Hello

 

    ... has arrived so now — officially — it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

 

We have two weeks left of our matwork Pilates classes and one week left for our Reformer Pilates classes. However, due to weather, elections and illness, lots of you will have an extra week of classes to look forward to that replace those missed. If you aren’t sure look at the timetable (link below) and click on and scroll forward to check out all the dates.

 

It gets a bit busy of course as we head towards the holiday period, but I just wanted to bring your attention to our next big event which will be our WELLBEING DAY which will be on Saturday 4th January. 

 

This will be a day full of different classes for you to book into and try. There will be an opportunity to speak with other Coaches and also to meet up with other class participants. As this will be a day to focus on wellbeing we hope that you will feel able to join us to discover the different types of sessions offered by our Coaches. Over the next few weeks I will reveal some of the classes that will be available, but currently there will be:

 … to name just a few. This day will of course be a FREE event as my way of showing my appreciation and to say THANK YOU for choosing our Pilates classes.

 

I wasn’t very well last week, I had a horrible cough and cold and I did my usual thing of trying to ignore it and I tried to teach and get on with things, but then I took a dip mid-week and ended up having to cancel, get cover and rearrange my plans. 

 

Pretty miserable and feeling sorry for myself, I put the TV on one afternoon and found a TV programme being presented by Darcy Bussell about movement to music and mental health.

 

The programme is called Darcy Bussell: Dancing to Happiness, and it's still available on iPlayer here. Catch it if you can — it's available on iPlayer for another 2/3 weeks, I believe.

 

In the show, Darcy looks at different age ranges: a group of young girls who all had their own demons that were affecting their mental wellbeing, working on expressive dance; but also looking at older adults with Parkinsons and Dementia. 

 

I am not a dancer, but I am a mover and I know how my movement and exercise keeps my mental health well, so I found the programme fascinating to watch. One of the lovely things was she met a group of ’Silver Swans’ and of course Zoe who teaches with us also teaches Silver Swans classes, and Darcy spoke to some of the women to find out what being part of this class meant to them. One of the ladies shared the fact that she hadn’t ever suffered with anxiety until she reached 60 and was facing retirement, and Darcy herself shared her own feelings when she had to retire from performance with the Royal Ballet. The woman that was part of the Silver Swans, said how much being part of this group had helped her with her anxiety and how she felt so different when taking part in the sessions and how much she looked forward to it every week. This was followed by this lady doing a solo performance which was absolutely wonderful. 

 

The programme was very enlightening and apart from the movement and music that were essential to the people Darcy was investigating, it was also about being part of a group. The sharing of experiences, sharing the same fears and feelings whether it be worrying about moving and losing balance with Parkinsons, or dealing with anxiety about feeling a loss of self when retiring from something that has defined you for years. The group feeling of being with people and being in a safe space to express, or just move, or just have fun, and build confidence with what you can do, is totally beneficial to our mental wellbeing.

 

This is one of my focus points in my classes since I have been teaching that when people join, they should feel free to be themselves, individuals within the group, working at a pace and level that is right for their body. The most important thing in my classes is the individual client. The exercise — the movement — is a bonus.