Real life Green Healing stories
Discussion Groups
One story from the discussion group:
"My brother had a serious breakdown in London and spent a year trying to kill himself. The mental health services were virtually useless. They sectioned him a couple of times in units seemingly designed to contain only, medicated him beyond comprehension and hastened his death. The people were nice enough but utterly lost and had no clue about mental health it seemed. They did really clumsy things… A year long painful story that ended brutally.
I use meditation, breathing exercises, exercise, questioning, and determination. I had many terrifying visitations in the night since a child.. Eventually I stopped fearing it and felt the adrenaline of fear and anxiety without moving away from it. It began to have less of a hold on me after that. We are not taught survival skills at school we are taught to depend on the system. Other things that help would include safe spaces, purpose, engagement."
Tir Coed
I spent 2 years, organising and teaching in nature for wellbeing .Building round houses, green woodworking, hedging etc, people with brain injury, physical and mental problems came. It all confirmed that working outdoors with others for a common purpose is a fundamental need for all. A reliable route to wellbeing. In a few cases turned peoples life around.
ANONYMOUS STORIES
ANNONYMOUS
“I wanted the accolades, I wanted to do well so I didn’t listen to the message from my body
Eventually I had a physical breakdown, I could not move, i could not move at all.
That pain in my chest that was telling me to stop, if I had listened to it.
Why couldn’t I listen?
I could not stop doing the thing that defined me. I got good at dumbing the emotions by practice. I stopped myself feeling the pain. If I was not an athlete, what was I?
The athlete world does not teach you to foster relationships, it teaches you how to be a competitor, you cant copy and paste that into meeting people Even a snooker game or cards became very competitive.
I was always trying to please others, my coach, my father, to fit in with sportsmen, I no longer knew why. Why was I doing sport?
The next big question, when I had the breakdown is, how do I ask for help, how does an athlete, how does a man ask for help,? The coach was my mentor but he only addresses physical stress.
The Internal chaos in my mind led to external chaos.
My brain and body were battling, I could not think , I was stuck in a whirlpool going deeper and deeper. The physical pain and emotions made each other worse.
I am a wellbeing coach now, helping myself through sharing others journey to recovery. One thing I learned is that you cannot copy and paste recovery paths. Each person has a unique story. They have to understand their own story and find their own path, a path that sustains you, your environment and the people you relate to. These are the three dimensions of wellbeing, for me. My formula to cultivate them is not a formula, it is a changing journey. I can see so far ahead, five years perhaps, and then it will change
A Dad approached us with his very shy, non-verbal daughter. She was interested in Monk but froze by fear of the other humans around. Her dad leaned down, picked her up and put her on Monk. Wow! An instant smile. We did a 20-metre circle and on our route back, out of the blue the little girl responded to a question I had asked ten minutes earlier. She said HER NAME! Her Dad could not believe she had spoken and I know it's down to the magic in Monk, and in any horse.