Newsletter June 2022

 

HOPEtober …
means running and raising awareness – please save the dates!

 

… or, of course, you can also just walk and raise awareness of mental health – you don’t have to run! And you can raise funds for research into mental health. If that sounds like a good combination, send an email to ithembafoundation@mweb.co.za. What is it all about? Well, this October the Ithemba Foundation celebrates its ten years of existence as HOPEtober. On Sunday, 2 October, we host the Hope Hike and the Hope Bike event in-person on the Blaauwklippen Wine Estate, Stellenbosch, as well as a virtual event; and on Sunday, 16 October, we participate in the Cape Town Marathon (CTM). The Hope Hike and Hope Bike is a “hybrid” – you can either participate in-person, or you can walk, run or cycle wherever you are. For the CTM, we are looking for participants for the marathon itself, but you can also do the 46 km or 22 km trail run, or the Peace10 or Peace5, on Saturday, 15 October. Simultaneously, you can raise funds via Ithemba’s Givengain portal. For more information, just send us an email!

 

 

Hope is a Happy Sock

 

The Ithemba Foundation had a great CrazySocks4Docs Day to raise awareness of the mental health needs of all our healthcare workers on Friday, 3 June. Cipla once again donated thousands of beautifully designed socks to healthcare practices and medical campuses – thank you, Cipla! As always, students on SA’s medical campuses could take a sock selfie, post it on social media, and the sock selfie owner on each campus with the most “likes” won R1 000 cash.

The winners of this year’s competition:

• Sangeun Lee, Stellenbosch University
• Jennifer Reid, University of Cape Town
• Nelisa Cebani, Walter Sisulu University
• Hlengiwe Myeni, University of KwaZulu-Natal
• Mutendi Mmbodi, University of Limpopo
• Cute Khanyile Mabuza, Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University
• Sophie Shilubana, University of the Witwatersrand
• Sihle Mogorosi, University of Pretoria
• Santhani Rungani, University of the Free State

Congratulations to all!

 

 

Tips to help you cope

 

7 tips to overcome people-pleasing
If you are a people-pleaser, stop trying to please everyone else. Here are seven strategies to overcome people-pleasing – begin by taking care of yourself, and build your self-esteem: Seven Strategies to Overcome People-Pleasing

5 ways to protect your teen’s mental health
Our youngsters cannot escape the state of anxiety that our planet finds itself in. Instead of growing up happy and carefree – despite “normal” things like exams and peer pressure – their exposure to social media very often has a negative effect. How to help them switch off? Here are five ways to help protect your teen’s mental health. The key is to talk to your teens about mental health in the same the way you would talk about their physical health. For more background, specifically for educators, you can also access this website regarding teens’ mental health.

2 tips for self-care in 30 seconds (It’s possible!)
There is a war on our psyches and we all feel we just cannot cope with the constant bombardments. All our commitments, all our never-ending chores! And then there is the new phenomenon of “doom-scrolling” – where we scroll deeper and deeper into that negative rabbit-hole of bad news on social media. That’s how algorithms work: They take us from the one negative story to the next. But you can – and must – learn self-care, and you can even do it in just 30 seconds. Here’s how to do Self-Care in 30 Seconds or Less.

8 Breathing exercises for anxiety
You can help alleviate anxiety by breathing in the correct way. We take breathing for granted – it’s a reflex that’s simply there. But we forget that we need to breathe correctly to ensure our body will get the optimal life-sustaining oxygen to help every single cell to function in an optimal way – including our brains, our most important organ and the engine not only for our body, but for our existence as human beings. Read this article: Breathing Exercises for Anxiety Work! Try these and you’ll experience not only a serene calmness, but you’ll also find this a haven to escape to when things just get too much.