The Wellbeing Hour: 1 February 2021

For our third show, we dedicated our first half to Time to Talk Day (4 February 2021) and focused on the “power of words” and how words can impact our mental health in a positive or negative way. We started by chatting to Michele, our Creative Writing tutor, on why writing can help to transform our emotions as well as how we can change our internal language, ie. the way we talk to ourselves. Michele also set up an easy and fun creative writing task to get our listeners to try writing poetry themselves, using their own voice and choosing their own words (or even making up words!).

Then Suzie from our Women’s Group talked about the power of positive affirmations and how they can reframe your thoughts and even change your day.

For the second part of the show, our attention was on supporting young people’s wellbeing as part of Children’s Mental Health Week (1-7 Feb 2021). We heard from the User Voice and Participation Team on where to seek help if a young person is looking for some support in these current times.

We then took a 5-min breathing space with Litsa to reflect and pause. Finally, our arts facilitator Taryn talked to her friend Lee-Anne Eastwood, Educational Psychologist, on what advice we can give parents/carers on how they can emotionally support their children during lockdown and home-schooling as well as how to look after their own mental health.

You can listen to the show again by clicking on the audio file below:

During the show, we asked listeners to get in touch with us at connie@maryfrancestrust.org.uk to:

• Submit their acrostic poems in response to Michele’s creative assignment so they can be read during our next show on 1 March 2021. Deadline for poem submission: 15 February 2021.
• Send in specific questions that parents/carers may have in relation to supporting their children with their mental health during lockdown and home schooling as well as supporting their own wellbeing. The questions will be answered by a counsellor during our next show on 1 March at 9pm. Deadline for question submission: 5 February 2021

How to listen to the shows going forward

The show is pre-recorded and then broadcast on Surrey Hills Community Radio (an internet radio) on the first Monday of every month at 9pm. You can listen live while it’s being aired from your smartphone or tablet, laptop or even car radio – read further instructions on the Surrey Hills Community Radio website.
Alternatively, if you can’t listen live, we’ll share the Listen Again link after the show in this section of our website and on social media so you can catch up.

How to get involved with the show

This show is all for you, about you and about your wellbeing, so we want to hear from you!

Please email us at connie@maryfrancestrust.org.uk with the subject line “The Wellbeing Hour” if you’d like to:

• suggest a topic to be featured or discussed on one of the shows
• suggest a song to be played out during one of the shows
• suggest an activity for one of the shows to engage our listeners
• provide feedback so we can improve
• answer questions asked during one of the shows (make sure you follow the deadline)
• submit any piece in response to an activity set out during a show (make sure you follow the deadline)
• be involved in the making of the shows (whether as a presenter, interviewer, project manager, segment producer, sound editor, idea generator, intro and link writer, advertiser, you name it! We can provide some training if you have no prior experience)
• have any questions you’d like to ask
• come on the programme as a guest.

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