In today’s blog we are joined by Holly who shares her story of mental illness and how it led her to creating a gym for your mental health. What Holly has started is truly incredible and I can’t wait for you to hear all about it.

Hi Holly, please could you tell us a bit about you?

I’m Holly, the founder of Soul Sanity having found myself struggling through a tough period of grief which sparked the idea for a mental health gym!  

It all started 10 years ago when a loved one suffered a tragic diving accident and became paralysed from the chest down. I did my best to support and encourage him to look at life from a different perspective. Life had certainly changed but surely it was still possible to live?

Years went by but as anyone can imagine each day was a challenge whether that be as simple as holding a glass right through to heavy depression and suicidal thoughts. 7 years after his spinal cord injury, having to battle his mind and body on a daily basis, he unintentionally overdosed on prescription drugs.

His passing is still a struggle to get my head around. After his death, my auto-pilot switched off and I became overwhelmed with emotion. Emotions I’d been suppressing throughout the 7 years, in an attempt to be someone’s support, as well as now handling new emotions around loss and grief all kicked off at once. Needless to say, this hit me hard. I’d felt admittedly low in the past having watched someone I love lose what could be described as everything but this time it was different- it was all so final.

As much as I knew I wasn’t alone in how I was feeling, I felt isolated. The depression, guilt, shame, anger, sadness… the feeling someone died on my watch still haunts me to this day. I seeked help and found it truly troubling as there really wasn’t much out there. I found 1-1 therapy really uncomfortable, finding it hard at this point to speak about my darkest moments to anyone let alone a stranger. The therapist suggested speaking to my doctor and trying some antidepressants. Having seen the impact of antidepressants, of course I knew it was a different circumstance, but this just screamed “red flag” to me.

I also thought if I didn’t feel what I was feeling and instead masked my emotions how was I going to get better? I needed to work on my mental health, day in day out and that’s when it all sort of clicked into place, how’s about a mental health gym? We’re in a world that seems obsessed with the way things look, our physical bodies with social media here, there and everywhere… surface level bullshit(!). What about substance? Our thoughts and feelings? Shifting our focus to what really matters? What about nurturing our minds not just conditioning our bodies? And that’s how it all started, Soul Sanity was born!

 I love the idea of a mental health gym and completely agree with you that we all need to work on our mental health more. So what is Soul Sanity and what does it offer?

soulsanity.co.uk is a mental health support platform which acts as your mental health gym providing online activities, classes and support from qualified psychotherapists. The platform is affordable and easily accessible allowing users to join in with sessions from the comfort of their own home. Sessions are live to promote connectivity and community with the platform purposefully designed to be varied with its sessions, aware our "happy" hormones such as dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin and endorphins do not come from one place. The sessions are non-invasive and personal allowing users to take advantage of how they feel on that particular day. There is no pressure to actively participate, with users able to choose whether they'd like to have cameras on/off, hit the mute button or even change their Zoom name to protect privacy.

I love the range of sessions that you offer, from mindfulness to art. What made you chose these different areas?

We have a number of different categories noted on the platform; Mindfulness, Art for Art’s Sake, Mastermind, Kid’s Corner, Food Glorious Food, Musical Genius, Garden Life and Tender, Love & Care. These categories came from me thinking through what I personally would like intertwined with how we can promote the release of feel-good hormones to feel more balanced and improve mental health.

Amazing. Do you have any hopes to expand the sessions that you offer and what would that look like?

As we grow it’d be great to add more unique sessions to the platform and the ultimate dream would be to have physical hubs out there also so Soul Sanity becomes your high street mental health gym with bespoke sessions created alongside psychotherapists and neuroscience research. It’s time to desensitise mental health!

I couldn’t agree more. How can we become members?!

Soul Sanity works on a membership basis, either monthly, quarterly or yearly. Each membership comes with a number of session credits to use across the whole platform.

We also have a 30-day trial available for new customers so people are welcome to try it out for free!  

Love that, I think that Soul Sanity is such a great platform and something that so many of us, myself included, can benefit from. How can people find you online?

Our website is soulsanity.co.uk with @soulsanityuk as our Instagram page.

We also offer gift cards which can be a great present to someone who may need some support but isn’t too sure where to turn to.