The Ruth Project

Have you ever experienced prejudice and discrimination while walking through perinatal mental distress? Have you seen it happen to others? Or have you experienced discrimination towards yourself in your own thinking which just kept pulling you down when it was already so hard to stand up? Then we would love to hear from you. We are currently gathering information around this issue from our local community. We would like to understand the common thoughts, behaviours and impacts upon individuals along with ideas about what we can do to help stop and change the way we as a community think, interact and support parents experiencing mental distress. Click this link below which will take you to our survey you can fill out, you can keep it completely anonymous and any information shared will be respected and kept private. Perinatal Mental Distress Survey Thank you for you support and help.  

I was scrolling through a news app this morning, and came across an article reviewing Meghan (Duchess of Sussex's) new podcast on Spotify -  Archetypes . I had seen this come up on my Spotify account when it was released last week and wondered if I would give time to listen to this new venture of hers.  Now, I'm on the fence about having an opinion of Meghan and Harry, I am a fan of the British Monarchy, not just the current family but the Royals of the past as I am a mad history lover, so I do tend to follow, to the best of my abilities, what the Royal family gets up to and who is connected to who. However, I find it hard to follow happenings through modern day media and news stories as it does come across one sided. Yes, they have their sources, but how do we as the readers really know that the source is actually telling the truth? Anyway, this is starting to guide my ponderings towards a much longer conversation that is not what todays thoughts are about. Why did I start dow

 A very simple thought for this week to help with low motivation, that is to get your body moving. When you are a parent struggling with depression or anxiety as well as the responsibilities of parent life, regular work outs and exercising can be overwhelming. Something I have learnt to help challenge low motivation with depression is to take smaller bites. Making the decision to exercise can be the first hurdle. This is really your first bite, challenging all the negative thoughts and insecurities that can hold you back from making a decision.  The next bite is getting someone else on board to help you. Simply talking to someone about wanting to do some exercise or simple movement helps to shift the thoughts in your mind that can hold you back, your person is able to encourage you and potentially give some helpful suggestions. Bringing other people in on the journey means you can share what some of the challenging thoughts are and allows them to help you process and move forward. Deci

What we put into our bodies can impact the level of energy or motivation we have each day. The science and research in our world also shows the connection between food and our mental wellbeing as well as our physical wellbeing. As parents it can be easy to fall into unhealthy food habits whether it be emotional eating or not eating enough. There can be many influences towards these habits being created - mental distress/illness, sleep deprivation, busyness of the day, snacking on kids food, lack of planning, snacking on processed snack food are a few of these influences. When we as parents are depleted of the good nutrients we need to keep going we slip into low motivation, unhealthy cycles, bad habits or negative thinking. Todays tip - Stop and review.  Review your mind and your eating habits. Are there perceptions and thoughts that are unhealthy that need to be broken? Is there emotional eating happening? This is the time to reach out to someone in your community who can help you to

For me, it is very easy to constantly put the needs of others first which is something I love but have learnt that it’s not really worth it at the expense of my own mental health. The other thing I have struggled with is the lack of motivation that can come with mental distress, depression and anxiety.  Something I think all parents need to learn before babies arrive is that it is ok to prioritise your needs first and take care of yourselves individually and together. Exercise is one thing that can be achieved throughout the week that looks after the body physically and mentally. It doesn’t have to be full on, something as simple as going for a short walk a couple of times a week is enough to take care of you and give your mind the space it needs to rest and heal. When we take care of ourselves and prioritise our mental well-being than giving to others doesn’t become a burden.  Be the support in parents life and help them to get motivated to take care of themselves and their mental wel

As I start to write this post, I keep hearing the song lyrics to Anna Nalick - Breath (2am)  and funny enough, as I decided to look into the song a little bit more to see if it was an appropriate connection for this post, I was pleasantly surprised.  An explanation for the songs meaning, which I found at a site called Genius , is that the song is about needing to breath, take a moment before carrying on. This is basically what I was going to say. Sometimes in our world as people let alone parents we need to do as Anna sings cradle your head in your hands and just breath. Below is a graphic on a very simple breathing exercise that I do regularly...sometimes a lot more regularly than others. For me, healing from depression and still working on anxiety, it is very easy for me to become triggered to the noise of happy children. Yes, the noise of happy children. I make that point because there has been many times that I have caught myself loosing the plot, telling them off, snapping simply