Strictly speaking, this wasn’t a part of the Community Dialogue Programme, however I think this is a 
perfect working example of the motto be the change you want to see. New ways of thinking and communicating often have to start within the organisation, and then roll out to members of the public.
The feel good workshop was held at NHS Leicester City recently and looked at the importance of mental health and well-being to us all. Through a series of interactive exercises, we focused on what made us feel good in our day-to-day lives (and what made us feel not so good).
Our facilitator talked us through some simple relaxation techniques, and as a group we shared ideas about meditation, exercise and even had a go at laughter therapy!
We also got the chance to see a new technique called ‘Graphic Recording’ in action; this is a simple, visual technique that can be used to plot the journey of a forum or event whilst overcoming certain communication barriers. It is helpful for people with learning difficulties, or for whom reading and writing is a challenge. We were all excited by this technique and the opportunities to use this for recording our community resident meetings were obvious – so much so, that many of my NHS Leicester colleagues are now being 
trained to be in-house graphic recorders.
I feel that workshops like this will be a valuable tool in the Keeping Saffron in Mind tool-kit and a positive, practical step towards the prevention of low-level mental health problems.
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