What do people want?

On October 12th 2016, The Red Door™ put up an informal question and answer sort of survey for World Mental Health Day. Our online was in collaborative efforts with The Loud Whispers Project.

Three simple questions were asked:

1. If you had the choice to choose a word for your condition/experience, what would that word be?
2. If you were given the choice to choose what makes you happy everyday, what would that be? ( ex: painting, singing, dreaming, doing nothing, watching tv, walking, reading, meditating, a flexible career to do the previous ones, etc)
3. What can others do for you that would make you happy and not ‘mentally’ strained or distressed?

The reasons behind asking these questions were simple. We wanted to highlight the FACT that every human person HAS the ABILITY to make their own CHOICES and DECISIONS when we GIVE them the CHOICE and not undermine their capacity of making it. Remember, we are pro-CRPD. And many professionals around world have undermined choices of persons with mental illness stating that we are individuals who do not and cannot be given choices since we don’t have the mental capacity of choosing it.

However, the replies below will confirm our believes and inspiration behind our work. That CHOICES need to be simply be a given, and not something anyone needs to fight for.

Image source: http://quotesgram.com/power-of-choice-quotes/

 

The replies have been copy pasted directly from our Facebook Page. Scroll to our October 12th post and you’ll be able to see that these came from people who exist and not something we made up.

If you wish to add your comment to it, feel free to do so. Rather leave a comment on our blog post as this would be easier for us to archive.

I. Sayali Omkar Soman:

1. life
2.having a pet
3.freedom and ability to have one.

II. Prateek Joshi:

1. Curves
2. Writing
3. Creative exploration of illness and health in general

III. Vedika Aum:

1. Alienation
2. Living in nature and creating
3. Acceptance and to take responsibility for their actions/decisions

 

IV. Nibu Augustine:

1. Victim (no…i am not suffering from “victim syndrome” ..this is some real hardcore victimisation and abuse…this has crossed abnormal levels of it)

2. Love (to love and be loved)
3. Just be a friend.

V. Dalip Daswani .
1. alienation
2. being connected ( could be with anything – people, art, work, etc.)
3. Keep “in touch”

VI. Jhilmil Breckenridge:

1 – betrayal

2 – singing.
3 – accept

VII. Prachi Chawla:

1.Stuck and alone
2.Connecting with people, free flow of vibes and heartily laughs.
3.Acceptance and love

VIII. Meghna Gulati:

1. Struggle
2. Learn
3. Be there, in silence.

IX. Manisha Shastri:

1.Existential Melancholia
2. A flexible life which lets m pursue my professional ambitions and lets me follow my passion
3. Empathy, attention and love

X. Harkiran Sandhu: 1. Love
2. Singing and reading
3. Love and understanding

XI. Shikha Soni:

1.) Ambivalence

2.) painting & meditating

3.) give me space to develop insight

XII. Yatish Vt

1. Cheesy but “comfortably numb”

2. Travel the world, wipe out borders or start afresh, right from the beginning of time!
3. Leave me alone, until they can bring something new to my table, or unless I am lonely!

XIII. Shubrata Shastry:

1. Happy
2. Traveling, reading and listening to music
3. Acceptance

XIV. Bhavini Soorma:

1. Content
2. Traveling
3. Do not expect me to change. Accept me as I am.

XV. Anjali Joshi:

1-Alienated
2-Walking, good conversations and dancing,street dogs
3-Stop labelling me as vulnerable all the time and try to “save” me.

XVI. Jennifer Fatogun:

1. Exhausting
2. Travel.
3. Understand. Or at least try to understand. Listen. Not try to gaslight me.

XVII. Mahi Chopra:

1. Detached
2. Genuiness
3. Honesty

XVIII. Sneha Rooh:

1.Chained

2.writing

3.dont ask me too many questions,dont probe into my space.you are not entitled to answers about my life

XIX. Chavi Sethi:

1.Anxious
2.Reading
3.Coffee and enriching conversations

XX. Tusharika Bansal:

1.) Rocky road

2.) Reading

3.) Space

XXI. Rikita Narula:

1.Emotional pain
2.Conversations and talking about mental health and illness
3.I’d be happy if there was more space in life for conversations in which people can share themselves without inhibitions.

XXII. Elise Pentz:

1. death

2. singing
3. leave me alone unless you understand

XXIII. Hari Krishnan:

1) Float
2) Travel
3) Understand

XXIV. Vidyashree Rai Chhetry :

1) Inexplicable
2) Dance
3) Write

XXV. The Red Door team member:

1) Skeptical
2) Dance
3) Silence

XXVI. Elise Pentz:

1 despair
2 singing
3 act normal, no special treatment

XXVII. Abhimanyu Bishnu:

1) Fatigue

2) A bit of each

3) Quid pro quo

XXVIII. Rajiv Rajan:

1 social barriers

2 flexible life

3 accept differences

So, what do you think? Do these comments on choices not speak for itself?

Mail Me An Angel

The holidays are closing in soon for Christmas, New Years & end of the year which can be very difficult for many as they often lead lone lives. Anxiety, depression and suicidal tendencies tend to spring up especially if the individual feels alone.

But what if you could change that for someone? What if you could be an angel just for a day in delivering a simple message that would last a lifetime?

