Our Mental Health

so my mum and dad still refer to me to

this day is a bit of a pain in the

backside and probably from cabeza how

many parents have we got in here give me

a quick wave are loads of you ok what I

was a hyperactive child I drove my

parents up the wall with my endless

amounts of energy I wouldn't sleep I

needed constant attention and no matter

what my parents seemed to do

I wouldn't rest a few of you not doing

sorry about that my parents had no idea

what to do with me so they took me to

the family doctor to see if there's

anything that he could do now I'm not

sure what available labels there were

back then but the family doctor labeled

me as a problem child and he said to my

mum daddy he can't cope with Leon I can

always take him off you and sedate him

and that he proceeded to share with him

some other drug related interventions

that they might want to consider and for

whatever reason my mum and dad bulked at

this they decided that they would find

another way so they gave me away to

other people to look after mum and dad's

friends and family but that didn't work

because everyone got very busy and they

were left my mom and dad were left with

their problem child at the end of their

tether you know there's a picture of my

mum and dad on their wedding day they

look young healthy vital and there's a

picture of the three of us less than two

years later and they look at how they've

aged 25 years so my parents decided to

fight fire with fire

and they decided to attempt to tire me

out and that's where my life of activity

started way before I can even remember I

was swimming from day dot I went to

mother and baby gymnastics before I was

1 year old that turned into tumble tots

and I was taking part in any physical

activity that was going and every sport

that I was able to do at the age that I

was at and magical things started to

happen

I became easier to manage and I'm glad

my parents went down the physical

activity route because my dreams of

going to the Olympic Games started when

I was six years old I watched the

Olympic Games on the TV in nineteen

eighty-four and I told my dad then that

I wanted to go to the Olympic Games I

used to get the Guinness Book of World

Records at Christmas and I would write

down in my best handwriting my time next

to the world-record holder to see how

many minutes I needed to take off and

I'm glad my parents went down this route

because when I was 9 or just before I

was 9 I started diving and that was one

of the many sports that I tried but

actually within a short space of time it

was clear to me the diving was the sport

for me ultimately I followed my limpid

Reims in the sport diving competing at 3

Olympic Games and even winning an

Olympic medal in 2004 and none of that

would have been possible if my mum and

dad hasn't chosen physical movement as

my medicine so it's widely known the

negative effects of inactivity on

someone's physical health and the

associated risk of disease but what's

really concerning me is the link between

inactivity and someone's mental health

now can I just check with you here today

in London just by a show of hands how

many of you know someone close to you

who has suffered always suffering with

in some way their mental health just

give me a quick indicate Wow pretty much

every hand went up this is a huge issue

today you know in a recent index of over

300 diseases mental health problems were

the largest cause of the overall disease

burden worldwide here in the UK 2016

official survey showed that nearly 20

percent of those 16 and over are

suffering with symptoms of either

depression and/or anxiety and there's a

huge percentage of the population who

don't necessarily have a diagnosable

mental health problem but who are

suffering with their mental health

it seems that stress and overwhelm are

so commonplace in today's society and

although stress in itself is not

a mental health issue it's often the

starting point for many could you

imagine what our world would be like if

we had very few mental health issues

what would it be like if we could

drastically reduce the number of people

who are suffering well I believe we can

I think there's something that we can do

even more of and is simple I'd like to

argue that we spend too much time stuck

in our heads and not enough time in our

bodies thinking isn't necessarily the

solution to our problems thinking is

often the cause especially when we get

stuck in a pattern of over thinking over

thinking leads to psychological stress

and according to the World Health

Organization stress is a global health

epidemic so what can we do we can move

more we can physically move because you

know physically moving changes

absolutely everything and when I say

everything I mean our experience of the

world and what else is there fascinating

things happen biochemically in the brain

when we move the first thing that

happens when we begin to move physically

the human nervous system recognizes this

as a moment of stress and in order is it

thinks you're about to fight or flee

from an enemy and in order to protect

you your brain releases a chemical a

protein called brain-derived neurotropic

factor fancy name BDNF for short BDNF

prepares the brain protects the brain

and it also plays a key role in creating

new neurons specifically in the

hippocampus area of the brain alongside

this another chemical is release one

that you may be more familiar with

endorphins endorphins are often

attributed to the high that we feel

after moving physically but their role

is to dumb down any disk

but that we might encounter from

fighting or fleeing from that enemy so

essentially it's the chemical mix of

BDNF and endorphin which explain why

things are often clearer and we feel

more at ease after moving physically but

how does this show up in the real world

how do we experience this well moving

physically in the short term immediately

changes our state Thanks immediately

changes our state it boosts our mood and

it releases the buildup of stress in our

human nervous system and over the

long-term consistent physical movement

changes the structure of our brain it

boosts self-esteem and decreases the

biological reaction to psychological

stress psychological stress is clearly

the enemy to our mental health and it's

physical movement that is our best

weapon to respond this isn't new cicero

who was around over 2,000 years ago

arguably one of Rome's greatest orators

said this it is exercise alone that

supports the spirits and keeps the mind

in vigor and he was right

and it seems more applicable now than

ever there's a whole body of research

showing that movement is an effective

intervention on more serious mental

health issues in 2013 there was a study

into depression that showed that

meditative movement in this case it was

yoga chi gong and tai chi were effective

in reducing symptoms of depression in

all participants in that particular

study a few years later a separate study

showed that regular yoga practice as an

intervention and it must be regular was

effective in reducing the symptoms

severity of post-traumatic

