Snuggle muffs for mental health

I was desperate for therapy in 2018. This need led me back to knitting and cuddly toys and eventually twiddle muffs. Twiddle muffs were invented for dementia suffereres. I call mine snuggle muffs, because they only have twiddles on the inside, the outsides are smooth and soft, I find this to be more comforting.

Terminal Therapy

Over the past three years I have been sharing various therapeutic ideas with this blog. I have found the therapies quite helpful at some times and very helpful at others. Mostly it's mindfulness and meditation that gets me through my days, sometimes St John's Wort. Art and crafts, music and drama, reading and writing are probably the therapies I like best. I made up my mind a few years ago that writing, art and music were most important to me. That view hasn't changed.

Garden Therapy

    

In some ways garden therapy can be more accessible than forest therapy. Forests are wild, as nature intended, gardens are more under control, nature with human intervention, a bit more organised. One great thing about living in London has been my association with Kew Gardens. My dad used to work here, his ashes are scattered here, I used to work next door. We mostly visit it in the Spring and Summer. These are some of my favourite photos from our frequent visits.

   

Travel Therapy

Sometimes it's just good to get away. My favourite week in my life was my week alone in New York. I like travelling alone to cities. I travelled alone around Europe. My first taste of Paris was on my own, it can be lonely, but if you enjoy your own company it's great. I love my own company and love solitude, but often I am accompanied by my mother and daughter, who generally need a holiday, so they come with me. Often we are just travelling around Great Britain, but that's fine, there's plenty to see here. It's especially nice at the seaside, but also our cities and countryside are good too. Holidays are great for gaining a new perspective on life, for practising mindful meditation, for doing something different, for just having a break from the norm.

Dance Therapy

My daughter and I have tried various dance styles over the years, starting with ballet, which we both pursued when we were young girls and which we were both not terribly good at. Since then, between us, we have tried modern, jazz, salsa, line, barn, street, tap and zumba dancing. We are not dancing atm, but I hope our dancing days are not over and we will find an opportunity for more dancing in the future.

Summer Term Therapy

Life generally feels a bit calmer, kinder and more leisurely  in the summer. Therapies I have chosen to explore in the summer months concern nature and relaxation; self expression in dance, restorative holidays and the healing power of water, trees and cosmic contemplation in our lives.

Craft Therapy

I had spent over three decades in the crafting wilderness, before being reacquainted with it in 2009 via Kirstie's Homemade Home, particularly the episode involving knitting and also a growing fascination with doll making blogs, in particular Jess Brown, Tiny Concept and Emily Winfield Martin. I started making dolls in 2010 and did my first craft stall in 2013. Out of all the crafts I have tried, knitting is by far the most therapeutic. I now mostly knit snuggle muffs to help comfort mental health patients.

Play Therapy

How you spend your days is how you spend your life. So is playing games a bad way to spend your time? Is life all just a game anyway? If it is a game we should be making it a good one. I'm not good at playing games. I used to play computer games but found them too addictive so I gave them up. I don't know if playing games will be good for me in the future, I know people who were really into bridge and bowls. I think I definitely need to lighten up and enjoy life more, but maybe not through playing more games. Things that make me feel better are cosmic contemplation, solitude, mindfulness, meditation, walking near water, watching films, the BBC, listening to music and sometimes playing it, arts, crafts, reading, writing, travelling on my own. Below is a mindful colouring idea related to play.

Music Therapy

Sometimes I forget how healing and relaxing music can be. I have taught the piano to adults and children since the late 1980s, most intensively from 2008 to 2018. Sometimes when something you love becomes more of a business, the fun can be zapped out of it. Dealing with the pushy parents of my young piano pupils was the worst thing. However I have learnt to get the most out of listening to and playing music once more. Music I find most relaxing to play and to listen to is Einaudi, Debussy, movie music, jazz and pop music from my teenage past.

Spring Term Therapy

January is a traditional time for making resolutions. According to quite a few studies it is also not a very good time to be making resolutions. March and the beginning of Spring are the best times to be making positive changes. The therapies I have been exploring in the Spring Term reflect the fact that January and February are still winter months, a time to enjoy indoor activities like arts and crafts, watching films, reading books, listening to music and playing games.

