We started the New Year in a new venue: The historic Guildhall in Plympton St Maurice.
Doodle your Recovery is a six week course giving people the opportunity to share their feelings, practice mindfulness, create art, relax and chat.
This course is free to attend thanks to funding from Devon Recovery Learning Community. DRLC is a recovery college provided by Devon Partnership NHS Trust to promote mental health and wellbeing. Their students are people with lived experience of mental health difficulties, their family and friends, and the professionals who support them.
Missed enrolment for this six week course? Join our mailing list and get free colouring pages to use at home, and news of our next free mindful art events in the Plymouth area.
Have you ever attempted to create massive changes in your life at New Year, only to be left feeling disappointed by February? Here’s a simple solution. Use a habit tracker to make small, achievable tweaks to your daily routine.
Here are 5 things I love about using a habit tracker:
1) You can customise it.
You use one A4 page per month and choose your own goals or habits.
2) It’s satisfying and motivating.
You can tick off the squares or colour them in. By the end of the month you will see how many things you have achieved.
3) You can add something easy that you would do every day anyway.
This could be brushing your teeth, making a coffee or checking your emails. Adding a habit that you already have builds in some guaranteed success to your day; it’s so motivating to tick something off straight away!
4) You can add self-care reminders…
…alongside your personal, family, creative, health and career goals. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. You could choose ‘Watch a movie once a week,’ ‘Coffee with a friend’ or ‘Buy myself a treat’.
5) You can drop a habit.
If you find that you didn’t do well at maintaining one of the habits, consider just leaving it off next month. Add something else that you really do want to do! Go easy on yourself.
Get your free printable Habit Tracker when you sign up to receive our monthly newsletter. Your first email also comes with quirky colouring pages to calm your consciousness, and tickle your fancy. Sign up below to get your habit tracker now and we’ll keep you updated whenever we launch a new art group.
This offer is only open until the end of January 2022, so get your habit tracker today!
Free printable habit tracker
Please note that all freebies on this site are for personal use only, and may not be sold. Feel free to share this freebie, but please credit us and link back to this page when placing our images on your blog or social media. Thank you for your cooperation!
Now I’d like to hear from you. What ONE habit would you love to add to your day this month?
How to book your place at Mindful Art Club in 2022
We have three new mindful art groups starting in the new year. We have a number of free places available thanks to our funders and partners, but places are limited, so book now to avoid disappointment.
Mondays 10.00am at Devon Mind in Greenbank: A six week course funded by Devon Mind. Book here.
Mondays 1.00pm at The Sunflower Women’s Centre continues in the New Year. Book your place by phoning the Sunflower 01752 977614.
Thursdays 11.00am at Plympton St Maurice Guildhall: A six week course funded by Devon Recovery Learning Community. Book here.
Fridays 1.00pm at Moments Cafe, 69a New George Street, Plymouth, funded by The High Streets Heritage Action Zone initiative. Book here.
I want to share a lovely message we received on Facebook at the weekend. Claire has given us permission to publish this testimonial.
Dear Peggy and Emma,
Hi, I just wanted to pop you a quick message to say a massive thanks.
I did a mindful art course with you guys through Devon Mind and it has inspired me to start my own voluntary at our local library, but I’m hoping I’m going to be expanding this soon.
It’s been really popular so far, there is a lovely group of people that come and I’ve made friends outside of the group too. I’ve also taken a mindfulness course and gained a diploma.
So I just wanted to thank you, happy Christmas and a happy New Year.
Keep doing your amazing work. So many people need this right now.
Want to start your own art club? We love to inspire others to offer help and support, but you will need to design your own method of working and session format. Read our copyright notice.
Learn to practice relaxation exercises and art for self-care at the historic Guildhall in Plympton St Maurice. Each session includes five minutes of guided mindfulness, five minutes of mindful drawing, a simple art project, and the opportunity to chat and relax.
Doodle your Recovery is a six week course giving people the opportunity to share their feelings, practice mindfulness, create art, relax and chat, it also:
Improves mental health
Improves social connection
Teaches new skills (relaxation exercises and art for self care).
We start with a ‘check in’ to see how everyone is feeling. There is no obligation to speak if you don’t want to. This is followed by some guided mindfulness, then a simple art project which anyone can do e.g., drawing Zentangles or paisley, or making a greeting card.
We end the group with a ‘check out’ to share how everyone is feeling after practicing mindfulness and making art.
This 6 week, in-person course will start on Thursday 13th January 2022.
We will be using the Council Chamber upstairs in the Guildhall building for this course. Places are limited on this course so book now to avoid disappointment.
This course is free to attend thanks to funding from Devon Recovery Learning Community. DRLC is a recovery college provided by Devon Partnership NHS Trust to promote mental health and wellbeing. Their students are people with lived experience of mental health difficulties, their family and friends, and the professionals who support them.