Remember those moments when you sat through a pile of handwritten letters, cards, notes and felt wonderful just for having them? Reading it does something to you. It gives you something to wake up to. And there is something magical when you are shopping for the right card with the right message, spending your time thinking about the right colour, right pen, and making stupid mistakes while writing your message down. These impressions last a lifetime for the giver and the receiver. You also need to get to the post office, stand in queue and send it. In this fast life of ours and instant wishes over social media, all of us think we are important people with time that cannot be wasted and thus we forget about these small acts of an angel.

SO, our event is simple:
1. Buy a card, write a letter, or make a card yourself.
2. Mail it to someone you know (family, friend, colleague) OR give it to a stranger.
3. Before sending it, take a picture of your card or letter and share it on your social media account. Tag The Red Door™ and don’t forget to use appropriate hashtags ( #mentalhealth #angel #thereddoor )

Our social media IDs are:
a. Instagram: thereddoor_project
b. Twitter: MindArcs
c. Facebook Page: TRDPMindArcs

Get started & tweet, facebook or instagram your entries to us!
Peace & Colour!

We are going to Switzerland!

We are headed to Lausanne, Switzerland for the GOOD Festival on 25th – 29th October, 2016

Our campaign to help raise funds to get us there (ticket for 1 USD 700 + stay/food USD 300) has begun and will last till the 22nd. If our member gets the fund we shall extend it further to help us raise more for our 4 different projects. CLICK HERE for the campaign link.

Our co-founder Val Resh has also agreed to auction her artwork , commission a new piece, give a mime performance or sing you a song over FB messenger, as a voice note or over the phone to help raise the funds for the same. Get in touch with her directly on theschizophrenist@valresh.com

***

Stay tuned for more on our plate that never ends!

But on that note, here are some interesting facts that you should know about The Red Door™ Project which we just updated on our Facebook Page:

The Red Door™ facts:

1. Why The Red Door?
Red symbolizes the ‘muladhara chakra’ in yoga, the seat of creative energy. Red is also passion, anger, love, heat, blood, and a primary colour in painting.
Native American believes point to The Red Road, where one who walks it has an obligation to bring people in walking the path in a sacred manner.
The founders of The Red Door™ believe that the experiences of mental illness point towards a spiritual crisis which has lost it’s meaning in modern constructions of its term. But to get to our higher consciousness, we can use creativity as an expression and channel to nurture and guide us.

2. What is our motto?
JUST BE & LET BE: influenced by Zen Buddhism and the way of the spiritual warrior, this simply mantra allows anyone to ‘Hold Space’ for another person or our own self when experiencing a mental, physical or spiritual discomfort.

3. What is our signature?
Peace & Colour: We focus on the Body Mind relationship which is the essence for a healthy lifestyle. In yoga or esoteric practices (not based on any religion) the 7 chakras are symbolized by 7 colours, much like the rainbow. These 7 colours also represent our varied emotional states or imbalances. Therefore, when we wish you Peace & Colour – we are saying ‘Be at peace with your emotions’ but it is open to interpretation and translation.

4. Why #redefinemadness ?
Because we are aware that the starting point of normalcy has been constructed. Therefore, even the ideas of madness are constructed, making the starting point of Mental Health and alternatives or even recovery and healing as being constructed. In redefining them each layer has to be removed (like peeling onions) to get to the root of the idea. This takes time, but that’s why we walk this road.

5. How do we do it?
We have several different projects for each layer we redefine.
a. Project Yarikin which celebrates the idea of madness by raising awareness when we have our official Mad Hatter Tea Parties. Our ENAIF events (Everybody Needs An Imaginary Friend) runs under the same.
b. Project STAB is our work with a changemaker school where we work in turning so called bullies into healers.
c. Travelling Red Door comprises of our collaborated effort with Coffin Cheaterz Motorcycle Club (CCMC) our own group of bikerz who travel to spread awareness of safe riding and mental health. One of our co-founders uses random public spaces as open dialogue spaces while travelling.
d. Other miscellaneous projects include ezine, publishing narratives, interviews, peer and family support/counselling, interventions for those experiencing ‘psychosis’ and their families, healing, workshops, advocacy, and much more!

We stop at these 5 for now. 🙂
If you have a question to raise and think it should be included in our facts, do comment over here and we shall include it.

Thank you for reading and your support.
Peace & Colour,
The Red Door™ team!

Our School Blog!

Remember our post several months back on our work at school?
Well here’s the update on it:
http://mindarcs.wixsite.com/stab

Do follow the blog as it has a separate subscribe button.

Also, our campaign to raise funds to keep the work at school and other TRD activities is still on. Please support our work and share the link in your circle: http://ket.to/TheRedDoorPune

Short on time & funds!

Heya all,

I haven’t been able to update the blog and our events after being super tied with school and a list of other work propping up. Since we are scaling our work it means more work and less time for me to do anything else I was otherwise doing – until I find others who can do it for me.

We’re really hoping to raise some funds so that we can cover much of what we are doing at the least since we are really short on time and personal funds to keep up with the demands of the work.

This is the link to our online campaign:

https://www.ketto.org/TheRedDoorPuneSF

Do share it with others in your network too! It would really help us continue the work we are doing.

Thank you so much for your ongoing support and encouragement.

Peace & Colour,
TRD

p/s: OH! did you know that TRD holds a ™? so we are actually The Red Door™ and all of what we do is protected including what we create through our events, names, word mark, art, writing, etc. :))