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One of my favorite shows of all time is Mr. Robot, featuring the exquisite Rami Malek and written by the absolute genius Sam Esmail. And while Malek’s character roughly embodies the opposite of what it means to ‘be well’, his first stated words of the series still seem fitting in this moment:
Hello Friend
Elliott Alderson, Mr. Robot, 2015 USA Network
Hello new friends. Hello ones I have not met yet and ones that I have. Hello artists and chefs and wellness seekers alike, and welcome to the beginning of The Workbench: a gathering space for creative wellness. I think this idea is something we could all use right now right? A place to gather and to learn how to feel good about yourself, and about the world around you.
One of the ways I have attempted to stay sane throughout this pandemic experience has been through gardening. I have gardened on balconies, window ledges and my parent’s backyard before, but this was the first year that I rented a plot near my home and planted, cared for, and harvested a garden all on my own. And I absolutely loved it.
I loved watering and picking weeds, I loved watching things grow and die and rot and grow again. It became a place of complete meditation. I found that on particularly stressful days, I needed to stop by the garden to relax. During this time, I thought how amazing it would be to let other people find this passion that gives them a sense of peace but also growth. My garden brought me mental wellness, but also physical wellness in every hour I spent weeding and watering, nutritional wellness in the food that the garden produced and artistic wellness in every meal I learned to make from its ingredients. This one project was a center point of multiple different types of wellness for me, and it taught me so much about what this vague idea of ‘wellness’ actually means.
If you want to start living with wellness in mind, it is important to not focus on a single aspect of yourself. Living well is more than just going to the gym or talking to a therapist (even though these are both highly recommended). To be well means to keep your brain working, to break down creativity barriers, to be open to new ideas and then learn about why you should, or should not, take part in those new ideas. Being well is to be a completely well-rounded human being. And it means to never stop growing. Few, if anyone, throughout history has mastered every skill that has come their way. There is always something new that can be added or adapted to your lifestyle, but the point of wellness is also not to be perfect. There is often not an attainable goal other than to feel good about yourself and the world around you.
The Workbench wants to help find what makes you feel good, especially if you may not know what your thing is yet! Perhaps the first time you pick up a paint brush, 2 hours go by and you didn’t even notice, or after learning about herbs, you stay up at night thinking about what teas you should try to make, or after meditating for 9 minutes, you had one minute where you started to sense something and want to try it again. It is these sparks I hope you find on this journey with me. But this is just the beginning. So welcome to the journey, friend.
– Maddy Day, Founder