Not ready to commit to a six week course? Join our mailing list and get free colouring pages to use at home, and news of our other free mindful art events.
I read Glennon Doyle’s memoir, ‘Untamed’, last year and I liked it, even though the Amazon reviews show it to be a bit like marmite – some readers loved it, some hated it.
It’s a story about freeing ourselves from the cages we women find ourselves in when we live for other people instead of our own truth. It’s a guide to find your way back to yourself and to keep choosing yourself over and over again until you are free from those cages.
It’s a beautiful, funny, heartbreaking story about love and loss and courage and wisdom and addiction and anxiety and truth and life.
The takeaway message for me was, “We can do hard things.” Glennon even named her podcast that. I thought it would be fun to draw these words for myself as a reminder. Download and print your free colouring page here, and then fill in the letters with zen doodles or colours, as a gift to yourself this festive season!
Learn to practice relaxation exercises and art for self-care in the New Year at Devon Mind in Greenbank, Plymouth. This free, six week course is starting on 10th January 2022 but places are limited.
Each session includes five minutes of guided mindfulness, five minutes of mindful drawing, a simple art project, and the opportunity to chat and relax.
Doodle your Recovery is a six week course giving people the opportunity to share their feelings, practice mindfulness, create art, relax and chat, it also:
Improves mental health
Improves social connection
Teaches new skills (relaxation exercises and art for self care).
We are Devon Mind, your local mental health charity. We’ve been fighting for mental health in Devon for over 35 years with our campaigning and support services.
DevonMind.com
Like all local Minds, they are an independent charity affiliated with the national Mind association.
Devon Mind’s recovery courses and workshops are all designed to support you to develop positive lifestyles and choices. Visit their website for details on how to book your place on Doodle Your Recovery:
Mindful Art Club has secured a grant of £2,430 to run a community arts project based at Moment’s Café. Workshops will explore the heritage of the city centre’s conservation area and will be free to anyone who is struggling with their mental health.
We are looking forward to hosting 12 weeks of art sessions at Moments Cafe in Plymouth City Centre in the New Year, 2022. This is thanks to funding from The High Streets Heritage Action Zone initiative .
These sessions aim to teach people from diverse backgrounds about the heritage of the conservation area in Plymouth City Centre. We will talk about the history of the various places in the centre, and do an art project based on that subject. For example, we might talk about The Messenger sculpture outside the Theatre Royal, and then ask the participants to design their own sculpture. Another project would be to talk about the history of Royal Parade and bring in some photographs of what it used to look like. At the end of the 12 weeks we will take anyone who wants to go for a walk around the conservation area so we can look at the landmarks as a group.
We know that the residents of Plymouth have suffered during the lockdowns with increased mental health problems and social isolation, and so we want to give people a safe place to connect with other people. Our groups are about meeting new people, being in a supportive group, building confidence, learning new things and having fun. We want to include people from diverse communities in Plymouth and give them a safe space to be creative, have fun and form friendships.
Each session includes five minutes of guided mindfulness, five minutes of mindful drawing, a simple art project, and the opportunity to chat and relax.
“Moments Cafe is a warm, caring, friendly environment for all. The cafe acts as a subconscious support network for a lot of people. The cafe attracts a lot of people who are vulnerable, and they are supported through open conversations and a non-judgmental atmosphere. Moments Cafe want to develop their offer to the community, and have ongoing projects upstairs that will benefit their customers, and our community as a whole. The Mindful Art Club is a great opportunity for both organisations to provide the community with a fun, inclusive, creative and sociable network in a central location in Plymouth.”
Emma Oxland, Moments Café manager.
The High Streets Heritage Action Zone initiative is funded by the Department for Digital, Culture Media and Sport’s Heritage High Street Fund, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government’s Future High Street Fund and the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
Book now if you are interested in coming along to these art sessions. Your place will be fully funded, i.e. at no cost to you, but places are limited. These sessions will take place on Friday afternoons.
We loved meeting so many people from different social enterprises at the Plymouth Octopus Project AGM this week. I was nervous as I have not been networking in a room full of people since before the pandemic! These are strange times….
POP+ works in collaboration with community groups and voluntary sector, non profit organisations with a view to support and strengthen our sector.
60 different organisations joined POP to network and catch up on the extraordinary stories of individuals and organisations in Plymouth these last 18 months. We heard from inspiring community collaborations who showcased their work in the “Voices” marketplace and the keynote speaker Cormac Russell appeared on Zoom from Ireland!
We are so grateful to POP as they have supported Mindful Art Club from the very beginning, with business start-up advice, training in how to write funding applications and recently funding. Read more: POP Funds Our Collective.
