Over the first months of 2026, the Men’s Creative Wellbeing Group met for five fun, imaginative and restorative sessions. Each fortnight brought a new theme designed to support grounding, connection and self‑expression through art, storytelling and play. What unfolded was a warm, laughter‑filled space where participants explored memories, culture, identity and hope – all through creativity.
“I haven’t laughed so much in years”
Session 1: Spirit Animals in Clay
We began with introductions, a grounding exercise, and a playful check‑in about spirit animals. This gentle start helped the group settle, laugh and connect.
A lively game of animal Pictionary lifted the energy in the room, before the group moved into the main creative activity: sculpting a spirit animal in air‑dry clay. From soaring birds to loyal dogs to powerful herd animals, each sculpture opened a doorway into personal histories and emotions – memories of childhood pets, family farms, and moments of comfort from home.
The atmosphere became peaceful as everyone focused on shaping their creations. Participants shared that it had been a long time since they had laughed so much or felt so relaxed in a group space. The feedback was warm, moving, and affirming: creativity helped people reconnect with joy.
Session 2: Painting Fruit – And Embodying It!
Our second gathering centred around fruit – through memory, movement and paint.
After grounding and gentle stretching, the group played a “fruit embodiment” game, exploring the personalities of different fruits: a brave coconut, a strict pineapple, a community of grapes, a mysterious banana… From these playful characters an impromptu story began to emerge, igniting the group’s imagination and sense of humour.
The main art activity, a still life fruit painting session, invited calm, colour mixing and quiet focus. Some participants painted for the first time and were surprised by their own artistic instincts. The atmosphere became reflective and absorbing, with several people sharing that the activity brought them real peace.
Session 3: Safe Places and Imaginary Lands
This week, the group explored the theme of safe places – real or imagined. The check‑in touched on landscapes and memories that held feelings of safety, nature, family and home.
After a grounding exercise and a geography‑themed quiz game, participants were introduced to different kinds of maps: medieval, fantasy, and cultural world maps. Using raw rice to outline coastlines, the group created their own islands, drawing rivers, forests, mountains, homes and creatures that represented safety, comfort and imagination.
The stories behind each island offered a beautiful glimpse into people’s inner landscapes: places of protection, belonging and possibility.
Session 4: Myths, Legends and Shadow Puppets
Our next theme moved into stories, fables and cultural myths. After check‑in and grounding, the group explored what makes a story: characters, meaning, tension, transformation.
A short demonstration of shadow puppetry sparked lots of laughter and curiosity. Then participants designed and created their own puppets – grandmothers, travellers, animals, mythical creatures and more. These figures would soon become characters in a collective story.
The session closed with a sense of anticipation as next session the puppets’ stories would come to life.
Session 5: The Hero’s Journey
The final before the month-long break session focused on shaping all the characters created the previous session into one shared narrative.
After grounding and a playful “ad‑libs” storytelling warm‑up, the group mapped their puppets onto classic story roles, hero, helper, guide, trickster, villain. Working with the structure of the Hero’s Journey, the group collaboratively built a story step by step, full of imagination, humour and symbolism.
This narrative will be written up into a short script to support a future performance using the puppets. The session ended with a gentle check‑out and reflections on how creativity opens up new ways of expressing strength, struggle, resilience and hope.
A Space for Community, Calm and Play
Across the five sessions, a consistent thread emerged: people felt safe, energised and lighter through creativity. They shared memories from home, learned new skills, connected with others from different cultures, and rediscovered laughter and imagination.
This project continues to show how creative practice can support wellbeing, offering grounding, connection, and a sense of belonging. We look forward to building even more shared stories, artworks and joyful moments in the sessions ahead.