WHAT KEEPS YOU WELL?
I was commissioned to explore the views of young people in Sefton about what keeps them well. This was carried out through a collaborative process working with the young people on creating photography to help illustrate their thoughts and views. Here are some of the case studies and the photography that has come from working in a collaborative way.
GABBY
“I have always known I wanted to do something with animals, that’s always what I’ve wanted to do, since I was little.
I always knew.”
“It’s also getting you out there in the fresh air cos sometimes when I’m at the yard I won’t go on my phone for ages because I need to be doing my jobs so I don’t have time to be going on my phone every two minutes.”
“One day when I was only two years old I visited my cousins so my mum was sitting with my aunty and they went ‘Oh look outside’ and I was walking around on one of her horses and that started it all. Cos I’ve always been an animal lover, always have been and always will be. And that just started everything and it was a bit of an obsession really(laughter)
A lot of people when they first start out, they can be quite selfish and they want to do things for them, rather than for the horse but once you get more into it you realise ‘this horse needs me to be like this, for its health’. It’s a big responsibility because a lot of things can go wrong with horses, they have a lot of diseases, they can go downhill. It’s like with dogs but with a bigger animal, it’s a lot harder. But I do think it’s been a big help for me to realise, actually ‘this thing relies on me so I need to go and do it’.
Say if you want to lay in bed all day cos you’re feeling a bit down, horses rely on you so you need to be there for them. And it does get you up and going even if you don’t want to. And once you’re there, you realise ‘Oh no, it wasn’t actually that bad’ it’s just the whole getting there, cos it can become a huge thing if you’re feeling…….……..not great.”
KATH
“I’m kind of just in the zone when I’m doing creative things and I go into a sort of zone and I kind of just lock in and do the things that make me happy. I like doing things that make me lock in because it makes all the worries in my head go away. I especially like drawing horror stuff, I love horror.”
“I also feel like the Internet is like a very big eyeball and it will look at you under a microscope to find any flaws so I’ve just stopped caring about what people think.”
SOFIA
IRIS & MARTHA
Sometimes I think, it makes me happy to think that I’m doing stuff that makes other people happy, do you know what I mean?
Yeah, I get ya.
And I’m not going out of my way to do it, we’re all just enjoying ourselves together and I like that. It like warms my heart.
I think as important it is to make your own friends, sometimes I think the influence that my mum and dad have had on me have kept me well because they’re always……..they’re not pushing stuff down my throat, but we often do things as a family and it just so happens that we all love to do them so I think spending time with my family and doing all these things; sailing, skiing and stuff like that that we could all do as a family and equally appreciate cause sometimes you know when some people like something more than others and they start to moan and you’re not all on the same wavelength, the fact that I know I’m going to do something and all my family like it, I like bonding over it and thinking it’s such a happy time for all of us, rather than thinking one person isn’t enjoying this.
“When it comes to fishing, when I fish and the sky’s coming up, I have a load of photos that I’ve taken just to picture it. Do you know when you’re setting up your rod, you hear the birds tweeting in the sky, you don’t really think. You’re just in………wherever, I don’t know how to word this. You’re just in that space, in that surrounding and you’re just taking it in in a sense and you’re enjoying it as well. A lot of times when I’ve been fishing and I’ve just…….just listened, listening to the silence, it just helps you sort of just, chill. Obviously, there’s a lot of times when you have a lot of ups and downs in life, that helps a lot with life’s ups and downs. With Sean’s place, that’s the big thing that helps me, sort of push myself to push through them downs. I don’t have many downs obviously but I think you know even if I have downs I’ve got the people here and when it comes to the activities here, everyone walks out with a smile on their face.“
BRANDON
“I’ve only been going fishing since April last year so I’m not been fishing long but with fishing I find it dead peaceful and calming even. You know there’s a lot of people my age and they mightn’t get up at 4 o’clock in the morning to go fishing. So sort of the reason it helps me is that I’m doing something that I like but the reason that I’m doing it is that I’m with lads that I get along with and I enjoy spending time with, you know what I mean. That’s what it’s like in here for me.”
MARK
This is Mark who spends his time working with his hands. He enjoys being able to spend time creating things from materials and seeing it all come together. Mark told us “having this job has meant I can enjoy my life and not worry as much as I used to about money. That frees my head up a bit”.
SHANNON
I was quite involved with social media and my phone growing up so becoming a young adult I’ve experienced that there are things out there and now I don’t rely on my phone. And that’s why I got into my art so it reduces my time with my phone and it makes me focus on the present moment and not on what is going on in the outside world.
Covid was a lot harder for me. I was a care home assistant for five years and I had seen a huge change since lockdown. I had 153 residents pass on me due to Covid. Seeing people deteriorate just by one little disease was really hard and mental health wise, I was working 8 til 8 Monday to Friday so I was very much work, work, work, work; I never had me time and seeing the residents pass it was very emotional and I never had to experience so much of a hold back of emotions because you just had to carry on with it being a job but deep down inside it was heartbreaking.
LEWIS
I do, when I’m not too busy, like to go on walks, sometimes with and without music, I prefer going out to Crosby Beach for instance and walking with headphones, just watching people go by and getting a breath of fresh air cause I don’t usually go out in the day I usually just work in the office so it’s good getting out of the office to have a bit of space and a bit of time to think and process what’s gone on in the day, helps a lot. Just so I can say ‘Right that’s it for today, see where I can go tomorrow’. My current playlist I listen to has 2,500 songs and I just put it on shuffle every day. Sometimes it’s the same music but when you like something you just go for it.
