This week, for Mental Health Awareness Week, we have been taking some of our Ty Canna project participants outside to be inspired by nature in the Cardiff area. Our group members enjoyed getting outside in the fresh air and coming together to be social and creative in a green space, a community allotment plot in the city.
The Mental Health Foundation started Mental Health Awareness Week 21 years ago and it has grown to become one of the biggest awareness weeks across the UK and globally. The theme of Mental Health Awareness Week this year is the impact of loneliness on our mental health and the practical steps we can take to address it:
‘One in four adults feel lonely some or all of the time. There’s no single cause and there’s no one solution. After all, we’re all different! But, the longer we feel lonely, the more we are at risk of mental health problems. Some people are also at higher risk of feeling lonely than others.’
(Mental Health Foundation, 2022)
We took photographs, talked about nature and how it made us feel, and wrote poetry inspired by the day:
A Diamond in the Ruff
A place where people can grow, greenery can flourish and vice versa!
A chance to go back to your roots and bear the fruits of your labour.
Among friends and fellow budding naturalists, you can explore micro
and macro worlds that we seldom see in today’s busy concrete world.
A stone’s throw away from the urban humdrum is the allotments –
Makeshift doors, ponds full of life and ecological diversity
everywhere you look.
Bees, flowers, elephant garlic and tweeting birds are all encompassed
in this hidden gem.
Capture a moment of peace, whether reading a book, planting a seed or
sketching some art, there’s always something to do at the allotments.
by Jacob