Meet & Greet – 30 January

Minding Creative Minds’ (MCM) next online Meet and Greet Session will take place on Monday January 30th at 7.00pm.

This event is free of charge and registration is now open, just click the button below.

Later this month, on January 30th Minding Creative Minds’ (MCM) in association with The Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, EPIC Working Group, Irish Music Rights Organization (IMRO), Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA), MCD Productions & The Cowshed will hold our monthly online meet and greet session and we look forward to seeing you there.

As with all the sessions throughout the year, there is no charge but to access you need to register and you can do this by clicking here.

The agenda for our online meet and greet sessions is simple; to share experiences and advice with each other; to have conversations with our peers and creative sector colleagues. We encourage feedback on the sessions and would love to hear from you to info@mindingcreativeminds.ie .

Job Opportunity: Project Manager

Project Manager (Strategic Initiatives & Corporate Governance)

Remote: 18 hours/ 2.5 days per week

It’s an exciting time to join the Minding Creative Minds team, a growing wellness and support service for financial, emotional, and career health for creatives across Ireland. The not for profit has a 2.5 year history.

 

About the position: 

MCM is looking to appoint a talented Project Manager to lead the day-to-day project management.

The Project Manager (PM) is responsible for leading a cross-functional body of works aimed at completing projects by a set deadline to uphold our service initiatives. Their duties include managing resources for different project aspects and advocating for additional resources when necessary. They will also manage the collaboration and governance communications around risks and issues to ensure delivery of the service. Successful candidates will have the ability to exercise strong leadership and collaboration skills, manage complex project plans, help the organisation adopt not for profit best practices and identify opportunities to continuously improve delivery in our dynamic service environment.

This is a permanent position and is based in Dublin on a remote basis with stipulations regarding planning meetings, promoting the service at events and attending various institutional advisory sessions on behalf of Minding Creative Minds.

Desired minimum experience of an applicant includes a 5+ years of experience in a not-for-profit environment, large scale up programme development or similar role. This role encompasses working toward collective impact, as opposed to individual wins.

 

Your responsibilities:

  • Manage the Career Hub Programme and direct external communications on the various platforms engaged by Minding Creative Minds from developing the career hub strategy to hands-on implementation work.
  • Ensure that Career service is sound and delivers a “first-class” user experience.
  • Engage with key stakeholders (internal and external) to gather and refine requirements for processes involved in the Career service.
  • Ensure performance, monitoring and reporting obligations of our career programmes are met.
  • Prioritise requests for career service
  • Provide corporate governance support to the Minding Creative Minds CLG and board.
  • Create and maintain corporate governance and corporate documentation (technical and non-technical) to support the effective management of MCM service..
  •  Provide training & communications to different stakeholders (internals and externals).
  • Create long- and short-term plans, including setting targets for milestones. Incorporating a positive approach towards diversity and inclusion.
  • Make effective decisions when presented with multiple options for how to progress with assigned MCM service projects.
  • Communicate with the board, and sponsors to keep project initiatives aligned with their goals.
  • Coach and mentor team members in project processes and deliverables.
  • Positively impact the organisation through a focus on transparency in execution.
  • Engage with relationships with institutions and relevant bodies for the purpose of support and funding.
  • Serve as a point of contact for teams when multiple units are assigned to the same project to ensure team actions remain aligned.
  • Perform risk assessment on the project throughout the project life cycle to ensure issues and risks are addressed.
  • Ensure
  • Proper Project Management artefacts (Project Plans, Status Reports, etc.) are maintained and accurate.
  • Adjust schedules and targets on the project as needs or as resources for the project change.

 

Your skills and qualifications 

Essential skills / experience:

  • Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, or a Degree/Masters in Social/Arts/Education/sciences, business field, or an equivalent combination of education, training and experience.
  • Excellent written and oral communication skills.
  • Demonstrated skills and success in process improvement design and workflow analysis.
  • Proficiency in the use of Microsoft office products such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook required.
  • Solid understanding of project management principles.
  • Experience with agile development methodologies.
  • Great communication and interpersonal skills to successfully work with various stakeholders.
  • Exceptional attention to detail.
  • Strong time management and organisational skills.
  • Experience dealing with remote and culturally diverse teams.
  • Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills.
  • Comfortable in an environment that values creativity, collaboration, initiative, accessibility, inclusion, and maturity.
  • Excellent written and spoken English – additional languages a plus.

