11/06/20 BLOG 1: SELF CARE
I am really excited to be able to say Together Alone has lift off!
Coronavirus has pushed us all into new, often difficult, and uncomfortable situations. CLiCK already provides support but we wanted to go further and open up a conversation about mental wellbeing during lockdown and beyond with the creation of a collective self-care toolkit. We want to reflect on self-care – what does it mean to us all, what do we do that helps our mental wellbeing and what do we need to help our mental wellbeing when self-care doesn’t go far enough? What do decision makers need to hear and do?
We want to look at self-care not just as the individual things we do for ourselves, but to also think about it in its’ radical form, acknowledging the wider systems that impact on our lives, - like the fact that Covid-19 has had a disproportionate financial impact on BAME women and single mothers for example - and thinking about how finding space to take time for ourselves is an act of resistance against forms of oppression. As the activist and writer Audre Lorde put it “Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare”
Being part of Together Alone began a process of self-reflection for me on a personal level – I’ve had to really think about what I’m able to do right now to help with my own situation, as well as try not to dwell on the wider situation that I have very little control over. It’s been difficult at times as things I would normally do to help my wellbeing such as finding time to read or going to the gym haven’t been either accessible or working in the same way during the pandemic, nor have I had the time, space or energy to do give them the same amount of thought. Thinking about self-care as a collective action has helped to take some of the weight away as it helps knowing that it is not necessarily an individual action or responsibility. This is something we will look at in more detail over the coming weeks.
We want Together Alone to be an opportunity to explore the links between creativity and self-care – appreciating how creativity can be a form of self-care in and of itself but also provide us with the tools and techniques to visually represent what our self-care practice looks like. Over the coming weeks and months, we’ll talk more about these links between creativity and self-care and consider what it means to us when we embark on a new creative project and the feelings that go. We appreciate how daunting it can be to start something new creatively – either finding the time or space, or learning a new skill. We have worked with an artist and a photographer who have created masterclasses that we will share here on CLiCK Magazine and on CLiCK social media. We hope that they will give you an opportunity to try new creative skills and projects, as well as a way to share your works, ideas, and tips for the toolkit.
The project is kicking off via CLiCK social media with our wonderful women’s workers sharing some tips that they find useful right now. We have identified 5 rough categories of self-care – Grounding, Joy, Movement, Comfort and Connection. We will be sharing tips and resources under these headings every day, as well as using these to guide the building of the Together Alone toolkit. We would love you to help us to build this flexible, creative toolkit together by sharing what works for you!
Coronavirus has pushed us all into new, often difficult, and uncomfortable situations. CLiCK already provides support but we wanted to go further and open up a conversation about mental wellbeing during lockdown and beyond with the creation of a collective self-care toolkit. We want to reflect on self-care – what does it mean to us all, what do we do that helps our mental wellbeing and what do we need to help our mental wellbeing when self-care doesn’t go far enough? What do decision makers need to hear and do?
We want to look at self-care not just as the individual things we do for ourselves, but to also think about it in its’ radical form, acknowledging the wider systems that impact on our lives, - like the fact that Covid-19 has had a disproportionate financial impact on BAME women and single mothers for example - and thinking about how finding space to take time for ourselves is an act of resistance against forms of oppression. As the activist and writer Audre Lorde put it “Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare”
Being part of Together Alone began a process of self-reflection for me on a personal level – I’ve had to really think about what I’m able to do right now to help with my own situation, as well as try not to dwell on the wider situation that I have very little control over. It’s been difficult at times as things I would normally do to help my wellbeing such as finding time to read or going to the gym haven’t been either accessible or working in the same way during the pandemic, nor have I had the time, space or energy to do give them the same amount of thought. Thinking about self-care as a collective action has helped to take some of the weight away as it helps knowing that it is not necessarily an individual action or responsibility. This is something we will look at in more detail over the coming weeks.
We want Together Alone to be an opportunity to explore the links between creativity and self-care – appreciating how creativity can be a form of self-care in and of itself but also provide us with the tools and techniques to visually represent what our self-care practice looks like. Over the coming weeks and months, we’ll talk more about these links between creativity and self-care and consider what it means to us when we embark on a new creative project and the feelings that go. We appreciate how daunting it can be to start something new creatively – either finding the time or space, or learning a new skill. We have worked with an artist and a photographer who have created masterclasses that we will share here on CLiCK Magazine and on CLiCK social media. We hope that they will give you an opportunity to try new creative skills and projects, as well as a way to share your works, ideas, and tips for the toolkit.
The project is kicking off via CLiCK social media with our wonderful women’s workers sharing some tips that they find useful right now. We have identified 5 rough categories of self-care – Grounding, Joy, Movement, Comfort and Connection. We will be sharing tips and resources under these headings every day, as well as using these to guide the building of the Together Alone toolkit. We would love you to help us to build this flexible, creative toolkit together by sharing what works for you!
