Awe, wonder, empathy, caring – just a few of the ways you might respond to animals. Maybe you like interacting with them. Stroking an animal’s fur, grooming a horse or feeling a pet or companion animal’s warmth beside you can all be reassuring and therapeutic. It’s interacting with another living being, a feeling of connectingContinue reading “Call Of The Wild”
Tag Archives: arts
Painting An Idyll
While many people know from experience how doing art and craft themselves can boost wellbeing and absorb their minds, there still seems far less interest in the impact enjoying other people’s art can have. Lots of peple who enjoy being creative might never think to look at a famous painting, or if they do, mightContinue reading “Painting An Idyll”
Opening Doors
Yes, I go outdoors without thinking of creativity. I create without thinking of the outdoors. But when the two interconnect, it reinforces the experience. So Creativity & Wellbeing Week’s 2022 theme, Get Creative Get Outdoors, is a powerful one. Creativity and wellbeing combine the inner and the outer all the time. As I try toContinue reading “Opening Doors”
Creative Constancy
A new month begins, and with this new month begins The Age Of Creativity’s annual festival: sharing creativity with older people. Each year the festival has a specific focus, and this year it’s A Call To Action. This highlights how two years of pandemic have cast a long shadow, and how research has found thatContinue reading “Creative Constancy”
Drawing A Line
How might drawing have a particular contribution to make to wellbeing? What could be distinct about drawing? When I first got into art, I started with drawing, and it was a few years before I began to paint as well. Even now, I still feel far more at ease with a pencil or pen thanContinue reading “Drawing A Line”
Think Art
As I think about how art can help mental health and wellbeing, two distinct ways emerge. One way sees creativity as a positive to focus on, as refuge or haven, space away from the everyday and from specific issues. The other uses creativity directly to address and work through those issues, to express thoughts, feelings,Continue reading “Think Art”
Taking Part
Autumn is here again, and so too is the National Day of Arts in Care Homes (24 September) – an opportunity to highlight this important sector. This last crazy 18 months, the media has turned its attention to care homes more than it has for many years. There’s been empathy with residents unable to goContinue reading “Taking Part”
Looking Back, Looking Ahead
A year since I first set up Medley to share art, music and nature for wellbeing, I thought I would look back over the last twelve months – and ahead to what might come next. Integral to Medley is combining three different ways to boost wellbeing, that is, music, nature and art. Balancing the threeContinue reading “Looking Back, Looking Ahead”
In More Ways Than One
As I’m writing during Deafblind Awareness Week, this blog post seemed an opportunity to reflect how people living with sight and hearing loss might find nature, art and music helpful in all different ways. Running this year from 27 June to 3 July, Deafblind Awareness Week is focusing on telling other people, sharing the experiencesContinue reading “In More Ways Than One”
Common Ground
Hearing the theme of Creativity And Wellbeing Week 2021 reminded me of the striking Banksy artwork which was first seen in Southampton last year. It shows a boy casting aside his superhero dolls for a doll dressed as a nurse: the true superheroes of the pandemic. Creativity recognizing the importance of care. So what thenContinue reading “Common Ground”
