KRYSAN THE WELLBEING CONSULTANCY B E A U T I F U L M I N D S North East England (THE CHANGING EXPERIENCE OF WOMEN)
The Mona Lisa - Da Vinci
PERMISSION TO SHINE ... "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us most. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us, it's in all of us. And when we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others." Marianne Williamson
The above quotation was used by Nelson Mandela in his inaugural speech in 1994. 
NORTHERN WOMEN WORKING FOR GOOD 
Portrait of a Young Woman of Frankfurt - Sandro Botticelli This page is about women who work for good in the North East of England. They are only a heartbeat away. So, please, do read on. Find out how they and their unique organisations help people to flourish. All have, Permission to shine ...
NIWE
(Eating Distress) * Annemarie  Girl with Pearl Earring - Vemeer It is not my intention to refer to Annemarie further, but simply do as she would prefer and draw your kind attention to the vibrant organisation working for good which she spearheads from her small office in the beautifully named 'Pink Lane' in Newcastle upon Tyne. To begin this journey, the letters NIWE stand for the Northern Initiative for Women with Eating Distress.
In essence, eating distress occurs most often when an individual is feeling unable to cope with areas of their day-to-day life. Eating distress often begins when an individual is attempting to take control in one area of their life, whilst feeling they have lost all control in other areas. At some time most of us will experience dissatisfaction with our body shape or size. This starts to become a problem when an obsession with food begins to dominate an individual's life, or when they start to use food in a damaging way. There are a variety of types of eating distress. Each has its own symptoms and each may cause different physical problems. The most commonly recognised forms of eating distress or eating disorders include anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorder. Some people might experience more than one of these forms of eating distress and very often they overlap. There are many people who suffer with other types of eating distress such as feeling they eat 'compulsively' or for 'comfort' or 'control'. Go to USEFUL LINKS for more information about NIWE (Eating Distress). Here's a quotation (or two) from their website's home page. “I really appreciate the work the organisation does. I feel as though I have been helped and progress made. I will sign up for future classes to continue success. Thank you.”
“Gave me the opportunity to appreciate I am not alone in suffering.” Permission to shine ...
HAPPINESS & WELLBEING NETWORK (Improving Mental Health, Happiness and Wellbeing in South Tyneside) * Mary 
Artist in Residence - Arts for Wellbeing Over the past year I have watched with pleasure as Mary has visibly flourished alongside the organisation which she has helped to create. And, in essence, that's what the Happiness and Wellbeing Network in South Tyneside is all about - the promotion of flourishing people. 'Mary is a volunteer' and to my mind that little phrase says it all. The following words are taken from a website, a website about the happiness and wellbeing network, a website which Mary administers herself - alongside much else. New people, new skills, a new life. Working for good. And, goodness is catching ...
South Tyneside Happiness and Wellbeing Network is a joint initiative of South Tyneside PCT Public Health and South Tyneside Council, and aims to provide a forum for sharing and developing ideas in order to contribute to the improvement of mental health, happiness and wellbeing in South Tyneside. The Happiness and Wellbeing Network hosts meetings and events, and produces communications and publications. It's objectives are: (1) to establish an informal community of persons and partners interested in mental health, happiness and wellbeing; (2) to share expertise and develop ideas on how to promote happiness and wellbeing locally'; (3) to improve communication and co-operation between providers of services for mental health and/or wellbeing; and (4) to encourage and support members and other citizens in improving their own and other persons' mental health, happiness and wellbeing.
Want to know more? Go to USEFUL LINKS for access straight through to the Happiness and Wellbeing Network (South Tyneside) website. All the details are there - thanks to Mary, another North Eastern woman who is working for good and hereby granted, Permission to shine ...
THEATRE PIE (Go on, take a slice - no auditions required - just an open mind!) * Them Wifies 
Harlequin - Cezanne The word 'wifie' is a noun and has two meanings, (Geordie, derogatory) A woman, especially older woman. (US, informal) An affectionate term for wife.
