We all remember the ground breaking interview that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle did with Oprah earlier this year. In fact, it was pretty hard to miss it! Whilst The Duke and Duchess of Sussex definitely shone a light on life behind the scenes within the Royal family, one of the biggest things that they touched upon was mental health.
Meghan was incredibly open in admitting that she was struggling with her mental health, and even experienced suicidal thoughts. Prince Harry went on to tell Oprah that it was ‘a lack of support and a lack of understanding’ around Meghan’s wellbeing that ultimately led to the couple stepping down as senior royals in 2020.
As a mental health expert and qualified psychotherapist, our founder Kim Rutherford spoke to UK news outlet express.co.uk about the matter. She said: “The environment that she was living in was not healthy for her, the social system she was living in was not healthy for her, those two things put together with everything else that was going on, led to her mental health.”
“She has confirmed that mental health and overall wellness is not just to do with whether you exercise and eat well, because this is a woman who clearly does, what she’s demonstrated is there are multiple factors, and the biggest ones for her were ultimately her social wellness, spiritual wellness and environmental wellness were not healthy for her.”
Our 8Wise™️ approach consists of eight core dimensions which all play their own important part in our overall wellbeing. They include: Physical Wellness, Emotional Wellness, Social Wellness, Environmental Wellness, Financial Wellness, Occupational Wellness, Spiritual Wellness, and Intellectual Wellness. Meghan is living proof that you need to have a healthy balance of all eight in order to experience overall wellbeing and good mental health. Whilst her Physical Wellness and Financial Wellness, at least, are most likely very good, the lack of Social Wellness, Spiritual Wellness and Environmental Wellness really impacted her mental health.
We want to applause Meghan Markle for highlighting the importance of good mental health, and being open and honest about her struggles. Her conversation with Oprah put mental health at the forefront of people’s minds, and has hopefully given others the courage to reach out for help themselves.
Read the Express article HERE