The past year and a half has been a journey for all of us. If you feel like you haven’t been able to take proper care of your mental and physical health, you are not alone. It is ironic that at the times when self-care can be the most beneficial to us, is the time we might push it down to the bottom of our priority list.
That is why we’ve been focusing on self-care throughout October – have a look at what we got up to.
Self-care Sunday event!
Each of us is different and so why would self-care be the same for all of us. There is no ‘one size fits all’ to self-care which is why we hosted a variety of different sessions to help our supporters explore different tools for self-care. Natasha Holmes’s excellent talk on designing a wellness plan covers exactly that – how to look after your own wellness in a way that suits you.
Throughout the day we were also introduced to mindful activities and how they encourage self-care. The wonderful Dr Wendy Molefi hosted a practical mindfulness session focusing on the breath and how this can be used as an anchor for calm and steadiness. One of the attendees who attended her session gave us some lovely feedback:
“I have been trying to learn about mindful practice for 8 months since a particularly challenging bereavement, but not made a lot of progress. I learnt a lot in that one session, thank you”
Dr Lizzie Burns gave us some much-needed laughter and fun in her interactive Origami for Wellbeing session. Each fold required full concentration, making it hard to think about anything other than the present moment. From fun finger puppets to medical-related folds, and a wonderful tulip, we discovered how to turn paper into something beautiful!
“Really enjoyed it! Very relaxing & good to take your mind off everything!”
Nutritank’s co-founder Dr Ally Jaffee joined in with the day by talking about the importance of nutrition and give her top tips on wellbeing.
The evening ended with an excellent chance to unwind and release the week’s tensions with Dr Clara Farque, who hosted a Pilates session which flowed through a host of different positions.
We hope those that attended had the chance to discover a new form of self-care or to practice an already known and loved form! If you weren’t able to join us on the day, recordings are available: