Most sport and fitness clubs and groups wouldn't be able to function without volunteers like these. Their get-up-and-go helps others stay healthy, make friends, enter competitions and more. Read on to find out what inspires them to make it happen for others.

All | Carrie | Louise | Jane

Tuesday Nov 28, 2006

International Slow Day Feb 19th 2007

I am having a nightmare setting up another volunteer healing circle.  People seem to just want to get their heads down and chug towards Detox Season (post December 31st) with minimal fuss and commitments.  Welcome to the pre Christmas Rush - and doesn't it seem to start earlier every year with some shops stocking Christmas and Halloween stuff side by side.  Or maybe that is Easter and Christmas stuff.

A  New Year is traditionally for New Starts.  And not before.  Prior to that it's about stuffing your face with chocolates, turkey, roast potatoes, more turkey, mince pies, more turkey, wine, more turkey, christmas pud, more turkey and then swigging down some red bull to give you some energy to get you out to yet another Xmas do whilst eating yet more turkey and cursing your LBD for not being stretchy or elasticated enough (that's Little Black Dress for the boys).  People I am hearing ya!  You are stressed and busy.  The healing circles are being delayed.  Besides I am moving back to my flat in the New Year and will soon be knee deep in packing materials yet again. 

So with this in mind, and with my passion for healing I am going to introduce you all to something a bit different in this entry and possibly quite apt considering - it's the Slow Movement. 

Carl Honore, author of In Praise Of Slow (www.inpraiseofslow.com) has brought this movement to public attention.   The key to the Slow Movement is mostly in the title.  We get more done by trusting, reflecting, savouring and pacing ourselves.  Less is very much more.  Our lives are slaves to the clock and slaves to our diaries.  Even our food is hurried creating god knows what mischief to our stomachs and nutrition.  The Italians are big fans of this way of thinking and have an organisation called Slow Food and interestingly are behind a piece of information I found on Carl's site the other day -  February 19th 2007 International Slow Day.  This would be a day to kick back, meander around the park, pour over the papers, savour a cappucino, enjoy that novel you never find the time for, ponder the pictures in an art gallery - you get the idea.  And the best bit is the 19th is a Monday.  What a way to enjoy a Monday! 

Here is the downside though.  There seems to be little public awareness for this day yet so here is what I suggest.  Click on Carl's site and find the link and spread the word to all friends and family in emails etc.  It doesn't have to be much - Slow is all about being small and the power of accumulated small efforts. 

How great would it be to have a lazy Monday at work?!

Thanks for reading folks and do keep checking back because I have many ideas buzzing around in my head in regards to volunteer projects for the New Year.

in health and friendship

Jane

Posted by Jane ( 4:15 PM )
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Wednesday Oct 25, 2006

The big move

Well it seems even adventurers grind to a halt and cannot be blessed with good luck all the time. I wonder if Sir Ranulph Fiennes has ever been told ‘can’t do the trip now, it’s the wrong kind of snow’ or ‘sorry mate but the poles need to be relocated.’

There I am practicing my people folding skills (yoga to the uninitiated) and drafting out my lesson plans to render ultimate bendiness on my currently unbendy neighbours when a letter hit my doormat with an ominous thud. It detailed the findings of the official looking men with clipboards that had recently surveyed my flat.

These findings were not good

Major structural work was needed. Urgently.

Extremely major structural work.

We (and we being my whole road) were being decanted (a euphemistic spin term to quell the rising discontent) at the height of summer into alternative accommodation for 3-4 months so builders could attack our properties with much vehemence.

A little disquieting.

And so with as much as 3 weeks notice before the off my well intended healing circle plans were hurriedly disregarded in favour of bubble wrap, tea chests and multiple rolls of brown packing tape (as half the roll is always wasted by bunching itself into annoyingly around my fingers).

Having moved I entered a telecommunications vacuum whereupon I was quickly made to realize my acute techno-dependence. A certain phone company (so ‘good’ it named itself twice) lived up to the reputation that earned them a prime slot on BBC1’s Watchdog. Another phone company proved that whilst it is good to talk an ‘ology’ is needed to convert the myriad phone sockets in my house (one for each cable company that had an offer on that month) and that a day off is needed for the engineer’s visit every 2nd Wednesday of the month. 3 of these visits are needed on average and multiple 60 minute phone calls to customer services requiring navigation through assorted automated menu options and assorted global call centres should also be scheduled into your to-do list.

It proved to be the ultimate test of tenacity. Who needs hiking to the pole in sub-zero temperatures when getting your phone and broadband activated requires equal endurance. Sir Ranulph would be proud.

10 weeks after my move I had a landline.

6 weeks after that I was online – dial up granted (getting my MAC number was too hard), which took some adjustment, but it’s a small mercy.

And so with the bubble wrap long since stuffed into recycling sacks, a mountain of boxes long since unpacked and the floor long since unearthed and conquered I returned my attention once more to my healing circle and the now evident problem of its scattered members who are across town also packing, unpacking, hollering at phone companies and having other much more pressing matters to deal with.

This was placing much strain on the group and the collective decision taken was to disband.

A replacement therefore is required and an action is placed at the top of my To-Do list.

I will keep you posted (if you pardon the pun) on the recruiting campaign.

Until then blessings and smiles.

Posted by Jane ( 2:48 PM )
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Wednesday Sep 13, 2006

Hello one and all

Welcome to my blog.

My name is Jane and I am an accredited life coach and yoga teacher.  As my speciality is health this blog is going to be about the healing circle I run. 

What is a healing circle and why would you want to read about it?  Well a healing circle is a group of people that get together to learn about how to enhance their health and happiness.  Because of the emphasis on 'circle', and my background in coaching it differs from a traditional class/learning environment.  I raise my members' awareness and encourage them to take responsibility for their health and then take action.  I then ask them to share their experiences so that their knowledge is pooled and they become self-supporting.  It's all very informal and a tremendous amount of fun.

But we will save all the details for another time.  You are going to want to know more about me first.  So what got me into this game?  Well I spent many, many years chronically ill with ME and being a normal girl that wanted to get back to life, dancing, music, guys and good food asap I became a bit of a seeker of all things happy and healthy.  You name it I tried it from having people chant over me whilst waving their hands about (long before it was en vogue to be experimental) to walking on fire (honestly!).  After being made aware that my dinner party conversations were turning into mini seminars I realised that I had picked up a thing or two on my health-seeking jaunts and it might be nice to pass this on.  So I here I am, one healing circle and blog later, inviting you to share in our journey, read about our members' successes and my experiences of working with them. 

Adventures are afoot and I say bring it on!

Thanks for reading about us today and do keep checking back to see how we are getting along.

In health and friendship

Jane

Posted by Jane ( 3:01 PM )
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