Content Care Package: Edition 3
As we’re now in the Holiday season, we have to admit to finding this Content Care Package an odd one to write. Uncertainty is swirling around us again as we continue to live with the pandemic, forcing us apart from those we love and filling our days with anxiety and fatigue. Over the past couple of weeks, we’ve definitely been displacing with some Netflix watching as you’ll see below, but we’ve also been finding some gems to keep us feeling good and even just that little bit grateful in spite of it all. We’ve pulled together the places, the prompts, and the cultural events that are helping us and which we hope will help you too.
Mental Wellbeing:
We’re obsessed with The Queen’s Gambit on Netflix, Matt Haig’s The Midnight Library, Charlie Mackesy’s The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse, and podcasts Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls, Decoder Ring (particularly this episode on the Cabbage Patch Kids) and Reply All (see Happiness Calculator and the Case of the Missing Hit).
For a guide that’s all about getting to ok, we’d recommend these wellbeing focused magazines: Rising Issue – 01 // Mental Health Matters; What Do People Do? – Issue 2; Anxiety Empire – Issue 1, Positive Wellbeing — A Zine for Mums, Seed, and perennial favorite Flow. Even better, buy them from an independent magazine store.
Is it safe to see your therapist in-person anymore?
“Over the past decade, resilience has become a buzzword – touted as a protective talisman against the effects of trauma, which individuals, communities, and whole economies are told to cultivate.”
Open Door is a new initiative by Making Space in Stockport, which opens up free mental health support to those living in the Stockport area.
We’re huge fans of Meghan Markle for finding her own way through one of the trickiest family’s in the world (have you see The Crown), not least for her heartbreaking recent piece on her miscarriage in The NYT
Connection & Community:
How a small town in England is teaching us the value of community.
An introvert Happy Hour that we can get behind. Find a chapter of The Silent Book Club
Nature:
All the wisdom for living a nature-centered lifestyle at home is captured in ”Fforest: Being, Doing, and Making in Nature.” Create a tiny bit of the magic at home with star walks, wild swims, and den building. Planning something for 2021? Head to the book’s source material, Fforest.
New Zealand gets a new butterfly sanctuary courtesy of The Hobbit.
Forest Bathe Wales is finding a way to deepen our connection with nature.
Mind/Body Connection:
We’re on board with the millions of people who discovered yoga with Adriene Mishler during lockdown. No judgment about bad downward dogs or falling over trees, or even working out in our PJ’s.
As the seasons change, we’re looking to Red January to keep us motivated.
Follow Loom as it launches its campaign to #protectblackbirth and develops resources for women’s health from periods to menopause.
Modern Life:
In Culture Therapy, we’ve been thinking about How to Stay Sane in an Age of Division and how to navigate The Social Dilemma.
Pair with digital detox resources from It’s Time to Log Off
Culture and Creativity:
Inspired by Outlet PDX, consider which words you’d want to disseminate into the world. Which messages of support would you want to create for those within your community? Learn the skill of printing and give form to these words. You don’t need to be an artist, just a thoughtful person in the world hoping to counter messages of hate, division, and isolation that we’re now bombarded with. Or if that makes you tired, learn to draw your coffee mug.
One of our favorite Studio Ghibli movies Kiki’s Delivery Service gets the museum treatment in Tokyo.
‘Art, architecture and music have proven health benefits from alleviating pain, improving wellbeing and shortening recovery periods."‘ New online platform AORA by up-and-coming architecture studio EBBA, aims to instill a sense of calm and wellbeing through art, architecture, and food.
Is sitting in a ball pit allowed anymore? Why The Color Factory is making the argument that it is.
Doing Good:
How I Built This Host Guy Raz interviews Varshini Prakash co-founder of the Sunshine Movement on how to build an idea into a movement for change in the climate space.
You can still virtually attend KindFest even though it’s past. Standard tickets will give you access to the recordings into the next month.
We’re inspired by Counterpart Chef Almitra “Mimi” Williams who brings fresh food from her vegan restaurant to the homeless camps in Echo Park. From where you are, and if you are able to, volunteer or donate to Feeding America this Holiday Season.
Spirituality & Meaning:
We know that saying meditate is like saying eat your kale, but San Francisco’s Within has ways of making it seem doable with its classes now going online.
Awe & Wonder:
Discover Scarfolk: “a town you’re not permitted to visit, with sights you’re not allowed to see.”
Take a masterclass with Another Place artist Antony Gormley: choose between Zabludowicz Collection talk, BBC’s quarantine drawing class or National Saturday Club’s body sculpting exercise.
New podcast Ask Biq Questions has Bill Gates and Rashida Jones asking the things that are on our minds like wil be the COVID vaccines be safe or what’s the answer to widening social inequalty?
Purpose:
We’ve been pouring over Riposte magazine which is full of smart interviews with women who are figuring things out in ways we can relate to.
Do send us your recommendations for our next Content Care Package so that we can feature them in our next edition. Together we can build a better world to hold us.
Btw we wanted to let you know that we’ve changed all the links to the books we mention to Bookshop, which supports both our own work and that of independent bookstores, which is particularly crucial as many of them are struggling to survive.
Until next time, x Amanda & Claire
