World Mental Health Day 2020

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Hey ho everyone,

Well, it's World Mental Health Day Today and I'm curious to know what you all do that helps on the tricky days when you might be feeling a little wobbly. And God knows, we've had a few of those in 2020 right?  

For me, it's visual journaling. I just love getting all the stuff out of my head and putting it on a page. I put on a beautiful Spotify instrumental play list that I created, get out my art supplies and just follow whatever comes.

I’ve always done this.  I remember doing it at school in my homework diary (over 35 years ago now!!!) and the clever boy who sat next to me in English class saw it one day and enquired,

‘How long do you spend doing that every night?’

‘About an hour or so’, I replied sheepishly.

‘So while you mess about with your colours and drawings I’m studying physics and chemistry’, he retorted.

Yes, seems so. And I still do it because it’s calming and fun for me and it helps me make sense of this big crazy life.

End of that little story was he became a vet with a PhD and I became an Arts Therapist who now ‘messes about with colours and drawings’ for a living. And as one of my favourite authors, Richard Rohr, writes, Everything Belongs.

So, what do you to help yourself unwind? How do you help yourself come back into your Window of Tolerance and become more regulated?

I also love spending time in nature chatting to the trees, time with animals, reading, dancing on my own, cooking with beautiful ingredients, listening to jazz, drawing, collaging and, best of all, seeking out the whimsy in life because that makes me smile every time.  As you can see, I’m a high introvert and time alone restores my soul. For the more extraverted souls amongst us I would imagine your self-care activities might look altogether different to mine.

When working with clients I invite them to think of 20 things (however small) that help refill their emotional cup. Most baulk at this and say they can’t think of 5. So, we strike a happy medium, shoot for 10 and that’s their homework. And they find them. Because when we actually sit with the questions, what helps me? What recharges my batteries? What do I love? … some ideas tend to present themselves. And those ideas – those pinpricks of light -may just help to assuage some of the shadows that lurk about, and threaten to overpower us.

I’d love to hear some of yours. Take care of yourselves Loves, look after your mental health like your Life depends on it. Because it does.

In it together,

X Vicki

Once-A-Day Brain-Dump Mandala

Right now, during the COVID-Crazies, our world is seeing a whole lot of people suffering in a whole lot of ways. Whether it’s the person who’s lost their job, the working mum having to negotiate care for her small children while she tries to maintain her own work on line, older members of our community now having to completely self-isolate which brings with it a plethora of mental health implications and risks, parents now having to navigate how to home school their children for the first time or health care providers putting themselves at risk as they care for others, the list goes on …

As for me, I’m providing home palliative care for a family member – my dear sister - who is in the late stages of lung cancer… I also can’t see my kids right now and I miss them terribly.

Whatever our burden, it’s real. Whatever our pain it hurts. And we’re kind of doing it alone, alongside and together.

One of things I’ve found helpful, firstly for myself and also with clients, is my idea of doing a Once-a-Day Brain-Dump Mandala. In doing this, it helps limit any worrying, obsessing and catastrophising on my part to an allocated time and a contained space – the page. And this boundary I find to be needed right now. Sure, these concerns might mutter on a bit in the back ground or certainly come knocking on the door of my mind, and that’s OK, I hear their concerns and request they wait until later to be fully attended to. But at least it’s a step in the right direction of not giving my mind’s focus entirely to the big, prevalent fear/worry monsters lurking about therein. Since when has that helped anything anyway? In one sense my brain dump mandala is like a visual version of a stream-of-consciousness brain dump through journaling. While writing suits some I find the use of colour, shape and lines to be so user-friendly and helpful.

So here’s how it works …

The Once-A-Day Brain-Dump Mandala

Give yourself 30 minutes or more of uninterrupted time to do this.

Materials to gather: crayons, oil pastels, felt pens, paints or anything else at hand that you might like to work with.

Before you start put on some relaxing, quiet relaxation music. I recommend something instrumental that won’t take you off to other stories and directions.

Take a blank page (I use an A3) but any size that feels right for you is perfect. (Some folk like to work small and neatly and others, like me, work big and messy).

Draw a circle on your page. You could draw round a cup, bowl or plate. Let your intuition determine the size that feels best for you and the level of containment you might need on any given day.

And then take several deep steadying breaths and drop into whatever your experience is of the day…. of the now … of the season … of your soul.

What do you notice? What’s turning up in your internal experience right now? What’s on your mind?

Once you notice something, simply choose a colour that somehow goes with that and using lines and shapes begin to represent it in whatever way feels right for you. You can, of course, stay in the circle or go outside the lines. Trust your crayons and allow the colours to choose themselves and the marks to draw themselves. Just allow the process to unfold without too much cognitive deliberation. And breathe as you go …

As I said, some folk prefer using words over drawing. Others might use both alongside one another by dropping any key words or phrases around the image as they come to awareness.. I find that some days I want to draw more and other times more words arise. Whatever turns up is fine. Do it your way. Just be aware that words will keep you in a more ‘heady’, literal and cognitive space than drawing will.

Some other questions you might like to check in with yourself around:

• What am I feeling right now?

• What’s most difficult for me today?

• What am I finding myself worrying about today?

• What am I noticing I’m fearing right now?

If these work for you consider drawing/journalling some of these ideas on your page.
Please go gently in your explorations and do pull back if you bump into any strong emotions or find yourself (i.e. your nervous system) getting dysregulated. While it’s important to acknowledge some of the big feelings in your system, it’s equally, or arguably more important right now to check in with some of the things that are are supportive to you.

For example, you might enquire around:

1. Things I’m finding comforting right now …

2. Something I am enjoying right now …

3. Something that makes me laugh …

4. Something I’m learning right now … etc

5. Something I’m grateful for right now …

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Some people might prefer to simply draw themselves some idea bubbles to work in like these ….

And that’s it – my Once-a-Day Brain-Dump Mandala. Simple right? The thing I most appreciate about this activity is once completed I feel my head, indeed my very being, feels heard. And seen. And accepted. And a little less full of the pressure. And I feel like I’ve attended to myself in a compassionate, non-judgemental way and that’s always helpful.

And by the way, if you find you do just want to draw your mandala with no word use along the way (which is the more traditional way of doing them) there are some great processing questions for when you’ve finished:

1. As you look at your completed image determine which way it goes. In other words, find the top.

2. List out any colours used and whatever their associations

3. List out any shapes or markings and their associations

4. Summarise the theme of your mandala

5. And finally, give your mandala a title

So there you have it.

If you do try this exercise, I’d love to hear/see what your experience was like and what you learned about yourself along the way.

Go gently beautiful souls and happy brain dumping.

In it together.

Vicki x