Medley

A Virtual Walk

Who wouldn’t seize an opportunity to spend half an hour enjoying a walk in the woods or by the sea – by virtual reality? If you were detained on a mental health ward, it would only be all the more welcome.

As demand continues to soar for mental health care, more and more patients also need to be admitted to hospital for in-patient care – and of these, some will be detained there under the Mental Health Act. With many of these patients unwilling to be there, it’s no wonder that such wards may feel negative, depressing environments.

It was in just such a setting that an experiment used virtual reality to reduce stress levels, a year or two ago. King’s College London led the experiment as part of their research into clinical uses of AI in mental health care.

Patients could experience being in a natural setting in the great outdoors, walking in a forest or along a seashore. What a welcome change of scene. Virtual reality could transport them far away from the ward. No wonder too, then, that patients wanted to continue the experience for longer than researchers intended.

Since this initial experiment, it’s also been extended to staff. With stress levels spiralling amidst NHS staff, maybe this will be replicated.

Immersive, multi-sensory, stimulating and energising: virtual reality throws open the doors. It overcomes distance and ill health. Imagine replicating the experiment with patients in other hospital departments, maybe patients enduring a long stay in hospital. With harsh lighting and few windows, hospitals can feel unfamiliar worlds of their own, so virtual reality could become a haven. Care home residents might also enjoy virtual reality as most go outside only rarely.

For people who are housebound or bedbound, virtual reality could also restore a window on the wider world. Even for most people with mobility issues who do go out and about, the countryside is less accessible because of uneven ground. Virtual reality overcomes this too.

No, virtual reality is not real. It could be confusing, particularly to people with cognition issues or dementia. Coming back to reality once the experience ends could be distressing. But it can enrich life where it is needed. I wonder too if it could form part of a deeper “remote experience” of nature? People could be sent or presented with natural materials to touch, look at and think about – pressed leaves or flowers maybe, stones or berries. They could also have a chance to respond to the virtual reality in creative ways – maybe drawing or painting, maybe making a collage or word picture about what they’ve experienced and how they felt. All this might make the virtual reality more tangible and preserve its memory, linking real and unreal.

So many remote initiatives started during Covid, but they’re still needed by many, many people who are unable to go out one way or another. AI might feel a world away from the natural world, but it’s a tool to help reconnect with just that.

Do you have any thoughts or experiences to share? Just go to Medley’s Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/359291215486002 Thank you.

Under The Stars

Do you know the names and order of the planets in our solar system? Do you follow NASA’s every move? Are you excited when space science succeeds, as when asteroid dust was brought to Earth recently? This is World Space Week, so I’m thinking how experiencing outer space could help lift mood and boost wellbeing in our everyday here.

I know little about the wonders of space, about light years and stars and nebulae. I never watch TV, so I haven’t seen shows like The Sky At Night, and I don’t own a telescope to see the full night sky. I don’t know a lot about constellations or satellites, although recently I enjoyed seeing the International Space Station moving across the sky. But the very vastness of space that feels confusing and overwhelming is also awesome and uplifting. I may not understand the figures or the complex systems, but I do enjoy seeing images from space, photography of space phenomena. It’s like they transport us into space, allowing us to glimpse another world. Colours, light, it’s all inspiring. It injects drama and mystery into the familiar.

Seeing space images transforms my perspective. Perhaps only for a moment or for a while, but it opens a door on the vastness of the universe. That might just help balance or even rein in overthinking. It won’t change the cost of living, strikes, ill health, or whatever overshadows life day to day. But it’s another outlook on the world.

Outer space can also awaken, or confirm, faith in God, who holds all life in being.

Maybe you have insomnia, or feel depressed or anxious at night time. Watching the night sky, learning to recognize some constellations and how the sky changes, might help time go by, lift spirits and make night feel more familiar, less forbidding, more beautiful.

Art and craft can open up ways to interact with outer space, either creating artwork or seeing what others create. Experimenting with making a simple mobile of the solar system using card, paint and thread helped me learn the planets at last! By contrast, Luke Jerram’s striking Museum of the Moon installation has travelled the world, being seen by crowds in very different settings, from cathedrals to quays.

Music is another way to connect with outer space, to feel and express the thrill and awe of somewhere so other, so different. Holst’s Planets Suite is classical music at its most dramatic and majestic. Then there are songs like Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon. And there are John Williams’ scores to the Star Wars movies, which resonate with power and might, and – to fans – build a whole fantasy world.

Yes, light pollution is a major problem. Now that some places get designated as Dark Sky areas, it just shows how rare it has become to have a good view of the night sky – but also just how prized that view is.

