Mental Health Awareness Month 2024

May is Mental Health Awareness Month! This month is especially important to us at Ride The Wave (RTW). Ultimately our mission is to reduce the stigma surrounding mental health, provide resources, share our own personal mental health journeys, and create a safe space for our community. To celebrate this month, we are doing a week of self-care from May 20th - 26th. We hope this week can inspire you and serve as a reminder for you all (and for us) to take some time to prioritize your mental health not only this month, but everyday.

Before we get into the details about our week of self-care, I’d like to share why mental health awareness is important to me and a little bit of my personal mental health journey. 

“Prioritizing my mental health is something I’ve struggled with tremendously. I was someone that people would always pin as the “happy-go-lucky” kind of person that could just do everything all the time and never “struggle”. But there have been so many breaking points for me over the last 10 years of my life that I just pushed to the side and tried to block out or move past. By doing so, I drained all of the fuel, love, and compassion one should have for themselves. 

I started to sleep poorly, if at all, had my first real experience with crippling anxiety where I felt like I couldn’t breathe, and felt super depleted, both physically and emotionally. I didn’t know how to take care of myself and I also felt guilty whenever I tried to make time for myself. 

Over the last few years I’ve worked on a lot of this in therapy. Now I know how necessary and important it is to prioritize my mental health. Your mental health can manifest into real physical symptoms and that is something I have (and still do) struggle with. Although it still isn’t easy for me and something I am working on, I do notice that when I take 20 minutes out of my day to prioritize my mental health I genuinely feel better. Any “weight” I carry throughout the day is shed when I allow myself to do something for me. I know now in order to be the best version of yourself it is so important to prioritize yourself, your peace, and your mental health.”

-Lindsey Glasser co-founder of Grey Bandit and RTW 

Week of Self-Care May 20-26

Throughout the month of May, we will share some of our own self-care ideas and inspiration, but feel free to get creative and make it work for you! Throughout the week of May 20th-26th, we will be dedicating each day to a different self-care goal. We will be sharing what we did and give you the opportunity to share as well. Feel free to post to your Instagram stories and tag us @ridethewavegb.  If you are not able to follow along or don’t have the space to do these things just know that that’s ok too!  Our goal overall is to remind you to take some time for yourself each day. 

Schedule:

Day 1: Mindful movement 

Day 2: Nourish yourself with your favorite food/drink

Day 3: Connect with nature

Day 4: Spend some time with people you love 

Day 5: Take a warm bath/shower and do your favorite skincare

Day 6: Watch your favorite tv show or movie, read a book, listen to a podcast or playlist 

Day 7: Freestyle- Do something that brings you joy!

Stay tuned for more information about our week of self-care later this month! Let us know if you have any questions or suggestions. Lastly, don’t forget it’s ok to take some time for yourself and prioritize your mental health!