I hope you have had a good week, grabbing time in the sunshine when it appeared!

Lovely chats this week before classes, both face-to-face and online, talking all things from gardening to the problem with midges in Scotland at certain times of the year … learning all the time.

I had some lovely walks last week spotting various birds, and particularly the cygnets on the lake coming out for the first time … so very cute and joyous to see. I found getting out specially uplifting this week, making me realise how important for my mental health getting outside and being with nature helps. I talked about listening in last week’s Newsletter, and I have really been practising that this week. If you want a piece of truly uplifting music to take time and listen to, try Beethoven's Symphony No.3 Eroica — it's wonderful.

Last week I focused on getting the gluteals active and here is a snippet from the Live session I taught on Tuesday evening. Enjoy!

As with all Exercises of the Week, work at the appropriate level for your body and keep away from pain. If you have any questions, just get in touch.

I hope you are starting to make the most of our brighter, longer, sometimes sunnier days. 

It’s amazing the difference this makes to how we feel. For me I feel like I have more time to do things, perhaps because I get outside more, so I feel like I get very productive. 

This can bring problems, for example spending long hours in the garden without a break can result in stiffness and aches and pains that we haven’t had for a whole year, as we start to go through the cycle of pruning, planting, digging, mowing lawns and so on — all moving and using our bodies in different ways. 

We tend to forget the physicality involved when we start to participate in activities that we haven’t done for a while. It would be like taking up a new sport, in which the body is going to react to using muscles differently. We can’t expect to not FEEL it.

In the same way when our physical health is affected, our mental health will also be affected. Perhaps feeling frustrated that we can’t do what we could a year ago without feeling aches and pains. Perhaps feeling disheartened, more tired, wanting to give up and stop altogether, feeling useless.

This is quite natural but we can do things to help.

Instead we can learn to accept certain physical changes in our body, and adjust our activities appropriately. When doing lots of physical work or activity that we have either had a break from or that feel harder this time, then introduce more breaks, stretch out, take in your surroundings more. Notice what you can see, what you can touch, how does it feel, stop and take a breath. 

It’s not about doing less, or stopping, it’s about adding to our experience in other ways, so that our physical self is helped and our mental health is strengthened. 

It doesn’t have to be complicated, it makes us more present, it makes us discover more happiness and joy in what we are doing. 

Have a wonderful week — don’t stop, just adapt.

With love

Jane xx