Thinking positively about ourselves and our creative practice may need to factor in notions of self care. Self care is a personal approach to maintaining an emotional, physical and spiritual equilibrium, whatever our current context is and may include:

• Taking care of physical health, mental and emotional wellbeing – ensuring time to rest.
• Having a good balance with work and personal life
• Looking after your own health
• Protecting one’s own well-being and happiness, especially during periods of stress.

The stress of working on my chosen project is a constant factor, bringing memories which surround loss into the light. However, the stress of traumatic grief was greater still. The time I experienced that trauma impacted me in so many ways, both physical and mental so I can perhaps think of my study as they end of a long road travelled evenb though beyond my time with the OCA my study and interest in things related to loss continue. I believe that my project looking at loss and with my major project trying to find a way to engage with others provides a positive slant on mental health of working in this area which can, at times, feel claustrophobic and oppresive. I am someone who can be filled with doubts and worry about audience, tutors and those who assess my work. I mention this as was pleased to receive some very positive feedback on 3.2. All of these small victories help bring a sense that what I am doing is worthwhile. At the same time such feedback indicates that there is much still to learn.

In past few months, I have suffered a slipped disk which meant that nerves all the way down the side of face and my arm were in pain for much of the day and night. It took a while but this problem fixed itself with reassurance of MRI scan and then followup physiotherapy. I am now able to look straight ahead again when on Zoom calls and sitting at computer is much easier. I am acutely aware, both through experience and through my learning, that stress can cause physical symptoms so mental and physical health don’t always have a different root cause. I suppose my approach to fitting my studies around physical and mental health is to try and condense my work efforts so I limit time spent at computer. This means I sometimes produce a glut of written work at one go. Have had some kind of chest infection past couple of months maybe due to some post-Covid outcome so that has limited my exercise but I try and eat better, meet friends, laugh and joke.

In my planning for this project and for future works in a similar field, I need to set time aside for self-care. This can be seen as a risk to the completion of a project which is mitigated through time and patience and the awareness that my work can open old wounds.

What can I say more than this? Managing well-being and happiness, especially during periods of stress.punctauted by anniversaries which bring back memories of loss are a part of me now. I suppose I do (or try to do) the things above without thinking.