History and Structure of my Workshops - and how they Reduce Stress

Corona Virus and its effect on Stress and Depression

I started to give these workshops in September 2021 - my response to the distress caused to so many people around the world, by Covid19 and all the lockdowns.

Human beings are social animals. We are a Tribal Species. So the lockdowns have been very hard on many people. For some it enabled family members to spend more time together, but for others it increased tensions. Domestic violence increased and stress and depression levels increased all over the world not only due to illness and bereavement - the direct results of the virus - but also due to fear and isolation.

Raising Consciousness - Reducing Stress and Building Resilience

I see the current situation in our world as like a real battle between the inner forces of light and darkness. The outcome of this 'struggle' will shape the future of our entire planet - not only our own species. We are seeing the results already - but the situation is not hopeless. We all have some power - and a responsibility to turn this situation around by 'making a positive difference' in whatever way we can.

I think that, if we have any knowledge, skill or capacity to reduce stress and depression - to help build resilience and increase happiness, we need to step forward and share this now.

I think it's important for good people, wise people, spiritually strong people all over the world, to take action together. There are a lot of us. If you are reading my articles, I guess you agree that we both fit this demographic. But what to do?

I love the quotation, 'Where focus goes, energy flows and results show.' There is much truth in this. If we apply our positive skills, focus and take action, we will make that difference. In my experience, no enduring positive change can occur unless we go to the heart or root of the problem. This is what I call consciousness. Everything is consciousness. Everything is energy. So to make enduring positive change, we need to raise the 'vibrational energy' or the consciousness of the world.

What do I mean by Consciousness?

Consciousness has a direct effect on our emotions, on our mood. Think of your moods. When you are in a good mood, you experience certain emotions which are 'positive' and bring people together. These 'heart-power' emotions tend to make you - and everyone around you - feel happy, because when you meet others, you share this happiness. 'High Consciousness' emotions are expansive. They spread a sense of connection or oneness. They include love, joy, kindness, compassion, empathy, understanding, benevolence and generosity, sweetness, patience, forgiveness, hope and inner peace. They make our world a happier place for everyone.

When someone is in a low consciousness, they tend to experience and project emotions which are 'negative' and cause division. These include fear and insecurity; impatience, irritation and anger; judgement, criticism, meanness, spitefulness, blame and revenge. If someone is in a very low consciousness, they may see no hope. Life can seem completely meaningless and they can sink into depression where there is very little life-energy and this can even result in suicide.

We can choose our actions at every minute and no matter how difficult our circumstances, we can choose to be positive and 'solution-focussed.' With this attitude, every action, every thought we hold in our mind, has the power to lift and heal. Instead of seeing problems as a headache, we can view them as a challenge, an opportunity to make progress and grow.

If we can raise our consciousness it will automatically influence everyone around us - and so make a difference to the world. We can work on the inner and outer aspects of progress together - our own self-transcendence and service to the wider world. That was my conclusion some ten years ago, even before I retired from teaching - and it has led directly to the workshops I am now giving each month.

Retirement - or A New Beginning?

When my retirement arrived I was excited because now I had the opportunity to do what I felt I really should be working on. I had started to research stress and depression some years earlier, when I was unemployed. Now I became an entrepreneur and began building on this knowledge and sharing some of the skills that had enabled me to deal with the difficult times in my own life, strong, cheerful, positive and resilient.

Mindfulness - and Meditation

I am a student of meditation. I have been practising a serious spiritual life since my early student days. I believe meditation to be the most powerful force for inner progress or self-transcendence, but for meditation it is best to have a teacher who has achieved mastery. I practise meditation and I am still a beginner in this field. I am not qualified to teach meditation. But when it comes to Mindfulness, this is also a powerful tool for reducing stress and improving wellbeing. I am an accredited Mindfulness Teacher and have a wealth of experience both in practising and in teaching mindfulness. So I include some basic Mindfulness and Breath-work - both theory and practise - in my workshop.

Art and Music

I am also a silk-paint artist and paint as a form of meditation. I find this powerfully therapeutic and enjoyable. Much of our stress comes from the thoughts we hold in our mind. We re-visit past problems and worry about things that might happen in the future. Mindfulness teaches us how to discipline the mind and bring our attention to this present moment, where much of the stress simply melts away - but any creative activity requires us to focus on what we are doing, bringing us into the present moment in a spontaneous way. Abstract Silk-Painting is particularly effective as we are not 'in control' but simply playing with the colours - and the results are always beautiful. Silk-Painting is a central part of my workshops.

Music is another form of stress-busting creativity. I am a musician and I play the Pipe and Tabor. When I am playing I feel energy flowing through me. I share this positive, joyful energy in the street and watch tired faces melt into smiles. I love to see the way that children in particular respond - but I find that people of all ages often spontaneously break into dance as they pass by.

Music has a tremendous capacity to lift our consciousness and increase happiness. When it comes to reducing stress and depression, physical activity is one of the most effective strategies. I bring dance into the Workshops, using my music, to include physical activity in our activities and highlight its importance.

Forest Bathing and the importance of Wonder.