Having now established that we all know what 'a wifie' actually is, it doesn't take a genius to guess that recently I may have been in the company of group of thespians (actors), young women who strutted their stuff on the stage of an old church in the centre of Newcastle a few days ago. I was there and with a ring-side seat, being one of them wifies in the audience ... front row ... The play was called 'Dying to be in Control' and was about eating disorders. Eating disorders often occur when we are stressed, anxious, angry, lonely, bored or sad and issues around food can become a problem without us even noticing. Together, players and audience, explored body image and we learned that a large number of young people are unhappy with the way that they look. This can, and does, lead to low self-esteem and many other related emotional and physical problems. The inclusion of Them Wifies here is a small acknowledgement of a job well done. Good work by all involved in a creative exploration of issues that affect girls, women (not forgetting women with learning disabilities), and their communities. Them Wifies is made up of some extraordinary young women who are having amazing fun devising and acting in their own performances. Here are a couple of quotations from their promotional material, "It has developed my understanding of drama and I'm enjoying every minute of it." "I meet new faces all the time because we perform all over the place."
Finally, these teenage performers did me the great honour of staying back to give their full attention to my 'performance', an action-packed talk where I related some facts about my own personal experience of eating distress (and its consequences) and a bit more ... My contribution to the NIWE event in Newcastle was maybe a tad less exciting, but was hopefully just as inspirational as that of Them Wifies. I know that I speak for all of us 'wifies' - young and old - when I say that we were women on a mission - working for good - and, as always, 'we gave of our best.'
If you fancy a slice of the action, this young women's theatre group is for those between 13-25 years of age. It meets between 5.00 pm and 8.30 pm every Thursday on the 2nd Floor of Them Wifies' premises (next to Body Zone) in Carliol Square, Newcastle upon Tyne. Give them a call on 0191 261 9923 for directions. You have, Permission to shine ...
The HELP Project (Promoting Healthy Eating and Lifestyles in Wear Valley) * Christine 
First impressions count. I knew at a glance that the young women sitting next to me at a conference in Gateshead was my kind of person. I soon discovered that this new companion was called Christine and she was in the business of promoting healthy eating and lifestyles in Wear Valley. This is the same Wear Valley where I lived as a child and I was home and dry with much to talk about. Here's a little about Chris's job in and around the place where I was born nearly 70 years ago.
It is most certainly a very different Wear Valley to the one in which I grew up. The pits, the pit ponies, the pit heaps, the pit ponds, and the dismal colliery rows are all long gone and so are most of the hard-working mining folk I once knew. Change happens and it always has consequences. Today, the HELP project's concern is its work as an outreach service encouraging healthier eating in this 'new Wear Valley'. Christine works in the communities which have slowly re-emerged since I left the area in the early 1960s. It was then that I married my childhood sweetheart in a small church in the heartland of the Wear Valley, not a stone's throw from HELP's office in Meadowfield. As an aside, I would mention that I know only too well that it takes time to rekindle the flame of a traumatised people. Sometimes it never happens. You've got to know where people come from. I was there. I had a ring-side seat. I witnessed lives being ripped apart in the Great Northern Coalfield from the 1960s onward when the pits closed one by one. This was the direct result of decisions taken at national level, decisions that were outside the control of the working people of Old Durham. There is nothing worse than powerlessness. It saps the will. Need I say more ...
So, change happens and it always has consequences. Re-kindling the flame is what the HELP project in the Wear Valley is all about. I rather suspect it is like walking on eggshells. A delicate job, maybe, but a job of quality and one worthy of the effort and love involved. This is what I mean by the phrase, working for good. Significantly, the aims of the project are, to reduce health inequalities among vulnerable groups to reduce the number of conceptions for under 18's to increase access to the service and provision of early support to reduce need for complex physical and emotional wellbeing services to reduce obesity and increase healthy eating to improve life expectancy and premature mortality rates
It's obviously not a job for the faint-hearted. Chris works as a member of a team which offers one-to-one support, advice and assistance, and an advocacy service. She also helps to run short, flexible ten-week courses on the effects of substance misuse, fire safety, growing your own food, healthy food, healthy eating for children, eating disorders, safe sex and - of course - smoking. Access to HELP is open to everyone from 16 years upwards who lives in the Wear Valley area. I know this for sure, Christine of HELP is completely dedicated to her work and is, 'a caring, genuine and enthusiastic person.' First impressions count. Trust your intuition. For a few moments, in the crowded conference room of a plush Gateshead hotel, I was back home and once more a miner's daughter growing up in a close-knit colliery village in Old Durham. The precise location - The Wear Valley. Should you wish to know more about the HELP Project and its work in building bridges to the future, then Christine's your girl. Her contact details are, Office suite B, St. John's Road Business Centre, Meadowfield, Durham. DH7 8TZ. Chris's telephone number is 0191 478 3718, the free phone number of the HELP Project being 0800 7312 072. Thanks Chris. You, too, have,
Permission to shine ...