 

Desirable skills / experience:

  • Experience with project management web-development technologies
  • Experience with service mapping, and User Experience (UX) design.
  • Experience creating, managing and delivering projects from concept through to delivery, as well as motivating and engaging stakeholders on the project team, in a remote working environment.
  • Experience with process optimisation and change management.
  •  Experience working in an international NGO, or the wellness/social service sector
  • Experience in programme development from an education, career or arts perspective.

Preferred/Desirable:

  • Project Management System Experience.
  • 5+ Years of Project Management experience.

Competencies, Skills, and Attributes:

  • Ability to lead collaborative and productive large and small group discussions.
  • Strong focus on service to internal and external customers.
  • Excellent interpersonal and communication skills (both verbal and written).
  • Ability to build rapport and maintain strong working relationships with internal and external colleagues, keeping a positive workplace culture in force.
  • Ability to prioritise and organise work and to multi-task when required.

 

What we offer (Pro Rata Basis) 

Remote work – Competitive salaries – Excellent benefits – Positive workplace culture

  • PTE: 18 hours per week with flexible working hours and home office option.
  • Salary: Depending on experience, approx. equivalent to €50k if full-time so 50% of that as it’s 2.5days per week.
  • Benefits: 28 days holidays pro rata, language courses, training, association memberships, positive workplace culture, employee recognition programme, bonus /incentives etc.
  • Reports to: Chief Executive Officer

 

Application process: 

  • Minding Creative Minds applies a policy of equal opportunity and accepts applications without discrimination on any grounds.
  • Applications should consist of a full curriculum vitae and a cover letter introducing yourself and your motivations for applying for the position.
  • Applications should be sent via e-mail to info@mindingcreativeminds.ie titled: “Project Manager”. Please indicate your earliest possible start date as well as your salary expectations.

Closing date for applications is 5pm on Fri December 2nd 2022.

  • Applications will be reviewed on the rolling basis until the right candidate is identified. The position is new and is to be filled as soon as possible (latest end-January 2023)

 

As a new service to the creative sector in Ireland, we are committed to always being authentic, visionary and impact driven. Minding Creative Minds welcome applications from suitably-qualified candidates, irrespective of gender, disability, marital or parental status, racial, ethnic or social origin, colour, belief, religion or sexual orientation.

New Minding Creative Minds Trauma and Abuse Counselling Service

Minding Creative Minding (MCM) announce an enhancement of its service offering to include trauma and abuse counselling.

This announcement and launch is in collaboration with our partners at Screen Ireland and Irish Theatre Institute as part of the Safe to Create Programme and with the continued support of The Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.

This October 5th Minding Creative Minds will announce an enhancement of its service to include specialist trauma and abuse counselling care.  This additional service is being launched with our pan-creative sector peer team; we are privileged to collaborate with Screen Ireland and Irish Theatre Institute as part of the Safe to Create programme on this primary advancement for our service offering and very thankful to do so with the continued support of Minister Catherine Martin and her team at The Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.

In both public and private health tiers, trauma and abuse counselling services can have significant wait lists, depending on the user’s catchment area and services accessed.  At the time of writing, we understand a six-months plus wait list exists.  With Minding Creative Minds enhanced service, our team of counsellors will also provide supportive care while the service user is waiting for a specific service referral. This approach ensures our (enhanced) service user is supported day to day with their coping and managing techniques until the bridge to engagement around the historical trauma is secured.

How will our enhanced service to include specialist trauma and abuse counselling care work?

1. The first point of contact on initial engagement with the Minding Creative Minds helpline is our case managers who are fully qualified psychotherapists / counsellors.

