Tag: wellbeing

Look north for winter wellness

Post author By beextraarts
Post date December 20, 2020

An article about Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) If the sun is needed for life to exist, then that explains why so many of us currently struggle to even get out of bed in the morning. Winter brings us many things: fluttering snowflakes, carol singers, and the warming scent of cocoa. It also limits our sun exposure so much that they had to give the soul-crushing negative impact its own name. Seasonal Affective Disorder, or SAD, occurs when winter hits and the sun only lights the UK sky for as little as six hours per day. If you work in an office, you’ll know this means travelling there and back in dreary darkness, during a season that feels more like a never-ending night. When the gloom of SAD descends, symptoms include depression, low energy and a lack of creativity. But the glow at the end of the tunnel may actually be a northern light. Arctic sections of Finland, Norway, Greenland and other freezing Polar territories have literally no sunlight – at all – for up to three months in winter. Due to their geographical position, this also means a corresponding season of uninterrupted daylight in the summer (I can’t recommend visiting the Lapland region in July – when you can sunbathe at 3am – highly enough!). The culture in these far-north lands is largely a response to extreme solar shifts. Inhabitants fortify themselves against the lights going out, with traditions and a hardy mindset we can all learn from. In Scandinavia, people live with some of the darkest, longest winters, yet are consistently ranked as the happiest people in the world. Scientist Kari Leibowitz, of Stamford University, moved to the Norwegian town of Tromsø, 200 miles north of the Arctic Circle, to study this. She described the mindset as: “People view winter as something to be enjoyed, not something to be endured.” In what seems like an inversion of the way most of us view the year, a dark winter can actually be the happiest of all seasons. The coldest months are when Scandinavia dazzles, with the vibrant aurora borealis colouring the sky above silent, stretching snowscapes. And while that may not sound anything like the drab December scene outside your front door, there are seasonal Scandi secrets you can adopt to stave off the winter blues. Embrace the dying light by becoming as “outdoorsy” as possible. While northern folk get active with long-distance skiing and sleds pulled by huskies, you can hop on your bike for a brisk ride round your local park. It’s all about getting the most out of the precious light. And once the sun goes down, those in proximity to the pole have more creative ideas. “Hygge” (pronounced “Hoo-ga”) is a Danish or Norwegian word for an ideal mood of cosiness, comfort and contentment, created by a snug atmosphere when sheltering from sub-zero weather. There’s no direct English translation, as we don’t have the same extreme blackouts to fight back against, but Brits can channel it to shut out the darkest UK days. Knitted, chunky throw blankets and candles should adorn your living space, to achieve this nourishing atmosphere of wellness. Add oversized sweaters, thick socks and a flickering fireplace and hygge will be achieved. Yes, there are those with winters much harsher than ours, so it makes sense to borrow their soul-warming answers. Then, when you emerge in spring, you’ll be stronger for surviving the season and ready for a rebirth of creativity. This post was written by Declan Harte. Declan is a journalist and author, and is driven by his passion for creating a safe and healthy platform for those with mental health conditions and disabilities. In his spare time, Declan is a wonderfully committed volunteer on Be Extra’s Marketing Team.

Tags hygge, mental health, norway, SAD, scandinavia, seasonal affective disorder, sun, wellbeing, winter, writing

Be Extra News

Meet the team: part 2!

