Mental health is something that everyone has, just like general health, which also means that everybody is susceptible to mental health issues just to differing degrees. Luckily we are now living in a time where it is more acceptable to openly talk about our mental health and emotional wellbeing and, although there is still a way to go, taking a mental health refresh, practising mindful activities and opting for mental health screenings are actively encouraged.
What are mindful activities?
Mindfulness or mindful activities are activities that allow you to take your self away fro your inner thoughts and troubles and focus your mind on being in the present moment. They are activities that are not too taxing but do require you to focus on simple processes for a short amount of time. Mindful activities, which are also considered among the ways to improve memory, usually include things like coloring in, practicing gratitude, or meditation.
When I worked on the psychiatric wards we openly encouraged all of our patients to engage with occupational therapy. These were activities such as gardening, pottery and arts and crafts. At the time these were seen as ways to help the patients fill their days and distract them from their own thoughts and troubles and for most they were very beneficial. Today these activities are referred to as mindful activities or the art of practising mindfulness and are encouraged on a regular basis for all psychiatric patients in a bid to help improve their mental health along side their other treatments.
The Ria Candle making kit review
Most activities that require you to focus your mind on a specific thing but do not require you to concentrate to hard or require too much effort physically or mental can be classed as mindful if conducted in the right way. One example is candle making. Now not all candle making can be defined this way, some processes are complex and others require you to leave the house, follow instruction and create candles along side others in a public space which would bring about more stress than they would alleviate, however, Ria have created a candle making set that is delivered to your door and can be classed as a mindful activity.
The set is simple yet effective. It contains everything you need in just the right amounts so there is no need to worry about engaging the brain to calculate amounts. The instructions are broken down in to easy to follow steps with only a few words and a picture to demonstrate, so again there is no need to engage the brain to read and retain lots of information.
The process takes less than 30 minutes which is the perfect time for a mindfulness activity. Any longer and those that are struggling with their thoughts or mood will start to become distracted, lose interest or struggle to remain focused.
It then requires a 3 day break, again this is perfect. It can be forgotten about or checked on. There is no need to stress about setting timers and trying to remain focused throughput the day. If this one activity has proven taxing for an individual that’s fine they can return to it a couple of days later.
Once complete the finished candle gives a feeling of success. There is something tangible to show for their hard work. The effort that the mindfulness task may have taken was not in vain, as well as feeling relaxed and having cleared their thoughts during the activity they can also see that it was worth it and they did create something. The way this set is designed there is very little room for failure, if any. It is unlikely to add any additional stress to an individual and therefore, in my opinion, works very well as a mindful activity.
As an added bonus once the candle is complete it can then be used for future mindfulness activities such as relaxing and watching the flame whilst smelling the scent, or being lit whilst practising yoga, meditation, breathing exercises or journaling, and during all of these activities it will add an extra sense once again of a recent achievement, a moment or pride, and encourage them to engage in other activities as they improve their mental health over time.
Overall I really enjoyed trying out the Ria soy candle making kit. It was a lovely activity and one that can be enjoyed by anyone but one that would be beneficial to someone who is looking for a mindful creative activity to help them focus on the moment and take a break from their thoughts for a short while and at £29 they are very reasonably priced. There are 6 scents and an unscented set to choose from. If you wish to add an extra sense of relaxation to this then I would recommend buying the Lavender one, that said the Lemon grass and ginger smells devine too!