Arcadia Ireland

To all of our Virtual Europe students, welcome to Wellness Wednesday! Each week I write a post on a topic related to mental health. My pieces are usually inspired by something I’ve read, a project my colleagues and I are working on, a student or other event I’ve attended or simply sometimes life stuff!  Check out some of the other blogs that have been written over the last while if you are interested!

This week, I’m going to talk about the bucket list! Not the 2007 movie with some of the best actors (check it out if you can) but our own bucket lists. Do you have one? Well now that you have virtually stepped into Europe there has never been a better time to think about the places you would like to visit in the future! In fact, with all that is going on around us right now, it is the perfect time to take time out of your day and dream a little! There is also a lot of evidence to show that planning things during times of stress or other bluesy days can actually help lift our spirits! When a student expresses feeling of homesickness in Ireland we often ask them to think about where they want to go and what attracted them to Ireland in the first place. This coupled with some Irish tea usually makes people take a step back and think about future plans and all the exciting places they would like to visit. Eventually, like all things in life, this difficult phase will end and free movement without self-quarantine will return. Where will you go?

You are a unique group as you are the very first students on our Virtual Europe programme and we want to get to know you and help support you in feeling connected to Europe. While you dream and possibly set up a plan (e.g. by the time I’m 25 I will have visited Rome!)  why not create some images of the places you want to see and send to us! We will share on our blogs and our Instagram pages with the world!  We have to think about things in a different way because you aren’t physically on the continent so come on, lets dream and have some fun with this.