World Mental Health Day 2025

🌍 World Mental Health Day 2025: Returning Home to Yourself

Each year, World Mental Health Day invites us to pause and reflect on the importance of our inner world: the thoughts, emotions and neural patterns that shape how we experience life. This year’s theme, championed by the Mental Health Foundation, reminds us that caring for our mind is not a one-off act but a continuous, compassionate practice of awareness and renewal.

The science of motivation and mental flow

🧠 Neuroscience reminds us that motivation isn’t a fixed trait, it naturally ebbs and flows. These daily fluctuations influence not only what we choose to do, but also how much effort we invest in pursuing our goals.¹

Some days we feel unstoppable, other days we might struggle to begin. Recognising this natural rhythm can bring relief, it’s not a personal failure but a reflection of how our brain’s reward and effort systems work. By understanding this, we can respond with curiosity rather than criticism, gently adjusting our expectations and actions.

The power of awareness practices

Practices rooted in mindfulness and awareness strengthen the neural pathways that support emotional regulation, focused attention and long-term wellbeing.² These practices help us create the mental “space” to respond instead of react: to pause, breathe and realign with what truly matters.

When we engage in mindfulness, we’re not escaping reality, we’re deepening our capacity to stay present within it. Over time, this presence builds resilience: the ability to meet life’s challenges with clarity and self-compassion.

A fresh beginning, every day

Imagine how much might open up if we welcomed each day not as a continuation of yesterday’s worries, but as both a gift and a hinge on which all future days can swing. One of my clients called this a "reset": at the end of each day anything that happened, and anything that didn't, is reset to zero. The day after, we start with a fresh clean slate. Every morning literally becomes the beginning of the rest of your life.

Mental health isn’t about striving to become “more.” It’s about returning home to our own presence, to the steady awareness beneath the noise, the part of us that has always been enough.

Each sunrise offers a fresh opportunity to start again, to set intentions, to restate what matters, to take one small, kind step toward wholeness.

Making it matter

So today, on World Mental Health Day 2025, I invite you to pause for a moment. Breathe. Feel your feet on the ground.

Ask yourself:

💚 What’s one small thing I can do today to care for my mind?

Whether it’s a mindful walk, a deep breath before a meeting, or a moment of gratitude before bed, each act of awareness plants the seeds for a more balanced, grounded tomorrow.

Let’s honour each sunrise as a fresh beginning, a foundation for all the days that follow, built on courage, clarity and trust in our inner wisdom.

References

1. Hewitt SRC, Norbury A, Huys QJM, Hauser TU. Day-to-day fluctuations in motivation drive effort-based decision-making. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2025 Mar 25;122(12):e2417964122. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2417964122. Epub 2025 Mar 17. PMID: 40096607; PMCID: PMC11962463.

2. Schuman-Olivier Z, Trombka M, Lovas DA, Brewer JA, Vago DR, Gawande R, Dunne JP, Lazar SW, Loucks EB, Fulwiler C. Mindfulness and Behavior Change. Harv Rev Psychiatry. 2020 Nov/Dec;28(6):371–394. doi: 10.1097/HRP.0000000000000277. PMID: 33156156; PMCID: PMC7647439.