Usually, in our mid-week email, we discuss ways to strengthen your mental health by sharing our own mental wellbeing journey. However, like most of you, we have had a wake-up call this week. A realisation that we haven't been doing enough to help put an end to the injustice faced by Black people all over the world. Sam and I promise to do better.

For many of us, the current pandemic has got us thinking...

What's really important? What do I need to make more time for in the 'new normal'? Do I need to implement further change to be the happiest version of me? Should I take that risk?

Hi everyone Mental Health Awareness Week is in full swing and the focus this year has been on kindness. We hope you have been able to get to some of our bonus classes - who knew you could combine boxing with yoga inspired moves?!

We each have our own super powers. We have something inside of us that nobody can take away. We have the power to spend our time as we wish. The power to use our energy on positive thoughts, or waste it on negative ones. We can decide to work that little bit harder, or to take some of that energy back and recover a little. We are all our own superhero.

It's almost 3 years since Sam and I created SMASH London and began sending weekly emails to inspire ways to strengthen your mental health! Over the coming weeks we will be revisiting some of our favourites where you can read about our own mental health journey and what our top tips are to be strong, happy and healthy... in body and mind.

It's been 5 weeks of lockdown now, longer for some people, and although most of us may have found more time on our hands in one way or another, are we making time to listen to our thoughts?

We understand that lockdown is having an effect on all of us, in one way or another. Some are embracing the stillness that has been forced on us, some are missing the interaction with other humans - something that's so important to us as a species.

We get asked how we are feeling a lot of the time and our response is usually a courteous 'fine' or 'good', or maybe even a 'great' if you are especially happy, but when we are specifically asked "How's your mental health?" we have to dive a little deeper in to our feelings to give an honest, sincere answer.

Positive affirmations are an important part of SMASH London and it's a shame that people don't use them more often! We get it though, for so long we have used negative words in those busy minds of ours, that it often feels odd to say something so positive

Before we say anything else, we want to thank you for all the support that has been sent to us online this week. It's been overwhelming for all of us, but our community has come together and the strength is felt through Zoom and Instagram workouts, kind emails, messages and YouTube follows!

As you are probably aware, we have had to completely change our business model to be able to allow SMASH London to continue our mission to strengthen physical and mental health. These exceptional times have pushed us to bring forward a part of our blueprint we had set for later this year - one-to-one online personal training.

Before anything else... you are strong, you are loved, you are beautiful

And... breathe.

Whether it's a government issued home-stay or it's just a rainy day where we are house-bound, I've put together a list of some of the more mindful ways to avoid watching every single series that Netflix has to offer!

Some of you will already know about the sad news I received last week, but if you don't and may be triggered by talk of death or drug use, it may be best to come back to this email when you are ready.

The SMASH team are working on some exciting projects right now, so our March will be full of a lot of excitement…

Can we challenge ourselves to take a day out of our year to do something different? Maybe something that we need to check off our bucket list?

If you haven't already, join the revolution.

'I love myself'

Sam and Ash

Last weekend I went to my 'home town' of Manchester for the first time in over 4 years. Although it's the place where I grew up, I realised that, as of this year, it hasn't been my home for 18 years! That's half of my life where I've been a 'southerner'!

An old man is teaching his grandson about life:

“A fight is going on inside me,” he said to the boy.

“It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is bad – he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.”

“Because you'll find out that we come, In different shapes and sizes”

We are each unique, amazing and inspirational in our own way. Even if we cant see it in ourselves, believe me when I say that there will be something about you that somebody will aspire to have in themselves and more often than not, we never know just how many people we are inspiring without even trying!