Meet the Self-Esteem Team

Last week I wrote about the flaws in our education system which mean more and more young people are falling prey to poor mental health.

I believe we need to change the world to make it more mental health friendly. However, I also believe that it’s important for us to understand our minds and our behaviour so we can be as healthy, happy and successful as possible.

I do not, unlike some media outlets, believe the two are mutually exclusive. It’s not instilling resilience in children –v- making the world a better place. We need to do both. And that’s where the Self-Esteem Team comes in.

We are a team of three who have collectively worked with more than 65,000 teenagers in more than 300 schools throughout the UK during the past decade. We all have different specialisms and together we hope to transform the mental health of the nation by educating young people, their parents and the people who teach them.

So here is everything you need to know about us, below:

The link between mind and body is something that’s often under estimated. We know the two are inextricably linked – your body is where your brain lives after all – yet it seems to be a select few (top flight athletes or members of the armed forces for example) that learn to harness their mental strength in order to perform physically.

Looking at things from the other side, I find fewer examples of the population that actively explore how to treat the body in order to optimise or control their mental state. It’s something that became hugely important to me whilst understanding my own mental health.

I’ve been fascinated by the link between nutrition and my body since finding my only cure for an 18 year chronic physical health issue by simply tweaking my diet. The power of food has since never been lost on me. When looking at mental health it’s abundantly clear that some of the most sure-fire triggers for episodes of the nation’s most common issues (depression, anxiety, self-harm and eating disorders) relate to sleep management, physical activity levels and nutrition or alcohol.

So it is, for want of a better phrase, a no brainer to be teaching this stuff in schools.

Our exam stress class for example is rooted in understanding the body’s stress response, the effect it can have on the brain and ways to work with it (instead of against it) to perform well under pressure. Classically these are things we have to fumble our way through as adults until we figure out a way to cope with the pressures life throws at us – presentations, interviews, meeting new groups of people etc – learning the connection between mind and body enables us to do more than cope, it enables us to achieve and (dare I say it) enjoy these challenges and revel in the success they bring.

Jiddu Krishnamurti said ‘it is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society’.

That encapsulates everything I believe.

Young people tend to be open minded and to have a thirst for change. Whilst visiting around 3 schools per week for team SET, I like to immerse myself in young people’s enthusiasm for justice, to harness it, to share my experience and research to give them some insights that might be helpful – so that they can lead the revolution.

I believe we all carry around (metaphorical) stress buckets that fill up on a daily basis with the varying pressures of life, and unless you know how to unscrew your tap at the bottom to allow the stresses to filter out, you’re forever at risk of it overflowing – which is essentially when you reach crisis point.

For me, writing is what releases my tap. It’s something I often do without motive, minus the goal of being published, just because. And what began as a distraction from self-harm, a way to externalise what was going on internally, I was lucky enough to pursue as a career. 

Now, I hope to speak for the all the people who grow up feeling like they’re not the ‘cool kid’, to show them you can go on to do great things, and also to highlight that even if you’re not academic, or sporty, or picked for the school play, you can create your own path to achieve dreams if you have the courage to chase them.

As my office hours are pretty demanding, I teach just a few SET classes per term, and instead look after our online community.

Our social media has definitely become my baby, injecting timelines with little nuggets of joy, interesting articles, mental health tips, and gossip of what we’re up to.

I guess it all loops back to writing,that behind a keyboard is where I feel most comfortable, and therefore allows my most authentic voice to come across in cyberspace. In turn, this steers our followers, who we consider extended members of Team SET, to be fearless in opening up where they might not be able to face-to-face.

For more information check us out on selfesteemteam.org or follow us on Twitter @_SelfEsteemTeam