Wellbeing Wednesday 27th July 2022

Hello and welcome to this week’s Wellbeing Wednesday. Thanks to our guest editors for the last couple of weeks when I was on leave in the sunshine and rain! We had a pretty quiet time, but took the opportunity to catch up with friends – one of our topics today – as well as getting out and about on the bikes and doing a bit of gardening. We also went out on the water – another of today’s topics – and like the sensible (and generally cold) person I am, made sure to wear a wetsuit to keep the cold water at bay.

I hope you all are enjoying/have enjoyed your break this summer and are taking the time to keep yourselves as well as you can.

See you next week!

International Day of Friendship

International Day of Friendship is celebrated every year on 30^th July. This day incites people for celebrating friendship regardless of race, colour or religion.

This year’s theme of International Friendship Day is “Sharing the human spirit through friendship”

Friends can be located all over the country and all over the world. The internet allows us to easily maintain friendships more so than ever, although some people do still stay in touch the old-fashioned way through phone calls and letters.

We form friendships in the weirdest places and for the oddest reason sometimes. Whether you’ve known your friends for a life-time or they’re relatively new friendships that have formed, sometimes there are just those people you click with and they end up meaning the world to us.

The International Day of Friendship was created to build bridges between countries, cultures and individuals, to help inspire peace efforts. Friendship is a basic tool to make the world people prosperous and peaceful. This is also a key source to maintain social harmony and mildness among societies. By developing the trends of friendship among people, societies and countries we can achieve a better level of stability, solidarity and peace.

This year’s theme reveals the one aspect of friendship that by sharing emotions of happiness and serenity you can conquer the hearts of others.

Why Friendship Matters

There may be times when you think that you don’t need friendship! Maybe someone has let you down or you want some alone time. However, friendship matters! It benefits our lives in so many different ways. So, let’s take a look at the reasons why friendship is important…

Achieve your goals – A strong social circle can help you to achieve your goals, whether you are trying to nab a promotion at work or you want to shed a few pounds. If you have supportive friends with similar goals, it can help you to get to where you want to be.
Enhances emotional resilience – Sharing good times with people you love and having a network of friends to help you through those bad times makes it easier for you to navigate the ups and downs that life inevitably throws at us.
Boost your brainpower – The University of Michigan has found that hanging out with other people – even just for ten minutes – will improve your ability to solve problems and your brainpower.
Get a better night’s sleep – Did you know that friendship even helps improve your sleep? That’s right; we have the University of Chicago to thank for this study. They found that people are more restless in bed if they don’t socialise.
Friendship makes you healthier – Last but not least, friendship is good for your health! A story carried out at the University of North Carolina actually found that people without strong connections have higher abdominal obesity rates and blood pressure.

To celebrate International Friendship day, take some time out of your busy schedule to celebrate your friends and organise something fun……it can be something simple as:

Going for a walk
Visiting a park
Going to the beach
Having lunch or dinner together
Picking up the telephone and having a chat
Arrange a party for your old friends and recall the sweet memories.
A catch up over refreshments

World Drowning Prevention Day – 25th July 2022

This day is an opportunity to remember the impact of drowning on families and communities, and to consider positive and practical solutions to promote safety in the water – with the aim of reducing the number of drowning deaths worldwide.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that about 236,000 drowning deaths occur each year worldwide. Drowning is the cause of 2.5 million deaths over the past decade and it is one of the leading causes of death for children in many countries. On average, 96 people drown every year in Scotland.

There are some general measures you can take to help prevent drowning:

Closely supervise young children on beaches and near water

Always check children’s flotation devices to ensure they are not damaged
Avoid swimming alone
Acknowledge flags and swimming limits / instructions
Acknowledge your physical fitness/limitations
Do not drink alcohol before swimming and while swimming.

In a Pool

Ideally be in the pool at the same time as your children
Designate an adult to be in overall of supervision of children in a group
Always keep an eye on your children
Be particularly vigilant in swimming pools without lifeguards (i.e. pools within hotels).

At Sea

Swim in supervised swimming areas
Swim with someone else or by signalling your swimming zone
Swim with an open water swim buoy
Swim parallel to the shore and not out to sea

The recent hot weather may have tempted many of you to consider swimming outdoors this summer, particularly with families, which is a lovely way to spend time together.

However, there are dangers for swimming out of doors and the water may be much colder or stronger than it looks so check before you take the plunge.

World Drowning Prevention Day | Water Safety Scotland

The weather hots up but are you hot on water safety? | Royal Life Saving Society UK ( RLSS UK )

Update on Wellbeing Survey

Thank you to everyone who took part in our recent wellbeing survey, your input really helps us to target our resources effectively.

We are currently analysing the results and will be publishing them in the next few weeks, along with our plans for our new Wellbeing initiatives.

As always, please let us know your thoughts and ideas about the items featured in our Wellbeing Wednesdays each week and send us your suggestions for future topics – we love to hear from you.