Self- Reparations: Art, Activism & Well-being

"Creativity is the immune system of the mind..." - John Holt, founder of Artists in Mind (AiM)


Once again I was shaken by the Shakers!
Feel very honoured to be one of the facilitators on this project as the generosity, trust, desire to learn, share, give and work together for change is genuine and inspiring from all. This is now the 4th Shake! intensive I've been lucky to be a part of and each time we have refined the formula with the feedback we receive and the collaborative process with the participants.  The collaboration between the art forms of film, music and poetry was much more integrated than past Shake!s and this worked well with lots of ideas how this can be developed further. The intensive was intense and our guest speakers set the scene with some stimulating presentations, exercises and dialogues. Still things we can tweak and tailor to improve in the structure possibly but from the results the participants produced at the end of the week - it worked. Fired and inspired with ideas from the participants energy, passion and powerful art and looking forward to keeping in touch with these new Shakers as we implement the continuity programme, next Shake events, writing collective and more.

                                                                        
This latest Shake! had some very welcome additions I felt - especially the well-being workshop as mental health and artist/activist burnout has been a topic that has arisen naturally in discussion on previous Shake!s so incorporating a dedicated space and time for us all to skill-share our experiences and feedback coping strategies was extremely useful and productive. This was only possible due to the trust and safe space that had been built up during the week and this resource list will hopefully stand people in good stead for the future.

There can be a lot of ego and foolishness in the arts world so it's been very refreshing to work with such a fantastic giving team of artists/activists - learnt a great deal from their methods, approaches, fun warm up techniques and yoga breathing skillz. (Sai)

We did a pool of what we all do in our day to day lives to promote well-being in our art, activism and just generally. Here is what we came up with:

• Stop and breath ( deep breaths)
• Give without expecting even in our creativity 
• Switch off from electronic pollution 
• SMILE!!!
• Surround yourself with safe networks 
• Build a nice inner voice 
• Meditate 
• Remember things you are grateful for 
• Remember the inner child inside of you
• Be kind
• Learning how to say NO!: unlearning expections 
• Cleaning up and opening windows 
• Scream into a pillow
• Deactivate social networks for a while
• Aromatherapy
• Remember 'Life isn't a rehearsal'
• Do what makes you happy 
• Have a long bath 
• Yoga 
• Painting 
• Exercise 
• Re-defining our social environments 
• Lionel Ritchie
• Knitting 
• Playing the keyboard - make music 
• Pray 
• Download a self-control app