In the 1980's Japanese industry was booming. As thousands left the countryside to work in the cities, a public health crisis developed. High levels of stress were causing illness and even sudden death among young men and there was a spike in rates of auto-immune disease. The Japanese Government organised extensive research to find the most effective way of reducing stress.

It was found that any contact with nature has the effect of relaxing our brain, especially the neocortex - which means stress levels are reduced - but time spent around trees is especially beneficial. Trees emit Phytoncides which protect them from harmful insects and fungi. When we spend time around trees, we breathe in these oils and they boost our immune system and bringing a wide range of health benefits. Time spent among trees lowers blood pressure, reduces heart rate, stress, anxiety, depression and confusion. It increases creativity, problem-solving ability and memory.

Natural killer (NK) cells are a type of white blood cells that provide a rapid response to viral-infected cells and cancer cells. These cells don’t rely on antibodies so are able to produce a much faster immune reaction than other immune cells. They have a 'tumor immunosurveillance' role, directly killing pre-cancerous cells.

In 1982, as the evidence emerged of the benefits of spending time in a wooded environment became clear, the Japanese Government called this 'Shinrin-yoku' which translates in English as Forest Bathing. Since that time further research worldwide has clarified the many benefits and 'Forest Bathing' or 'Forest Therapy' is now a mainstream practise increasingly used all around the world. Forest Bathing embraces Mindfulness and many ancient Shinto and Buddhist practices. It simply means to spend relaxed time around trees, engaging with nature consciously, through the senses of seeing, hearing, touching, smelling and tasting.

Wonder

Ideally we would spend several hours on a Forest Bathing Outing but in my Workshops I just offer a 'taster' and remind participants of the value of spending time in nature, and especially in woodland.

We also explore the emotion of wonder - which is the emotion we experience when something in the outside environment catches our attention so vividly that we stop everything we are doing - or thinking - and just stand and stare. This could be something vast such as a rainbow, a sunset, or something tiny like a crystal drop of dew on a blade of grass, sparkling in the early sunshine. When we are experiencing wonder, the mind completely stops thinking about anything and we feel a great surge of elation and happiness that has nothing to do with the material world or our outer circumstances. It's like a communion between our deepest existence and the rest of the universe. Sometimes we can feel we are flying - or completely absorbed in and part of whatever it is that has caught our attention.

The 'Romantic' poets celebrated the emotion of wonder beautifully. This is an example by William Blake - just four stanzas from a longer poem -Auguries of Innocence. - To see a World in a Grain of Sand And a Heaven in a Wild Flower, Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand?And Eternity in an hour.

And a favourite by Alfred, Lord Tennyson - The Eagle. He clasps the crag with crooked hands; Close to the sun in lonely lands, Ring'd with the azure world, he stands. The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls; He watches from his mountain walls, And like a thunderbolt he falls.

In my workshops I provide a clipboard with drawing paper and a pencil. I invite the participants to go out into the garden and look for something that catches their eye - or their imagination. They can draw it or write about it. They can record something of their emotions and any memories that the experience may awaken - or just look and enjoy. It is not required to record anything. On returning to the Hall we share something of our time - both among the trees - and of what we chose to study in more detail. The responses are always profound.

How The Workshop is Structured

In my Mindfulness-Joy Silk-Painting Workshops, we start with The School-Room. On arrival participants are welcomed and choose something from the refreshment table to drink. Then, sitting around the table, we introduce ourselves and explore some of the things that make for good resilience. We are not strong as individuals. So where do we look to find our strength when challenged and alone? We explore some of the values and ideals which give our lives courage and direction. Next we learn about the significance of different colours, how they relate to our chakras and what qualities they strengthen in us. We will be choosing the colours for painting our silk scarves later in the workshop so this gives participant time to reflect on which colours they may choose. Then we learn a bit about mindfulness and the importance of breath-work and practise some exercises together.

Next I introduce Forest Bathing and the way that observational drawing can help us to see more and engage with the emotion of wonder. I ask everyone to find something, while they are outside, which really catches their eye and simply respond in their own way. They can draw or write or reflect on how it makes them feel. It may connect them to some other time in their lives. I provide clip-boards, drawing paper and a soft drawing pencil.

While everyone is busy with the Forest Bathing, my wonderful Assistant and I spread waterproof cloths on the tables and set the room up for silk-painting.

When the room is ready, I go out with my Pipe and Tabor and call everyone together for the dancing. At first it tends to be a bit awkward and people feel embarrassed, but soon they get into the flow and we conclude this with dancing in a conga-line, back into the hall for the Silk-Painting.

Back indoors we share our experiences of the Forest Bathing Taster. Then I demonstrate two styles of silk-painting - and then everyone gets to play. This is the longest part of the workshop and also the most popular.

Serious Music, a Vegetarian Feast and a Concluding Visualisation

My Cellist arrives as the silk-painting is concluding. I invite participants to curl up on the carpets with a cushion or two and rest. Some do so, especially the children, while others prefer to make themselves comfortable in a chair. The Cellist is a young virtuoso and composes his own music as well. His contribution to our workshops is something I could not have dreamed of. He holds the participants spellbound for about 20 minutes - the time it takes for my Assistant and myself to pack away all the silk-painting materials, clear the tables, cover them with fabric table-cloths in place of the plastic ones - and set out our Vegetarian Feast.