Sound Of Silence

Do you know the Paul Simon song The Sound Of Silence? That might feel like a contradictory title for a song! Music for wellbeing is now recognised to be very positive. Do you agree? And how do you feel silence compares when it comes to boosting mood, or calming you?

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com

Of course most of our time is spent with neither music or silence – but a varying background hum of traffic or aeroplanes or lawnmowers or birds calling or appliances running or ringtones going off. So music and silence alike can be a refreshing change. Never before have people heard so much or such varied sound every day as today. Imagine a household two or three hundred years ago. There would have been sounds we hear less now, such as the constant beat of horses’ hooves, but overall there was far less auditory stimulus than in the 21^st century. Is this positive or negative?

I like silence, or near silence – as I sit here now, I can hear rain falling outside, and my clock ticking, and the distant hum of a radio. It’s restful and calming and restorative. But silence can weigh heavily, be oppressive or blank. That might depend on where you are and what you’re doing or feeling. Silence can help you think through an issue, but it can be negative if you’re overthinking. Silence opens up space to dwell on thoughts – space that may not be welcome, or bearable.

For some people, music aids concentration. For others it can become distracting and tiring. Just this one example highlights one of the most complex issues in wellbeing, how different we all are. And that’s before you get on to specific music tastes or tastes changing over time. I find I need music more when the weather’s wet, cloudy and cold, when hearing a lively beat feels like seeing the sun come out. Then again, the style of music people find helpful in particular situations will vary. If you are sad or distressed then music that is calming or beautiful might just be too nostalgic. How any of us responds to any one song at any one time is totally unpredictable.

I think striking a balance, weaving silence and music into our lives is very important. I enjoy most music, but only for limited periods of time. Some people I know have created playlists for every occasion, dedicating hours to crafting just the lists they want. Others listen to radio all day long, and feel it lifts their mood and the atmosphere of their home. I couldn’t bear to hear music playing for so long.

One way music helps wellbeing is by creating time and space away from the intensity of thought or experience, time and space for the mind to refuel and clear and recharge. Some people say this is music masking feelings, as if this is a negative. Yes, feelings need to be thought through, shared, unearthed, rooted out maybe. But that isn’t going to happen all the time, or to solve them all the time. Music may not in itself root out the issues, but it can be one way to explore them, or to endure, or to thrive.

Do you feel music or silence is more positive for you? It would be great if you have thoughts to share. Just go to Medley’s Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/359291215486002 Thank you.

Learning From Experience

This week marks a milestone for me: 3 years since I set up Medley, my online arts for wellbeing initiative. That time feels like it has flown. I am so happy to have stumbled upon working in arts for wellbeing, and so enjoy all that I do with it. As someone new to the sector when I set up Medley, I’ve also learned a lot over those three years. Some experiences and observations stand out.

Feedback from participants is so helpful as I’ve experimented with what people enjoy (or don’t!). Sometimes I’ve asked people to sum up how creativity helps them, or whether they found an event calming, fulfilling, positive or confidence-building. “Calming” is the most common response, alongside other words such as “freedom”, “immersion”, “release”, “soothing” and “perspectives”. I would agree with all of these.

Striking a balance is so important – suggesting themes and specific activity ideas, but with the freedom for participants to interpret these for themselves, maybe by using different media or styles. Then there’s also balancing regular activity over time with one-off events, and resources for people to use in their own time with live groups. Variety is so important as well, and so is community. Sharing how they get on with an activity and seeing how others interpret the idea adds far more layers to the experience, for participants and leader alike! I really enjoy connecting with the people who take part in my art challenges and other events, brought together by shared creativity. Art unites by linking up people who might never have met.

I’ve seen how far more women than men take part in art for wellbeing, and how digital exclusion can limit older people’s opportunities to take part in virtual activities. Lack of confidence is another significant barrier, particularly with drawing – while craft can be seen as more accessible. And I’m seeing issues with monitoring and measuring impact, which can feel artificial and forced, and where existing tools – like wellbeing scales – may not fit.

Learning what’s happening in the sector as a whole is exciting too. The range of artforms and the ways of sharing these with people in all different situations is inspiring. Macrame workshops, a theatre company using Shakespeare speeches to talk about mental health, singing and dance groups for people who have Parkinson’s, and a creative writing group for people with chronic health conditions: to name but a few. The more initiatives I come across, the more ideas I think I would like to try sharing myself as I develop Medley!

What it all comes down to is creativity, experimenting with colour and form and line, or with other artforms, restoring some sense of joy and calm. Thank you to everyone who’s on this journey with me.

