Well-being lecture by Jekaterina Rogaten – Blog 1
For this first blog on Lecture Reflection I chose Jekaterina Rogaten’s lecture on Well-being. As the lectures are Better Lives through fashion I found I had to really think about the way I applied their teachings to my chosen industry. However I feel more connected to Rogaten’s look at how consumer well-being is affected by fashion choices and our awareness of its construction in expression of sustainability and positivity.
Rogaten starts off introducing the topic with, “Having more plusses in your life than minuses can improve your mental well-being”. She then goes on to talk about the psychological grounds of how others may contribute to your well-being and happiness, but that you are the only person able and responsible for raising your well-being and happiness. I feel this is important in any industry and as a make-up artist I would be in direct contact with individuals that are preparing to perform. I would be responsible for contributing to their well-being and allowing them to relax before a performance.
“Some people talk about well-being as absence of ill-being so if you are not depressed or anxious you by default have some level of wellbeing. People like me say that being at zero does not mean you have well-being or that you are flourishing”. I’ve come across these views and I agree with the latter. My own experience shows being okay doesn’t mean I am prospering.
Something that Rogaten said struck me, “We are living in a highly materialistic culture, and there are psychological aspects of it – of why at the moment we don’t experience as much well-being as we could have experienced”, continuing that in the UK we are considered quite a well off country and yet there are significant issues with people’s mental health. As we are all in isolation during a crisis, well-being and mental health is more important and we must do what we can to promote it.
I realised how using sustainable materials and products within my industry would allow me to practice in a way that improves my own mental well-being as well as other’s. This is my reflection on a section of the lecture about how smart fashion and conscious fashion can promote positivity in an individual’s mental health and welfare. Choosing products from brands that are environmentally friendly over ones that are wasteful is not only for yourself but is helping a cause making more positivity in your well-being.
Mental well-being is very important to myself and the lecture has enabled me to take a better look at how the products I employ and the way I conduct myself can better the well-being of my performer. This lecture made me think not only how I could be someone who contributes to other’s well-being but also how to maintain and increase my own. Without my own well-being and mental health being looked after and improved I can not undertake the tasks that help others.