2. In the case of a caller contacting the service outlining they have been the victims of trauma / abuse the case manager will offer in the moment support while also arranging a call with one of the Minding Creative Minds Senior Clinicians and Trauma Specialists (who have expertise in trauma, rape, sexual violence and abuse) within 24hrs, at a suitable time for the caller. During
this call, specialised support will be provided to the caller and a comprehensive intake assessment of the caller’s needs will take place.

3. Following the assessment and support call the Minding Creative Minds Senior Clinician will determine the most suitable intervention and to determine if short-term counselling (up to 12 free sessions) is appropriate or if more specialised, long term or open-ended support would represent a more robust and clinically appropriate intervention.

4. If a referral to short term counselling is deemed the most appropriate intervention; a referral will be made during the call to one of Minding Creative Minds Trauma Specialists Counsellors who would have expertise in trauma, rape, sexual violence and abuse for 8-12 sessions of counselling.

5. Minding Creative Minds can arrange a suitable referral pathway for longer term or open-ended support for survivors of sexual abuse if this is deemed necessary through signposting to the most suitable services.

 

Minding Creative Minds (MCM) is Ireland’s first 24/7 (32 county and our Irish overseas) wellbeing support programme for the entire Irish creative sector. Minding Creative Minds’ counselling and advice services, in association with Spectrum Life, include a *24/7 Dedicated Phone Line; Short-term intervention, telephone Counselling together with secure video counselling amongst other contact options (see the full list later in this document). Alongside our counselling services we offer advice and support on practical day to day issues which have the potential to cause stress and anxiety; for example, legal and financial advice, career guidance and life coaching. Our service offering focuses on the entire individual; whatever your need or question; if you work in any area of the Irish creative sector, contact us and let us help you; our services are free and confidential.

To access this service, or any of our other services, please call 1800 814 244.
For international numbers click here.

 

 

 

Patrick Kavanagh ‘Almost Everything…’ is OUT NOW!

Bono, Hozier, Imelda May, Liam Neeson, Jessie Buckley, Aidan Gillen, Lisa McGee, Lisa Hannigan, President Michael D. Higgins, Evanna Lynch, Sharon Corr, Kathleen Watkins, Christy Moore, Rachael Blackmore and Aisling Bea bring the work of seminal Irish poet Patrick Kavanagh to life on a new record, ‘Almost Everything…’ , released today from Claddagh Records.

For many of us, Patrick Kavanagh joined our life’s journey as we sat at hard desks in cold classrooms struggling to make sense of so much. Kavanagh made poetry real. He opened our minds to life, soil and soul.

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Originally released on Claddagh Records in 1964, the double album also features the only recordings of the revered Irish poet reading his most celebrated poems. Now remastered and reimagined this new two-part album features the original recordings together with Kavanagh’s poetry read by some of Ireland’s most recognizable names and set to a truly stunning musical composition.

The vinyl format of this release contains two truly unique sleeves. The first hosts a printed collage of sketches of all the celebrated readers around Patrick Kavanagh, with Kavanagh himself visible through the cut-out square on the cover itself. The second vinyl sleeve is an exact replica of the original 1964 release. Both physical formats include a booklet containing all the poetry one will hear on the album.

Meet & Greet – 26 September

Minding Creative Minds’ (MCM) September online Meet and Greet Session will take place on Monday September 26th at 7.00pm.

This event is free of charge and registration is now open, just click the button below.

Later this month, on September 26th Minding Creative Minds’ (MCM) in association with The Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, EPIC Working Group, Irish Music Rights Organization (IMRO), Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA), MCD Productions & The Cowshed will hold our twelfth online meet and greet session and we look forward to seeing you there.

As with all the sessions throughout the year, there is no charge but to access you need to register and you can do this by clicking here.

The agenda for our online meet and greet sessions is simple; to share experiences and advice with each other; to have conversations with our peers and creative sector colleagues. We encourage feedback on the sessions and would love to hear from you to info@mindingcreativeminds.ie .

Meet & Greet – 29 August

Minding Creative Minds’ (MCM) August online Meet and Greet Session will take place on Monday August 29th at 7.00pm.

This event is free of charge and registration is now open, just click the button below.