Post author By beextraarts
Post date December 12, 2020

The closer we creep to the end of 2020, the busier we get. We’re hoping to launch a whole host of new projects to spice up 2021 in effort to make this next decade a productive one. Yet, our social media teams are not islands. We recognised that we needed support too. We needed organised individuals to help us coordinate our projects and guide them towards their release. These teammates are here to provide insight and assistance in creating the safe and healthy space that we want Be Extra to provide for our community. With talents and experience of their own, we are thrilled to have new team players on board and we want you to be as excited about having them as part of our team as we are. We want you to know all of our teammates so that we can be as open as possible to provide the best network of support that we can for each other. So, this week, we want to introduce to you our Arts Administration Team, our Outreach and Development Team and our Wellbeing Officer. Outreach and Development: David Born in South London to Caribbean parents, David was raised a Christian and has synaesthesia (the colour grapheme). He loves sports, reading and superhero movies but don’t ask him to eat a yellow skittle – he’s not a fan of those! After facing his own battles with wellbeing and previously studying Psychology and Criminology at University, David has become a strong advocate for mental health, so his assistance with the Be Extra team is massively appreciated. Mary History-graduate and twin Mary is from Cambridge and is one of Be Extra’s longest running volunteers. Prior to lockdown, Mary began learning salsa dancing and hopes to dance her way out of lockdown and back into classes. When Mary’s not reading fantasy novels or sipping on different cups of tea, she’s exercising her vocals for her new folk-music A Cappella group. Her practice is clearly working because she’s hitting all the high notes with the Be Extra team! Hollie Hollie has a BA in History of Art from the University of Manchester and interns at Whitworth Art gallery. Her background in working with multiple communities in curating community-led projects means that she is fully equipped to cater to the needs of many in our arts community. Her collaborative nature and ability to reach out to different networks of people are highly valued and appreciated as part of our team. Arts Administrators: Rachel Avid cook and Tangled fan, Rachel is from Kent and has worked in West End Theatre for nearly five years as an usher and supervisor. She also has experience in working as a performing arts teacher to kids but don’t let her Disney aura fool you, however. Rachel loves the dark side of telly too with shows like American Horror Story and Dead To Me as some of her favourites. Rachel dreams of living in New Zealand and using its dramatic landscape for beautiful walks. Minjing Minjing is our in-house powerhouse – a freelance copywriter, writing tutor and start-up entrepreneur based in London. Having studied MA Creative Producing and BA Arts Management, she has a wealth of experience in project coordination, events management and theatre production. When she’s not busy with the performing arts, Minjing loves taking the time to host dinner parties and cook for friends. If you need her at all, just follow the sound of her shower-singing. Pianpian After completing a BA in Musicology, Pianpian worked as a teacher and Musical Project Officer in Shanghai last year before moving to the UK. Pianpian is in constant pursuit of passion: her love for the performing arts has also seen her study Art Museum and Gallery Studies at the University of Leicester; and she enjoys exploring the wider world, its cultures and art forms. Her love for life is somewhat contradicted by her obsession with zombie movies but if the apocalypse ever came to fruition, I’m sure Pianpian’s skill at the cello would soothe their sub-human anger. Chloe Full-time-Samoyed-puppy-mum, Chloe, is Essex born but Cardiff based. Currently undergoing a Masters in Music Performance at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Chloe has also studied Neuroscience with Psychology at an Undergraduate level, so working with the team at Be Extra proves to be a solid intersection for her previous experience. Patrick Interested in fine art, Patrick volunteers at the Box Museum in Plymouth and has studied French Literature in Oxford. His love for the arts began in primary school where he sang and played the cello but his love for pasta began in the kitchen. Patrick has found that the support network that the arts community provides has strengthened him in times of struggle and hopes to return the favour to others. He’s also a keen quidditch player and Christmas fanatic and hopes to bring some of his magic to the team at Be Extra! Alexandra Tennis-club-champ, Alexandra has recently moved to the UK from New Zealand but was born and bred in Tasmania, Australia. A person of order and routine, Alexandra finds that organising her time and routine at home helps to keep her memory in check. It’s her concise planning and time management that we love! Her fervent hate for fake fruit flavourings rules her palette and broken promises from her parents regarding chocolate to break her nail-biting habit still haunts her to this day… But her nails have never looked better. Jeanette Jeanette is a gamer with a preference for MMOs like Warcraft; her art often tends to revolve around this part of her world. A cosplay fanatic, Jeanette spends a lot of her time fawning over characters and illustrations on Twitter. However, if you are looking for her, and she’s not gaming or creating art, she’s best found wandering around big, European cities indulging herself with anything strawberry-flavoured. Jade Jade is a freelance illustrator from the West Midlands, who has had an exhibition at

Tags arts admin, development, intro, introduction, meet, mental health, outreach, team, teamwork, wellbeing

