On the 23rd of September 2021 we went to Daugavpils for a project about woman’s stress.
Being a working mom, especially during the covid-19 period is extremely complicated. People expect you to work more even after the regular working hours. A woman is expected to take care of her home (cleaning, cooking) and take care of her children while working longer hours. It could be fair if we ask the same to the fathers, but it is not the case.
So, in this workshop we discussed about this situation and methods to be able to deal with these situations. And in the middle of Latvian forest, we discovered there are a variety of methods on can use against stress. Latvian civilization is very close to nature, so majority of the methods included elements of nature.
During the first day we went to this river and with clay, we tried to express our emotions. After we explained our art, we left it in the middle of the forest. The second activity, we wrote on a piece of cardboard our biggest fears and then through it in the fire. Those exercises were really liberating. After this you feel more connected to earth and light.
On the second day we went to the house of a famous Latvian poet, which was also located in the forest. We discuss about women’s emotions and then we created some mandalas with what we found in the forest. It permitted us to reconnect you with our inner self and focus on something else than our usual task.
On the last day, we did some meditation, sing folkloric songs, ate different Latvian pastries, and talked about what are the causes of stress in our lives. The conclusion of this meeting was that those methods, just helps you to refocus on yourself, and that it is important to take time for yourself during your day.
The next meeting for this project is in Lithuania, in January. We will let you know the update of this project !