On 12th Nov 2022, from 12.00pm - 5.30pm,
The Realcovery Lounge took over Northlight Arts Centre, and you were invited!!!
Our event included space for 'Creative Actions for Wellbeing'.
We held workshops, hosted stall holders, and showcased the incredibly talented performers, poets, authors, and artists, who are part of our growing community.
Workshops.
This gorgeous poem, 'Free Thought', came from our creative writing workshop.
Poets/Rhymers/Writers.
This beautiful reflection about Realcovery was written by Dave Lynch.
'There's a feeling of being part of something bigger,
More than the sum of numerous parts,
Unity, community, coming together under the same idea,
The concept of mattering in all the chaos.
It's a warm feeling, encountering moments I'm glad I didn't miss.
A light in the dark of an ongoing abyss.
Almost purging, soothing, healing,
Realcovery.
There's something to be said for leaving a negative head space.
And finding something different amongst strangers'.
Stallholders.
Our wonderful stallholders offered a huge variety of things at the event. Jas was one of them, and she offered Reiki sessions, and had a range of wellbeing related products for sale.
After the event she sent us this wonderful card and gift.
Check out her website for more info www.transformingtraumatoday.com
The Realcovery Lounge chill out, and sensory space, was a big part of the day.
In our comfortable, warm, welcoming room, people relaxed on cushions, chairs, and bean bags, surrounded by fairy lights, to the sound of the tongue drum, poetry readings, author talks, and musicians.
Some people rested, and napped, in safety - able to put the weight of the world down for a while, some people drew on the paper offered to them by Emma and Robin, and captured the atmosphere of the day, some read our latest Zine, some people chatted gently with others and made new connections.
It was a beautiful, recharging space.
Thank you to all of our performers, you created something really special, and it is hugely appreciated.
Thank you to everyone who rested in this cocoon, with us, for a while, it was wonderful to have your company xxx
Realcovery Creators practise patterns of unmaking and making through creative activity!
In any big life change, something is unmade, and this leads to a need to make and create a new way of life.
So, we believe, it is essential to develop the skill of being able to creatively make, because those skills are transferable, and form the foundation of Realcovery!
The surface level 'detail' of what the making is for, e.g. shaping a new career if my job has changed, learning a different way of managing my energy if I have become poorly with fatigue, making a lego model that moves, problem solving a way to fix a pair of trousers......sits above the deeper level learning of things like 'noticing', responsively finding the way through something, developing the stamina to see it through to the end, finding out what fits me and what I enjoy, challenging old, and limiting, ideas of what I am 'good' or 'bad' at, embracing the approach of being able to engage in trial and error processes purposefully - to be able to 'rub out' and start again, without self-criticism for perceived mistakes, to practise managing frustration, rather than let it manage me, to be developing persistence and expanding thinking......
We don't learn to 'do' art, we practise the skills that we will then transfer into the actions of creating ourselves, so that we can 'be' whole, and can become our own saviours. So that Real Recovery can happen because I am able to become more in tune, and aware of myself - I am the place the raw material, that I can mould, exists.
There is so much more, and so, here, in the Realcovery Lounge, we weave creative making, and actions for wellbeing, through all we do.
The best creative flow happens in safety and relaxation, so there is no pressure, just beautiful space to explore.
#realnotperfect
Jill Jarvis is a Realcovery Creator!
Jill regularly uses her creative abilities to help herself, and others, and she made the banner for our event.
We love handmade things.
Thank you Jilly!
Supported creative actions for wellbeing.
At our event, we had experienced Realcovery Creators on hand - people who are comfortable, and familiar, in using art materials, and methods, who are currently experiencing a need for rebuilding and reshaping in their own lives, for various reasons, and who can support others to find their creative flow. Everything is an invitation, not an expectation, and we live the #realnotperfect way.
Emma invited people to come and colour in a square, on the board, she set up, and supported people to capture the experiences of what they could see and feel x
Independent creative actions for wellbeing.
Scroll down to see the gorgeous images created on the day by people who attended our event.
Some people drew what they could see, some captured what they could hear, some expressed what they felt, some wrote messages, others brought forth fascinating landscapes and scenes from their imagination.
People have shared that they could feel the energy in the room and it felt like drinking a very needed glass of wonderful, hydrating, nourishing, and essential, water.
So, if you came along on the day, thank you so much for supporting us, and for being part of it all!
We'd like to say a huge thank you to those who gave their time to making this happen, we couldn't do it without you.
If you would like to come and chat with us, then please find us in our Facebook group - The Realcovery Zine.
And, if you couldn't come along but would still like to support us by donating towards our growth and development please go to paypal.me/realcovery
xxx
