I hope you have all had a good week. I must say — it felt great to be back in class.

On Tuesday evening I taught a post-gardening stretch routine and although it was focusing on the activity of gardening, the stretches I have put together are great for any stiffness felt in the back of the body, aches in the shoulders, knees and hips. The whole routine is available on the members’ jtp.zone website, but I am sharing just one of the stretches included here.

Although I demonstrate the stretch from kneeling — great position if you suffer with shin splints as it stretches the tibialis anterior which will help mobility in the knees, feet and ankles — however if the knees don’t like this position, the stretch can be done in a seated position as an alternative.

The stretch I am sharing is aimed at opening up the front of the body to balance out the flexion and leaning forward that happens when doing lots of gardening tasks. 

That is a wonderful routine Jane and really helped those post-gardening aches and the tightness I get from physical work. I’ll be doing it often! Thank you 🙏🏻😁xx

Jacquie

Enjoy, and if you have any questions about any of the Exercises Of The Week please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Last week, did you set yourself 3 tasks to complete that feel like they are supporting you to achieve a better balance in your life and wellbeing? And did you do them?

My three tasks last week were as follows:

• Set up a savings account for my granddaughter — Check!
• Identify what areas of my Life Pie I want to focus on — Check!
• Visit a potential venue for future retreats — Check!

One of these was a personal task — a savings account for my granddaughter, in the hope that when she is older she will want to do some travelling with her old Jamjar, and we have the money to do so.

The second was looking at what areas of my life I need to focus on — in looking at my Pie I discovered that my own personal health and wellbeing was in need of better balance.

The third was a business related task, as I ran two retreats last year and I am hoping to do this again but in a bigger venue, with more space that will offer potential for more kinds of activities. 

All 3 things were helpful for me, two of them had been in my head ‘to do’ for a while, but I just kept putting them to the back of my thoughts rather than making them a priority. The third thing regarding my health and wellbeing has also been at the bottom of my priority list, but I realised recently that some of my physical issues are creating more problems and I need to start taking them seriously and do something about it. By focusing on this next week, I can make this a priority and set myself 3 tasks to help improve my score in my health and wellbeing piece of pie, move me forwards and improve the balance in my life, instead of ignoring it and things not improving, in fact possibly getting worse. 

The take away from me sharing this is that in our lives and our heads we all have a priority list which we carry around with us, and some of the things can add to the quality of our life if we would just take time to do them, rather than keep thinking ‘oh I must remember to do/or I need to… ‘. 

Also more often than not we put anything related to ourselves at the bottom of that list. Of course sometimes that has to be the case, particularly if you are in a position of caring for others, but I want to remind you all that if you don’t take care of yourself, you CAN’T take care of anyone else. Remember the safety chats on aeroplanes — put your own oxygen mask on first before attending to others — it’s the only way. 

So the Life Pie is there to give you a reminder, a nudge, to look at your own self-care, self-love, and ensure that you aren’t ignoring you! Living a more conscious life will enable you have a more balanced life. 

So what will your 3 things be this week? They can come from any piece of your Life Pie that you feel you have been ignoring for a while. 

Have a fabulous week folks, keep moving, keep feeling and keep looking good.

With love,

Jane xx