Fibro Active in June
Written By Julie Barker, Chairperson
After all the excitement of May, we rolled into June with a sense of uncertainty, wondering in which direction we should go. Jane said I was having thinking time and sure enough the opportunities were slowly opening up, but we were still on a bit of a roller coaster.
I had emailed the Petersham Committee with an expression of interest in hiring out the committee room for use as an office. However, this email wasn’t forwarded to the new chairperson and she had said she was taking it on herself. Later that day she contacted me to say it was ours starting from July 1st.
2nd June: Podcast Training
Opkar and I joined an online Podcast training course run by Erewash Sound. It was very informative and has given us a lot to think about. The course was run by Pete Allen, he was part of the duo, Dino and Pete on Ram FM (local radio) for 20 years. We covered everything from equipment, editing, marketing, strap lines, scheduling etc etc. It was very in depth and we would need a team to solely concentrate on the podcasts themselves.
7th June: Inspiritive Arts
Today was the last of the funded arts for wellbeing sessions run by Marie from Inspiritive Arts. This session was all about making a picture that would make you happy. Some people chose to draw or paint and others cut pictures from magazines and added embellishments to make a collage.
10th: I drove over to Milford to see my friend Debbie, she has recently been diagnosed and I had helped her fill in her PIP form, I was so pleased to hear that her application was successful!
14th Qigong and Sharrie from Think Hypno
It’s funny because when we run qigong in our usual classes the enthusiasm is there. When we run it at group the energy is different and members find it easier to sit out, giving lots of excuses; if only they could find the drive to join in, they would find it so beneficial.
Sharrie from Think Hypno joined us for the second half and she was brilliant. We kept to the theme of motivation and I’ve never seen such an amazing transformation in such a short time. We ran through a couple of coping skills, which I have put on our Facebook page, and the energy in the room was transformed. For the last exercise, you sit tall and repeat the phrases ‘I’m Strong, Powerful and Confident’ but you can use any positive words that resonate for you.
Note to self: We should have done the sessions the other way round and I need to train in psychology!
15th We had a lovely walk and cuppa and chat. Ben joined us on his day off. We trained at the Deyin Institute together and he has become a good friend. Also, the Re. Maria, a long-term supporter came along with the view of attending Tuesday group sessions.
16th The number of attendees is dwindling at the Sandiacre classes. Working with older people has it’s draw backs, their health and circumstances can change so quickly.
17th Committee Meeting
Our committee meeting was in a coffee shop, they have a big table you can reserve for such events. We ran through the 2 big events for next month. Moving into an office and attending the Connect Erewash Fortnight. If we don’t have much luck with the promotions, we may have to have a rethink about the classes. We also discussed making craft kits to sell at Christmas.
18th Carnival
I spent the morning packing up all the group stuff in my house. It looks like I’m moving out! We are moving into the committee room at Petersham Hall, it will be such a relief to get my front room back. This will enable the group to do so much more; a safe meeting place, small group sessions, committee meetings, craft club and a space to prep for events.
The leaflets for the Connect Erewash Fortnight arrived and I have been able to send out the electronic form to the networks
I took Sam, my mum’s convalescing Dachshund for a walk to the carnival. The weather was lousy and we got soaked. I had a chat with the regular charities, they were asking where we were. I’m glad we chose not to do it this year we would have been cold and miserable. On the upside, I got to see my niece Evie coaching her young gymnastics class as they performed in the rain. It brought tears of nostalgia to my eyes watching her work and to hear how popular she is.
19th: I sat and scheduled the Facebook posts and spent the afternoon emailing out the electronic version of the leaflet which arrived the day before. I also emailed to the local health trust and gave them details of what we do, hoping for a few referrals. Jane phoned me with a nasty cold. It looks like I’m on my own this week. We can’t figure out where she caught it from. I am hoping I don’t go down with it. Everything will come to a stop; group and classes and I will have to pull out of the garden party on Saturday with Sir John Peace the Lord Lieutenant of Derbyshire.
20th: I’m on my own today and all week. Jane has tested positive for Covid. I have let all the classes and group members know so they have a choice whether to attend, as most of the committee members were exposed from the meeting on Friday. Luckily Ben’s shifts had changed and he was able to come along and assist.
21st The tai chi for arthritis class worked really hard with a big move called Repulse Monkeys which they have been working on for a couple of weeks. It seemed to click so we moved forward to the next move.
Group was quiet with half the members not attending, so I took everyone through some gentle stretches and an easy-to-follow qigong routine. Everyone enjoyed it and we even got Sean joining in for the first time, which is a huge achievement. We were all very proud of him.
22nd This week’s group walk was cancelled due to the hot weather!
23rd There were only two people in the St Giles’ Otago class. Sadly, working with older people means the numbers can diminish quite quickly due to health issues. The second class struggled a bit with the Repulse Monkeys, I’m hoping to catch them up next week.
25th There was a low turnout at tai chi in the park. However, we worked really hard. After warming up and running through a qigong routine, we practiced both Sun style and Yang style and finished with the traditional eight brocades as a cool down.
Garden Party no. 2
It was straight home for me to slip into my glad rags, pick up Peter and Margaret and off to another garden party. This time it was near Newark in Nottinghamshire with the Lord Lieutenant Sir John Peace. There were 100 voluntary groups who were invited to celebrate volunteering and also it was part of the Platinum Jubilee Celebrations. The venue had expansive beautiful gardens. The caterers put on afternoon tea followed by ice cream. There was a short presentation ceremony to groups working with younger people and after a shower of rain we went to explore the gardens.
27th Jane is still testing positive and at the moment a lot of students are on holiday so it kept the classes quite small. Today seemed a day where we were all upset through grief and stress so we spent the first 15 minutes off loading and I led more of a relaxed class with gentle stretches and a run through of the forms just to de-stress everyone.
28th Motivation with Sue from Open Minds
Sue joined us with the final part of motivation. We started by looking at ourselves and ticking off all the everyday traits we have. How many can you tick off? If you can’t find any, ask a close friend or family member to go through them with you.
Wisdom
Artistic Ability
Curiosity
Leadership
Empathy
Honesty
Open Mindedness
Persistence
Enthusiasm
Kindness
Love
Social Awareness
Fairness
Bravery
Cooperation
Forgiveness
Modesty
Common Sense
Self-Control
Patience
Gratitude
Love of Learning
Humour
Spirituality
Ambition
Creativity
Confidence
Intelligence
Athleticism
Discipline
Assertiveness
Logic
Optimism
Independence
Flexibility
Adventurousness
These traits are your strengths! After we had identified our own strengths’, we were randomly assigned a group member and asked to identify their strengths’, it was interesting to hear the opinion of others – not something that often happens.
In the next edition we will be looking at what July has to bring to us. Hopefully, fingers crossed we will have moved into our new office and we have a busy 2 weeks with the Connect Erewash Fortnight event. But most importantly we will have Jane back.