Hey everyone! I hope you’re all winding down by now and looking forward to some time to rest, be with loved ones and eat nice food. For the last post of the year, I thought I would gather some of my favourite blog posts of the year and link to them here, in case you missed them first time around or fancy a reread.
1.Student mental health – Bryony’s Story
This year we shared a few blog posts written by ex or current students. The pieces focused on their experience of studying and how this affected their mental health. One of my favourite posts, published back in May, was Bryony’s; she talks about identity, creativity and the impact of lockdown on her university experience. Bryony’s writing is funny, moving and honest, full of both the excitement of moving away from home and the fears that accompany it.
2. Laura’s thoughts on loneliness
The theme of 2022’s Mental Health Awareness Week was loneliness, and Laura, one of our long-term Community Correspondents, wrote us a great post about her own experiences of loneliness and connection. She talks about being your own navigator, and the joy she draws from her garden, her photography and her three dogs. We posted a lot about loneliness this year; from interactive polls and anonymous messages on Instagram, to posts from our Community Correspondents, but Laura’s words were some of my favourites.
3. Mind Waves podcast on Creativity
Okay this one isn’t a blog post! (But I did write a post about it that you can read by clicking here!) Our podcaster, Rosie B, interviewed Simon, Vanessa and Chris about creativity, mental health and art for arts sake back in June. There’s a lot of great chat and things to think about in this episode, and I especially like it because our Community Correspondent, Derek, reads his brilliant poem ‘In My Madness’ at the end.
In October, we shared a piece of writing from Catherine, one of the attendees of our Creative Writing and Wellbeing workshops, run in collaboration with the Alliance and Humans of Scotland. Everyone in the group was stunned at how quickly Catherine was able to come up with this piece of writing in response to a prompt. Her writing is incredibly visceral, with clear imagery and feelings of love weaved throughout.
5. Staying positive during the winter months: Tips for winter wellness from Hilda
This post went up less than a month ago, but it’s so good I think it deserves some more promoting. Hilda writes about the urge to hibernate during winter when everything feels ‘blurrghhht!’ and shares some helpful resources from COPE Scotland. We’re even deeper into winter now, so it’s a perfect time to revisit her advice.
So there we go! 5 posts that I’ve really enjoyed reading this year. If you had a favourite Mind Waves blog from 2022 that you think deserves some love, let me know! Get in touch with us by emailing maddy@mindwavesnews.com, messaging @MindWaves1 on Twitter or DMing midwives_scot on Instagram. See you in the new year!
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