How to have a healthy pride and proud mindset
As the sun emerges in the summer months, so too do the LGBTQ+ community and its allies. Whether at Pride parades, or festivals featuring their favourite artists, people come together to celebrate love, equality, and acceptance around the world.
While festivities often include a fair share of partying, it's crucial to remember and respect the true essence of Pride. That comes with finding a way to party that doesn’t detract from our ability to party the rest of the year. (Who said pride ends with Pride month, after all?)
Here are some tips – that promote physical, mental, and emotional well-being – for having a healthy Pride and beyond.
Cultivating a proud, positive mindset
For a community to have collective pride, we must first develop our own sense of individual pride. Remember that pride starts from within.
To cultivate your own ‘proud mindset’ there are a number of things you can do:
Social media can have a big impact on body image. In the run up to Pride, why not experiment with limiting time spent on social media, or simply reminding yourself that what is depicted on social media isn’t always the reality.
Practice mindfulness exercises, like meditation, to help you prepare for Pride. In time, this will help you to recognise when your mind is wandering into negative thoughts, and will train it to bring it back to the present in a gentle way. If this seems too challenging, try slow inhales for the count of five, hold for five, breath out for five, hold for five, and repeat for five minutes. This can help calm your mind and make you feel better.
Embrace your individuality. Pride isn’t a one size fits all event, there are many parties and happenings for everyone. Hunt out your tribe –Pride is the perfect time to find them!
Make friends with the voice in your head – the inner critic. Try to identify where this critic came from, perhaps it’s childhood, or from a toxic relationship. Tell the voice that you hear them, but it's ok, you are here now and you are going to take control and make things better.
Loving and accepting yourself
If you can’t love and accept yourself, how are you going to be able to share that with the wider community?
Write down 10 things you should be proud of yourself about. Don’t benchmark these against other people, just yourself. Read them every morning and remind yourself how amazing you are.
Reflect on some of the challenges you’ve faced and notice how far you have come. Resilience is a great quality - and you’ve got it.
Finally, remember that being hard on yourself is a negative thought pattern, you might think it pushes you, but negative thoughts lead to negative energy and this will limit you. Be kind to yourself by practising some of the actions just mentioned.
Pacing yourself for Pride celebrations
Pride can be a hectic period. Along with the marches and good causes come the parties. To enjoy yourself properly, it’s important to pace yourself. Some tips here would be:
Fuel yourself. Make sure you eat a protein rich breakfast to help keep you going. An example could be eggs and avocado on a wholemeal bagel with a small pot of plain yoghurt with berries.
Your hangover cure should start before the night out. Eat a good, balanced meal (with carbohydrates, protein and vegetables) around four hours before you head out.
Hydrate. Especially if you plan on drinking alcohol and if it’s hot weather. Try to take a bottle of water with you in your bag and drink regularly.
Try a sober pride. If you’re worried about over partying, and have started noticing some negative patterns developing related to alcohol or drugs, consider enjoying a sober Pride.
There are organisations and parties like Sober Bright’huns or Tonic in Brighton, or House of Happiness in London that encourage you to do this. Connect with them on social media, try to attend some of their events pre-Pride then you may feel you want to join in with their Pride parties by the time Pride rolls around.
Take breaks. Sometimes being in big crowds can be daunting and we push ourselves when we are feeling anxious. Take time out, do some breathing exercises and remember you don’t need to do anything you don’t want to do.
Sleep well. Both before and after a big night out (you can do it!). Eat foods high in tryptophan which will convert to melatonin which helps us sleep, things like turkey, cottage cheese and eggs.
Some people find a magnesium glycinate supplement can help with muscle and nerve relaxation. (Be mindful to check supplement interactions against any medications you are taking with a doctor or health professional).
Dealing with negative thoughts after Pride
Pride (and summer) is meant to be a time for celebration. If you do overindulge, remember being hard on yourself won’t help. Instead:
Take positive action. Try some of the diet and wellbeing suggestions discussed. Get back to exercise, but don’t overdo it, as your body will be tired.
Allow yourself time to recover and be conscious that your body and mind will be more susceptible to stress hormones, so practising well-being is important.
Understand that you may have some negative thoughts or insecurities the following week after Pride. Just simply allow these to pass like clouds in the sky without attachment. Try journaling to help calm your mind a bit.
Try to schedule a couple of days to fully relax after Pride without the burden of having a ‘to do’ list.
Begin the week with some calming exercise such as yoga which will also be good to help stretch out some of the tension held in the body.
Find pride year-round
Connect with supportive organisations. Being kind to others and finding a sense of community involvement can be very good for our own mental health. There’s no better time than Pride to do something for someone else, and make yourself feel better too.
Celebrate the true meaning of pride by doing a bit of charity work, if you’re low on funds, you can always donate your time. Charities are crying out for support and there are great causes such as Mind Out, Just Like Us and the LGBT Foundation you can help.
Incorporate healthy habits. A healthy gut leads to a healthy mind. It’s up to your brain to make serotonin from what you eat, via tryptophan, an amino acid that's converted to serotonin in the brain. Most serotonin receptors are located in the gut, so gut health is important. Stock up on fermented foods like kefir, kimchi, yoghurt, sauerkraut.
Daniel O’Shaughnessy is an award-winning, certified Functional Medicine Nutritionist, coach, and author of Naked Nutrition, which is the first book of its kind focusing on the nutritional, mental health and wellness needs of the LGBTQ+ community. Learn more about him here.