Later this month, on August 29th Minding Creative Minds’ (MCM) in association with The Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, EPIC Working Group, Irish Music Rights Organization (IMRO), Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA), MCD Productions & The Cowshed will hold our twelfth online meet and greet session and we look forward to seeing you there.

As with all the sessions throughout the year, there is no charge but to access you need to register and you can do this by clicking here.

The agenda for our online meet and greet sessions is simple; to share experiences and advice with each other; to have conversations with our peers and creative sector colleagues. We encourage feedback on the sessions and would love to hear from you to info@mindingcreativeminds.ie .

Maria Kelly – Postcards In-Between

 

Ireland & UK Tour  + Exhibition & event in association with Minding Creative Minds + New versions of songs from ‘The Sum of the In-between’ album

 

Irish alt-folk star Maria Kelly today announces the details of Postcards In-between: an ambitious project that comprises a tour of Ireland and the UK; a pop-up exhibition and event that brings Irish creatives together in an effort to cultivate self-compassion and examine mental health supports; and new versions of a selection of the songs from her debut album, The Sum of the In-between, which was released last October. 

 

The Postcards In-between Tour 

Maria Kelly will play tour dates in Ireland and one in the UK this May and June, in a tour presented by Singular Artists & Friends. Tickets for all shows are on sale now. Dates as follows: 

 

Sat 7th MayDublin – Whelans Main Room 

Sun 8th MayGalway – Róisín Dubh 

Fri 13th MayLimerick, The Record Room 

Sun 15th MayCork, Winthrop Avenue

Wed 1st JuneLondon, Servant Jazz Quarters

 

The Postcards In-between Pop-Up Exhibition 

The Postcards In-between project initially started with Maria asking her fellow Irish songwriters to pen a ‘note to self’ letter to a version of themselves that they thought might need a helping hand. The letters became 12 postcards – each one linking to a track on the original The Sum of the In-between album. 

The project features 11 of Maria’s fellow Irish songwriters: Abbacaxi, Ciaran Lavery, James Vincent McMorrow, Paul Noonan, Rosie Carney, Runah, Saint Sister, Sammy Copely, Shiv, Sive and Tim Chadwick

Designed by Irish-French illustrators Pipe & Pallet (Nathanaël Roman) and Cécilia Noiraud, these postcards will be exhibited in various forms at a free pop-up exhibition taking place at Universal Space, Dublin on the first two days of the May bank holiday weekend – Saturday 30th April and Sunday 1st May.

On the Saturday evening, at 7pm, there will be a ticketed event with a panel discussion and live music performances.

The exhibition and event are being run in association with Minding Creative Minds, Ireland’s first 24/7 (32 county and our Irish overseas) wellbeing support programme for the entire Irish creative sector.  Minding Creative Minds‘ counselling services (in association with Spectrum Life) include: *a 24/7 Dedicated Phone Line; Short-term intervention, telephone Counselling, secure video counselling and comprehensive web portal and app enabling live chat function with a counsellor. Minding Creative Minds focuses on the wellbeing of the entire person, so our programme also includes access to a number of additional services, helping users with various practical issues also.  See **additional details on our key supports and all our contact details in the editors notes section later in this document.

Dave Reid founder, Minding Creative Minds says: Our focus at Minding Creative Minds is supporting the entire individual. We ask people in our creative community not to wait until they are in a crisis to contact us; if something is troubling you, regardless of how small you deem it to be, let us help you. This in itself is one of the kindest acts of self-compassion you can show yourself; the theme Maria has chosen for this beautiful and thought-provoking exhibition and event. We applaud Maria for this initiative and are very pleased to display our support by partnering with her for The Postcards In Between Exhibition and Event.”

 

The Postcards In-between Music 

In addition to the postcards to be exhibited, Maria has also teamed up with a number of the artists mentioned to record a series of reworkings, remixes and alternative versions of a selection of the songs from The Sum of the In-between

Details of the singles to be released will be announced over the coming weeks and months, but we can reveal that the first of these will be a collaboration between Maria Kelly and Paul Noonan for a stunning version of the album’s title track ‘The Sum of the In-between’,  which will be released on Wednesday 30th March on Maria’s label, Veta Music

Of this project, Maria Kelly says: “‘Postcards In-between’ aims to bridge the gap between who we were, who we are, and who we will be. It’s a project about self-compassion; acknowledging the part of ourselves that is always changing, growing and learning. The part that is always, at some level, trying their best. 

