Bell Let’s Talk

January & February Goals

/ Anna @ Piper's Run / 23 Comments

First off, today is #BellLetsTalk Day in Canada. This means that every time you text, share on social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, SnapChat), long distance phone calls on mobile and home phones, Bell will donate 5¢ towards Mental Health initiatives in Canada. ANYONE can use the #bellletstalk hashtag – PLEASE do today. Join the conversation!

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I’ll likely be tweeting, texting, sharing more on social media today because mental health is important to me. With friends and family members who live with depression, anxiety etc., it’s one thing I can do to help. Have the conversation, not just today but every day.

Back to my original post for today.

January Goals

Though I set my January Goals rather late, they were simple goals for me to focus on. Simple and easy goals is were it’s at for me this year. Maybe later on I’ll set some other goals but I’m taking it month at a time.

  1. Stay Active. I feel like I accomplished this. I ran, downhill skied, cross country skied, skated, cycled and went to yoga. Most of it was done with my daughters. Oh and we walked our dog A LOT!
  2. Go to Physio (sort out hip/obliques) – Yup, weekly PT appointments are my thing now. Seeing some progress but still in some pain with my obliques.
  3. Enjoy time with family. – Yes! We had a busy month from skiing, learning how to skates again, read a lot of books, watched some movies and Netflix (got the girls hooked on the old Full House), we even got sick together.

February Goals

February Goals

February will be about challenging myself a little bit. I want to plank every day with no time commitment. I’ll continue with my physio and strengthening my hip/obliques. I want to cycle 100km since I’m not running high mileage and loving being on my bike for 45-60 minutes.

I also want to ski as much as we can and would love to take my girls night skiing but all the stars have to align for that one! And the Olympics!!!!!!!!!!!! I can’t wait to watch Canada (and other countries) at the Winter Olympics. I think one of the things I like the most about the Olympics is being able to expose my children to multiple sports. They can watch the athletes compete individually and as part of a team.

Did you reach any goals in January?

Are you going to watch the Olympics?

Do you have any goals planned for February? 

Don’t forget to text, tweet, share with the hashtag #bellletstalk today!

 

Life Balance and Mental Health – #BellLetsTalk

/ Anna @ Piper's Run / 9 Comments

Today is Bell Let’s Talk day in Canada. What’s that you say? Well it’s Bell (company) raising awareness about Mental Health in Canada. You can text, tweet, call long distance or share their image on Facebook and they will donate $0.05 cents towards mental health initiatives throughout Canada. I wrote about it last year here and in 2013 here. Last June, I took a Mental Health First Aid Course for work and I 100% recommend it for EVERYONE. Look it up people!

Mental health first aid course

A few weeks ago (January 19th) I participated in a weekly Twitter Chat with @RunATCan. That stands for “Running in Atlantic Canada”- Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland & Labrador. It’s a great group of people who are beyond encouraging, knowledgeable, friendly and a lot of fun!

This specific chat was about “Life Balance” and was huge! So many people or tweeters were on this chat, it was awesome. So, since today is #BellLetsTalk day, I thought I would share the questions and MY responses below…because I believe “Life Balance” and “Mental Health” go hand-in-hand…and so did many of the other tweeters.

Question #1: Give your personal definition of life balance.

My response: A1 Making sure I can fit in my priorities first: family, health (activity), friends. Being okay with NOT doing it ALL. 

Question #2: Do you sometimes struggle w/ life balance as a runner? (running taking over, annoying others/not running as much as you want).

Response: My mental health is a priority over many other things and if that means running then yes, running takes priority. 

Question #3:  Have you ever made a physical list of what your priorities actually are? Whether yes or no, what are the top 3?

Response: Family, Health (mental, physical) and then everything else as needed. I also know what is not my priority.

Question #4: Have you ever taken a few days & tracked your time & see how you actually use it? Work, sleep, TV, phone, family, running, etc

Response: Ha ha, yeah but only for a blog post not for me. 😉

Question #5: If you feel like things are unbalanced, how do you hit reset? For some, it’s easy – for others, quite hard. Share your tips! 

Response: Usually it’s after a breakdown (ha) & a good conversation with my husband to get my priorities focused Spouse support. 

Question #6: Is improving our life balance as runners all about increasing positive things, decreasing negative things or both?

Response:  I think a little of both. You need the good with the bad as life isn’t always perfect. 

So, now you know a little bit more about me, how I attempt to balance my life, running and my mental health. I feel lucky to have this awesome running group on Twitter that meets up at local events as well. I feel lucky to know what supports are out there if I, yes me…or anyone else needs them to help balance their life.

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My little family in yesterday’s storm 🙂

 

Mental health is important to me and talking about it is even more important. So, please if you can text or tweet #BellLetsTalk today – THAT would be awesome.

Now it’s your turn……leave a comment or heck, write a blog post about these 6 questions and leave me your link.

Question #1: Give your personal definition of life balance.

Question #2: Do you sometimes struggle w/ life balance as a runner? (running taking over, annoying others/not running as much as you want).

Question #3:  Have you ever made a physical list of what your priorities actually are? Whether yes or no, what are the top 3?

Question #4: Have you ever taken a few days & tracked your time & see how you actually use it? Work, sleep, TV, phone, family, running, etc 

Question #5: If you feel like things are unbalanced, how do you hit reset? For some, it’s easy – for others, quite hard. Share your tips! 

Question #6: Is improving our life balance as runners all about increasing positive things, decreasing negative things or both?