stress disorder PTSD even in some cases

so much so that PTSD diagnosis was no

longer valid a different type of

movement intervention was used to combat

anxiety disorders it was shown that

aerobic exercise actually was a

fantastic intervention in to those who

suffering those with anxiety when they

experienced a physiological change that

they are fearful of for example an

increased heart rate when it's through

aerobic exercise it helped make the

fight flight response their stress

system less reactive and therefore

building a resilience and a tolerance to

such symptoms resulting in infrequent

less frequent less intense anxiety

episodes and finally Fritz and O'Connor

in 2016 showed that 20 minute bouts of

medium intensity exercise successfully

reduced symptoms of those with attention

deficit hyperactivity disorder ADHD and

that's certainly reflective of our

movement was used as an intervention

when I was younger so what would happen

if we reclaimed our mental health by

moving more well there's two actions

that you can all take the first one is

when you find yourself in a context

where you're stressed

whatever that is maybe you're hunched

over the laptop maybe it's a completely

different context when you're stressed

you're poisoning your body there's

chemical changes taking place cortisol

is going through the roof Adrenaline's

going through the roof and if you don't

change that then you're poisoning your

body the thing that you do is get up and

go for a walk if that is available to

you if you're physically not capable of

that

even just changing your posture and the

rhythm of your breath is enough to

change the chemicals in the brain and

move you from stress more towards

wellness the most important thing here

is we disrupt this constant pattern we

disrupt the buildup of stress and do

this as often as you can and the second

long-term solution is a challenge I

challenge you to find your

movement your physical movements poor

activity doesn't matter what it is but

there's something very important at play

here and I learnt this the hard way

so clearly diving was my movement and

you'd think that someone like me who's

to train for seven hours a day six days

a week would be one of the most mentally

well people around because of all of

that movement but that wasn't the case

in my experience the Olympic Games in

Sydney in 2000 ended up fourth and I

knew that he couldn't get any closer to

my dreams that next year things started

to go south I had a reconstructive

shoulder surgery on my right shoulder at

seven months of painstaking

rehabilitation then I made it back to

fitness only to have to go under the

knife once again for a second shoulder

reconstruction on this same shoulder and

then I fell into a ditch for the next

eight months life wasn't fair I fell

into a depression

I was training and training and training

obsessing on all of the detail doing

exactly what I needed to do and I was

stuck because something was missing I

hit rock bottom I'm stood on a pool side

away from the crowds with tears rolling

down my face my shoulders are hunched

and I've given up because I've tried

everything and he's often the way

there's a point where it turns around

and it was my mentor that came up to me

at that time and he gently put his hand

on my shoulder and he asked me a

question

he said Leon remind me why do you do

this sport because I could enjoy it I

said well what I only seen you smile for

the past eight months and that was it

the reason I chose the sport in the

first place over all of the sports I

went into when I was young is because I

enjoyed it and because of the stress and

the pressure that I put myself in I was

stuck in that negative spiral I made one

change when I went back to training the

very next day I put a smile on my face

and it was like that it was a forced

smile to start with but that negative

spiral very quickly started to go the

other way I found the joy in the

movement once

every single training session every

single dive every single weight I lift

it I find that didn't make it easy but I

found their joy in it and that negative

spy went the other way and I was back on

track after my Olympic dreams so my

challenge to you this is an exercise for

exercise saying this isn't forcing

yourself to go to the gym

this isn't movement for movement say

this is find your movement the movement

that fills you with joy so we challenge

you to be creative walk run swim dive

play tennis kick a football even head

off to one of those early-morning sober

raves

that's the thing you should try them

whatever you need to do but the magic

ingredient here is enjoyment so what

would happen if we moved more on and

what is possible for movement as an

intervention well number of years ago I

was asked to work with a young man as an

executive coach I was to be his

performance coach and on paper things

were looking amazing because he was a

high flyer accelerating through a

massive organization here in London he

was already almost at the top of the

very tree but in reality things were

very different when I sat down with him

I discovered the things were very dark

he was suffering with bipolar disorder

he was under the care of a psychiatrist

and over the past five or six years the

symptom severity of his bipolar disorder

had slowly been increasing and therefore

the medication he was on subsequently

was being upped and upped and upped and

he found himself to a point where it was

tearing him his young family apart and

he was right on the edge

we made one intervention I asked him

what do you love to do movement wise he

was he did tell me story how he still

loved to run when he was younger so he

built a series of behaviors and habits

around running he started to go running

frequently before long in a number of

weeks he'd already joined a local

running club and this journey went on in

six months down the line he ran in his

local half marathon with his wife his

children extended friends and family

cheering him on

the most momentous day

and over that period the symptom

severity of his bipolar disorder had

been reduced so much that he was taken

off pretty much all of his medication

the side effects that were plaguing him

had faded away and from a mental health

point of view he was in the best place

he'd been for over a decade because

running was his movement so there's a

beautiful quote that I'm going to leave

you with from Thomas Jefferson who said

this exercise and application

produce order to our affairs health of

body cheerfulness of mind and those make

us precious to our friends so in this

world of stress overwhelm and

overthinking we need to get out of our

heads and back into our bodies we need

to physically move more because if we

don't the children of this world will

continue to model our behaviors of

stress and inactivity and this mental

health unwellness will continue to rise

so here today let's start a movement for

movement I challenge you to reclaim your

mental health by finding your movement

the movement that fills you with joy and

do it as often as you can thank you