Month: March 2020

Mental Health Resources

Mental health challenges can range from depression, anxiety, stress, self-harm, and personality disorders, to bereavement, addiction and more. However, there is a surprising amount of support available in the community around Plymouth, where we are based. We have created a list of local resources, offering support, counselling, groups, education, activities, advice and information. While it is not possible to visit most of these organisations during the Covid-19 outbreak, their websites offer information and alternative sources of support.

You can also enjoy social connection, mindfulness and art by watching one of our Facebook live groups during the Corona Virus lockdown.

Please let us know if there is anything else that we could add to our resources page.

Create Your Recovery at Home

Are you breaking free from your addictions?

Are you in recovery from problems with alcohol or other substances?

Are you ready to recover your more creative side?

Our new online art club could be just what you are looking for.

Create Your Recovery is for people in recovery from alcohol dependency or other substance misuse, and has been partly funded by The National Lottery.

This new Facebook live-stream event takes place on Fridays, 10.00am until 11.00am, starting on Friday 3rd April 2020.

We used to run these art groups at Harbour Drug & Alcohol Services, Hyde Park House, Mutley, Plymouth, and asked for a donation of £2.00 per session. However, the new online art group will be free, (with an option to donate if you want to, and if you can afford to.)

We start with a “check in”, and ten minutes of guided mindfulness meditation. Then we do an easy art project and chat.  Read more: What Happens at The Club?

We started running a mindfulness art club at Harbour on February 14th 2020 on a Friday. We didn’t specifically choose a Friday but this seems to work well as it is a calming space just before the weekend.

Attendance has been steady.  The simplicity of the sessions works well for this client group. Not needing to be able to sit and do a full meditation session or be any good at art. The art offers an informal space to chat, get support and relax with no agenda or expectation.

The combination of art and mindfulness helps clients to explore difficult emotions without realising they are doing it. It is a gentle way of accessing thoughts and feelings and learning to process them which is really important for drug and alcohol users and those in recovery. It is early days for this group at Harbour but I am hoping in the future to build on its success.

Jocella Peck, Harbour Drug and Alcohol Services, Plymouth

How to Join the Online Art Club

Update 25/05/20

We have made the decision to temporarily stop our Friday group, until we can safely return to The Harbour Centre.

We would like to invite all Harbour clients to join in with our two other groups instead. We run these sessions as Zoom meetings, which we stream to Facebook Live on Mondays and Wednesdays at 10am, at www.facebook.com/mindfulartclub These sessions are free, and can help anyone who struggles with mental health difficulties, or social isolation, to feel happier, calmer and more socially connected.

We look forward to seeing you back at The Harbour Centre when the UK government offers guidance for how community groups can meet again safely.

Not ready to join the group? That’s OK. Grab some free mindful colouring pages here.

[Video] Art Club Creates Social Connections

Trainee counsellor, Susy Putnam, interviewed Emma and Peggy from Mindful Art Club, just days before the UK went into social distancing measures, because of the Corona Virus, in March 2020. Susy asked,

  • Why did you start mindful art club?
  • Do you have any stories that you could share about how it has benefited an individual?
  • Could you tell us why mindful art club, why not just an art club?
  • Can you just talk us through what a session would look like?
  • What is, ‘Taking your pen for a walk’?!

  • Like our Facebook page.
  • Set your notifications to join when we go live.

Now Emma and I would love to hear from you. What would you like to see and do in an online mindful art session? Tell us in the comments below.

Emma and I really want to know your thoughts around this, so that we can continue to support people during this time of social isolation.

Sending you lovely thoughts and a virtual hug from us both.

Peggy and Emma.

Free: Online Art Group

Are you feeling anxious?

Are you socially isolated?

Want to feel connected again?

We are now running Mindful Art Club as an online live Facebook event, three times a week on Mondays at 10am and Wednesdays at 10am. On Fridays we are running a group called Create Your Recovery.

We’re all isolated together.

Peggy
  • Visit our Facebook page at 10.00 am
  • You will need a pen, felt tips, some paper and a cup of tea or coffee
  • Watch our live Facebook video and join in with the group by typing your comments below the video

We felt we were there with you.

Adele

As always with Mindful Art Club, there is no talent required. Just a willingness to have a go and have fun. We look forward to seeing you at the next online live group.

Feeling much calmer.

Coralie

Corona Virus Notice

Week beginning 16th March 2020 – All Mindful Art Clubs are currently running as normal.  The situation will be reviewed again on Friday 20th March 2020. Next week we may move to running online groups. Please watch emails for updates.

Update: 18th March 2020 – Friday’s group at The Harbour Centre is cancelled for the foreseeable future. Current social distancing advice is to avoid social activities, such as going to pubs, restaurants, theatres and cinemas.

Update: 20th March 2020 – All of our groups have been moved to Facebook live events. Read more: Free online art group.

Peggy and Emma

Why is Staff Well-Being so Important?

Would you like to try mindfulness in your workplace?

Want your staff to feel valued and listened to?

Want to increase staff productivity and reduce sick leave?

It sounds like you are ready to invest in a staff wellbeing event!

Mental health difficulties are the biggest cause of sickness absence in this country (Health and Sickness Executive, 2018). So poor mental health costs employers money. Anxiety and depression are the most common mental health problems.  But major changes or challenges in life, such as bereavement, relationship problems, having a baby, debt or a workplace restructure may also affect mental health.

On Wednesday 11th March we visited Plymouth Job Centre Plus in Exeter Street, to offer a mindful art club session to the work-coaches, and other members of staff, as part of their wellbeing day.

We started with a brief chat about how everyone was feeling. They were actually feeling quite good, as they had been attending different staff wellbeing sessions all day. We then did a five minute mindfulness meditation, some mindful drawing and then made some collages. The mindful drawing exercise is simply making simple marks on paper with your eyes closed. This eliminates any self-judgement or need to make an image that is “good”. Then we can focus on the feeling of drawing, which quickly produces quite a relaxing sensation. In mindfulness this is called “being in the flow”.

While making collages, staff were able to relax and chat to colleagues they might not have usually met. We received feedback that everyone enjoyed the session and the work coaches were keen to recommend our community drop-in sessions to their job centre clients.

It is every employer’s responsibility to provide a workplace where people experiencing mental health difficulties, major life events or juggling caring responsibilities can talk openly without fear of stigma.

If you would like to offer a mindful art session to your staff, colleagues or service users contact us now to find out more.

A Scrapbook of Our Real Life Adventures

So much has happened to us this month, dear reader, that I thought I’d just give you a visual collage of the highlights of our first official month in business.

  • We created and signed a Small Charity Constitution, which makes Mindful Art Club a legal organisation that can accept charitable contributions, and eventually it will pay it’s staff! (Peggy and Emma).
  • We made bunting to celebrate the launch of our business.
  • We started to ask people how the art club has helped them, so that we can gather evidence to get charitable funding.
  • We started a regular art group at The Harbour Centre, thanks to National Lottery funding.
  • We were interviewed on BBC Radio and Ferndale Community Radio
  • We were featured in The Plymouth Chronicle
  • Peggy passed her exam and received a Certificate in Counselling Level 2
  • We made gratitude hearts on Valentines Day
  • We made origami bookmarks and greeting cards
  • We tried Qi Gong as a kind of moving mindfulness exercise; the group at The Brook quite enjoyed this.
  • We visited a farm in Cornwall to plan a Mindful Art Retreat for this summer.

That is a lot of happenings in one month! What sort of adventures will happen to us in March 2020? Leave us a comment below if you have any suggestions of what you would like to see next at Mindful Art Club.