Divine Days Community CIC

Depending on where you are in your mental wellness depends on how valuable this one will be. If you are really low or suicidal, this is one to come back to at a later date, maybe look at one of the 3 in this series first.

This blog is on setting boundaries and supporting others, two very different, but linked subjects. One of my favourite quotes around wellbeing, is that you cannot pour from an empty cup. This phrase is directly aligned with setting boundaries. There are men I know that will always support others before themselves, often to their own detriment. This works for so long, until it doesn’t and they can end up in crisis, so it is so important to put boundaries in place that limits what you give, if you are a person like this.
Each day you can structure your hours to what you are able to give of yourself, whether it’s as a father, son, brother or friend. Making clear boundaries of what you can do, gives you the opportunity to create time for yourself and enable your cup to be refilled.

4 ideas to fill your cup
1. Exercise, gyms, martial arts, walking or cycling (are ones that regularly come up)
2. Cooking, making a meal with fresh ingredients and seeing the outcome of your work
3. Volunteering/ working, doing a task you love, can replenish your cup
4. Growing, whether plants or similar. Growing and seeing the fruits of your labour gives a really positive outcome.

Then we have supporting others, which is for those who can do more, but don’t know how to go about it, or have the right community to support.
We had a good conversation this week at our group in UpHolland around community and what that looks like in 2025. A community by definition is “a unified body of individuals”. We look at that through our own world and see that it could be in a Church, a pub, where you live, in traditional spaces, but now community can be online, with social media, or gaming, then a community can travel across the country to events, like festivals or sporting events.
The point I am getting at, is that your community is where best to support others. A place where you feel safe, to see others in a place where you can support them and feel confident enough to do exactly that. I challenge everyone to see the opportunity to offer support to someone in need today.

5 things you can look for, to give support.
1. When in your locality, speak to one of your neighbours and offer to get something for them from the shops.
2. If you are online and someone is missing, notice and reach out to them.
3. At work, speak to your peers at breaks and find out something interesting about them, they may open up if you build that relationship.
4. Send a message to a contact in your phone checking in with them.
5. Join a group, where a hobby of yours takes place, whether creative, sporty, online or even a wellbeing group like ours. Sharing your experiences and passion for a subject can really enable others to succeed.

So all in all, we can all support each other in this thing we call life. Seeing the opportunities and taking them, although difficult, is a way to help yourself improve and fill your cup daily.