Chill Panda is for children and adults who want to learn how to manage stress, relax and feel better. It uses your phone’s camera to measure your heart rate and suggests playful tasks to suit your state of mind. Tasks include simple breathing techniques and lighter exercises to take your mind of off your worries.
Calm Harm is suitable for people who are trying to manage urges to self-harm. It is based on the principles of dialectical behaviour therapy – a type of talking of therapy that is often effective in people with mood disorders. The app suggests task to encourage users to distract themselves from urges to self-harm and help manage their emotional mind in a more positive way.
Headspace helps you to let go of stress and relax with guided meditations and mindfulness techniques that bring calm, wellness and balance to your life in just a few minutes a day. There are exercises on topics including managing anxiety, stress relief, breathing, happiness and focus.
Cove lets you create music to capture your mood and express how you feel. Instead of using words, create music to reflect emotions like joy, sadness, loneliness and anger. You can store your music in a private journal with text or send it to someone when you are struggling to express yourself through words.
Is a toolkit for your mind. Backed by science Happy Not Perfect enables you to play the daily happiness workout to reduce stress and improve sleep, learn breathing techniques, let go of negative thoughts, practice a positive mindset, meditate, set goals and track progress.
Is an anonymous peer-to-peer social network. It is a space to share your thoughts, feelings and secrets, give and receive support and connect to other support organisations. You can create a virtual pet who gets happier the more good you do.
Feel Stress Free helps you manage stress, anxiety and related conditions. Use the app to relax before a stressful situation or as part of your regular routine.
iPrevail connects you with people who face similar situations and know what you’re going through, with communities on stress, anxiety, depression and more.
Learn how to manage feelings like anxiety and depression with Catch It. The app will teach you how to look at problems in a different way, turn negative thoughts into positive ones and improve your mental wellbeing.
The My Possible Self app aims to help you take control of your thoughts, feelings and behaviour. Use the app to help manage fear, anxiety and stress, and tackle unhelpful thinking.
A Tool to Help You Build Resilience During Difficult Times
Free
trial Mindfulness Apps
Headspace – Available for iOS and Android. Designed to help you train your mind and body for a healthier, happier life and get the most out of your day, Headspace can be used anywhere. The free version of the app includes meditations and exercises that will teach you the essentials of meditation and mindfulness.
Calm – Available for iOS and Android.
Calm is the perfect meditation app for beginners (there’s a seven-day
beginner’s programme to get you started) but also includes programmes for more
advanced users.
The short, guided meditation sessions cover the basics of
mindfulness and there’s also a library of soothing nature sounds and scenes to
use at your leisure. One great feature if you’re looking to improve your
sleeping patterns is the ‘Sleep Stories’ – bedtime stories for adults
‘guaranteed to lull you to sleep’.
Insight
Timer – Available
for iOS and Android. Entry price: Free. But you have to navigate around
the subscription screen with the button that says “Start 7 Day Trial. Once you
scroll past that, you can access the free content.
Insight Timer has a huge library of content: over 25,000
guided meditations from around 3,000 teachers on topics like stress,
relationships, creativity, and more.
Stop,
Breathe & Think
Available
for iOS and Android. Entry price: Free. If you explore “All Sessions” you can
access the free meditations all in one place.
This could be useful if individuals are struggling with the
aspect of control or k this case, the lack of as this breaks it down into what
can be and what can’t and may be comforting.
This is a collection of written literature on different
aspects of the situation. I am not saying everyone will like this, but if you
have people who feel knowledge helps and likes to read around this situation,
then these could be useful tools.
Before doing any physical activity please contact your GP if you have any concerns.
Free access to our
online course: Mental Health Awareness for Sport and Physical Activity
Now more than ever, we need to look after each other’s mental
health and wellbeing. Coaches and coaching organisations have told us that they
are increasingly concerned about supporting the mental health of those whom
they coach, as well as ensuring their own wellbeing.
To support the coaching community, Mind along with partners UK
Coaching, 1st4sport and Sport England, announced on Monday 18 May that the
online course Mental
Health Awareness for Sport and Physical Activity is now available free of charge. Usually £18, the course is
accessible on the UK
Coaching website and will remain free until 31 August
2020.
The course which takes 2-3 hours to complete, is aimed at everyone
who works in clubs, community sport and physical activity – including coaches,
activators, sports administrators, front of house staff or volunteers. Learners
will be able to increase their knowledge of mental health, and confidence when
applying the learning into their coaching practice.