Guest blogs

Working as a creative freelancer in lockdown

Post author By beextraarts
Post date November 27, 2020

You don’t need me to tell you that the period we are living in right now is pretty unusual. No matter what industry you’re coming from or the job that you do (whether it’s creative or not), the job market is a stressful place to be wading through. Throughout lockdown, I have been working as a freelance writer and content creator. I’m very lucky in that, although I am a creative freelancer, I work as a writer – so the cancellations that have impacted countless other creative industries have not restricted my work. However, I do have some sense of the difficulties that lockdown has imposed on my age group generally, and any other individuals who are working in the same field as me. It is my hope that this piece will resonate with other freelancers out there, who might be facing the same stresses and challenges as I have been. Just as a little bit of background info for you, I graduated back in 2019. I technically still class myself as a post-grad (don’t think I’ll be able to get away with saying that for much longer though). I got a job as an in-house writer for a creative agency, and I was there for almost a year before I moved back home to write on a freelance basis. This, completely coincidentally, came hand in hand with the start of lockdown. So, during the pandemic, I’ve been building my freelancing career. The surreal thing about freelancing during the lockdown is the fact that, not to be too unprofessional in admitting this, but you’re essentially sat typing away in your joggers all day. In some senses, that’s the brilliant thing about it. Plus, I love to be kept busy (but I can’t sew, so I’m not really made for lockdown’s conventional hobbies). For me, it’s been great to be able to throw myself into my work during this period. On a day-to-day basis, I find the job’s successes, new contracts coming in and receiving praise from employers to all be fantastic plus points of the job. I’m incredibly lucky to be in a position where I can pick and choose the types of work that I take on, and I’m so grateful to be able to say that I truly love what I do. However, the negative side of working completely on your own is the isolation of it all. Sometimes, you can be left with the unnerving feeling that your work doesn’t really exist. It’s a hard sensation to explain. But, with a lot of the ‘ghost writing’ projects that I do, you essentially write a thing, send it off and then never see it again. Working on a screen all day, then sending quickly-written work to people that you’ve never met and then it’s gone forever – it’s rather surreal at times. If you are self-employed, self-motivation, organization and self-management are always tricky matters. But (at the risk of sounding like I’m sitting on my high horse), these skills can be especially tricky to master if the work that you’re doing is creative. You’re bound to have an off day here and there, and sometimes, there’s nothing that you can do about that. When you’re working on creative pieces, an off spell might mean that the work that you do on that entire day is pretty rubbish. And that’s part and parcel of the deal. But over lockdown (where, let’s face it, we’ve got nothing else going on), that can really get to you. It’s all too easy to start really beating yourself up about your skills. One of the other most common problems with working as a creative freelancer is being underpaid. All too often, potential clients undervalue our skill set, because it’s seen to be something that ‘anyone can do’. There are so, so many writers out there, and businesses looking for someone to hire know that. I worked with an American client for about a month, and they were paying me $6 per 500 words of my writing, and I would write as much as 20,000 words for them a week. It was hard being paid very little for a lot of work, and then churning out so many words can leave you feeling very demoralising at times. This can certainly lead to self-confidence knocks. With hindsight on my side, if I could go back and tell myself one thing, it would be that it is so important to stick to a fair rate and that, if it means losing the odd job here and there, so be it. In order to break this cycle of underpayments, we need to respect each other as a creative community and stick to our rates, so that no one else is being inadvertently undercut, or forced to drop their rates to compete with ours. I want to end by absolutely stressing that, all things considered, working as a creative is incredibly rewarding. Being able to write all day long is the most wonderful, fullfilling job. As with any creative career, managing your mental health is a routine that you need to spend a bit of time learning to perfect. It is a skill in-and-of-itself, and one that it is absolutely imperative that we take seriously. The support that BE-EXTRA provides as a community has been invaluable to me. Time and time again, Katherine has pulled me out of a little rut, or provided me with fantastic advice (particualry guidance r.e. Twitter!). I cannot overstate the importance of feeling as though you’re part of a creative community. Independent work can feel so isolating at times, and it’s been fantastic to feel as though I am within of a hub of like-minded creatives, going through exactly the same things. Overall, if you take one thing from me and my little ramble, it would be that one of the main areas of growth that you will face when you start out on a self-governed creative career is working to bolster

