Lockdown Love Campaign

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If you follow me on socials you would have seen my new lockdown love campaign! If you do not follow me, (go do it now, you won't regret it, I promise you) the short is, I have made little Macrame hearts along with handwritten poems to dot all around my city, Bristol.

Why did I start it?

Due to the one word on everyone's lips right now LOCKDOWN!

Has anyone else found it's gone something like this?;

-Lockdown 1- I am finding myself, I have all this time to do the things I haven't done or gotten round to doing.

- Lockdown 2 was shorter, shops were open and it didn't feel like the first lockdown.

-Lockdown 3, here we go again!

So its the 564657657 lockdown. Okay that's me being slightly dramatic its the third but this one just feels like the longest, hardest and most destructive on many peoples mental health. I have noticed among many friends male and female, moral has decreased and everyone that I talk to in the shops (working) just seem deflated now and I do not blame them being on the front line. For those not on the front line were all coping with a new routine, some are home schooling, most are working from home and are normal outlets for relieving our mental health through outlets like gyms, sport activities, socialising with our friends and spending time with our families, among other things are not currently allowed. It seems to be affecting everyone and those those that have never suffered with their mental health's before are starting to. Mental health is a topic very close to my heart and one I am sure I will touch on again in another blog post but for now lets keep it creative :)

Kindness is free, it always has been so why do we not utilise what we can offer in a kind environment more often. Does someone need a hand crossing the road, or carrying their shopping, has their baby dropped something. Kindness is about doing something without getting anything in return. Doing something because you know it will bring others joy and acts of kindness are good for our souls.

What did I decide to do?

So with people struggling in this lockdown more than ever, I had a brainwave, what if I could use my creative platform to create some happiness and dot it around my local area. Something to make people smile and unexpectedly make someone's day.

So I launched my macrame hearts last year and I absolutely love them, they seemed like the perfect pick me up. I created a slightly smaller prototype of my heart.

So one of my random skills is poetry and rhyming words. I absolutely love creating them and have done many a present announced in a poem, so it seemed like the perfect idea to accompany my hearts.

I combined the small handmade macrame heart, with my handwritten card, one of brand new business cards so they knew where to share their pics all in see through plastic so it was weather proof and all sealed with a heart sticker. See pics below.

How I spread the love;

I dropped heart off in my local city centre around all the popular locations as well as my local village. I dropped off on well-known footpath walls, park benches, the city waterfront, major iconic structures, local parks and outside food stores.

What was said when they were found?

Here's some pics of the makes once they had been found;

If you want to see more, I have lots of reels, photos and a lockdown love highlight on my instagram.

From a social media perspective I have been overwhelmed by the responses and feedback on my posts regarding the campaign. My reels have been receiving over 1.5k views with the most going up to 4k. Lots of people are engaging and sharing my posts which means the act of kindness is being spread further. I have found even those not in Bristol are being able to benefit from hearing, reading and following my heart story in my reels and Instagram stories, which has been beyond my expectation for this campaign.

So what is next?

I have spread around 40 hearts now, in and around Bristol. I set out to spread love, show kindness exists and make someone else's day and that I know I have achieved even if they have not shared it with me. I was debating how long to spread the hearts and whether to take them and spread them further ( by little heart fairies dotted around the country). I am still in a debate with myself on this but all good things do eventually have to come to an end. I just hope it shows others that little gestures can go a long way to someone else particularly in these difficult times.

So until the end of February I will continue to spread the love in Bristol, whether this goes further, watch this space! :)

If you have a kind story I would love to hear it in the comments! They fill me with joy.

Have a lovely day, Indi :) x