Thought For The Day – Friday 16th May 2025

This week is U.K. Mental Health Week. The theme for 2025 is Community.

It was a great pleasure to host Tom Ryder and Greg Camburn from “Retune”, a local mental health charity they founded,  this week.  Tom, a former student of the School, and Greg, a parent of a former T.B.S.H.S. student, spoke with Year 12.  Tom and Greg used their metaphor of the six strings of a guitar, pictured above,  to illustrate being kind to the mind. Sometimes, they shared, the brain and mind needs retuned, just like a musical instrument does.

We all have mental health, because we all have a brain and a mind, which needs cared for, looked after and nurtured. 

We all have an individual, and social,  psychological journey, based on our life emotions and experiences.  There are many positives and challenges on this path.

The mental is connected to the physical, the physical the mental.  So, good sleep, healthy eating, connecting to nature, hydration, exercise, reading, writing, music and the arts,  and being, and staying, safe on-line, in person and in society,  assist the vital psychological dimension of us. 

Some massively resilient people have deep, particular, and very difficult, mental and psychological challenges.

The specialist care, counselling, medical and therapeutic professions offer wonderful support to all. 

There is so much support at home, in school and society.

We never know what someone is going through. We need to be kind to everyone, including ourselves.

Everyone needs to look inside… to look outside.

We reach out if anything is worrying us.  “A problem shared is a problem halved”.  If our bodies, emotions, experiences and minds are represented by the metaphor of a fizzy, and shaken,  bottle of drink, talking is like easing, and gently,  taking the top off slowly.  “Therapy is the straw that gets to the bottom of bubbling emotions”, said Dr. LaShawn C. Williams.

We also reach in to others. We check in on others too, creating the space for them to connect.

“Don’t be shy to cry”,  brilliant former footballer Dean Windass, diagnosed with stage two dementia, another example of a mental and physical challenge,  said yesterday in a BBC Interview.

Sharing vulnerability is a great strength.  In the press conference before the 2025 Masters, golfer Rory McIlroy (when faced with yet more questions about when, and whether, the “Major” and “Grand Slam” achievement would come after over a decade) talked about previously being reluctant   “to put myself out there” on the golf course, for fear of having his “heart broken” again. Rory compared this to other situations in life.

But Rory McIlroy confronted his disappointments and fears, reframing his approach and narrative, saying before the tournament: 

“I’ve become a little more comfortable in laying everything out there and being somewhat vulnerable at times… And if I can go home tonight and look in the mirror before I go to bed and be like: ‘That’s the way I want to feel when I play golf’, that, to me, is a victory.”  

As he finally won the “Masters” and historically completed the “Grand Slam” of golf tournaments, after many years,  Rory would need such processes and resilience, for there were so many relative ups and downs in that four days alone in April 2025.  And when Rory missed a shot to win the tournament, he kissed his young daughter and went again in the play-off to give himself a further opportunity.

Reflecting on emotional and mental health and wellbeing empowers, and gives control and confidence to, all.  For we know that disempowerment, and not feeling in control,  can often be such a key part of the challenge.

Very appropriately, “Empowerment” is the title for the “Young Writers’ Competition” poem, led by Mrs. Houghton, the deadline of which is today.  Get involved. Another great Literacy opportunity.  Being creative helps our wellbeing, both in the process itself,  and in personal, and family pride, in a final creation.  

Everyone is irreplaceable,  unique and sacred. 

We empower, nurture and treasure other people.

We empower, nurture and treasure ourselves.