‘With kindness’
Greetings,
This week is Mental Health Awareness Week with the theme this year of kindness. Our own University’s Wellbeing and Engagement Group has focussed on kindness in its new edition of Well Now, the Wellbeing Newsletter. (https://mailchi.mp/st-andrews/well-now-may-06062020) It quotes Mark Rowland, the Chief Executive of the Mental Health Foundation, who says: “Now more than ever, we need to re-discover kindness in our daily lives. Kindness unlocks our shared humanity and is central to our mental health. It has the potential to bring us together with benefits for everyone, particularly at times of great stress.” He goes on to say that research shows that kindness helps emotional wellbeing.
The newsletter has also put out a call for kindness. Staff members are being invited to submit details of an act of kindness they have experienced, who provided or received it, how it felt to give or receive kindness, and what difference kindness has made to their daily life. Selected stories will be published as a longform feature on the University website.
If I were contributing, I might mention the recent deliveries of rhubarb to the Chaplain’s house from a couple of kind sources, and the kind person who made rhubarb crumble with them for me to eat. But once you get thinking, there are countless examples.
Kindness is encouraged in many religious paths and other traditions and philosophies. Yet in the midst of our usually frenetic lives, competitive context, and fear of slipping in status, we may feel that kindness promotes weakness, or that we don’t have the time which kindness takes. I hope that as a University, a society and as individuals, we recognise that kindness matters, why it matters, and take the time it needs. Maybe it is kindness and not money which makes the world go round.
Kindness is good for mental health. But more simply, being kind just makes life more pleasurable.
To illustrate kindness, who better than Hugsy, the mascot for Nightline? (Even though actual hugs are rare these days.)
Nightline is a student-run confidential, anonymous listening and information service. They provide a safe space for St Andrews students to speak about whatever might be on their mind in a non-directive, judgment-free environment. Currently, they are running an instant messaging service from 8pm to 2am and you can also email them at [email protected].
For any student who would like to discuss any issue, including mental health, Student Services are offering appointments via video or audio calls with their Advisers and Counsellors using Microsoft Teams. (Other options are possible.) Tel: +44 (0)1334 (46)2020 Email: [email protected]
For students and staff the University’s Coronavirus webpages include this helpful wellbeing page:
https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/coronavirus/wellbeing/ with details of whom to contact for support. Including Occupational Health for staff members.
And the chaplaincy team, including Sam or me, are available to support students and staff. We’ll do our best to listen – with kindness.
Finally, tomorrow is the final service of Compline for the semester, the 25 minute service is night-prayer, spoken and sung. Here is the invitation:
Donald MacEwan is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: Compline Online on Ascension Day
Time: May 21, 2020 09:00 PM London
Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/99266879345?pwd=Vml6THd4dTRtK2tzM2I2WjBOdWZ6QT09
Meeting ID: 992 6687 9345
Password: 6SgL5b
Yours, and thanks for all the rhubarb,
Donald.