Life in music: songs and lyrics that help me spill my brain
VICTA Young Ambassador Grace Hill has found her love of music, lyrics and song writing has played a key part in supporting her mental health. Finding a lyric you relate to can bring a sense of shared understanding. Grace shares with us the songs that mean the most to her and the reason they resonate with her. We'd like you to add to Grace's playlist by sharing the songs that have had a positive impact on your mental health. We've saved Grace's choices as a playlist on our YouTube channel so that you can listen to them and we'd [...]
World Mental Health Day 2022
Making mental health and wellbeing for all a global priority 10 October 2022 is World Mental Health Day and Mental Health UK are asking you to look after ‘Number 1’ when it comes to your mental health. So we want to know - what steps are you taking to make mental health your Number 1 priority? It could be taking a walk every day, taking time to talk to your family, a VICTA activity you've been a part of, or a creative activity that relaxes you. Share yours in the form below and we'll share them here [...]
Kissing the sky: How Kiss FM makes me feel like anything is possible
By Grace Hill What does 'no limits' mean to you? For me, it means finding something special in amongst the challenges you face. A piece of magic that makes you feel like you can achieve anything, whether that's in reality or in your dreams. If you're expecting the story of a blind girl who has climbed Mount Everest or won the Paralympics, get ready to be disappointed. Because, if I'm being brutally honest, I find it very hard to pair the concept of 'no limits' with my vision impairment because I'm scared of becoming a cliché. I don't [...]
InFocus share tips on laying out your garden
Thanks to Dylan Cheshire, Horticultural Manager at InFocus (WESC at time of writing) for sharing this helpful guide on laying out your garden! InFocus is a specialist day and residential centre in Devon offering a unique experience for young people and adults with visual impairment including complex needs. Their Discovery Garden is an onsite outdoor facility for the students to use and enjoy at the centre. Dylan Cheshire manages the garden and shares his tips here for setting up your own... Edges to identify paths, prickly plants and other pointy things We want everyone to be able to [...]
Be inspired. My Gifted Green World
By Sonal Sumaria, VICTA Young Ambassador (2020/21) Sea green, olive, dark green, forest green, lime, mint, pear, shamrock, emerald, seaweed, parakeet, sage, jade and viridian are a few of many of shades of green – the colour of nature, peace, life, renewal, energy and safety, I’ve seen and worked with. It’s a colour I’ll never be fed up of, it’s in my everyday life and most importantly it’s about my personality as a horticulturist. ‘Green renews and restores depleted energy. It is the sanctuary away from the stresses of modern living, restoring us back to a sense of wellbeing’ [...]
Talking about my mental health
Hi. My name is Johnathan and I am 15 years old. Since it is Children's Mental Health Week, I wanted to tell you about my story and what helped me because I don't think any person should go through those few months. To fully tell this story, we need to go back one and a half years to around the time of the first lockdown. I truly started experiencing mental health issues in the summer of 2020. I became more distant, less interactive and left my room very little. I spent every day just watching YouTube and didn't [...]
STRiVE: How volunteering gives back to everyone
by Sonal Sumaria Hi everyone, hope you’ve all had a lovely summer. Did you all get up to anything exciting? I’ve done a fair bit of travelling, both independently and with my family! Are there any fellow Potterheads out there? I would love to share my magical summer adventures with you, but I think that’s for another article. Today, I wanted to talk about volunteering. It is certainly something I really enjoy. Instead of receiving payment, I’m happy knowing that I’ve made a difference to someone’s life. And that means a lot to me. My volunteering journey started [...]
Volunteering as a key for long-term success
Written by Idil Serce The transition from higher education to employment can be a difficult and emotional roller coaster for all new graduates, but especially for visually impaired (VI) graduates who are in a more disadvantaged situation in comparison to their fellow peers. Being VI myself, I know how difficult it is for VI students to focus on their studies and gain work experience whilst fighting with the physical and emotional challenges of living with a VI. As a recent VI graduate, l will share my personal experience of transitioning into the world of employment and the impact that [...]
How health and fitness helped me manage my mental health when I became blind
By Ibraheem Iqbal Hi everyone, my name is Ibraheem, but you can call me Ibz. I am proud to be one of VICTA’s Young Ambassadors. I have been given the opportunity to write an article about mental health in this issue. I will begin to outline what is meant by health and fitness then I will talk about my own experiences and lastly the importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle and tips towards achieving it. Before I begin, I would like to make the reader aware that this content may be sensitive to some people. If at any point [...]
The importance of healthy eating to improve wellbeing
My name is Harriet and this is my first article for Strive. I am 29 years old, and have an interest in cooking and healthy eating. With this in mind, I wanted to write an article about how eating healthily can effect and improve wellbeing and the science behind it. Here is what I found out. If you sometimes feel depressed or experience changes in your mood on a regular basis, adjusting your diet can dramatically decrease or prevent these feelings. We all know about eating a balanced diet, but there are more subtle changes you can make to [...]
