It is Mental Health Week in WA with the theme: ‘Where we live. How we live. What we’ve lived.’ We will be posting some ways we live the resilience shield method which fits perfectly into this year’s theme, Understanding how the body, mind and environment intersect is essential to overall wellbeing. Physical health – both inside of us and in the world around us – has a major impact on mental health. The nutrition we consume, movement of our bodies, the health of the planet and quality of our housing and neighbourhoods all play a part in building health communities and individuals. Our bodies keep physical score of what we experience – it’s important to encourage a trauma-informed lens in trying to understand challenging behaviours, intrusive thoughts and reactions. Learning how to process, heal and grow from negative experiences shapes our resilience, access to new opportunities, coping skills, strong connections and relationships, and quality of life.