BEATING THE BLUES WITH CREATIVITY AND POSITIVITy
Hope For The Community presents Hope Monday, a free webinar for well-being.
This year Hope For The Community CIC span Blue Monday around. Instead of accepting the narrative about the day being miserable, we welcomed a celebration of hope, with guided mindfulness, an introduction to yoga, creativity, gratitude, and happy songs.
Rooted in the evidence-based strategies included in our Hope Programme self-management courses, Hope Monday was designed to lift the mood and celebrate creativity. It was so successful that we plan to do it again.
Hope isn’t just for Jan. If you missed our webinar or just want to experience it all over again you can catch the highlights below!
Highlights
Lets Get Creative
Artist Mellissa Fisher taught us how to make a Zine during her fantastic interactive workshop:
“I liked that I learnt how to make a zine! Also, the questions suggested by the presenter were thought-provoking and brought forth from me answers/statements that made me feel very positive.”
Watch the session again and have another go at making your own gratitude zine!
A Moment of Mindfulness
"I found the mindfulness session very useful and relaxing and have practiced it at home."
Dr Liz Sparkes led us on a relaxing guided mindfulness session. This was a chance to sit, pause and calm the mind.
You can follow the session by clicking the video.
Stretch the blues away!
The fantastic instructors at Warwickshire Iyengar Yoga joined us to demonstrate an introduction to some Iyengar poses. As one of our attendees said, these are "simple exercises that are easy to put into your day", so feel free to give it a go by clicking the video.
Sharing the joy
To round off the day, our attendees helped us to create an inspiring virtual gratitude wall from their gratitudes submitted during the session with Hope For The Community's Quality Assurance Lead Dr Bethan Alper.
You can watch the gratitude session to learn some more tips and tricks for noticing the joy that can be found in appreciating the little things.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who was a part of our first-ever Hope Monday and making it a memorable one.
We will be hosting more events in the future so follow us on social media to stay up to date!
Additional Resources:
If you found any of the #HopeMonday tools useful, we provide more on our courses along with a network of individuals and experts who understand what youre going throught. You can find one to suit you here:
clearerthinking.org 10 theories for how to achieve true happiness
The Guardian 53 Ways To Add Cheer To Your Life
Action For Happiness – Monthly Calendar
Psychologytoday.com one simple choice enhances the benefits of gratitude
27 micro habits that may improve your life
88 important truths I’ve learned about life
The 7 mindset shifts that finally brought me happiness in my 40s
103 bits of advice I wish I had known
Get fit from your chair!
A range of chair based exersizes.
If you’re interested in the history of ‘Blue Monday’ and how to deal with it, this podcast has more info:
Happiness, A Sceptics Guide
Episode 18: Happiness, Trust and Blue Monday
Available on all podcast platforms.