Well, i hope you had a great christmas, and a happy new year. For me it was quite stressful and there was a lot of arguments and fighting which led to the whole festive period being quite a let down, and it got me thinking that if even if you don't think it family (including close friends) mean a great deal.
For me my friends mean more to me than they will ever know, and i know without there support i wouldn't be half the person i am today, but it was also down to my family aswell. Family can have an everlasting effect on someone be it positive or negative- if a child has an absence of a family or a bad childhood experience, whether they believe it or not it will stay with them for the rest of their life which is why having a close unit of friends/relatives is so important. I know that sometimes it isn't possible to have that relationship maybe you don't have close relatives, maybe you don't want to see them or maybe it just isn't possible for whatever reason. However if that is the case it is even more important that you have people around for support. Which gets me on to my point of people networks!
Basically a people network or whatever you want to call it, is a list or diagram of main people in your life that mean a lot to you and can suppport you. For me when i was going through a difficult stage and was asked to do this activity i was shocked at just how little people i put on at first. To begin with i added my mum, then my nan, friends and my councillor and that was it! Shocking really, because a people network can be as big as you want. When i began to think more there were tonnes of people i could add to my list but had never even considered talking to before. Ii went from feeling isolated to more confident and less alone.
If you've never done this before all you need to do is draw round your hand, or draw a flower, or it could be a tree, a spider or just a mind map if you want (really it can be anything). And than start listing the people closest to you, people you know you can always talk to like close friends, parents e.t.c then start to work your way out add on other relatives/different friends you would feel comfortable talking to then think about adding work colleages or teachers or helpers/carers or even me! This is a great way of sorting out the people you can talk to. Even if it's someone that you don't see very often but know you can call them and talk for hours. Trust me, it feels great to see the long list of people or the massive diagram or mind map of support in front of you.
And don't worry if you feel you can't talk to them because trust me they will listen, if a friend asked you if they could talk to you what would you do? laugh in their face? tell them their stupid? not listen? no course not, well i hope you said no :) you would listen to them. So don't feel embarassed or alone because your not.. and don't worry if it does go pair shaped you can always ask moi for help.
Hope you have fun drawing your networks, and remember that you are not alone their will always be someone their to help, so don't keep your feelings inside.. talk about it ! xxxx
Neat idea :-)
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