Connecting with self using Mindful Pottery
Mindful pottery is for everyone and to people who are experiencing any stress, anxiety or any negative emotions in their daily life and looking for an avenue to regulate their emotions.
Humanisinglives collaborated with Rashmi Singh who is UNESCO certified Expressive Art Therapist in order to combine aspects of neuropsychology with clay art to create a robust therapeutic experience. Throughout the pottery session, the focus was more on the process rather than the end product. The workshop aimed at helping the participants understand themselves and manage their negative emotions better, while finding a like-minded community within the space.
Few takeaways from the workshop:
*Importance of being in the moment/being mindful
*Feeling of community bond and safe space
*Becoming more aware of our emotions and how one can regulate them
*Connecting with self
*Understanding that the final outcome and perfecting it is not the key
*Understanding that one should be more engaged in the process and reflect on themselves
Managing Stress and Burnout in Corporate Culture
Workplace burnout hampers efficiency; it sucks out all the joy in one’s life and leaves one stranded against a pile of looming deadlines and zero drive to do anything.
Humanisinglives team did a very engaging session on Burnout and Stress Management at A&N Buying house to help them see the mental health of their employees as a collective priority and not individual challenge. The workshop aimed at helping the employees be more aware of how stress has been affecting them in terms of their health, behaviour and emotions, that is, their mental and physical health, in different unnoticeable and noticeable ways. The employees were also equipped with small strategies that they can use at any point of the day to manage their stress levels.
Few takeaways from the workshop:
*Brought more awareness to our mind and body through the activity conducted
*Greater insight on how body works during stress
*Realisation on how work-life balance gets affected and can be managed
*Went back home with a difference in their mood and physical health after the meditation activity
*Learned small techniques to cultivate the strategies for stress management during work hours
*Reflected on their personal experiences with respect to stress and how it affects them in the smallest ways.
Psychosexual Education for Boys
Psychosexual health and intimate hygiene for men is a subject of stealth that is not adequately addressed let alone considered. It is often avoided as a concept of education that is necessary for young children so that they are more aware about themselves and the environment as they grow up.
We at Humanisinglives believe it to be a subject of equal importance and hence, decided to conduct a workshop that focused on various aspects of psychosexual education like healthy boundaries, good and bad touches, the significance of respectful communication and healthy ways of establishing emotional and physical boundaries. The responses received and the interaction was definitely encouraging and eye opening for all.
Few Takeaways from the workshop:
*Gaining an insight about boundaries in different kinds of relationships
*Learning how to communicate better and effectively
*Learning more about intimate hygiene
*Gaining more knowledge on how to regulate our emotions better in daily life
*Learning what entails healthy friendships and playful touch as a part of it
Suicide Prevention Workshop At Gurgaon Prison
Team of Humanisinglives’s went to the Gurgaon prison to facilitate a workshop on “Suicide Prevention” with prison inmates in collaboration with India Vision Foundation.
Our main goal was to provide them an experiential space to help them acknowledge that their personal journeys may be different but they all go through the same human emotions, which are moulded by their collective experience inside that prison.
In midst of the workshop, we observed that somewhere they all wanted to be heard...they all had similar stories and traumatic experiences.
Incarceration takes a serious toll on mental health for several reasons.
1.People can experience a loss of purpose when they’re locked up.
2. The loss of sense of self can be quite disorienting, confusing, and troublesome.
3. Missing their loved ones and not being part of their daily lives increases feelings of isolation and loneliness.
4. Concrete walls, little natural night, and a lack of overall stimulation can take a serious toll on mental health.
A lack of psychiatrists, psychologists and dysfunctional state machinery is contributing to worsening mental health conditions in prisons. Treating people during incarceration and providing access to mental health after they’re released may reduce recidivism rates
One-day online Workshop on the theme of ‘Mental Health Problems and Suicide Prevention in Prisons’.
Suicide is often the single most common cause of death in correctional settings. Jails, prisons and penitentiaries are responsible for protecting the health and safety of their inmate populations, and the failure to do so, can be open to legal challenge.
Therefore, The Institute of Correctional Administration
(ICA), Chandigarh conducted a one-day online Workshop on the theme of ‘Mental Health Problems and Suicide Prevention in Prisons’.
Our Assistant psychologist Sidhartha Arya took a insightful session with State Prison Officers and highlighted the issues and early signs of suicide to promote preventative measures with the aim to reduce the number of suicides in prisons.
Few take aways from workshops are as under-
The importance of winning in small task daily.
Checking our negative thoughts and examining the evidence if they are true or not.
How Information feeding results in our thoughts and then feelings and behaviour.
Importance of active listening.
How different activities in jail can improve the overall culture organically.
Thanks to Dr Upneet Lalli Deputy Director ,ICA.
Inst of Correctional Adm. for her guidance and support.
Daring to Self -Care
By- Dr. Madalina Yellio, Clinical Psychologist, New York
Self-care is critical because we need to be healthy models for our children. It is essential that children learn coping and problem-solving skills to handle life demands successfully. If our children don’t see us implementing these same skills in our lives, it will be hard to convince them of their benefit. Instead, if they see you as an adult with healthy coping skills that include restorative self-care activities, then it’s more likely that tent will to develop these skills as well. After all, the staggering truth is that you are the greatest influence in their life. It is important that we model in our own lives what we hope our children will live out in their own journey. Listen to Dr Madalina Yellico, Clinical Psychologist -New York (Trained in evidence-based practices) and learn how you can implement this in your life and how self-care is the most important ingredient of parenting!
Importance of Emotional Welling
It may surprise you to learn that art can be an effective tool in mental and emotional well-being. In today’s session with our partner organisation @beingplusbecoming lot of creative expression was used to help people explore emotions, develop self-awareness, cope with stress. In creating art, people were able to focus on their own perceptions, imagination, and feelings. Participants were encouraged to create art that expresses their inner world and thought.
Pressures of Procreation in history
Dr. Smita Sahgal Associate Professor (History ) at Lady Shriram Collage-Delhi University. Delivered a lecture for humanising lives on the topic -pressures of procreation on history. She walked us through the instances of surrogacy/niyoga in the ancient scriptures and classical texts highlighting how motherhood has always been central to women and also to the idea of man-woman partnership. However she, through niyoga tried to elaborate on the emotional pressure of the social expectations on young couples, kings, queens, etc. That eventually resulted in the legalisation of multiple forms of niyoga practices in those times.
It was indeed overwhelming to see more than 50 participants on zoom. Thank you all for attending
Untangling the patterns with Mindful parenting
Our Udaipur ladies learned about how mindful parenting can positively benefit your child’s mental health, happiness, and well-being, as well as some simple ways to be a calmer, more mindful parent.