“By collecting different perspectives this way I hope that anyone reading the postcard or visiting the exhibition might be able to identify with them, finding some comfort in the fact that somebody else made it out the other side – a way of seeing yourself, by meeting somebody else exactly where they are.” 

 

Handling personal loss while holding onto your work hat!

When my younger brother of 35 years old died suddenly in a tragic incident in August 2020, I wanted to stay in bed for a week but couldn’t. In one of the hardest times of my life, we have two parents both with serious health conditions and keeping them from losing their will was huge.

He was my first of two brothers, we’d been chatting only the day before in my parents house. He was still our ‘little’ brother of course as he had returned to college a couple of years ago and was a student once more. Though we’d seen each other only every few weeks over the Covid months given movement restrictions in Dublin March – July, I always believed that our lives would be connected together forever. And now, at only 35, he’s gone.

Often we think about and are, in some ways, prepared for the loss of older relatives–our grandparents, parents, aunts and uncles. Yet here I was totally shocked and unprepared to lose a sibling, I always thought our siblings are supposed to make it to the end with us. I thought my brother Michael would be there for all the big emotional moments in our life, like celebrating his 40th birthday or attending my son Morgan’s 3rd birthday.

I feel so odd even writing this as I think the death of a younger sibling as the eldest has some odd effect or immoral aspect to it. Why am I alive longer than he is?  I felt when we lost my brother, his death took away one of my connections to the past. Michael knew me in a very special way, unlike those who know me now as an adult. Its like a constant is gone. I really felt  over the months after his death quite insecure. I didn’t have frequent weekly communication with him and that makes me feel sad and guilty at the same time. He holds a special place in my life as my brother even though he didn’t have an impact on my day-to-day activities. I also found after losing Michael, especially with work and around friends , that his death made me feel older, and vulnerable to life, like our family is dwindling somehow.

People don’t always grieve in the same way – not everyone will cry or feel sad. Some people might feel shocked or numb, especially in the first days or weeks. We all appreciate grief is different for everyone, and people process it in different ways. For me, losing my brother, and then trying to snap back into ‘work mode’ and ‘positive mode’ really was challenging.

Everyone’s work situations are different, but it’s safe to say that most of us have to get back to an office or to a job at some point. No matter how long you are able to take, getting back into the regular routine when you’re in a serious state of mourning is hard. I’m an Event Organiser and marketing specialist, while also lecturing professionals and final years in higher education in Ireland. While I had a set number of days off, I needed to consider the need to work as there were no live physical events taking place, no conference, awards or sporting events which meant I was already on an income reduction for 2020. I had to work consistently in order to pay my share of the bills. I found it was a huge financial stress when I didn’t do much work for almost two weeks. Also by August, I felt so many wonderful souls had been taken from friends and colleagues around me, that death had somewhat become normal news to people. We were becoming numb to the new of losses as the impact of the pandemic took effect on us all.

Given I have clients in Industry as well as the College and University I work in, I rather talk to countless people on a daily basis—and I’m closer to some of them than others. Its also quite an International work environment and self managing. It can feel even in normal circumstances ‘silo -like’ at the best of times. So, the first question that came to mind when I sat back down to re-engage with my work was: Who should I tell? Everyone? No one? Even more confusing was the fact that I both wanted and didn’t want to talk about it. The tragedy had been in the news, the papers, the national TV news. I was so conflicted.

I didn’t know how to keep the fact inside, but at the same time I thought that I wasn’t supposed to talk about my personal life in my professional world. The lines I find are quite blurred for me  in my role; I communicate quite a lot on social media as many of my friends are there working away in different regions or countries. I love the volunteer work I do with the global board, and I had commitments to deliver there too, distractions that were welcomed at the time. Many people I work with are my friends on LinkedIN, Facebook or WhatsApp. Reeling from the death of my younger brother, I consumed myself with work, being a mum and had a number of upcoming virtual events to plan. In an act of trying to stay busy, while also trying my best to stay positive and enjoy the good moments with my husband and son, there were times when I allowed the grief to set in and I called on the universe and those I knew who asked about me to help me get through it.