Poetry Therapy

 

I have enjoyed reading and writing poetry since I was little girl. The first poetry I fell in love with was contained in Peacock Pie by Walter de la Mare, in my adolescence I became obsessed with Sylvia Plath and the poems contained in Ariel. From 2000 to 2005 I ran my own poetry group 'SubVerse' which explored 'the Poetry of surrender'. We also ran art events and unassertiveness courses, looking back it was all fun and therapeutic, I kind of miss it.

Moving forward I encountered more poetry as I moved away from Christianity into Buddhism, there was much talk about Rumi. A favourite poem among the mindful is Leisure by WH Davies. Below is a wonderful poetry anthology you can dip into throughout the year, it includes many therapeutic poems including Leisure.

Tea Therapy

  

I started drinking tea when I was about ten and have now been enjoying it for over forty years, other rivals have come along like Guinness and Lattes, but they have failed to overtake my love of a good cuppa. I ran the SubVerse Poetry Tea Room from 2000 to 2005 which was inspired by my love of surrender, tea and poetry. Above and below are some of the tea related art I have created over the years.

Horror Therapy

My daughter was quite sceptical about Horror Therapy being a thing. I think it is a good way to face your fears. I have enjoyed all these horror films over the years, they are possibly not too scary, especially if you have watched them as often as I have. I think the portmanteau horror films are my favourites; Dead of Night, Tales of Terror and From Beyond the Grave. From Beyond the Grave is my most favourite; it stars Peter Cushing as the shop keeper and inspired my poem The Antique Junk shop.

Seaside Reflection

 

It occured to me, a few months ago, that if we managed to get to our 2021 holiday destination of Felixstowe then we would be able to celebrate twelve consecutive years of holidays by the sea. During these twelve years we also managed a trip to Brugge which included some time spent on the Belgium coast and my visit to New York City which included an outing to Coney Island. I love being by the seaside and it has been good to focus on these special times which help me through the darker, colder days of winter.

Autumn Term Therapy

September is traditionally the start of a new school year. Even when school is but a memory, September can be thought of as a chance for a new beginning, of developing ourselves, starting on new paths of self realisation. You can begin therapy at any time, use it to help you. You have one life, you didn't ask to be here, be kind to yourself and do what's best. Therapies for the Autumn Term involve writing, whether working on my blog or writing poetry, facing fear through horror, Edgar Allan Poe or Dr Who, or just contemplating higher realms through tea or spirituality.

Eight wellbeing books

 

As well as reading fiction, novels, short stories and poetry I have also enjoyed reading and rereading the following eight wellbeing books over the past year or so.

 

The Mindfulness Journal by Corrinne Sweet

The happiness passport by MC Hayes

The serenity passport by MC Hayes

Pottering by Anna McGovern

The mindful home by C & D Hassed

The little book of mindfulness by P Collard

The little book of inner peace by AD Bush

Slow by Jo Peters

Although I enjoy all of the books, I would say my absolute favourite is Anna McGovern's 'Pottering' book. It is very down to earth and amusing. It is accompanied by the endearingly quirky artwork of Charlotte Ager.

Forest Therapy

The concept of forest bathing comes from Japan. If you don't have a Japanese forest near you to bathe in, hopefully you can still find a few trees to befriend. We have Ruislip Woods near us which has a lido in the middle of it and can offer great opportunities for mindful walking and connecting with nature. Trees can be inspiring, beautiful, healing and fascinating. Slowing down and taking in the magic of trees and nature can be very good for us.

Water Therapy

When I was going through a very bad time in 2018 I had strong feelings that what I wanted to do most was to be by water; by rivers, the canal, by the sea, lakes and ponds. I just wanted to walk, sit or stand by water, to contemplate it and feel myself moving along with the flow of life. I still feel this way, I especially want to be by the sea, especially to live near it. We and the world are mostly water, so I guess this makes sense.

Space Therapy

I nearly forgot how important contemplating our place in the universe is to our well-being and mental health. Humility is an important, often underestimated quality, it is, after all, about being humble. What better way to let go of our everyday troubles than to contemplate the vastness of time and space and our insignificance in the face of it. It is good to do our best with what we have; just because we are small beings, living small lives, does not mean we don't do anything positive. It is good to do what good we can. Count stars, contemplate eternity, visit a space observatory, connect with the vastness beyond your little life and little world, it could be wonderfully liberating.