Better Living through Chemistry

There’s been a side project over the last few weeks, that has taken up slightly more time than had been anticipated. However, now we’re done, it’s time to get my act together and explain why this has become something more than the moment that it was created from.

You’ll know from the header that it’s Mental Health Awareness Week starting on the 18th: initially the subject was going to be body image, which is a topic that’s still quite hard for me to talk about easily, and so I’d decided not to do any specific work for it until the day. However, I was approached by my Time To Change hub (the people that look after Mental health Champions and support our fundraising activity) to provide something as the brief for the week had changed: the new subject is Kindness.

I wrote a poem, then looked at it on the page and realised that I could do so much better. So, I looked for some pictures to go with it, then I rewrote some more, changed my pictures, decided to not use music and subtitles but instead record my own voice. An ancient Podcasting microphone was pulled out of the garage, audio recorded, before the whole thing was stuck together over two days.

All in all, from start to finish, it was about three weeks’ work.

The finished product will get an exclusive first see by my Patrons tomorrow, and I’ll use their feedback (plus that from my early ‘focus group’) to improve going forward. The video’s been sent to the people who matter for a look over, and assuming they’re okay with it, the thing will get published by them that week. I’ll stick it on my socials as well for good measure of course, but they must remain the main benefactors.

I’ve never produced something this personal before. It’s been a fantastic exercise in knowing what’s possible with the limited resources I have available. What’s been learnt will undoubtedly be useful going forward too, as these skills can be translated into other areas, used to promote my own work. However, what matters most of all is starting a conversation with others about mental health, and making sure that message is heard by everyone who needs it.

That, in the end, is what matters most of all.