PEN AND TONIC (Promoting the health benefits of creative and expressive writing) * Bridget and Tess 
A Beautiful Woman painted by Renoir Some wag once said, "Writing is easy. All you do is stare at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead."
And, I'm pretty sure that many of you reading this will have felt the dread of that blank page or the empty screen. Recently, I came across Bridget and Tess, two talented writers whose mission in life is to change the dread to joy. I'd ventured along to a taster course in Newcastle upon Tyne advertised as Writing for Health. Sounded good - and was good. For Bridget and Tess of 'Pen and Tonic' writing is all about letting your creative brain enjoy the pleasure of making connections. Most certainly, if you don't know how to do it, writing hurts. It can be boring and tedious. It can make you feel inept and inadequate. You sit at your computer, staring into the flickering screen, waiting desperately for inspiration. But then, every once in a while, something strange happens. You discover you can write brilliantly. You write as though you have propellers attached to your fingers. It feels fantastic. Well - that's what happened to us. Under the expert guidance of Bridget and Tess, our hands flew across the paper (not a computer in sight) as we tried to keep up with the words flowing freely from our brains. We became the creators we always knew we were. I would dearly love to share even a few of Pen and Tonic's writing tips with you. I would also dearly love to describe some of the tasks that made us often laugh, but sometimes cry. But, to reveal all would be giving away trade secrets that are not mine to give - although I do know there is a Pen and Tonic book on the way ... What I can say is that we discovered that we were all born wordsmiths. In the school of hard knocks (which we had all attended), it was often 'sink or swim'. No one ever really taught you how to write. At school and college you (like us) probably cranked out the essays, usually hating ever step along the way. Parents and teachers were keen on saying that 'writing is simply a question of discipline'. You were assured that if you would deign to put your posterior on the chair a little sooner, or a little longer, then the essay would be done by now. You just needed to apply yourself. This 'buckle down and do it' attitude permeates much of our society - from the schoolroom to the workplace to the gym. And, although this credo about 'buckling down' is partly true, forcing yourself to write (like forcing yourself to do anything) will probably make you miserable. However, as already suggested, there are tricks to every trade and, on one memorable day in Newcastle, we - the assembled of all ages, from all walks of life - learned quite a few moves for making writing fun and this from experts in the field. That is what it was all about - making writing fun! It's as simple as that and I would recommend Pen and Tonic to any group or organisation looking for a new way of helping people put away their troubles for a little while and enjoy learning. Here are some comments from satisfied customers picked up from the Pen and Tonic website,
"Writing for health was useful; it showed quite often what was inside me. The group was small and informal, no need to be afraid of judgements." Member of Gateshead Tyneside Rape Crisis "Absolutely brilliant. Really enjoyed the workshop despite initial reservations about ‘creative writing’. Brilliantly facilitated and provided me with really accessible ways of writing ‘creatively’ that I can take forward (hopefully) with the clients I work with." Occupational Therapist "What a wonderful chance to get away from the pressures of work and discover that everyone can write and does have a voice." Librarian, City Library Training Day
Sadly, it is there I must leave you with much left unsaid, but - as some consolation - here is a writing tip that works for me. This is about 'planning' - the crucial first step for those setting out on any creative adventure,
"I arise in the morning torn between a desire to save the world and a desire to savour the world. That makes it hard to plan the day."
I urge you, 'make a plan'. It may feel like an indulgence, an annoyance or even a total waste of time. But, take it from me, it is not. When you write, planning is the single most productive task you can possibly choose to perform. It will not only help prevent writer's block, it will also save you time. I repeat, planning is the crucial first step. And so, by once again stepping out on my own to explore something new, I discovered beautiful minds working for good. More strength to their elbow as they promote health through expressive and creative writing around the highways and byeways of the North East of England. I am confident that I will bump into Pen and Tonic again ... Contact Pen and TonicIf you would like more information about Pen and Tonic please contact:
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
You can also telephone:
Bridget Shea 07914 915634
Tess Hudson 07981 026289 Permission to shine ...
FROM THE NORTH EAST OF ENGLAND Marian @ Krysan
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