We had a very relaxed morning at our Rochdale studio, Dandelion Create. Mental Health Foundation had set the theme of stress for 2018 so we explored how we could help ourselves and each other to cope a little better with stress.
We took part in some non-judgemental art making which Stacey Coughlin led using inks on paper. We relaxed into it whilst colours washed over our pages and conversation took off. It was great to see how much colour everyone used used their pieces.
Stacey had also created a useful stress toolkit which asked how we would describe our stress, what physical reactions do we have and how can we tackle it when it hits us.
The group were really supportive of each other and the discussion was rich with suggestions. So to help us remember all of these great techniques we cut up our colourful ink art works into small cards where we wrote down a suggestion on each and put them in a decorated envelope.
Everyone took their enveloped home to add to their toolkit whenever they can and here's a few suggestions from the group:
"Relax in a chair and listen to your favourite music"
"Call a friend who makes you feel better"
"Dance or sing as though no one is around!"