Recently, I have been working with the charity Valley and Vale Arts on their Social Prescribing project Breathing Space in Pontypridd.
It is a free, weekly, person-centred creative session for adults experiencing stress, anxiety and/or depression. Short mindfulness exercises help individuals to relax and find their creative flow. The work created can be about a real life experience or abstract. Meeting other people with similar experiences helps group members to not feel judged or isolated. In the sessions participants become artists, and leave their diagnosis behind, have fun and remember who they still are. It offers a strength-based approach with the focus on wellness. The group supports each other in finding their own solutions, and by celebrating each other’s success.
This week, we created a collaborative poem, each participant contributing a line after free-writing on the theme of Journeys.
Challenges, meeting new people
In my heart I feel the forest call me
Emotional through life with many ups and downs
today will be OK.
Calmness, support and love.
Going there to find here
Through falling, I see your light.
I’m listening to my heart.
I’m learning that the journey never ends
because the journey is life.
Sometimes we don’t know the way ahead,
but we keep moving. Step by step.
Sarah J Featherstone 