Complexities

In his BBC Radio 4 series, “Is Psychiatry Working?”, Horatio Clare explores very important questions on diagnosis and treatment. He talks with doctors and researchers, compares psychiatry with psychology, and hears from people with lived experience. He himself has lived experience of treatment for mental health issues, and he draws on this to inform and to investigate further. As the title suggests, the series recognizes that mental health care is not perfect, but it draws out positives as well.

One difference Clare highlights in comparing psychiatry and psychology is focusing on how people feel and how to treat this, as opposed to focusing on what may have led to these feelings. Another point raised was about diagnosis: not everyone wants a diagnosis. Some people prefer not to know. Diagnosis can open doors, making sense of uncertainty, but it can also close doors, limiting and labelling a patient.

I’ve heard Horatio Clare on BBC radio before, when he made slow radio, walking in the composer Johann Sebastian Bach’s footsteps through wintry German countryside. I also remember a book Clare wrote, retracing the migratory journey of a swallow. Thoughtful explorations of music and nature: two parts of life which have real impacts on wellbeing for many of us.

While one of the programmes in the present series mentioned the use of art and music in in-patient mental health care, it highlighted that first and foremost, medication needs to be in place. And obviously art and music will not themselves solve the issues or replace medication. I feel they can help most with prevention – stopping issues developing so far – or in ongoing “managing” or “living with” issues. Expressing yourself and your feelings through art, or using art as a way to step back from those feelings and set them aside: either way, being creative can become a trusted and familiar outlet, refuge and stimulus. So can music and nature, changing mood. They’re also empowering because they are something you can do for yourself. That matters, when feeling out of control is a major factor in mental health issues.

Another recent BBC Radio 4 programme, The Almanac Of Anxiety, interviewed men living with mental health issues who have found working at The Horticultural Therapy Trust’s garden very helpful. One man had only just been discharged from in-patient care, and had gone straight back to the group.

How our minds work is so complex, that so many different tools and responses can help, complementing one another.

Craft A Way

Creativity comes in so many different forms, and some stand out for us in how they lift mood and wellbeing. Art, drawing and painting, have to come first for me, but I have come to enjoy craft as well. I’m newer to craft, so I enjoy the variety and the stimulus, experimenting to see what works and what doesn’t.

Craft is mindful and helpful for wellbeing in two distinct ways, that might seem very different to each other. It demands your full concentration, as you focus on what stitches you’re using or on how you fold or cut or carve or model. That helps wellbeing because it eases overthinking, drives issues out of your mind, opens up some time and space away where it’s the crafting itself that matters. But craft can also – and equally – be helpful because it is repetitive as an activity, where once you get started you go with the flow – knitting, sewing or weaving in particular. Familiar and repetitive activity that allows your mind to wander – whether to daydream and think of nothing in particular, or to mull over and think through issues or concerns as you stitch or knit. Craft’s possible impact on wellbeing is all the greater for having these two different strands, which balance each other. Sometimes one will help, sometimes the other. Or you might feel able to concentrate only for a little time, so focus on getting some stitching underway, then settle into a pattern and let your mind relax.

The more I work in arts for wellbeing, the more I see that, for all the many people who love drawing and painting, there are also many who see drawing in particular as a hurdle. They feel they can’t draw, and this stops them trying art. Craft is another way to be creative, with no drawing needed! But craft itself can feel daunting. It can be fiddly and messy, and you might think you need a lot of materials and equipment. I think this deterred me from trying more craft earlier. Now I try to simplify wherever possible, and upcycle everyday items like old fabric I might have.

All creativity is satisfying and productive, and craft can be all the more so because many of the items can be of practical use. You might sew or knit clothes to wear or toys to play with or make bags or jewellery, so it might feel more purposeful.

I also like craft ideas that don’t take too long, as some crafting can be time-consuming. I enjoy doing some art or craft every day if I can, so I’m more likely to fit quicker ideas into my life.

So far all the wellbeing challenges I’ve led have focused on art. But this autumn I’ve decided to combine art with craft for my new challenge 30 Days Of Creativity: A Wellbeing Challenge For September. Art and craft ideas will alternate through the month. People will take part from home in their own time – each day they will receive by email an art or craft idea with an example image as a guide, and there’ll be an optional private Facebook group for sharing. To sign up go to

Well Climate

With the news that July was globally the hottest on record, the changing climate is once more headline news – for a time. Suddenly expressions like climate emergency feel tangible, particularly with news of fires and floods. These headlines may or may not spur political action, but one impact is clear. Like other news events, the climate emergency is fuelling anxiety, depression and other mental health issues for many people.

