Wellbeing
This week has been the first week back to work for me, and I’ve been trying to hold on to the rituals that gave me space over my break.
During the holidays I slept, I read, I thought, I ran, I cooked, and I caught up with friends and family. I got in a sauna and an ice bath. I spent time with my children and celebrated my daughter’s 11th birthday. My festive break activities weren’t all wholesome; I drank way too much, ate far too much, slept too late and watched too many Bruce Willis films. But it was very relaxing.
As we get cracking on 2025, we’re all thinking about how we can be more (insert insecurity here) and less (insert insecurity here). But personally, I have no time for resolutions. We’re just people trying our best, and coming to terms with our limitations, our vulnerabilities, our failings and our frailties is one of the biggest gifts we can give ourselves.
I learnt this over the last five years working next to my dear friend Mansi Panjwani. Mansi is a peace educator, foodie, Buddhist and all-round amazing human who I’ve been lucky enough to work alongside in delivering well-being programmes to folk from all over the world. As a co-facilitator, one of the greatest joys is watching and learning from the other facilitator in the room, and I’ve learnt so much about wellbeing, self-compassion and self-acceptance from Mansi. I’ve learnt how important it is to recognise that we get things wrong (and that’s ok), that we need to champion ourselves, and that there is so much joy in making connections from halfway around the world.
Both Mansi and I know what it’s like to be juggling multiple roles, we know what it’s like to be pulled in lots of different directions and we know what it’s like to feel like what you’re doing is never good enough. But it is. Of course, it is. I’m telling you right now, you are good enough. And what you are doing is good enough.
We’re dedicated to supporting individuals, communities and societies to feel and be better, we deeply believe in the value of self and community care. We cannot look after everyone else if we cannot look after ourselves. And we cannot look after ourselves if we’re not looking after, and being looked after, by our communities. We’re social beings and we all need that care, connection and community in order to thrive.
Drawing on our years of experience, we’re launching a new well-being for women leaders programme, starting in March. We’re really excited to be offering a taster session for folk on the 4th February, 1300-1400 GMT. The full programme will be 8 sessions long and will also offer you a WhatsApp community and access to videos on this very website. In the taster session, you’ll get a sense of the types of activities we’ll do, our style of facilitation and who else will be joining you. We plan to support women who are juggling lots of different roles and help folk to prioritise their own wellbeing through lots of creative activities.
If you’d like to register for the taster session, click here, and if you have any questions, just email me on info@thedots-uk.com.
Ditch resolutions, make time for connections. <3
This week I’ve been
-Listening to Scotland Outdoors on BBC Sounds and learning about whale accents while cooking from this book Slow - lots of deep sauces and creamy curries. .
-Putting together a PhD playlist on feeling better; I’m not entirely committed to this idea but at the moment it’s helping me to think about what helps people feel better after harm, so… I’ll see how it pans out!
-Reading about Jenny Graham’s around the world cycle in her amazing book- inspiration!
-Thinking (again and more) about rituals and healing. This article in particular is fascinating.
-Connecting with folk working with young parents for a piece of work for Inspiring Scotland.
-Chatting all things children’s and young people’s participation with my friend and colleague Megan McHaney for our project with Creative Scotland.
-Chatting with Aimee from Social Enterprise Scotland about my next steps- legal structure thoughts and feelings!
-Getting my kids used to being back to school again. Exhausting for all concerned.
