Connection Matters
By Marian Anderson, Made With Many
Last week, the Made With Many team had a Wellbeing Day, which we hope to make a regular feature in our calendar as a chance for the team to hit the reset button in our very busy schedules, and help prevent burnout; which is all too prevalent in workplaces these days.
We started our day with a beginners’ yoga session with Julia Thorley, accompanied by a cacophony of creaking joints (particularly from my knees) and ending it with a relaxing meditation. After lunch and a cuppa we embarked upon having a go at lino-cutting at the KHL Community Workshop with Tom from Timber Club, who you can meet at our Family Arts Festival on 1st July. This activity was quite challenging, and having decided to play it safe with an abstract design and endeavouring to keep it achievable, I still managed to spend hours lost in making and was the last to finish. However, I did manage to do a few prints by the end of the session despite a last-minute rush!
I was moderately pleased with my artwork, but much more appreciative of the clearing effect of the process of making on my mind. Just doing something with my hands, paying close attention to how to use these new tools and experimenting with making marks in an unfamiliar material was extremely calming. Similarly with the yoga, whilst it took me out of my comfort zone (having not done a class like this for too many years to mention) it made clear how much stress the body is holding and how I really should be stretching more regularly, since most of my work time is spent at a desk.
As well as it being a great day to reconnect with the team, chat about non-work related stuff, it was a good time to reconnect with my own body and mind.
Connections Matters, and it is the theme for Loneliness Awareness Week this week, so I encourage you to get out there and make those new connections, as well as reconnecting with yourself and connections that may have lapsed during the pandemic – I know I am guilty of this, I keep saying I must get back in the habit of getting out more!
Be sure to keep in touch with us too, as we’ll be out and about this Summer, reconnecting with our communities in both Corby and Wellingborough.
Find out more about our events or see our Get Inspired guide to find local creative groups to help you get out there and get connected!
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