Sue Lambert Trust give staff and volunteers a chance to unwind during wellbeing days

We wanted to give our staff and volunteers the opportunity to come together and unwind, relax, and refresh. To support wellbeing through trying new activities. Also to allow people who had never met each other the opportunity to talk and get to know one another.

So now the interesting bit, what did we get up to each day, here’s the run-down.

Day One – Great Yarmouth at St Georges Theatre 

We started the day with Kismet Wellbeing who provided some relaxing sound healing. (For those of you who don’t know this is a form of meditation, where instruments are used to facilitate deep relaxation. The Instruments guide you to Altered State of Consciousness (ASC) synchronising with your brainwaves to Theta (day-dreaming state). Kismet also provided Reiki and massage slots throughout the day.

Around mid morning we moved on to try some Tai Chi, run by Julian Wilde who has been a practitioner for over 30 years and runs Norwich Tai Chi school teaching Chen style, accompanied by Elaine Tatersall. They showed and taught us all, the beginning of a form. Explaining the applications of the movements and ensuring we used the correct postures and weight distribution to move through this with flow; from shape to shape in order to develop relaxation, awareness and physical effectiveness. We were told to lower our shoulders and release our tension a lot, it is surprising how much tension we carry in our postures and day to day lives. After this we stopped for some delicious Pizza, and we all felt very Zen.

After lunch Plain-Speaking PR talked staff through our Brand Vitals, covering what PR is, and how we all support this in our roles and lives outside of work. This was really engaging and supported staff and volunteers to share what they felt or thought when they heard Sue Lambert Trust.

We carried the day on with Clive our CEO being compare, hosting a music and art quiz, this was good fun and it’s safe to say we ascertained that some of the team were a tad competitive, the winners overall were a team creatively named cheese, securing a tub of chocolates as the champions.

Last but not least, we finished our day with Lewis Buxton, a very inspirational young poet who came to run a writing workshop. Initially you may think poetry ‘boring!’ (well some of us might) but the truth is Lewis brought poetry to life, sharing some of his own poems and experiences from youth to adulthood. He took us on a journey of exploration, through emotions and nature, supporting us to creatively describe and depict our thoughts through words. He also challenged us to write continuously for 5 minutes starting from the words my heart is a … (have a go it is harder than you think). We had some amazing contributions, that darted and weaved from one subject to another, covering things unique to that person but once read aloud elements could be linked to another person, highlighting how relationships can be formed based on experiences.

Day Two – Norwich Dragon Hall

We started our morning with Michelle Bappoo an experienced Yoga practitioner who provided us with some breathwork and yoga (we all enjoyed trying the tree pose, see a picture of Thomas our management accountant and Charlie one of our amazing volunteer counsellors, holding this very well) we then moved on to experience a guided meditation where we were taken on a journey through the forest and could feel warm soil beneath our feet and the air on our cheeks, as we let go of the thoughts of our day to day lives. Finally, Michelle provided an amazing soundbath using crystal singing bowls that created some beautiful, elongated notes supporting a full emersion and awakening of our senses while evoking emotion. After this we stopped for lunch, we had delicious catering provided by The Feed in Norwich.

In the afternoon we had the opportunity to try some life drawing (with a clothed model) and to draw some fruit. Lettie one of our outreach workers and Jo our Deputy Clinical Lead produced very good drawings (pictured below). We also were given the opportunity to complete some sewing of kind words onto fabric for the Julian Centres’ Cloth of Kindness project. Finally, to end the day the wonderful Carrie, joined us and played captivating and beautiful piano music.

It’s safe to say we are all very relaxed. It wouldn’t have been possible without everyone that contributed so Thank You so much, it’s been lovely to give something back to our staff and volunteers.