Many of us feel disillusioned by the slow responses of governments and businesses. For some people, this will go further. They may feel overwhelmed (by the scale of the emergency), powerless, fearful for the future. Ecogrief has become a familiar experience, a form of bereavement, mourning the loss of biodiversity or of a more stable climate.

Would you call what you feel, ecogrief or eco anxiety? Combined with strikes, the cost of living and conflicts & unrest across the world, I know some people now avoid the news wherever possible,

The focus of my work as an arts for wellbeing practitioner is to share art, as well as music and nature, to boost mental health and wellbeing. When issues like the climate emergency and ecological decline so damage wellbeing, how might art, music and nature help? Not simply as a distraction, burying heads in the sand, but as a way to think through your responses so you might harness how you feel to act positively.

Art could help express feelings of fear, anger or sadness. Drawing, visualization and journaling are all powerful mental health tools, a way of setting down on paper or canvas how you feel. You could share your climate art with others or use it as a way to explore how you feel on your own. Visualization might be particularly useful. Visualize a scene you know, maybe a local street or green space. Draw or paint the scene as it is and then again as you would like it to be. You could draw this as a ground plan or map. Think about what would need to happen to turn some of the ideal into reality. Or try word pictures – write down words about climate or environment or government responses in different colours, sizes and fonts to express how you feel about them. Or make a thoughts tree – draw out a tree trunk and branches, then separately cut out some leaf shapes and write on them thoughts or prayers about the environment and stick them on the tree. You could add different ones over time.

Art boosts wellbeing partly because it is productive and active. You could use it to practically lower your environmental footprint too, by upcycling old everyday items to make greetings cards or clothing.

Music is another expressive art form, conveying mood, giving form to feelings. Listening to music that it angry, loud, combative, could match your mood. If you yourself play music or sing, try improvising music or writing songs to express how you feel about climate.

Connecting with nature could also help as a productive activity, like art. Time spent in nature could feel too painful, as enjoying being outdoors amidst trees and plants only highlights all that is under threat. But taking part in some specific initiative, like tree planting or maintaining a community green space, could be a positive. The immensity of the climate emergency can make these feel insignificant, but they can all play a part here and now, and counterbalance feelings of powerlessness and frustration which drain momentum.

Like any form of bereavement, eco grief may feel very different from one day – or hour – to another. And like any form of anxiety, eco anxiety will ebb and flow. Just sometimes, nature or music or art might help.

Goal

As the women’s football World Cup starts today, this summer of sport is well underway. And linking sport with wellbeing, the other day I discovered the On Course Foundation, which gathers together former military personnel to play golf. Some may have physical injury or disability, some have mental health issues such as post-traumatic stress disorder. Playing golf together, they have an opportunity to enjoy sport and a feeling of community, to share and support.

Have you heard of CHIME? It’s a framework overseen by The Recovery College, an NHS mental health initiative, which sets out 5 important factors in wellbeing. They are connectedness, hope, identity, meaning and empowerment. Thinking about sport and fitness, they fit all five.

Sport unites, and builds connections. Playing in a team together, or running in a group event like the phenomenon that is Park Run, people can feel part of a community with a common aim. Watching sport too is about connecting. Many sports fans watch together and enjoy the crowd experience.

Sport is built on hope: of winning, of a personal best, of getting fitter, of seeing your team triumph. Hope comes on all different levels, and spurs people on to go on trying.

Sport is an important part of people’s identity. Supporting a team makes fans feel part of a group or family, through the highs and lows, and it becomes a major part of who they are. So does playing sport, or exercising.

Sport gives meaning to everyday life and routines. Training, dreaming, working towards an aim can help bear the humdrum.

Sport is empowering because it can be satisfying, boosting confidence and self-belief, setting challenges and seeing them through. This is equally true whether you try armchair aerobics or run ultramarathons. The challenge is personal and specific to you. Confidence is so integral to wellbeing .

The CHIME factors all feed each other and are interconnected. One way I believe sport and fitness help wellbeing is by encouraging people to spend time outdoors, in the fresh air, in the elements of sun and wind, being in green spaces. That can create meaning, and is a form of connectedness – connecting with nature. Another major benefit has to be focusing the mind. Playing a game or exercising requires real concentration, being in the flow, so that overthinking falls away for a time. This could create empowerment or meaning.

Sport and exercise are also a fantastic wider stimulus. I enjoy drawing and painting sportspeople in action. I like the challenge of recreating with paper and pen the feeling of movement as a sportsperson turns or kicks or leaps. This too is empowering and connecting from afar.

