Weekly Update #1: Exploring Mental Health in Bristol
This week Ministry of Change has been in Bristol exploring Martial Arts, Permaculture, Community Gardening and what is being done to engage young people with their mental health… oh, and welcoming a new little person into the world.
I just completed my first proper week ‘on the road’, living in the van in Bristol and visiting lots of exciting projects.
It was great to get out and about in Bristol meeting people who are doing fantastic things.
The umbrella of mental health is very wide, and I see it as part of the interconnectedness of the world around us.
At this point the focus of Ministry of Change seems to have two paths when looking at mental health.
- The first is looking at people and projects that are directly focused in helping people to talk about and understand their mental health issues — this may be an organisation like Sanctus in London, which I had the opportunity to visit last week, who focus on mental health in the workplace; or Off The Record, a Bristol based organisation who focus on young people and mental health.
- The other path I’m equally interested in exploring is people and projects who are more indirectly having a positive effect on mental health, by providing a service which looks deeper into the way society is structured to provide alternative ways of living to the status quo, and helping people to connect more deeply to themselves, community and what it means to be human.
In Bristol, I visited Mark and Jessica, who teach their own style of martial arts in their garden dojo, which has helped them both through difficult times with trauma and depression — and use their martial art skills to indirectly help the people they teach gain greater confidence and life skills.
I also visited Shift Bristol, one of Bristol’s best known permaculture courses, to look more into how a stronger connection to the land and growing can improve our wellbeing, as well as teach us more about organic ways of structuring society based on the principles of nature.
I then spent the day at Golden Hill Community Garden, getting my hands dirty, making soup from the garden’s vegetables and looking at the way getting your hands in the soil and learning to grow vegetables alongside your local community can improve your mental health.
I rounded off the week with a short trip to Wales, for a walk in the Wye Valley with my kind host Hayley, exploring the area, discussing the benefits of the great outdoors, and wrestling frisbees of dogs.
I’m starting to overcome my fear of asking people if I can record them for my podcast (“I’m not an experienced podcaster and that’s okay!”), and have already completed my goal of recording at least three conversations a month for January.
My other major fear over the past few weeks has been the practicalities of living in the van, and where to park it.
Bristol it turns out was a godsend in terms of van living. While it is not 100% accepted by everyone there, it seems to be much more understood than in most cities and there is a thriving van, and alternative living culture. Instead of just outright fighting the van-dwellers, the Bristol council and community are taking an approach of looking for a happy medium in which solutions can be found that can accommodate different living choices. While this is definitely not a quicker route than outright banning and criminalising people choosing to live in vans, it seems like a more peaceful and ultimately more inclusive approach to the situation.
It’s been a good start to 2018 and hopefully the next few weeks will be just as fruitful, as I venture to Oxford and Stroud, but not before spending a quality few days getting to know the latest addition to the family — my 4 day old nephew, Toby.
