For many, the great outdoors provided much-needed respite and relief in such a tumultuous year. As well as being a source of beauty it was a source of comfort. So this year we are paying tribute to nature and its wonderful healing powers. This Mental Health Awareness Week, we’ve developed a schedule with Student Support which includes activities, events, resources and opportunities for reflections. Activities are open to all students and staff.
RCASU events
DJ Society Mix
"It is no measure of health to be well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society" (Krishnamurti). This mix celebrates a wide array of states of mind. From mourning to excitement, passing through long excerpts taken from a dialogue between Buddhist philosophers. We took a risk in the sense that more than 80% of the tracks have lyrics hoping that in it you'll find something that resonates with you (it might not be the case). Listen now!
Online Yoga
11.05.21, 6 - 7 pm | 13.05.21, 3 - 4 pm
Join the Students’ Union for a 60-minute group vinyasa, beginner level class. For Mental Health Awareness Week the session will be tailored to focus on mindful movement, breathing and meditation techniques. Take a deep breath and register. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. If it's your first time trying yoga, you don't need anything special, if you have a yoga mat - great! If not, find a floor space big enough to lie down and bring yourself. It's important that we practise safely - if you have any injuries or existing medical conditions, please email shamiso@live.co.uk before the class to discuss modifications.
Register with your RCA email 11.05.21
Register with your RCA email 13.05.21
Donna Haraway: Storytelling for Earthly Survival, film screening
11.05.21, 6 pm
Donna Haraway: Story Telling For Earthly Survival features Feminist thinker and historian of science Donna Haraway in a playful and engaging exploration of her life, influences, and ideas. Haraway is a passionate and discursive storyteller, and the film is structured around a series of discussions held in the California home she helped build by hand, on subjects including the capitalism and the anthropocene (a term she uses but finds troubling), science fiction writing as philosophical text, kinship relations, the roles of storytelling and Catholicism in her upbringing, humans and dogs, the suppression of women’s writing, the surprisingly fascinating history of orthodontic aesthetics, and the need for new post-colonial and post-patriarchal narratives. It is a remarkably impressive range, from a thinker with a nimble and curious mind.
Join the screening at 6pm via Kast
Student Support events
Student Walk: Thames Path Woolwich to Erith
12.05.21 1 pm - the walk will commence at 1:15 pm
Meeting place: The Steel Statues outside Royal Arsenal Woolwich Pier
Student Support invites you to join them for a socially distanced walk along the Thames Path, starting at Royal Arsenal Woolwich Pier and ending at Erith Pier (13.27km). The route along the river boasts incredible views of the city & various landmarks, marshes, and bursts of nature and wildlife throughout.
If you would like to join please email student-support@rca.ac.uk so they can get an idea of numbers, as due to current restrictions places are limited.
Padlet
During the week Student Support are inviting students and staff to share acts of connecting with nature that have boosted your wellbeing via our Padlet board. This can be done in various ways; an image, short reflection, video, audio recording, anything that has captured how you have connected with nature recently and the positive impact this has had on you.
Imperial College Chaplaincy events
Meditation on ’Walking gently and humbly’
10.05.21 13:05 - 13:40
A meditation on how we can ‘walk’ gently in nature, with others and ourselves, inspired by Christian tradition and the Jewish philosopher Martin Buber.
Register
Mindful movement and meditation inspired by nature
11.05.21, 13:05 - 13:40
An online guided mindfulness meditations inspired by movements in the natural world that can be done sitting and standing.
Register
Green Fingers Give Away
11.05.21, 14:30 - 15:30
We are giving away house plant cuttings or seedlings. So, if you are onsite in South Kensington come by to collect a cutting to take home and nurture.
In-person: Collect from the entrance to 15 Princes Gardens between 14.30-15.30
If you want us to reserve you a cutting please register or, you can turn up - first come first served
Meditation with visualisations from the natural world
14.05.21, 13:05 - 13:50
This meditation uses tree images, traditional in Buddhism to be personally grounded and aware of our continual participation in the natural world.
Register
Green Fingers Social media campaign
Share pictures and videos of what you are growing (garden or in-house plants) or of the plants that give you joy, whether on your windowsill, garden or local park. #GreenFingers
(Plants have been a great mental health resource during lockdown, people can recognise that and show their appreciation by sharing pictures/videos of their plants or crops through social media).