Wednesday, July 29, 2020

The BLACKEST HOLE -





adamwedd B L A C K E S T H O L E 

Are you like me and been struggling a little (or HEAPS) with anxiety and depression? Sometimes the days are as wrong as the nights are long....

During lockdown I teamed up with my friend @melissarieger42 and we wrote a beautiful song of hope but also one that depicts the stifling reality so many people are facing as they lose their jobs , their homes and their livelihood. 
The lyrics come from Melissa's own struggle with anxiety and depression and the sad loss of a family member to suicide...

In the past 6 years I have lost my home , my job and at times my sanity.. 
We all have parts of our story which we want to try and hide , but the reality is that ALL of us have some kind of struggle, a quiet battle with our demons. 
The only way we lose is when we believe we are alone.
Don't struggle alone, we'd LOVE to hear your stories of struggle and triumph. 
Let's all help each other.
Can't wait for you to hear this song when it comes out on 28th August .

All my love,
Adam xx






BHP

Group Games - with buzz questions - BIG on feelings & FUN + massive experientially ...........





It is just great to see 100 plus young humans
in groups of about 10 
getting into the groove 
with one of my games.
This one ::
GROUP HOP

Better still
(following other group games)
Including::
+ asking everyone a fun question
(with meaning of course)
Such as 
'What would be the title of your autobiography?'
AND
going deeper ........
'What would be the title of 
one chapter in your book?'
This interesting because humans can share a chapter title 'feel good stuff' 
or 'a tough time chapter title'!!

AND
always ending the Group Hop session
A circle where everyone in their circle
'shoulder massages' the BHP before them - 
such a beautiful 
intimate
non threatening 
experiential exercise .......


BHP

We are always learning - that means we are all on a TRAINING Course.

No words - apply to SELF







Think yourself into this
and have a go at it's application
to self = YOU 
Beautiful YOU




BHP

Blob Tree Tools - which Blob do you feel like right now?









Which Blob Do You Feel Like Today? 

Poster Set of 5

£26.95 
Discuss Feelings and Emotions in every classroom & staff room
   
SKU: 1815Categories: 
AVAILABLE FROM::
www.loggerheadpublishing.co.uk

Blobs


Blobs are delightful characters (without gender or age) that help facilitate and stimulate meaningful discussions about difficult issues or situations. Individuals or groups can start discussions by identifying themselves, or others, with an individual or group of blobs whose actions or feelings represent their own.
The series includes a range of activities, books and posters, suitable for all ages.

Tuesday, July 28, 2020

The Blob Tree is not STATIC ! Here is a Magnetic board full of Blob Tree characters to move around. ENGAGING Stuff.

A Fairy Story - but if we apply it to our lives ...........




RAPUNZEL

The story of a young woman.
Young and beautiful.
Imprisoned in a tower with an old witch. 
She was told by the old witch that she was ugly, all the time.
One day Rapunzel was gazing through the window of the tower she saw her Prince Charming at the base of the tower. 
She lets down her long hair, long and beautiful tresses. 
It fell to the ground alongside the Prince who braids it into a ladder and climbs up to rescue her.
She was imprisoned not by the tower but by the fear of her own ugliness which the witch had described so often.
Rapunzel sees the reflection of her face in the mirroring eyes of her lover. 
She sees that she is beautiful and becomes free from her imagined uglyness. 
She was not really imprisoned but locked in the prison towers of herself. 
She believed she was ugly because she was told she was ugly.
We need to see in another’s eyes our own beauty, special ness, uniqueness and become free.
You are a beautiful human person.
Pipwilson.com…………………………………………………………………………………………….pip@pipwilson.com

Sunday, July 26, 2020

January 1975, following the removal van down the M1 in our blue caravanette, we were entering a new life for our family, and new kind of youth work.




I remember well leaving St Helens YMCA with tears in our eyes. 
The YMCA family had taken us warmly into their lives. 
I was leaving my principle work at the YMCA working with/loving the 87 residents in the Hostel - so much need.
Also leaving behind the programme rolling with bands/gigs and a Saturday night weekly ‘Fish Rapper’ full of live music poems personalities and passion.

The granddads in the snooker room right next to our first floor flat loved our little girls, now aged one (Ann) and seven years old (Joy). 
Also the 200 pensioners in the lunch club responded generously to my rather loud humour and often repeated one-liner jokes. 
Now, in January 1975, following the removal van down the M1 in our blue caravanette, we were entering a new life for our family, and new kind of youth work.

Mayflower Youth Work Canning Town London E16.
I was struck first by the sheer ugliness of the club building. 
I would describe it now as non-shalom. 
(Shalom is a Hebrew word meaning peace, but also with implication of wholeness and completeness.) 

Outside it looked like a square lump of concrete-no windows and steel-lined front doors. I know now why there were hammer and axe hole on the front door of the club. It was non-shalom.

Inside it was painted almost entirely in some horrible green gloss paint that had been donated to Mayflower. 
It gave me and, I am sure, the member a distinct intuitional feeling. This, coupled with the long Pentonville-type corridors, with solid locked doors on both sides gave me a trapped, oppressive feel. It was totally depressing. 
What sort of kids can come in here and enjoy it? 
What does this place do to kids? 
It was so disheartening and yet it challenged me to change it. 
(Eventually I had most of it painted matt black and bought a lorry load of green fluorescent tubes and colourful pop music and colourful mind stretching posters.) 
It had been built for relief work in the 1930s, 
and on top of that it was really beaten up. 
Yet it was big-so big that it had two coffee bars, two gyms and a large outdoor football court, an air rifle range, snooker room and boxing room. 
There were numerous other activity rooms in various states of disorder including one full of four foot high blocks of Scalextrix car racing track. 
Another sported a new disco unit and sound system.

One of the few pieces of equipment that was available in the open club was a table-tennis table with a plank of wood nailed across it instead of a net. As two kids played - another walked across ‘the net’.

I make recording of my evenings in the club. 
I can look back now at my notes from my very first night in the club:
Some friendly contact and interest in my arrival, some busy and interested in football outside, plus snooker, table-tennis. 
Some bored kids messing about - boys barricaded themselves in the beat-up room and then smashed down the panelled walls to get out. Others jumped over canteen trying to nick sweets and money. Remember a few names. Ro’ a black kid, Maria and Carol (bandaged arm), Jim, Skunkie. . . little kids running. 
Several groups around – girls standing!
Building far too rambling and terrible to supervise-leaders just policing. Activities severely limited.
Conclusion – No one focal point. No warmth of atmosphere – although some team members have good relationship with kids. Great for positive activity and discipline boundaries.
Decisions – redesign toilets, block main corridor, move all refreshments to coffee bar – ONE FOCAL POINT, develop office. . . .
I notice in my second evenings recordings that ‘Carol’s arm is now unbandaged’ . 
That sort of detailed observation is important in youth work. 
The recording of it helps to concrete it in the mind alongside many other personal detail relevant to them. 
Even now, years later, I can remember that Carol, now a local mum with two kids, once had a injured arm. 
It makes me smile to think of approaching her ten years later and asking if her arm is better! 
But the point is that the first duty of love is to listen. 
Listen to your eyes.

An extract from my first published book 'Gutter Feelings’.




BHP