Well Being Corner week 1 - 4

I keep forgetting about updating my blog for CoExist so yeah, here's briefly what we've done so far.

So brainstormed some ideas about potential target audience, potential place for the space and ideas for the space

And I wanted to work on stressful office workers so I made a few research on how to cope with stress, here's what I found:

Relief from stress

Visualizing your calm space

For example, if you think of the beach, you might imagine calm waves, the sound of children playing in the sand, the smell of sunscreen, the taste of cool ice cream and the feel of gritty sand under your feet.

Connect to nature

Scientists have found that simply looking at images of nature with greenery for five minutes on a computer screen can help calm you down

(Cirino, E., 2019.)

Visualize calm space

However, like most techniques requiring mental concentration, it is usually most successfully practiced without interruption in a setting that is free from distracting stimulation. The bathroom can be used in a pinch, if no other suitably private and peaceful location is available.

(Mentalhelp.net. n.d.)

Relaxing your mind

“Listen to soothing music.

Practice mindful meditation. The goal of mindful meditation is to focus your attention on things that are happening right now in the present moment. For example, listen to your body. Is your breathing fast, slow, deep, or shallow? Do you hear noises, such as traffic, or do you hear only silence? The idea is just to note what is happening without trying to change it.”

(Uofmhealth.org. 2019.)

I also searched for some inspirations:

(SBID, 2018.)

(7identities, 2019.)

(Steelcase, 2020.)

After we presented all all of our different ideas to our lecturer and made a decision based on the feedback we obtained we all agreed to make a space for children during corvid 19 where they will be able to express themselves physically and not get anxious or always stays on pc.

I was also quite hyped with this idea as I thought it would be fun to work for children and the target audience and problem was well defined for this proposal.

So I went on and made a small research to back this proposal up and I found this article about children health which state that:

• Children need to be active for an hour everyday

• Executive functions like skills to plan, prioritize, troubleshoot, negotiate and multi-task are learnt by letting children have unstructured time to figure their own game out and find a way to amuse themselves

• Children need to know how to take risks so that they learn what they can or cannot do and gain self confidence and bravery to face the world.

• Children need to know how to appreciate nature

(Claire McCarthy, M., 2018.)

And we made some sketches of some preliminary ideas. Here's mine:

And some sketches of the other members

After that we started to make real research, I was part of the primary research team and the two other members worked on some survey question and we shared it using facebook survey groups and we also sent to some relatives and then I did the analysis of the responses.

Through the survey I found that people indeed said that their kids get anxious and annoyed for always staying indoors during the pandemic. However some also mentioned about their children's education and that they are scared that their child's performance decrease because they are not very interested in studying at home.

In the survey, one of the question asked the people if they would prefer their children to engage in creative and expressive activities, physical activities or mental activities and the answer was about half half for expressive/creative and physical.

So from there I asked the group if we could make the space a place that will nourish their creativity and at the same time being educative and we made a decision to focus more on the education part.

As for now I have gotten the task to interview people to get more information of what kind of space they want for their child and yeah.

Bibliography

7identities, 2019. Wellbeing Space With A Garden Twist. [image] Available at: <https://www.7ids.com/news/2018/10/18/wellbeing-space-with-a-garden-twist> [Accessed 25 January 2021].

Cirino, E., 2019. How To Relax: Easy Ways To Relax, Recharge, And Vanquish Stress. [online] Healthline. Available at: https://www.healthline.com/health/stress/how-to-relax [Accessed 25 January 2021].

Claire McCarthy, M., 2018. 6 reasons children need to play outside - Harvard Health Blog. [online] Harvard Health Blog. Available at: https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/6-reasons-children-need-to-play-outside-2018052213880 [Accessed 30 January 2021].

Mentalhelp.net. n.d. Visualization And Guided Imagery Techniques For Stress Reduction. [online] Available at: https://www.mentalhelp.net/stress/visualization-and-guided-imagery-techniques-for-stress-reduction/ [Accessed 25 January 2021].

SBID, 2018. HEALTHCARE & WELLNESS. [image] Available at: <https://www.sbid.org/design-interior-wellness-employee-wellbeing/> [Accessed 25 January 2021].

Steelcase, 2020. Wellbeing Standards Measure How Space Impacts People. [image] Available at: <https://www.steelcase.com/asia-en/research/articles/topics/sustainability/wellbeing-standards-measure-space-impacts-people/> [Accessed 25 January 2021].

Uofmhealth.org. 2019. Stress Management: Relaxing Your Mind And Body | Michigan Medicine. [online] Available at: https://www.uofmhealth.org/health-library/uz2209 [Accessed 25 January 2021].