0Although it is winter and the temptation is to curl up and slow down, this is not happening at Lantern! The August newsletter is packed full of stories of our many adventures during June and July, including Naidoc week, two lovely seaside outings to St Kilda and Mornington and an adventurous trip to the snow with the Mind respite program.
In July I had the pleasure of being a panellist at the NAB Staff Forum on youth mental health, alongside Lifeline, headspace and Reach Foundation. There was some great information shared, but for me the thing that resonated most strongly was the importance of listening.
Listening and not solving. Listening and being truly present. Today we get so busy that we often do two things at once, reading our emails on our iPhones as we sit at the dinner table for example. To be truly present with someone means switching our full attention to them.
When people we care about are troubled it is only natural that we want to help them and sometimes we try too hard and start given advice or taking it on ourselves to solve their problems. I need to remind myself constantly to work on my active listening skills. Acknowledging the other persons feelings, offering to listen and being truly present with them is validating. When people feel safe and validated they will be able to release their feelings in a healthy, safe and supportive way which is often the start to feeling better and being able to solve their own problems.
Coming up in August we have Kerryn Burgoyne presenting at our Wellbeing Series on Asperger’s Syndrome. In September the Wellbeing Series will feature the topic of ‘Young People, Social Media and Cyber Safety’. Two other important diary notes are Thursday August 25th and the Annual General Meeting on October 26th. These two dates are interconnected. The theme this year’s AGM will be, ‘A day in the life of Lantern’. This is your chance to tell your story and to share what Lantern means to you. We will be filming a short video and taking still photos on Thursday August 25th. We hope lots of you will get involved.
Until next month,
Cheers
Janet Hopkins (CEO)
Some useful links:
nabITAT – National Australia Bank
Lantern’s bookmarks – useful websites and articles via delicious