It would be great if you have thoughts to share. Just go to Medley’s Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/359291215486002 Thank you.

Health Check

With the NHS turning 75 – a milestone that has set the UK talking once again about the merits of this national institution – it’s as good a time as any to think about how the arts and healthcare overlap, and how they might overlap yet more.

The NHS is struggling – still fighting back after Covid, while strike action drags on and redoubles. But it’s at this very time that the NHS has rolled out new, innovative models for sharing arts and other activities with patients, through social prescribing and community health groups. Weaving activities into the fabric of community care is a very positive way of sharing their benefits. It’s a holistic, whole-life model where healthcare’s role isn’t limited to medication and surgery. It’s about going beyond and connecting on different levels. And it widens awareness and participation. I’ve seen how people who would not seek out activities for themselves will take part if it is recommended or led by healthcare providers they trust.

Placing wellbeing at the centre of care has real scope. How might it grow still more? One area is staff support. I’m hearing more and more how many NHS staff have emerged from the pandemic not only exhausted but traumatised by what happened. Using creative therapy with staff could help – particularly ideas which require little time, for the time-poor.

Creative activity ideas could also be available in waiting areas. As patients anxiously wait for appointments, an activity like colouring could relax them more than staring at a screen.

Art and craft could enhance the design of many healthcare spaces as well. So many hospitals in particular look so clinical, bare apart from signs, with harsh lighting. More visual stimuli could make them feel more familiar and welcoming, and give more to focus on – colourful photographs, paintings or word art. These need only be simple and low-cost – or they could be top contemporary art, as provided by the charity Paintings In Hospitals. Either would work.

Another possibility is more use of the arts to express the trauma of illness itself. Encounters with the NHS may turn out reassuring and helpful, but there’s usually an element of trauma in any experience of ill health – pain, fear, frustrations. Initiatives do exist focusing on this specific area, like art therapy or art for wellbeing for peope undergoing cancer treatment – but there’s space for these to expand more widely, and to use different approaches – one-to-one or group, but also activity ideas for people to take home and reflect on and use in their own time.

Do you have ideas, responses or experiences to share on arts and healthcare? Just go to Medley’s Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/359291215486002 Thank you.

Moments That Matter

How many photographs do you take in a day, or a month, or a year? Today is National Camera Day. Now that so many people have phone cameras in their pockets or bags 24/7, photography has obviously soared – and this has an impact on how we experience the world around us. It might make you more attentive, more observant, as you look around for what to photograph, or look back through old photos, or get memory alerts of what you took this day last year and so on. Mindful photography is a growing phenomenon as well, encouraging people to truly look, see and notice as they photograph.

I think photography can be particularly positive because it’s active, so it’s a way of engaging with what we see, an opportunity to connect and respond. I know I find engaging actively and trying to be creative boosts my mood a lot more than looking and hearing and being receptive.

The other side of the coin is that photography may become so everyday that it loses its power to excite and uplift. As hundreds of phtos build up on your phone you may rarely look back at them. I also think thre was something special about print photos to hold and display. Someone I know looks back each year through the photos she has taken that year, and chooses 50 or 100 to print out in a photo book. I like that idea.

I’m not a skilful photographer. I enjoy looking around and thinking how I might photograph from unusual angles, silhouetting a plant against the sky or photographing from a low viewpoint. But the shot usually turns out underwhelming. That luscious cherry or delicate poppy flower just looks insignificant on screen! But when I suggested macrophotography of plants as one of the daily ideas to participants in my art for wellbeing challenge run for the month of June, people responded enthusiastically and shared beautiful shots. It’s clearly a very positive artform.

Why do we have this instinct to photograph what we see? It’s wanting to engage and respond. It’s about sharing experiences with others, maybe on Facebook or Instagram. And it’s all about time and memory – trying to hold back time, and gathering memories. That isn’t just family or holiday photos, but taking any little moment out of time: a classic car you see passing, a pizza you’re baking, or a new purchase you’ve made.

It’s trying to hold on to time even as it evades our grasp, like sand trickling through an hourglass. But it’s a happy move. It makes the moments matter, and that can lift mood most of all.

Today, on National Camera Day, or whenever you read this, make your photographs count. Think, engage, look back as well and notice what you might have missed. Try photographing from different angles, or photograph one subject – like a houseplant or garden plant – at different times of day in different levels of light or with different backdrops.

Maybe you’d like to share any thoughts on how photography impacts your life in Medley’s Facebook group about art and wellbeing, Think Art – go to https://www.facebook.com/groups/244072321150998