Today I went to the website “mental health europe” for the first time.

I asked myself:
How can we stay in touch with fellow human beings who suffer from mental challenges?

By recognising each other as experts in life, with all the problems and obstacles and gifts – and connecting with being human together – living, loving and working with each other as we are.

What ways do I remember in this as a mindfulness and compassion teacher and practitioner to support my own mental health:
– Neither denying nor over-identifying – taking the middle path.
– Allowing myself to open AND close as a healing movement of being alive.
– Being allowed to confide and ask for advice – I am not alone in this.

 One of my amazing clients, who suffers from mental disease, does horse therapy. These Beings, she says, love her unconditionally and teach her just that – to see her as a full, unique and wonderful part of their herd and to integrate her.

Poet John Austin puts it this way:
Awareness:
Their gaze is so constant.
Our every move is watched with such affection.
A constant watch.
Unconditional and unintentional.
Still.
Patient.
Unceasingly embracing.
There is endless space in the heart of this Beloved.
Endless space for everything we put in front of him.
Or as I keep telling my clientele:Welcome with everything – and as it is now.