Specifically,
learners will be able to:
• welcome and support people living with mental health problems in
their sport and physical activity sessions
• increase their knowledge of mental health problems
• apply the learning in their coaching practice
• make their club or organisation more inclusive.
More information
For information about this course or Mind’s physical activity
work, please get in touch with the Physical Activity Team via sport@mind.org.uk or visit mind.org.uk/sport.
Try out mindfulness and yoga with our activity sheet
This month we are sharing our mindfulness and yoga activity sheet. Both of these activities can benefit our mental wellbeing. Sometimes it’s good to stop and take notice of what is going on in the present moment, as doing this can help you become more aware of how you are thinking and feeling.
Please feel free to try out this resource, or share it with anyone who may find it useful.
Mature Movers Online Classes
Some useful physical/mindfulness activity guides from Mind.
LIVE HIIT classes are every night live on my Instagram account. The basis behind them is to exercise the mind and body to be in a better state of wellness during lockdown.
Coronavirus has plunged the world into uncertainty and the
constant news about the pandemic can feel relentless. All of this is taking its
toll on people’s mental health, particularly those already living with
conditions like anxiety and OCD. So how can we protect our mental health?
Being concerned about the news is understandable, but for
many people it can make existing mental health problems worse.
So how can we protect our mental health?
Limit the news and be careful what you read
Having long periods away from news websites and social media
has helped him to manage his anxiety. He has also found support helplines, run
by mental health charities such as AnxietyUK, useful.
Limit the amount of time you spend reading or watching things which aren’t making you feel better. Perhaps decide on a specific time to check in with the news
There is a lot of misinformation swirling around – stay informed by sticking to trusted sources of information such as government and NHS websites
Have breaks from social media and mute things which are triggering
Mute key words which might be triggering on Twitter and unfollow or mute accounts
Mute WhatsApp groups and hide Facebook posts and feeds if you find them too overwhelming
Wash your hands – but not excessively
OCD Action has seen an increase in support requests from people whose fears have become focused on the coronavirus pandemic.
For people with OCD and some types of anxiety, being
constantly told to wash your hands can be especially difficult to hear.
Charity OCD Action says the issue to look out for is the function – for example, is the washing being carried out for the recommended amount of time to reduce the risk of spreading of the virus – or is it being done ritualistically in a specific order to feel “just right”?
Stay connected with people
Increasing numbers will join those already in self-isolation
so now might be a good time to make sure you have the right phone numbers and
email addresses of the people you care about.
“Agree regular check-in times and feel connected to the
people around you,” says Weatherley.
If you’re self-isolating, strike a balance between having a
routine and making sure each day has some variety.
It might end up actually feeling like quite a productive two
weeks. You could work through your to-do list or read a book you’d been meaning
to get to.
Avoid burnout
With weeks and months of the coronavirus pandemic ahead, it
is important to have down time. Mind recommends continuing to access nature and
sunlight wherever possible. Do exercise, eat well and stay hydrated.
AnxietyUK suggests practising the “Apple” technique to deal with anxiety and worries.
Acknowledge: Notice and acknowledge the uncertainty as it comes to mind.
Pause: Don’t react as you normally do. Don’t react at all. Pause and breathe.
Pull back: Tell yourself this is just the worry talking, and this apparent need for certainty is not helpful and not necessary. It is only a thought or feeling. Don’t believe everything you think. Thoughts are not statements or facts.
Let go: Let go of the thought or feeling. It will pass. You don’t have to respond to them. You might imagine them floating away in a bubble or cloud.
Explore: Explore the present moment, because right now, in this moment, all is well. Notice your breathing and the sensations of your breathing. Notice the ground beneath you. Look around and notice what you see, what you hear, what you can touch, what you can smell. Right now. Then shift your focus of attention to something else – on what you need to do, on what you were doing before you noticed the worry, or do something else – mindfully with your full attention.
North Kent Mind has been involved in various projects which have resulted in films being produced. Please take a look at them below:
For a look at some of North Kent Mind’s past services and projects see our film archive.
Mindfulnessis a process of learning how to live our lives more in the present moment, rather than being on ‘auto-pilot’ or living in ‘our heads’ with our thoughts, worrying about the past or the future. Mindfulness was developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn in 1979, and from this time has been developed for improving mental and physical wellbeing.