Silence. I was surprised with the existing ‘radio silence’ I felt still existed. Everyone experiences loss at some point in their lives, and yet I felt like I had to apologise for taking a conversation to a negative place. We know there are none of us that get through life unscathed by grief, which means the immediate aftermath, when simply leaving the house can feel unbearable, is also a universal experience. Yet the silence persists, or even just because it’s painful and hard. I spoke to a number of experts and many friends around me who unfortunately had suffered losses throughout the pandemic, some within our minding creative minds community about how to best face the world (and your work life ) when you’re grieving as I didn’t like the feeling of being uncertain about how to proceed. I also wanted to be able to grieve the death of my brother while being respectful of family members who are also dealing with his loss. I refrained from sharing all the details of upcoming projects, or positive news. There were times when I didn’t feel like getting up in the morning to go to work, but I buried myself with projects as well as ongoing classes, and once up and active at work, I felt I could stay motivated and distracted. With a nearly three year old son, there is never a moment where I am not distracted at home 🙂  However, in reading about grief, I read about a Professor Wolfson who says it’s important to make space for grief and doing this can actually feel freeing. “Grief never goes away. It is something we all learn how to adapt to. The intensity of grief changes over time,” Wolfson explains. “One of the big things that helps us adapt to loss is to make space for these emotions. This allows you to re-engage with your life and have a vision that’s meaningful in the absence of your loved one,” he says.

I got back a number of tips from my readings and asking questions to those who had been through the journey.  Here is just a few…

 

Tell your management /reporting colleagues immediately:

When you return to work or even before, make sure your management and colleagues know about your loss. Depending on your relationship with your managers, this may seem challenging, or awkward, but it’s very important.Though you don’t need to alert every single person you work for or with, ‘there’s someone you report into and that person should know. You can be straightforward. You will want the people you work closely with to know that you might need some extra support on the job. These are difficult things to talk about but also important to talk about. They are also normal life events. Everyone will experience loss in their lives. And everyone will experience vulnerability while grieving,

 

Plan ahead and pre your reply: 

Prepare for some of the workplace situations that might arise with even the most well-intentioned colleagues. If you’re worried, for example, that as soon as you step into the office, you’ll start crying and won’t be able to stop, or that someone will ask intrusive questions you don’t want to answer,decide in advance how you want to respond.

 

Identify your lifeline: 

Find one person, ideally at work—though it could be an outside friend—with whom you feel known, accepted, and understood, and let that person know you might need to call on them throughout the day.

 

Self-Care  for you, & co: ( As I write this I know I’m not following it as perfectly myself as I could).

I do believe now, possibly I couldn’t understand it as much before, that a person shouldn’t feel like you have to keep it together for every hour every day. Try to take at least a short break during the day, time to breath, get out of the office, take a breath. Creating time to take care of yourself can do wonders for dealing with loss. People can practice self-care in a variety of ways, like journaling, joining a bereavement support group, or participating in online networks or groups that deal with loss. The bottom line is that you should never feel alone in your grief and staying connected to others can help you process your emotions.

 

The Guilt trip:

In my family life, especially when it came to being at home with my husband and son, there were times I felt absent or distracted and then afterward a wave of guilt for not being completely present and taking joy in every minute of my son’s progress. Sometimes I would find myself fighting back the tears and singing a song with him so he wouldn’t see mammy upset. From reading, I know It’s common to feel guilty about grief, especially if you don’t want to be overbearing on your partner or family members. While myself and my husband Martin were present to see my son Morgan make his milestones. I was worried that I wasn’t showing them both how happy I was or that I was overwhelming Martin with my roller coaster of emotions. What helped me get through this tough period was having conversations with Martin about the waves of sadness I felt, while also reveling in the moments of joy and laughter we share about Morgan etc. These conversations are still happening even now 🙂 We tend to rely heavily on our partners for emotional support when we’re grieving, and this is completely fine. Family members like siblings and others can be feeling quite raw or mixed, and sometimes still reacting to their own trauma so alot fell on my husband martin and close friends. This is what they signed up for, after all, but it’s important for them to get the support they need, too.

