orders of everything in the Mindapples shop until the end of Feb. Let's get everyone talking about how they look after their mind.
🍏Please use the code Newminds at https://mindapples.org/shop/

With the weather being so miserable what better way to look after your mind than watching a boxset.
What are you watching to take your mind off the weather? 🎥🍿

🌳Here in the Mindapples orchard we've been super busy sending out trees and toolkits ahead of Time to Talk day on 1st Feb.

🍏To help you talk about mental health at your school, university or workplace we're offering 10% off all orders placed between now and the end of February.
🍏Just enter the code Newminds at checkout at https://mindapples.org/shop/

🙋🏽‍♂️If you made a resolution and have made a new habit congratulations! If you haven't managed to keep it up don't worry, why not take a look at the habit loop and have a think about the cue and reward and try again.

It's really common at this time of year to feel a bit frazzled, but what can YOU do to help yourself.
Why not start by getting to know yourself a bit better by thinking about:

🍏What you do to reduce tension and stay calm?
🍏What situations make you stressed and what helps keep things in perspective?
🍏What makes you angry and how can you stop anger ruling your head and controlling your reactions?
Here are some more tips to help you keep calm 👇🏼

Blimey after all the excitement last week reaching our fundraising target the Mindapples team are taking it a bit easier this week. Anyone for a cuppa?
What's one of your 5 a day? We love to hear what you are doing to look after your mind.

We wanted to share huge and heartfelt thanks to Know Thyself Charitable Trust for making a very generous donation to our Big Give 2023 Campaign last week.

Their support enabled us to reach our fundraising target and will allow us to reach many more young people with our mental health education programme, equipping them with the skills and the knowledge to learn about and take care of their minds.

Thank you for your generosity, vision and support. We are very grateful! ❤️

Only 4 hours to go until our Big Give campaign ends. WE could tell you more about our schools programme but thought you might like to hear more from the people who benefit at schools across the UK. There is still time to donate so we can help support more young people with their mental health.
DONATE https://mindap.pl/Biggive23
Thank you