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Try this body scan exercise to reconnect with yourself and relax your body from head to toe. Read the Body Scan script or make a recording of it to play back at a later date.
Create a virtual safe space activity
This creative activity encourages you to think about where you feel safe. This could be somewhere such as your home, somewhere you have visited such as the beach or the countryside, or somewhere you dream about visiting; real or in your imagination.
Before you start, find a space you can spread out your materials, gather the materials you could use, pick a time which works for you. Some suggestion for materials includes paints/pens, it could be a shoebox and crafting “bits and bobs”, clay or even a sand tray. However you wish to engage with this activity, find a way that works for you.
Spend some time thinking about that safe space. Consider the environment, what’s around you and how it engages your senses (sight, sound, smell, touch, taste). Is there a smell you find calming (e.g. lavender/freshly baked bread)? What can you see or touch around you? Are you outside or inside? Is it warm or cold?
Begin to build up your safe space; the space around you, the colours, the environment, what you may be able to feel or see in your safe space. Spend as much time as you wish on this step. You could add symbols to reflect certain aspects of how you feel in your safe space or simple colours.
Are there any people or animals in your safe space or do you enjoy the space by yourself?
Finally, if you wish, add any words or names to what you have created.
Take a moment to reflect on what you have created and how safe it makes you feel. This is somewhere you take yourself away to at any point that is just yours.
Who am I? activity
This activity is designed to give you an opportunity to ‘sit with’ yourself and explore who you are. You might consider your roles in life, who you are in relation to another (a friend, a colleague, a child, a parent…) and things that are important to you such as hobbies or interests. Allow some time to absorb yourself in this activity.
Gather collage materials (magazines, crafting materials, paints, pens – whatever you feel you may use)
Find a piece of card/paper – we suggest A3 but A4 could work.
Make space and have some scissors and glue to hand.
Spend a bit of time (10 to 15 minutes) thinking about words that come up when you think about who you are and what matters to you – scribble these down somewhere to help you remember for when you are crafting.
Use the materials you gathered to put ‘You’ on the page (your piece of card/paper) and please use the example to help.
You may wish to include parts of you which you struggle with daily (in the example we use anxiety) but do ensure to include positive parts about you too. We all have many parts to our whole self and this is about spending some time exploring all those parts.
As the days get shorter, nights are longer and the temperature drops, why not make time for yourself to try our Autumn Activity. You could do this with a friend, family member (or a pet) or by yourself. For us, there is nothing like taking the opportunity to curl up next to a warm fire, under a blanket with a good book and a warm drink. Give this Autumn activity a go and see what you think!
Create a space for you to relax. This could be inside or outside. It may be in a park or on a walk with a hot flask of warming drink or it could be in your favourite armchair under a blanket. Think about creating or being in an environment in which you are able to relax.
Pick a relaxing activity. This may be a crossword, wordsearch, a book (or audiobook) or your favourite film.
Find a hot drink you like. It may be a coffee, tea or hot chocolate or even a cup of squash made with warm water. If you feel adventurous have a look at some of these ideas:
Notice how you feel before this activity and after – what’s changed? Any tension that has eased anywhere in your body or mind? How did you feel before this activity and after?
Bringing our awareness to our mind and body is helpful in learning where we hold tension but also learning how to release some of this tension.
Self-care Fortune Teller
In this video, our Connect To Grow team show how to make a self-care fortune teller using a simple origami template.
Loneliness at Christmas
Loneliness at Christmas can have a huge impact on your mental health. In this blog post, Samantha from Connect to Grow shares about her experiences and top tips to help combat loneliness around Christmas time.
The Barca-Leeds Reclaim counselling service developed a mental health toolkit to help people manage and improve their mental health and wellbeing. The toolkit was created following feedback from people who accessed the Reclaim service and includes tried and tested ideas and resources that they said had helped them. It features information about the 5 ways to mental wellbeing as well as activity ideas.
For children and young people, the Barca-Leeds Safe Schools team created an emotional regulation toolkit to help young people to understand and learn about their emotions.
