Hi everyone

Sorry I haven't been around much. 2023 sucked ass and I couldn't bring myself to record anything after July. Then my lovely friend Wendy came over from USA for a couple of months and we had a wonderful catch up. She then convinced me to start it up again and so this is the first of what I hope will be many episodes with her discussing the differences in many aspects between our two countries.

What can we do to show support to our LGBTQIA= friends, both during Pride and beyond? How did Pride start? Do you know your pansexual from your demisexual? In this episode, we discuss what we know and educate ourselves with some history and identification.

In this episode, Rachel, Jenni and Lyndsey discuss volunteering and the documented benefits to a persons mental health from volunteering. They discuss their own experiences of volunteering and how it has benefitted them.

What makes you laugh? In this episode, Rachel, Jenni, Lyndsey, Louisa and Vanessa discuss what makes them laugh and the health benefits of laughter

Get to know the effects of anxiety on the body and on the mind via the MIND website. In this episode, Rachel discusses these effects and describes her own experiences of anxiety and the impact it has played on her career as a midwife as well as her personal life and relationships. She chats about discrimination and judgment from others and the stigma still carried by some. For more information visit mind.org.uk and if you have any comments or questions, let us know; chatting_bear@outlook.com or on any of our social media platforms.

As April is Stress Awareness Month, we wanted to talk about it and as it is the last week in April, what better time. It is such a vast and complicated subject that we really only scratched the surface, talking about some of the presenting symptoms and whether we have experienced them. In a future episode we want to discuss ways to combat stress, but for this week, just being aware of the symptoms is a good place to start.