Tags covid, creatives, freelance, freelancer, lockdown, mental health, wellbeing

Be Extra News

Meet the Team: Social Media & Marketing

Post author By beextraarts
Post date November 22, 2020

The countdown to the end of 2020 begins. It’s safe to say that all of us eagerly await its end, but it’s important not to forget the positives of this whirlwind of a year. Here at Be Extra, our silver lining has been our new teammates. Driven, talented, and caring, they all share our beliefs of providing for the arts communities and nurturing each other’s wellbeing. Current pandemic aside, we know that the arts industry puts high stressors on its individuals and demands a considerable amount of self-sacrifice. We share your concerns, and we want to help. Over the past couple of months, we’ve been dedicating as much time as possible conceptualising new ideas and events to cover as much ground over wellbeing as we can. We are creating new online courses, sharing Wellbeing Live weekly, and providing a digital community for you to feel safe and supported. So, we thought that we would take the time to get to know our new recruits a little better so that you can too. Over the next couple of weeks we’re going to introduce each member of Be Extra to you; share their quirks and their experience. We want you to know the team who wants to support you and share in your experiences. So, let’s start by meeting our Social Media and Marketing team. Marketing and PR Katie-Jayne Originally from the Forest of Dean, Katie-Jayne loves cooking and her speciality is cheesecakes, but don’t ask her to include fruit – she only likes fruit in her smoothies. Katie-Jayne volunteers at a cat rescue centre in her spare time and is a sucker for a good crime documentary. After placing third in the UK for the Pitch at the Chartered Institute of Marketing’s excellence awards, Katie-Jayne is a one-to-watch in the world of Marketing. Nicole Bridgend-born and Bristol-based, Nicole’s background in the arts began with drawing. After spending three years in Spain, Nicole moved back to the UK to study a Masters in Curating to marry her love of sharing and celebrating creativity with storytelling and engaging audiences. She has swum in the Dead Sea but rest-assured, Nicole’s career is alive and kicking and we’re ecstatic to be working with her. Charlotte Hoping to embark on a career in PR, Charlotte is a massive believer in using creativity to release bouts of stress. After struggling with her mental wellbeing during her teenage years, poetry, painting and meditation are her weapons of choice in combating stress. When Charlotte’s not engrossed in her studies, she’s a magnet for animals: walking neighbourhood dogs, stroking cats and helping injured pigeons. Her ambition and nurturing attitude is why she’s a great addition to our team. Natasha A rugby fanatic and self-coined cake-connoisseur, Natasha is a classic Swansea girl with a dash of sass and a strong desire to support the wellbeing of others. With her working experience built in customer service, Natasha recognises the importance of the individual and how art helps to explore and assist a healthy mental wellbeing. Outreach Chloe Cardiff born and bred; Chloe has a BA in Drama from the University of South Wales. Her main interests are in physical theatre, avant-garde and screen acting; and when she’s not at poetry slam, Chloe is probably practicing her yoga or trying out new instruments. Her love of which, you might say, came from her uncanny ability to play the recorder with her nose! Fun fact: she was offered a spot on the French ping-pong team. We’re just happy that she chose to bat for the Be Extra team. Michael Having studied at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Michael lives in Cardiff and works as a Freelance Orchestral Musician, traipsing around the UK on his two-webbed-toes. Recently, he’s been trying to teach himself the piano, but he also loves cycling and football and his cat (who tries to sabotage his team meetings by knocking over his internet router). We’re truly grateful to have his committed work ethic on the team. Design and Content Hannah With an MA in Ceramics and currently undergoing a PCET teacher training course, Hannah is from Cardiff and works part-time as a gardener. She’s interested in painting, pole gymnastics and spicing up her meals with chilli, and ideally hopes to set up her own pottery company. This proud plant mama and her nurturing nature is crucial in creating the right environment to promote wellbeing! Alice Kent resident Alice is mesmerised by the process of creating. With a previous job as a visual merchandiser, Alice is all about styling, curating and constructing. Crafty Alice’s favourite activities include what she likes to describe as “abstract mess” including painting old furniture, making handmade cards and commissioned artwork. We think her hands-on approach is vital in making Be Extra the best it can be! Jordan South Walian, Jordan, is an artist otherwise known as MsBlackInk online. Using organic materials and Pagan influences she has created her own online art company that displays her connection to the natural world. With the help from her two pet Asiatic toads, Pacman and Tabitha, Jordan loves to tie-dye her clothes to match her colourful make-up. Her bright vivacity for life is evident in her work ethic and we’re so excited to have it reflected in our work. Declan Declan is a journalist by trade but occasionally dabbles in creative writing and likes to use his skills to help charities wherever he can. He grew up in the North of Ireland, studied and worked in Scotland, and now lives in Wales. Alongside traipsing up and down the breadth of the UK, he’s also been to the Arctic Circle twice! We’re just thrilled he discovered us on his wanderings: driven by his passion for creating a safe and healthy platform for mental health and disabilities, he’s a great addition to any team. Rachel Ex-competitive Welsh sea rower, Rachel, likes painting and drawing and hopes to go back to university at some point to pursue a masters in

Tags artists, arts, introduction, marketing, meet, mental health, social media, wellbeing