What We Take With Us is a guided meditation and set of activities comprised of 10 questions to aid anxiety and assist your workday.
The interactive webpage was created just after the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, as a means of supporting people through the darker days. We spoke to creator Adam Jerrett, Lecturer from the University of Portsmouth, on the creation of What We Take With Us.
“I’d had a really tough time, as a lot of people did, and I have always been quite scared of therapy, even as the process has previously been beneficial to me.” Adam explained, “I wanted to create something that would have helped me through those dark days – to almost reach out to myself from two years prior and let them know I’d made it to the other side, and I hoped that could help other people, too. Even though I made it during the pandemic, I wanted to make something universal, which is why the game’s questions are hopefully always applicable.”
The activities
The activities deliberately aren’t too demanding, but you do need a couple of things to get started with the activity:
- something to write with
- somewhere to write
- somewhere to sit
- something to record your voice
- a playlist of your favourite music
There are 10 tasks in total in the exercise, and they range from tidying up your workspace and some mindful reflection, to actively reaching out to others to listen and sharing stories in thoughtful ways.
You can complete these tasks online here.
More than an online space…
In January 2023, Adam wanted to look at how they could transform the What We Take With Us to a new level, and subsequently set up a physical space in Portsmouth called ‘Ana’s Office’. The space existed for 5 months following its initial launch in January.
Ana’s office was a physical location we set up here in Portsmouth to allow players to play What We Take With Us in a defined physical space. I specifically wanted to design it as a real calm and comforting space, but also as a space that belonged to someone. That someone was Ana Kirlitz, a character I created to tell additional stories through the lens of the game. Because WWTWU is quite a personal journey for players, I wanted to tell my own story of the pandemic through Ana’s character and her office.
“This then also manifested in an online alternate reality game where Ana had created a fan-made Discord server for the game, which I used as a hub to bring players into the game to hopefully build a community around it. On it, you’ll see the community we built, as well as snippets of Ana’s story. That story was extended in her physical office, which was this interesting hybrid between a “calm space” and an “escape room” type of framing.”
Group Learning & Support
We were curious as to how Adam would suggest co-opting the premise of What We Take With Us for group learning and support in larger settings.
“[The game] makes a great tool for group learning and support. One of the pillars of its design is “community”, so whilst WWTWU is played alone, it’s encouraged that players build communities so they can talk to others about their experiences,” Adam explained, highlighting the power of community within both solo and shared experience together.
“This can be done by setting up communities on things like Discord, like we did for Ana and her story, or through other things like forums, group chats, or even workshops.”
Adam also has previously held (and plans to hold more in the future!) a number of workshops to introduce people to the concept of What We Take With Us and provide a safe space for people to experience it. Get in touch with Adam here to learn more.