Professor Wolfson mentions “Engaging with positive experiences and emotions is central to the process of adapting to loss. However, it can certainly be challenging if you feel you are in a different place than those around you,” Wolfson says. By communicating your feelings with your partner, family and friends, they can understand that people grieve at different paces and in different ways. “Through communication and openness, you can feel more understood by your support system in your grief and be empathetic towards the feelings of those around you,” he adds.

 

Prepare for the big milestones you will miss:

Birthdays, and holidays are often difficult—but can be predicted. It will help if you anticipate that these may be difficult times, as they are times when you are likely to be reminded of the person you have lost. If you know you might feel extra sensitive on one of these occasions, don’t be afraid to take a day out. My brother Michel would have been 36 on 22nd February and we went to my parents, had his cake and took time to be around each other, and to honour his memory.

He s 1 year gone Aug 13th. For the most part, work is no longer the problem (it keeps me busy) and I’m trying to stop apologising when I do talk about my grief, even in work and professional settings. I still find myself tearing up at unexpected times or feeling pure disbelief, but I’m getting more comfortable with knowing that might happen and to allow myself to let it happen and go with it.  It helps that I am surrounded by good support, and within this community I have been given great comfort. I have to say it’s unique and really lovely to be within the community here as there is always lots to do and that helps me stay in touch through organising, co ordinating programmes etc. Something I know I will fine and it is because of networks and communities like our one here, it allows me take time for myself and share discussions on topics that are important to me , to support those in events and the creative sector in general. It really helps feed my soul working with all the wonderful people around us, the volunteers, the team who are creating some great projects together. I take comfort in hoping my brother  Michael is keeping an eye on us too 🙂

 

Emma Olohan.
Lecturer, Business Owner, International Marketing, Events & PR specialist. MCM Board and Global Goodwill Ambassador. 

Mindfulness & Meditation Classes

Minding Creative Minds in association with Ben Glover, accredited mindfulness & meditation teacher, is delighted to offer free mindfulness and meditation classes to members of the Irish Creative Sector. Ben will host three classes on consecutive Tuesday evenings at 7pm, starting on 15 June.

Ben is a certified mindfulness meditation teacher who works extensively with private clients as well as running meditation programs within the corporate setting. His training is in awareness and compassion-based practices and in addition, he is also a certified hypnotherapist. In describing his practice he says, “The tool of meditation is a transformative way to simply be with all the experiences that we encounter and bring an awareness and awakened response to them.” Ben is a native of County Antrim in N.Ireland but currently resides in Nashville, Tennessee. He comes from a creative background having been a touring singer-songwriter for the last fifteen years.

For more information please go to Be Still Aware Awake.

The ViVid Project Launch

The ViViD Project is organised and ran by freelance photographer Andrew Crowley, who goes by the name of Sunny Sardini Pictures.

The ViViD Project is a photography project aiming to contribute to the important conversation of mental health awareness within the Irish Creative Sector.

#TVP is producing a photobook with the theme of mental health/mental wellbeing and features various photographers across the Republic of Ireland and their work. The launch of the photobook will take place on the 29th of April 2021. You can register for #TVP Online Launch at www.sunnysardini.ie/the-vivid-project

This online launch will include industry guest speakers:

  • Music and Portrait photographer – Ruth Medjber
  • Concert photographer & mental health activist – Kieran Frost
  • Minding Creative Minds founder – Dave Reid

The ViViD Project is fundraising for Minding Creative Minds. Minding Creative Minds is a free 24/7 Wellbeing Support Programme for the entire Irish Creative Sector.

There will be two versions of the photobook. One you can find online at www.sunnysardini.ie/the-vivid-project where viewers can also donate. If you donate €20 or more you will receive a hard copy of The ViViD Project Photobook via the post!