I’ve been living with abuse for about a decade now. People know me for the Brexit case, but I’ve been a transparency activist in the City of London in the charity sector for years. I take it day to day and when I’m feeling at my lowest, have a cry. Once you’ve brushed yourself off, you have to always remember why you’re doing what you’re doing.
People who abuse me don’t know who I am, so why would I care what they think? I would actually be more worried if they agreed with me because they don’t believe in my principles and I don’t believe in theirs.
I’ve got a daughter who is 30 this year. She has special needs and I’ve been fighting for her since she was born. The UK was a very different place when she was born, so I had to become a fighter on her behalf. I had to fight for her to be diagnosed, I had to fight for her to get special care, I had to fight for her not to be sent to a home. It was this fight as a mother which brought the lioness inside me to the fore.
I come from South America and it’s part of our culture to speak out. It’s a lot healthier. There’s a big difference between being respectful and being restrained. There’s a thing in our society that if you speak out it’s not being respectful, especially of women. You should know your place, but that’s nonsense.
We’re in a fragile place socially at the moment, society is at a crossroads. I’m worried mental health is being hijacked by individuals, royals and celebrities as the thing of the moment.
Concentrating on yourself all day is not healthy. What I want to go back to in mindfulness is the old-fashioned notion of being mindful of others. I am more interested in teaching my children empathy than subscribing to our ‘me’ culture and obsessing about ‘how do I feel’ all the time. If you dwell on your negativity you can never move on.