One of the most important strategies for reducing stress and depression is simply to engage with positive and cheerful people. I call it Positive Social Contact. It is 'at play' throughout my workshop but especially during this concluding meal.

The final exercise is a visualisation on light, oneness and gratitude.

Feedback

In my early workshops, I often did not have a clear idea of who would be coming until the workshop began. Some booked through Eventbrite - so I had a record of them - but some of them did not actually attend. Some learned about the workshop through my Linkedin or the Meetup-Group. Others came from a conversation while I was out playing my music or from a leaflet I handed out somewhere. At the workshop itself I was far too busy to take names and and contact details - but for this September Workshop I created a Feedback Form.

I gave everyone a copy as soon as they arrived and they filled in name and contact details as we introduced ourselves. There was also an opportunity to self-assess their stress level on a scale of one to ten. Then these were handed back to me.

I gave them out again after the Forest Bathing section, before they began painting their silk scarves. Then again I took them in.

In the September Workshop, we had several mothers with children. Most of them couldn't stay to the end, so I gave the feedback forms out before the meal ended. After commenting on or giving a score of 1 - 10 for each of the activities, I asked them to self-record their stress again. Then, because everyone was enjoying the music so much, we did not progress to the concluding visualisation on this occasion.

Later I was delighted to discover, from the Feedback Forms, that every single participant had recorded a reduction in their stress level. Since the score was on a 1 - 10 scale, these could be read as percentages - and the average reduction in stress was 36%.

When it came to the scores given for individual activities, there were no scores below 10 and some participants gave a score of 100 or even 1000 for the things they liked best.

The Workshop History

After my retirement I began silk-painting seriously - as part of my effort to raise consciousness. I created unique, hand-made silk-paint cards and silk scarves which I sold first in Craft-Fairs and from my Etsy shop. Then, as I gained confidence, I took a stall at Covent Garden Market in London. I also began to play my Pipe and Tabor more regularly, mainly at Waterloo or Embankment Station. I even recorded a CD of 45 Christmas Carols.

It was my mother who encouraged me to give Silk-Painting workshops. She said the return would be immediate as people pay for the workshop on the day - in contrast with the silk products which had to be marketed later. Because my aim was to raise consciousness, not simply teach a skill or provide an enjoyable experience, I called these Meditative Silk-Painting Workshops, creating a peaceful atmosphere and giving some mindfulness exercises alongside the silk-painting. I gave these monthly workshops at the local community centre, through 2018 and 2019.

The Seven Steps to Happiness

As I fitted more and more stress-reducing strategies into these 2-hour Monthly Workshops, they expanded and evolved into 2- or 3-day retreats, which I held at home. I developed a comprehensive, holistic Programme which I called The Seven Steps to Happiness. My son encouraged me at every step and came to the retreats not only as a co-teacher but also as the cook. Without him I could not have done them.

In early 2020 I went to explore a beautiful venue in Porto Santo, and was invited to give a 5-day workshop on the island of Guernsey in May. I was promoting the next workshop in March and working on building my 'team' so I could free my son from the responsibility, and expand into longer retreats, when The Pandemic arrived on the scene.

I realised that if I did not learn how to take my work online, I would, quite simply, have no business and be unable to do anything to 'lift the world' or make any kind of difference. Indeed, being in the older age-range, there was no guarantee that I would even survive the pandemic myself. I rose to this challenge by writing books and increasing my skills, learning much about online programmes and getting accredited as a Mindfulness Teacher. I used a big chunk of my Bounce-Back Loan to learn how to create an online version of The Seven Steps to Happiness and did indeed move it online - as a 9-week programme,

Although there are still Seven Steps - I discovered experientially that we needed an Onboarding Week to prepare for the programme and a week at the end for review. But I struggled with marketing and missed the buzz and interactive power of a live event. So as soon as the lockdown eased I began to prepare for my face-to-face workshops again - but on a larger scale, somewhere between the 2-hour Meditative Silk-Painting and the longer retreats. This led me to create my Mindfulness-Joy Silk-Painting Workshop which is a mini-retreat in itself.

Happiness Coaching

Everyone can move their lives forward by increasing time spent practising any of the strategies I include in my workshop. Remember everything is energy and where focus goes, energy flows and results show. Depression feeds on a sense of helplessness and hopelessness. It's like being at the bottom of a deep, dark hole. It feels as if there is no way out. But even if we are taking only tiny steps forward, we will change this situation. Mindfulness is crucial because a negative mind can easily tear up all the progress we have made. I now give some selective Happiness-Coaching but I know my limitations. I prefer to work alongside other professionals.

If someone is suffering from severe depression or the consequences of trauma I would direct them to their doctor and encourage them to find a trained therapist. But if they wish to include Mindfulness, Forest Bathing and/or Silk-Painting I can offer that as a complementary practise.