Author: Emma

Hi my name is Emma! I am a health professional, writer and nature enthusiast based in York.

Creating Silence….

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‘Silence is the new luxury. Silence is more exclusive and long lasting than other luxuries.’ Erling Kagge

It’s no coincidence that I’m writing this the day before the children go back to school. It seems that two parallel experiences have been going on during the pandemic, either intense isolation, or intense company. I have been experiencing the latter.

By silence Erling Kagge was not speaking of literal silence. He was speaking of silence in a busy world with so many distractions and so many things vying for our attention. To just be for a moment, with no demands, to lose ourself in a moment, to have time to think.

Lockdown has given us a strange silence. An unexpected pause from our busy lives, a chance to simplify. For some this has been too quiet, For myself it has created a different kind of busy – one where I get snatches of time to do things and one where I have had to really consider my priorities. It has given me time to realise how much I was trying to cram into the short hours of a school (when the schools were open) and how challenging it has been to try to continue to work and study and also ensure my family have what they need. I have realised that silence is a luxury in a busy life and it is also an essential, to create space for thought and creativity, to pause.

Thinking about my research I realise that I was so caught up in the many strands of what I could do, that I almost lost sight of what I actually wanted to do, because of all the possibilities that I had started to unravel. A bit like cooking a fancy meal, only to get it all dished up and realise that the table still needs setting while the food is going cold.

To continue my research I need to start again at the end. I need to set my table and my expectations and then I need to build my ingredients and get cooking. Up until this point I have been looking at all the possibilities and getting overwhelmed by the many opportunities. To keep writing weekly is to stay focused on the end goal.

Last Sunday I wrote that my goal was to finish a book that I had started and to write 500 words. I have completed the words and finished a book; Silence in the Age of Noise. It wasn’t the book I intended to read, never mind finish, but it turns out it was exactly the book that I needed.

Goals for this week:

  • Write another 500 words.
  • Finish another book.
  • Email 1000 words to my tutors.

01.03.21 Reflections…

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Things I have learnt this week:

  • Writing I have completed, that I thought was rubbish and had discarded, is so much better when returned to a few weeks later after putting it away for a while! (Phew) Why is it that we can’t see the value in our own writing or art straight away? Perhaps we are too close to the subject when we have created it and need some time and distance from it to appreciate what we have made?
  • Sitting down to write doesn’t have to be a mammoth session. A good friend shared some advice she had been given last week – to keep a tiny notebook by the kettle and jot down notes while the kettle is boiling. Getting anything on paper helps, it also saves that awful moment when you open a word document on the computer and stare blankly at the screen. Having hand written fuel gives you something to get you started and then the words flow.
  • Children have a magical ability to immediately know when you are absorbed and occupied in a thought. They also have a special word to break the spell….’Muuuuuum’. (But I wouldn’t change it for all the money in the world.)
  • Midnight is too late to be going to bed on a work night. (I will publish this in the morning)
  • Writing this blog has given me the jolt that I needed. 500 words completed!

Goals for next week:

  • Write another 500 words.
  • Stick to one book and finish reading it.

See you next week,

EM 🙂

21.02.21 World Building…

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Hello…..My name is Emma,

In February 2020 I set off on a personal journey to complete a PhD using my skills in writing to create a contemporary Choose Your Own Adventure book, taking a reader through the experience of a mental health journey.

Why am I doing this?

I have worked in the NHS since 2001 as an occupational therapist, specialising in mental health and vocational rehabilitation. A lot of my job involves re-sparking inspiration in life and supporting people to re-structure personal narratives and perceptions of the world.

I want to write something that conveys the human experience of mental health illness and also aims to challenge the way we think and feel about mental health experiences. I am particularly interested in the way that the stories we tell about ourselves, and others tell about us, shape our identity and how we think and feel about ourselves in the world.

So far my research has taken me back to the beginning of mental health care, looking at historical aspects and also narrative theory in relation to my writing. I’ve been using auto ethnography to explore my own personal experiences and to begin to consider characters and structures that I would like to include in my writing.

In essence I’m at the beginning of world building. Something we all do in the creation and making of stories. My biggest challenge setting out in this journey is fitting in my job, research and home schooling during lock down.

I’ve been buying myself some time at Base Camp by setting the kids off creating their own fantasy worlds (see pics at the top of the blog) for anyone interested in doing this with their kids I can recommend this excellent book which gave us our inspiration: Fantasy Mapping, Drawing Worlds by Wesley Jones.

Goals for this week:

  • Daily reading.
  • Getting to grips with One Note (reccomended by a fellow researcher).
  • To write 500 words. (One small step at a time)

Welcome to Base Camp!

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Hi Welcome to Base Camp.

Hi, my name is Emma. Base Camp is my home. I believe that life is a journey and home is a place to have adventures from. This is the place where I travel from, but also that I return to, to record my adventures.

I recently started a PhD in Creative Writing and Humanities. During our introduction we talked about where we would write from and what we were grateful for. I mentioned Base Camp, my quirky home with it’s clutter, curiosities and also a handful of lodgers.

This is my journal from Base Camp, a place to record progress on my PhD , to interact with other travellers, and to record some of daily life and the many distractions to not writing!

Here I am with the other residents at Base Camp, I’m looking forward to getting to know some fellow travellers along the way!

Best wishes,

Emma