To whom it may concern

I should start by saying, that to a degree, this is a selfish letter.

But still one that needs to be read.

I was diagnosed last year with anxiety, I’ve written about it a lot, and am very much stationed on the road that is called recovery now.  But I still have days where I over analyse, panic, worry too much and forget to live in the moment.

Lockdown for me, like most was hard.  Isolation from my loved ones, a life with only my beautiful (but at times) testing children.  As a single parent, working and having the kids all day was tantamount to insanity some days.

I work in fitness, therefore I spend most of my days in a community fitness led environment.  Basically I get my happy endorphins from working out in a group.  It does immeasurable good, my weight stays balanced, my fitness is good, and moods are evened, my mental health stays resilient and strong.

In lockdown, I gained the best part of 3 stone, a combination of seeking solace in gin rather than burpees and pure inactivity.  Whilst I thought I was doing well, in hindsight (2020), I think I struggled more than I care to recognise.

I am not alone.  There are thousands if not millions of people with mild to severe mental health issues, that use fitness to combat it.

It is better than any tablet (although – I take one of those too.)

As a business owner, I am also not alone, in ensuring that we have put as many solutions in place to ensure our place of work, our gym, our members work out place is clean, sanitised, and social distanced.

Closing gyms, another lockdown – what does that mean to people like me.

I don’t think I need to clarify this.

But I do need to clarify this…