Input On Groups & Events in 2024

That's so lovely to hear @Healandlove . Hugs

And you are part of making the forums what they are 🙂

Thank you @Shaz51. Hugs to you too.

I am so grateful I can get emotional support from this community. Hope you are feeling well. ❤️

Hey everyone, a wealth of great ideas continuing to come through- thank you so much! Please know we note all of them down to look at covering and will do our best continue to update and/or tag those who have expressed interest in upcoming discussions that may relate to your suggestions as they come up.

In the meantime, I just wanted to check in as I noticed a bit of a theme of boundaries in relation to values, and values as a basis for boundaries emerge in our recent post PGC discussion on values (here)- is this kind of topic something anyone would have interest in exploring more through another discussion at some stage?

@Glisten @Hopefulsoul @chibam @Former-Member @Zoe7 @nula_ray @Shaz51 @Healandlove @Former-Member @outlander and anyone else following along who'd like to input 😊

@TideisTurning thank you. Yes I think this topic would be very valuable as well as boundaries as carers whilst still caring and supporting. 🙏🏻❤️‍🩹❤️

Hey there @TideisTurning 🙂

I think the topic of values and how we can approach ours and others values would be nice to explore further, maybe? 🌺

Also, I was wondering what people think of happiness, and what practical things/activities/interactions influence happiness...for instance, I find happiness exists within an emotional layer cake, which is influenced by connectedness, states of mental and physical health, autonomy, activities/hobbies, romance/love/affection, resilience/tools, world view, where the layers all intermingle, with some being more influential (nearer to the surface) at some times in life than others. I also wonder is happiness just something intrinsic that we have influence over, like when we learn a new skill, or is it something different?

Another concept I am interested in is something I call 'catching the fall'..how do we recognise emotional changes within ourselves (especially for those of us living predominantly alone with no interactive emotional feedback on a day-to-day basis), and how do we build emotional resilience to minimise the impact of reduction in mood and our state of mind/health?

I hope these are interesting? 😍🌺

@Former-Member @TideisTurning I’d be interested in exploring along the lines of happiness and resilience. Living on my own and trying to deal with mood changes. How some days the slightest negative thing sends me spiral towards. Might be good for carers, remember the emotional swings I went through few years as a carer.

@Former-Member I like that idea you referred to as ‘catching the fall’. My 2 cats show me when I’m not well but I’m usually already on downhill spiral already but not enough for me to realise.

Yes I think chatting about how to recognise when things might be slipping before we get to a point where it’s a longer climb back (ie: ‘catching the fall’) might be a good topic - especially since it’s difficult to recognise 🙂🌺

@Former-Member your kitties are excellent friendly signposts to changes - how wonderful is that! 😀💜

Also, that’s a great point about happiness and resilience for both us people with lived and living experience, as well as carers…I often think of family/close carers holding lots inside, and not saying much to those they care for, and so I think that can result in emotional distress or pain..I would really like to participate in discussions including carers around this topic too 🙌🏻☺️🌺

A great quote that was sent to me by a friend who uses her lived and living experience as an advocate, by Dr Richard Schweizer:

"Love is an essential strength on our side as we seek to recover. It gives us the strengths to take risks, because we know that if we fall, there is someone to catch us. It gives us the confidence to trust our own judgment and exercise autonomy."

From Finding North website

I wanted to share this as another potential topic/sub-topic of discussion, if that sounds good?

@TideisTurning

@amber22

@Former-Member

@Healandlove

@tyme

🙂🌺

@Former-Member yes I would be very interested. Thank you 🙏🏻

Thanks @Healandlove 🙂

I thought it might be a good topic to explore what this means in the context of our experiences in living with mental health conditions and/or concerns, and how we might be able to find parallels if we don’t have people around us 🙂🌺