Creative Life Solutions - Jill Pay Training & Health

24/06/2022

Gosh it's been a while since I posted here! I have been working and playing ... as well as going through a HUGE decluttering at home. All good!

Today I delivered a Zoom training session, the second in a series of 5 for Suffolk Family Carers with Not a Care in the World. Today's session entitled Your Stuff My Stuff is all about the importance of setting and maintaining healthy boundaries. A lovely engaged group of carers who were open to exploring the issues and demonstrated great insights too.

My decluttering process started a few weeks ago with my workspace - formerly used by a lodger pre-lockdown. I now have a brilliant office/studio space which has alreay made a difference to my life. With help from a local small business called Home Organised, Summer Russell is a warm, professional organiser who has helped me tackle the clearing and reorganising of my home with sensitivity and gentle guidance. It feels amazing!

In other news, I am also doing a 10 week art course called Find Your Joy with an awesome artist called Louise Fletcher. This is week 3 and I have already see and felt so much difference in my approach to painting and breaking old habits to reveal new ways of working. It was just what I needed to take my artistic life to a new level. I also found myself changing my Instagram name from "elephantananda" to "jill_pay.artist" to reflect a new level of visibility and ownership of being an artist. Busy times and lots of progress!

03/05/2022

Here is the link to the second piece I have written with Mobilise - which is a carers guide to advocacy. This has gone live today.

https://www.mobiliseonline.co.uk/post/carers-guide-to-advocacy

I look forward to seeing your feedback.

28/04/2022

Here is the link to the Mobilise Care piece I wrote with them:

https://www.mobiliseonline.co.uk/post/out-of-control-and-caring

I hope you enjoy it and please, if you know someone who is a family carer send them the link. They might also like to sign up with Mobilise who are a brilliant carer-led organisation. Here is the link to find out more and to sign up with Mobilise Online:

https://mobiliseonline.typeform.com/to/hNFLUsVs

04/04/2022

The weeks are flying by! It's been a busy start to the year with online and face-to-face classes with Not a Care in the World, as well as some independent work. I was also invited back by Mobilise to write a couple of new pieces for them which I am very grateful for. I will share the link to the first piece once I have permission from Mobilise to do so. I hope you are all doing well.

07/03/2022

Very busy week coming up! 5 workshops for carers, 3 via Zoom and 2 face-to-face. Covering topics such as Planning for Change, Interrupting Unhelpful Patterns, and Boundaries. Happy days! 🙏❤😃

26/01/2022

And so the Zoom work continues! Nearly two years in and it proves itself vital ... I have just delivered a training session to carers in Dingwall, Scotland. It seems one of the toughest things for carers to accept is that their needs are equal to, if not occasionally more important that the needs of those they care for. The analogy of putting on your own oxygen mask before supporting others in an emergency goes some way to making this easier to understand and accept.

09/11/2021

09/11/2021

Oh my goodness! I actually delivered a face-to-face training session yesterday - after so many months on Zoom. I wondered beforehand if I would remember how to do this, despite years of experience pre-lockdown. It was so good and the participants were really engaged with great questions, comments and insights. I have a few more coming up and it feels like getting back in the saddle.

16/10/2021

After a quiet couple of months, things are beginning to hot up again! I will be delivering a number of training sessions to carers - with subjects ranging from Mindfulness-Meditation, to Carers Rights and Making Friends with your Feelings. Until the end of the year these continue to be online, apart from a two part course which I will be delivering IN PERSON! Despite years of experience, I feel a bit rusty in that department, so wish me luck 😀🤣😂

27/05/2021

I have just completed another 5 session carer training for Suffolk Carers. The feedback has been so positive - but more than that, carers returning each week having put into practice what they have learned in a practical and effective way is so heart-warming. By offering opportunities for change, re-evaluation and positive steps towards improved well-being - my job is most rewarding when I witness the difference it can make. One carer said: "This was a well-balanced course, with information and re framing of the definition and role of a carer. Before contacting Suffolk Family Carers I had not considered or acknowledged that I am in the role of a carer, but through the one to one support from SFC and then through attending this course, I feel validated and supported and am more able to recognise just how much I do that constitutes caring....
I found your approach calm, compassionate and affirming Jill, offering your own experiences strengthened this and I am very grateful to have had the opportunity to attend. Thankyou."

With Carers Week coming up (7th-14th June) Not a Care in the World will be hard at work offering workshops for carers around the country.

25/03/2021

Hi everyone - how are you all doing? Just a few updates ... I have just delivered a taster session to some carers in Edinburgh, such is the power of Zoom! It was on Planning for Change. This is ironic as I have a big change coming up next week, when I will be officially retiring from Camden Carers where I have worked for nearly 14 years!

I will miss my colleagues at Camden Carers, but I am also looking forward to having time to develop the other strings on my bow - in particular my art practice; continuing to write my book; developing some online creative courses - or even at some point some face-to-face ones; and I will continue to work with Not a Care in the World delivering carer training with them. New horizons, fresh fields, a new chapter - all the metaphors apply here!!

26/02/2021

This week I completed delivery of a 5-session resilience training programme to Suffolk Carers for Not a Care in the World. It was such a pleasure to work with the group and their feedback was so positive!

The sessions covered:

1: Caring in Perspective - all about carers' worth, the impact of the role, all the different "hats" a carer wears and all the skills you discover you had when you need them!

2: All about healthy boundaries - setting and maintaining personal boundaries

3: It's All About Me - focusing back on who you are outside your caring role - your hopes & plans and why it's important to keep your own identity

4: Carers Rights & The Law - how the law protects carers from the impact of the caring role

5: Healthy Emotions & Completion- exploring everything around emotional health with practical ways to experience emotions well.

Carers said: "I love your use of analogies to deepen understanding"; "You made the course so enjoyable and even fun, despite covering some serious topics"; "I discovered my inner strength"; "The boundaries session was just what I needed"; "I can share what I learned (about emotions) with my cared-for too!"

12/02/2021

Wow! January was so busy ... I delivered a lot of Zoom training for carers with Not a Care in the World. I was also commissioned to write some content pieces for a carers website and have been recommissioned in February to write some more. I am always really thankful for opportunities to do work that I love!

I am also excited to be developing my online art workshops which will be launched in April when I officially "retire" from Camden Carers where I have worked for nearly 14 years. New beginnings, new opportunities 🙏😀😀

22/12/2020

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas. I painted this yesterday... it's entitled "Love for the World" ❤🙏

13/11/2020

I delivered a Zoom workshop this morning to Richmond Carers on Carers Rights and just received this feedback from one of the participants:

"Brilliant session. Thank you so much for organising such a great workshop. Jill Pay is awesome and her knowledge and empathy very much in evidence. Thanks again."

😁🙏

19/09/2020

I am delighted to have reopened my Creative Life Solutions practice and this page will be the go-to place to find out what I am up to, what's on offer and to ask questions. Watch out for some creative workshops coming up on Zoom very soon. I look forward to seeing you here. 🙏🧡😀

19/09/2020