OneWave is a fantastic community tackling the issues of mental health through surfing and salt water therapy. They encourage people to get in the water to snap themselves out of a mental funk.
With Endometriosis also comes mental health issues. Having any chronic illness can bring about depression, anxiety, feeling so down you just can’t get out of bed… I’ve been there and I’m sure many of you have too.
I attempted to surf in year 8 and was horrendous plus I found it very hard to overcome my fear of sharks. However, in OneWave’s community it doesn’t even matter. They’re all about getting people in a safe space to open up to each other and learning that it’s Ok not to be Ok.
The philosophy is fundamentally the same for any illness – you do not have to be fine all the time, it’s good to ask for help but more importantly, you do have the power to get yourself out of it. Whether it’s surfing, knitting, going for a walk, blasting your favourite song, changing how you’re thinking and the manner in which you talk to yourself – these are all things that can help lift your mood and snap you out of that funk.
We share a lot of the same issues as the mental health community in that Endo is a taboo topic and people generally don’t feel comfortable talking about it. But we’re changing that.
Layne Beachley gave such an inspirational talk. She spoke about how what you think and say and do will manifest themselves and become your reality. When we get stuck in a negative thought pattern and consistently talk down to ourselves, nothing changes. Things get worse. Our mood continues to plummet. I’m very guilty of this. I often get stuck in unhelpful, negative thoughts but I know it’s so unhelpful!
Let’s make a conscious effort for the rest of this week to give ourselves a break from the negativity, try to think positively about ourselves, give ourselves credit, encourage each other and treat ourselves like we’d treat our best friend. Then see if we feel any better, clearer, uplifted, in less pain…
I’m going to start from right now. I CAN do this uni assignment and I WILL smash it and get a great mark because I’ve done it before and I know my shit. Also , it’s about Endo and I’m part of the most amazing community of tough women who are all behind me so realistically how could I do badly? I believe in myself and believe in all of you too.
Congratulations and thank you for the inspiration to Joel, Grant, Sam & Chelsea from OneWave. An incredible team doing wonderful things with plenty for our community to learn from.