Ecology Island is a nature-based intervention, which takes place weekly across 8 sessions in a woodland area of Central Park, Dartford. The participants take part in a range of nature-based activities which allow them to learn new skills in a supported environment, outdoors in nature. Examples include bushcraft, campfire cooking, scrub clearance, wildlife ID, litter picking, bird and bat box building, wildflower planting and more.
SilverCloud Health provides a wide range of online guided self-help programmes for stress, depression and anxiety. Every client is allocated a psychological wellbeing practitioner from our service who will guide them through the programme and help with any questions they have. Programmes consist of around six or seven modules – which can be completed at the individual’s own pace, over approximately eight weeks. Clients with SilverCloud Health receive secure access to online supported CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) programmes, tailored to their specific needs, which have demonstrated high improvement rates for depression, anxiety and stress. https://northkentmind.silvercloudheal…
Looking for work, we could help with Individual Placement Support. We offer weekly support with job searching, CVs, mock interviews, dealing with interview anxieties and identifying suitable opportunities, providing tools to move forward in competitive employment., run in conjunction with Porchlight and Live Well Kent & Medway.
The All Our Stories Project recorded the experiences of our service users and resulted in a short film and art exhibition.
The Limelight Project was to celebrate 50 years of North Kent Mind we held a performance in June this year at the Orchard Theatre Dartford. .
Ecology Island is a nature-based intervention, which takes place weekly across 8 sessions in a woodland area of Central Park, Dartford. The participants take part in a range of nature-based activities which allow them to learn new skills in a supported environment, outdoors in nature. Examples include bushcraft, campfire cooking, scrub clearance, wildlife ID, litter picking, bird and bat box building, wildflower planting and more.
Open sessions are held on Mondays in Gravesend. They offer an unpressured environment, a ‘safe space’ where people with mental health issues can come and meet others and generally socialise.
Wellbeing Services. Many different services are provided by this department: they are all open to anyone aged 17 or over who has a mental health issue and lives within the Dartford, Gravesham or Swanley area.
To mark World Mental Health Day on the 10th October 2020. North Kent Mind has created a mindfulness breathing technique video.
North Kent Mind Service-User An inspirational video from a North Kent Mind service-user, who shares her tips for self-isolation. Thank you so much for allowing us to share. For more information please visit: https://northkentmind.co.uk/
An exciting new project that sees us working with 6 local Secondary schools and 5 local primary schools for school years 2020/2021 and 2021/2022. Our work aims to deliver a mixture of individual, group and drop-in support to suit all student needs.
For secondary schools:
Trained schools coaches’ work 1-1 with students* to increase self-awareness through solution focused conversations, psychoeducation and guided support activities. This is a safe, reflective space to discuss current challenges concerning peers, school, personal wellbeing and general life experiences.
Group work focuses on topics such as self-esteem, stress, anxiety and low mood, providing a place where students can come together, express themselves and talk about problems in a safe, comfortable environment. They are highly participative and activity based and teach young people coping strategies to help them manage their symptoms and conditions.
Additionally, we offer a drop-in service for students as a general support, information and advice giving and signposting service. This includes promotion of positive mental health through mindfulness activities, arts, peer support, safe spaces for expression or additional schoolwork.
For primary schools:
Trained primary school coaches work 1-1 with children* using various positive interventions such as solution focussed conversations, problem solving, arts (drawing & talking), creativity, interactive activities and Lego therapy. It is a safe, reflective space to discuss current challenges concerning peers, school, personal wellbeing, emotional awareness and general life experiences.
Group work will be facilitated by North Kent Mind to introduce children to a range of topics such as emotions (including anger), stress & anxiety, low mood, relationships and resilience. Each session will provide an opportunity learn about a specific topic through age appropriate discussion and activities, reflection and enable the child to take away practical tools or coping strategies to support wellbeing.
Where appropriate, structured drop-in style sessions can be scheduled and age-appropriate advice, information and positive mental health promotion will be facilitated.
*Please note this intervention is not clinical therapy, should this be required, a subsequent referral will be discussed with the school
If a project like this would benefit your school, North Kent Mind can offer support with grant applications to access our Youth Support programmes. Our team will identify the most relevant source of funding to your institution, helping through each stage of the application process.
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