Make Do Play - Week One

During March, King's College London is running the 'Make Do Play' challenge; a series of creative prompts, which invite participants to reflect on how creativity, arts, and play, can contribute towards improving mental health and wellbeing.

I signed up, and on the 1st March I received my first prompt, along with the instructions to think about how the activity make me feel, and consider whether it is something I might use in the future to improve mood, to relax, boost concentration levels, etc.

Day One

Singing

I sing to myself an awful lot already! In the shower, while washing the dishes, hanging up clothes, in the car... I enjoy a good sing-a-long to an old song that's playing on the radio, and often I find myself reminiscing about memories associated with particular pieces, such as a great night out with a friend, an audition that I used the song for, a time in my life when that song was popular. You get what I mean.

For this challenge I decided to just sing as I was completing some household chores, and found myself singing an old jazz standard that I used to use in my cabaret set. It reminds me of some really fantastic shows, along with all of the friends I made during that period of my life.

Music is something that is often used for metal health, such as 'Singing For The Brain', run by the Alzheimer's Society, which states that while 'many memories are hard to retrieve, music is especially easy to recall'.(1) This suggests that music affects a different part of the brain, making it emotional rather than logical, and appealing to us on a more responsive, sentimental level.

Day Two

Craft Making

I love the idea of Random Acts Of Kindness, and, in fact, there is an entire movement dedicated to things just like this!

This morning, before I left for my seminar, I grabbed a piece of paper and wrote out one of my favourite poems; '93 percent Stardust', by Nikita Gill. Then, because I like to be a little bit extra, I folded it into a butterfly.

 

I love this poem because it reminds me of the random, and therefore miraculous nature of life. I was excited to think that, after I left it on a table in a coffee shop, that someone else would discover this little gift and that it might brighten their day too.

Day Three

Dancing

I have a confession to make with this challenge: I put it off for a couple of days as I worked all weekend and was really tired when I got home each evening. On reflection, maybe blasting some upbeat music and dancing around my living room for a while would probably have given my energy levels a boost, but at the time all I wanted to do was curl up in my onesie on the sofa with a good book!
However, I did do this challenge on Monday, while in work! My colleague and I decided to change the window display in the shop, so I fired up my current favourite soundtrack on my iPhone (The Greatest Showman movie!) and we danced around the store like crazy people, while creating a bright and beautiful window display in shades of orange and red.
I think the music definitely inspired us to go bright with the colours: we laughed a lot while we danced, and sang along to the music, and I felt much more energetic afterwards, even if I was a bit out of breath!

Day Four

Drawing

Well I'm not going to tell you the thing that I would never draw, but the reason I'd never draw it is because I am terrible at drawing!! 

I do enjoy a quick sketch sometimes, but I don't find it relaxing at all; I find it infuriating and stressful because I can never get what I see down on to the paper. I would love to be better at drawing, and I know that 'practice makes perfect', and all that, but I don't like the frustration of not being able to get a drawing quite right!

I call this masterpiece: I Can't Draw

Day Five

Craft Making

As established (day two!) I love a bit of origami! As a student I have very little disposable income, so I like to find creative ways to give gifts, and origami cards are one of my favourite ways to send messages. So, with a friend's birthday coming up this week, I killed two birds with one stone.

Ten-Fold origami heart

One of the nice things about this card is that, because of the folding process, it has a little pouch behind the curved top, which I use to hold a couple of sweets!
I enjoy origami as it's a simple way to make something beautiful. I'm aware that it can be used as a meditation process as well, as the action of lining up the creases and folds *just so* can be very therapeutic. I often use crafting as a way to relax, or simply for something to do with my hands while I'm watching television as I can't really sit still!

Day Six

Dancing

Many years ago I trained in acting, and it's well-known that posture can make a character by creating personality through physicality. Along these same lines, body-language coaches work with public figures to look at the signals they send (or want to send) through their posture and gestures.
There have also been studies into the effect that posture can have on mental health and wellbeing, showing that by sitting or standing with good posture can improve concentration levels and mood, and many Yoga postures are designed to achieve goals such as calming the mind, or increasing energy flow through the body.

I was out for most of the day today, taking part in a durational performance piece to support the lecturers while they are striking, so when it was my turn to read, I made sure to stand with my shoulders back, my head held high (despite the fact that I was reading out loud from a book!) and my weight spread evenly rather than slouching into one hip. This 'power-pose', in body-language, depicts confidence and leadership, and has the effect of helping with voice projection since the chest and diaphragm are able to expand correctly. It also helps me feel more confident since my body informs my brain, and I really got into the 'character' - using my acting daahling!

Day Seven

Drawing

Back in January we went on a field trip with the Cultural Experience Award to visit the Southbank Centre. While we were there, we did some mindfulness exercises, including automatic drawing, and this challenge reminded me of that moment.

I thought, then, that I would use that technique again in the future, and here we are! I first let my pencil dot at random on the page, without looking at the paper. I then used coloured pencils (because why not?) to join the dots. Once I was done, I felt it still looked a little bland, so I coloured in the space and decorated the doodles with more dots!

As I mentioned on day four, I can't really draw. However this kind of drawing I can do, as it isn't representational, it's completely mindful and mindless at the same time: I enjoy just not thinking about what I'm trying to do and enjoying making art for arts sake.

  

Conclusion: End of Week One

I've written before about arts and mental health, and the ways in which creativity can be used to boost self-esteem, energy, and outlook. However, previously, one of my challenges with regard to this was how to use the arts as an outlet, away from work, when I was working in the arts.

In one respect, stepping away from performing and working full time in the industry has helped, giving me more perspective. However, completing these challenges this week has made me realise that, because the arts and culture are so vast and varied, just because I work in one area, (theatre) doesn't negate the benefits of engaging therapeutically with another aspect of the industry (say, crafting).

I think my favourite challenge of the week was was, strangely, day four: because I know I can't draw, I rarely do it, so it was nice to try something a little bit different. And, the sketch actually didn't turn out terribly! 

Which one has been your favourite this week? I'm really looking forward to the next week of challenges! 

The challenge is running until the 28^th March, and there’s still time to sign up for the rest of the series.

(1) Alzheimer's Society, 'Singing For The Brain', (2018) <https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/info/20172/your_support_services/765/singing_for_the_brain> [accessed 7 March 2018].