We believe, from experience, that getting yourself into a room – a real room, with other people in it. Where something else is the focus, it helps you stop spiralling and makes you excited to be alive.
Pick the one that sounds most like where you are. We’ll show you what’s on.
- Be around strangers who don't know your story
- Lose yourself in someone else's work
- Make something
- Be around people
- Be in a room where something else is the focus
- Turn up to the same place more than once
- Be a beginner in public
- Find a place to return to
- Be in a room where listening is enough
- Let someone else do the talking
- Make something without words
- Try on someone else's perspective
- Be in a room that asks for your voice
- Share what you've made
- Speak in front of others
- Have somewhere to go
- Sit in a room with others
- Practice Czech
- Talk to other people
- Follow someone else's rules for an hour
- Learn something with your hands
This section of the website is inspired by this reply from Heather Havrilesky’s Ask Polly column to a girl who was obsessively lost. I think it’s really worth a read to manage your expectations.
Often, we’re told to do X and the problem will go away and it will feel perfect. But what we’re not told is how hard it is to go to an event if you struggle with anxiety and interpersonal relationships, or if you have spent a long time without the company of strangers. We won’t always feel better and like we’re making progress, sometimes we leave an event feeling worse, especially at the beginning of trying to build ourselves up. It’s about making ourselves feel safe in the company of others, and I find the letter above (linked to and marked in bold) is an important thing to read so that you understand, you’re not alone, this is common and what it takes to change it.
Another huge inspiration is The Poetry Pharmacy by William Sieghart (video below) and I recommend watching this to cheer yourself up.