Welcome to this week’s Newsletter — I hope you have had a good week, or weekend. This weekend has been a celebratory one for Keith and me as it is Keith’s birthday, and quite a big one … 70 … it's just a number though, right? 

Anyway we are celebrating by going to the theatre to see a live production of Drop the Dead Donkey. Who can remember this show when it was on TV many years ago? Keith loved it, so when we saw they were doing a live tour with the original actors in Nottingham this week we had to get tickets. This is being followed by a family lunch today. All in all, a lovely birthday weekend.
 

Online Live Classes are all running as normal this week, and look out for additional Pilates with Weights classes during May and June. Using hand weights with Pilates is very popular, and it's very beneficial to our physical self, so I’m looking forward to get this up and running.

We are on week 4 of the Roll Down/Push Up combination, and I am progressing the exercise to increase the core challenge this week. 

Not only are we mobilising the spine and transitioning to and from the floor, but we are looking at upper body strength, and increasing the challenge on the core and stabilising muscles. 

Remember that you can go back to a previous week's Exercise of the Week to ensure you progress gradually and appropriately for your body and keep away from pain. 

If you have any questions about this week’s or any week’s Exercise of the Week please message me.

Mood Shifters!

What are the things you do to help shift your mood from not so good to better, or even better, to best?

They can be simple, regular things that you do, things that just bring a smile to your face and make you feel better. 

For example, my love for tulips — I have them growing in the garden at the moment, and I also buy them to put in a vase inside, when I walk into the kitchen and see a vase of tulips, I just feel better.

On my iPad my wallpaper picture is of my granddaughter — and this makes me smile. Doesn’t matter what has happened, when I see her face it makes me feel better.

I have some ‘go to’ tunes on my phone, my playlist, and when I listen to these, I sing at the top of my voice and dance around — in the privacy of my own home you realise — and it makes me feel good. 

What I am trying to say, is that to shift your mood you don’t have to think too big to make a change, sometimes it's the small, simple things that you can do easily that can help.

However, sometimes the regular things you do to improve how you are feeling don’t work, or they aren’t enough to make the shift. What do you do then?

This is when you have to rethink, do something different to get you out of your ‘funk’! After all, Albert Einstein said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.  

So next time you find yourself stuck in a mood, and you’ve tried all the usual things but nothing seems to be shifting, look for something different.

One of the things I turn to is Positive EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) when things aren’t changing with my mood. So perhaps this will work for you. I have done EFT sessions with practitioners, but there is a great book I would recommend to read that gives you more information and its called Positive EFT by Silvia Hartmann. It's a great book that covers positive energies that we may be drawn to. It has a chart which shows the Energy EFT Chart and where to tap and explains what to do, and describes what to look for to help yourself. 

Maybe, next time when you are feeling you can’t shift that mood, EFT may provide you with some answers, and to quote from the book and Silvia Hartmann: If you fill your mind to overflowing with beautiful things, there can be no room left for doubt.

Have a great week folks, and please message me if you want more information about anything covered in Newsletters.

Keep moving — keep looking and feeling good.

With love

Jane xx