To mark World Mental Health Day, we joined Bears Women players Delaney Burns and Meg Varley for a Bear In Mind session at Worle Community School Academy.
Bear In Mind is Bristol Bears Community Foundation’s health and wellbeing programme aimed at equipping girls in secondary education with the tools to build self-confidence and to cope with the wider issues faced by young women across society today.
The 12-week programme encourages girls to not only maintain an interest in sport and physical activity but also investigate topics such as stress, resilience, self-care, body image, the impact of social media and positive relationships.
“Bear In Mind is a programme based on health and wellbeing as well as mindfulness and we’ve taken a look at the menstrual cycle today which covers a lot around mental health and is very relevant for the girls in Year 9 and that age group,” said Burns
“We give them a lot of real life examples and there are a lot of things especially around mental health in sport that me and Meg cover. We give a lot of those real life scenarios and also being women in the sport that go through the menstrual cycle it makes it really real for them and means we can give them the best advice we possibly can.”
The key aim of the Bear in Mind programme is to develop strong, resilient, confident young women for the future by talking about topics such as the benefits of physical activity on mental health, strategies to manage stress, body confidence and more.
Jess Quinn, a parent and teacher at Worle Community Academy, said: “Bear In Mind covers such a broad spectrum of different things that a lot of young people today don’t understand how those things impact them and not always for the good.
“That for me is one of the real winners of the Bear In Mind programme because it teaches the girls that all of these things have an impact on their mental health.”
To find out more about Bear In Mind, click here.