Both toolkits can be downloaded from the 'Downloads' section below.
Stained Glass Window Craft Activity
Resources and things you will need:
A4 Black card and white paper (x2)
Newspaper to protect surface (or a mess mat)
Pencil and rubber
Ruler
Scissors or a craft knife
Black marker or felt-tip
Tissue paper (variety of colours)
Plastic wallet
PVA glue (watered down 4 parts water, 1 part glue)
Paint brush or glue brush
Glue stick
BluTack (optional)
Step by step guide:
Spend some time considering what you would like to do more of in your life and note down anything that comes to mind (this will be the light coming through your finished “stained-glass window”. This could be walking more, meeting up with your friends or family, sewing or cooking.
Once you have your activity, consider what shape or shapes you might use to symbolise this and the colours you would use. For example, a big heart for connection, feet for walking more, knitting needles or a wooden spoon. Make a note of anything that comes to mind.
Using your notes from step 1 and 2, draw your design onto black card (or white paper if you wish to draft it first). You will need a border of 1.5cm (1/2 inch) around the edge of the paper for your “window frame”. (Step 2 in the video).
You need to have a border around each shape as shown in the phone on step 2 of the video. Every part of the design needs to touch another border so that the whole “frame” remains intact at the end (in the last step in the video, you can see the finished product which may help you understand the instruction).
Shade in the areas you need to cut out (shown in step 3 of the video).
Using either scissors or a craft knife, cut out all the shaded areas. Depending on your design and how much detail there is, you may find this is a fiddly job, take your time and enjoy the process. (You can see the end result on step 4 of the video).
Place your “frame” on top of your white paper. The corners of the “frame” should line up with the corners of the white paper. Holding the “frame” in place, (or using some Blu Tack) draw around all the gaps using pencil. (See step 5 for a helpful photo).
Move your black “frame” away and then trace over your pencil outline on the whitepaper with your black marker or felt-tip. This will be easier to see through layers of tissue later on in the activity.
Go back to your original notes on your design. Consider the colours of tissue you have available and spend some time writing these on your design on the white paper. You can rip or cut up your tissue squares ready for the next part of the activity.
Place the design on the white paper into a plastic wallet (demonstrated on step 6 of the video). To help you, you may wish to blue tack the plastic wallet on the table.
Welcome to the messy part now:
Prepare your workspace – cover your work area with either newspaper or a mess mat.
Once you have picked out your coloured tissue paper, either cut or rip them into small squares/shapes. The size of them will vary depending on your design (see step 6 above). In our example video, we used a variety of shapes and sizes to suit our design.
If you haven’t done so already, make your glue mix with 1-part PVA with 4 parts of water and mix well.
Now start to glue on your chosen tissue colours onto the plastic wallet. (See step 6 and 7 above). Don’t worry about the tissues overlapping the black lines, this will be covered with your black cut out design. Take your time on this part. You may wish to layer different colours on top of each other or layer up the same colour.
Important:
Avoid leaving any gaps in the tissue “window”- it needs to be all one piece
Ensure there are no dry tissue spots when you have finished your design so that the “window” fully sticks together.
Let this now dry for 24 to 48 hours. (The more glue you use the longer it will take to dry). It needs to be fully dry to peel off the wallet in one piece. (See step 8 of the video).
When the tissue “window” is dry, gently peel off the hardened tissue layer from the plastic wallet.
Before you glue your border on, check that you have the “frame” and tissue lined up correctly. (See step 8 of the video).
Using a glue stick, apply glue to the black “frame” ensuring you cover everywhere on the side which you will be sticking down on your tissue.
Carefully line your tissue “window” up to the black frame and press firmly around the “frame” to ensure the tissue “window” fully sticks to the black “frame”.
Don’t forget to find a spot to enjoy your finished stained glass window. Consider somewhere that lets in plenty of light, that you will pass frequently. (See the last slide of the video for inspiration).
Find support in Leeds
If yyou are struggling with your mental health, there is lots of support available in Leeds. Here are some websites that can help you to find the right service or support for you:
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