Let’s Chalk about Mental Health

Hello everyone,

I hope you’re all well

If you follow me on social media you will know on the 1st September i attended a very exciting event here in Christchurch.

It really was an exciting event for lots of reasons and one being it was the first ever event id attended in christchurch.

Yes as some of you may know i live in Christchurch New Zealand though i am originally from North Yorkshire in England. Ive been here for almost 4 years now (Which has completely flown by) and have done various bits in the mental health/abuse sector but nothing here in little ol’christchurch.

A little while ago i talked to you on my blog about my decision to stay in new zealand and how it all really rested on how far i could take my blog and sharing my story over here. I felt there wasn’t much in the mental health sector (in fact practically nothing) and i felt id struggle to share my story over here. It was a little disheartening and id actually planned to leave new zealand until i thought, maybe i could still make it work?

You see the number of people struggling with their mental health here is high. The abuse rates are high and the amounts of drugs people are intaking are yep you guessed it, pretty high. With this i felt that i needed to stay more than anything because there just isn’t people talking about this stuff. New Zealand is very old school when it comes to opinions on mental health and the recovery of it just isn’t thought of and we know how much i like to preach the whole

When i was travelling in Sri Lanka i decided to browse through my facebook feed and noticed the event ‘Lets Chalk about Mental Health. Though i was suppose to be having a break from work and my blog (shh) i couldn’t help but jump at the opportunity and ask if i could talk about the event on my blog.

I posted in the event and within minutes i had a message from the wonderful Robert saying

After that we had various chats about the event, his story and why he decided that he wanted to chalk the streets of Christchurch. Thats right. Roberts event (and clues in the name) was all about chalking positive messages around cathedral square in Christchurch in the name of mental health.

You may of seen people do this and this really is happening all over the world and it was so exciting to see it happening so close to home and somewhere that id not really heard of any city events happening before.

When i arrived at the event i really was in complete shock as to how many people were there especially as i arrived only an hour after the team had set up. The pavements were lined with positive messages. Some short and some long. Some personal experiences, poetry and even song lyrics. There were people there that had gone through mental health difficulties themselves or known a loved one to of gone through difficulties.

I spent a little time talking to people and was blown away at how willing people were to share their stories with me.
Obviously i won’t be sharing those stories here but those stories helped me gain massive insight and will aide me so much in my blog journey and with trying to help others.

I also spoke to Robert about how many people were talking amongst themselves about mental health. We had talked about how it wasn’t a ‘done thing’ to talk about mental health or people really felt there was no reason to until they’re put in one of these kinds of situations. It was so lovely to hear people talking about such an unspoken subject and seeming so comfortable doing it.

The event all in all was a wonderful experience and I’m so glad i attended.From the bottom of my heart id like to thank Robert and his team for putting on this event in Christchurch and for being so kind as to let me come along and talk to people and photograph the event. Theres nothing like meeting good wholesome people that let off nothing but good vibes.

Im super excited that me and Robert have already had a brainstorm of things we can do together in the name of mental health and will be looking forward to the day i get to share with you on my blog what we come up with!