As a Christian it can be hard to remain on track, hard to
remember our focus, the promises God has said, the words that our written in
his heart about us. Over the past few years I have developed the 5 smooth stones
concept, which has become the cornerstone of my faith, and keeps me going in
those moments when life gets hard.
Let me explain about
the stones first
Take a normal stone, they usually begin quite angular with
sharp edges, a smooth stone is one that has been handled repeatedly, so much so,
that the sharp and angular edges have worn down and what’s left is a smooth,
but firm stone. Which is solid, and in most cases heavy! Imagine carrying 5 of
them around, they would be quite weighty! However, they would serve as a
reminder that there is something there. Something physical that you can cling
to and lean on.
But how is that the
cornerstone of my faith?
Each ‘stone’ is a scripture which has become important to me
during my journey and they speak to me and remind of what God is saying and how
he is there to support us. They help to maintain a strong foundation, that is
always rooted in Christ
Here are my 5 smooth stones –
Phil 2.15 – So that you
may become blameless and pure, ‘children of God without fault in a warped and
crooked generation.’ Then you will shine
among them like stars in the sky.
This is one of the key verses that I started UC Grace with, it
speaks so much to me about how each of us is important and can shine a light,
even in the darkest of places.
1 Corinthians 16:13 – Be on
your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous, be strong.
This is one of my most longstanding verses, it was given to
me when I got baptised in 2004, and it remains framed in a poster on my stairs
as a daily reminder to be firm in what I know and who I lean on.
Deuteronomy 33.27 – The eternal
God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.
Such a comfort verse! And a great one to visualise that God is all around us, surrounding us at those times that we feel low.
Romans 8.39 – nothing will
be able to separate us from the love God.
Nothing, however small will get in the way of Gods love for
us. When I went away to university I was given this verse on a pillow, a daily
prompt to know that God loves me. The verse (and the pillow!) has stayed with
me since.
Hebrews 13.6 – So we say with
confidence, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals
do to me?
Where ever we walk, God walks with us and he is ready to
help us. Sometimes we just need to know that God will always root for us and
help us regardless of circumstances.
So you see, some of these verses have a long standing
history that have been with me a while, others have been added to over the
years. You don’t have to have 5, why not just start with a few. As long as they
are engrained and you know them, they can support you through your day.
I’d love to know whether you have any smooth stones, why
they are important to you and how you let them support you throughout your day.
Want to be kept up to date with all things UC Grace? Head here.
Sometimes we just need to stop. Breathe. Pause. Say, ‘God I
need you right now’, ‘please send more of your spirit’, ‘wrap your arms around
me’.
Our new Soak events are designed to provide just that. An opportunity in the month to enter into Gods presence.
Although we all try daily to walk with Jesus beside us, there are always moments where life takes us down a different path, and we get to the end of a day, week, month and realise, those moments that we struggled through, were exactly the moments when God wanted to step into the breach for us.
My heart for the Soak events is a time to actively make the decision to draw deeper with Jesus and dwell in his presence. In 2 Timothy it talks about the need to nourish and support our faith, and it’s the Holy Spirit within us that can help us do that.
We can’t give out, if we are running ourselves on empty,
taking the time to fill us up should be a priority.
What will happen at Soak events?
We’ll spend a short time welcoming each other and doing a warm up movement activity together. As well as reading through some scriptures to focus on during the session.
This will lead into an initial time of free worship, after
which there will then be a creative reflection exercise for people to part take
in if they wish, leading back into free worship.
There will be the opportunity to take part in some prayer movement if people wish, this will be led and guided by the event leader, depending on peoples strengths.
The rest of the evening we’ll see where the Holy Spirit takes us!
You can see our current dates for Soak Nights here.
Do I need to have had
dance experience?
Absolutely not! Part of dancing and moving in your faith is
the recognition that movements are tiny and big, so whatever you do, a foot
tap, or hand raise, is still a movement.
Want to know more and be kept up to date with other events at UC Grace? Head here to sign up.
Last week, as I sat and looked through the coming events
with UC Grace and where they sat in the wider calendar, I suddenly realised
that Lent was just a week away. It got me thinking about how Lent is approached
in the wider world, and how much emphasis people place on it.
Many people strive to give up things, or try to focus on
something specific, but how many actually use those 40 days to draw closer to
God, to deepen their relationship with him, learn something new about
themselves and God? Probably not as many as we’d think.
Then my thinking all got a bit radical, and I thought, why
don’t we dance through Lent??
Lent is set aside as a time of reflection, prayer, and preparation.
What better way to prepare ourselves than to move the bodies God has given us
in surrender when words don’t suffice.
In him we live and move and have our being… Acts 17.28
This is one of my favourite verses, the essence of dance
summed up in 10 words! Tim Hughes song, God of Justice emphasises it very well too,
with the phrase ‘move us into action, we must go.’ God moves us into action,
fills our hearts and initiates our movements.
So, the idea has grown, to 6 week resource, to encourage us
all to step out in some form of movement each day. My heart is that those who
are both inexperienced and experienced can access it, with different options
for people to dip into depending on their time and circumstance.
The Layout
Each day there is a bible reference and a themed word assigned
to it, the word is there to help you prompt other feelings as you do the study.
Over the course of the 6 weeks we are going to look at 4
areas, the Psalms – 2 weeks, Armour of God – 1 week, God’s Truths -2 weeks, and
of course the Easter story.
How will it work?
Each Wednesday the next weeks study will come out. When completing
the study, there are two levels. If you’re short on time, concentrate on the
first 3 questions, these can be done in 10-15 minutes. If you’ve got more time
and want to go deeper, do the next set of 3 questions which will also take
10-15 minutes. So, if you decide to do both it can be around a 30 minute movement
time!
How much movement
will I do?
That is really up to you, the studies are designed so that
you can put as much action into them as you want, or if you just want to
isolate a single word and do a single action you can do that too.
Do I need to have
danced or moved before?
No, this study can provide a great way to introduce you to
movement. There is no right or wrong way to move, if you are putting Jesus at
the centre of your movement. My encouragement would be to start simple, by
thinking of movements connected to words in the literal sense.
What if I don’t
understand what to do?
Drop me a message! Ask in the Facebook group! There is a UC
Grace worship chatter group where the main ‘talk’ of the series will be
happening. This is so other platforms aren’t constantly bombarded with what’s
going on.
This sounds awesome!
How do I sign up?
Already on my email list? Drop me a message here which says ‘count me in’.
Not on my email list? Then head here …. and I can make sure you get all the information you need.
I love teaching and I love being able to intertwine faith and dance together. This is because I see them as one, a continuous cycle, so one can’t function without the other. Therefore it makes sense to teach them both! However, there are 3 key things that influence my dance ministry teaching and I’m looking forward to sharing what they are here and how they are a springboard to UC Grace.
1 – My faith journey impacts my dance ministry teaching
Our faith helps us display who God has made us to be. It helps us realise and accept the qualities and purpose God has written on our lives.
In my dance ministry teaching, my passion is to help these things to develop – passion to teach that God has written our purpose in our lives already. Purpose to identify how you can use the experiences you have in your life to encourage you in your walk. Freedom to give you space to grow and release who you are.
In other words, it is my desire to share my faith that propels me forward with my dance ministry teaching. The enjoyment I get from learning more about God’s word and demonstrating that through dance and movement. Leads me to build and share into dance ministry from a strong foundation.
2 – Childhood memories helped grow my dance ministry teaching
Memories pay such a key part in building our foundation for how we live the rest of our life. Here are just two stories that helped to lay the foundation of where I have come from with dance and teaching.
The first story is about when I began dancing. Something stirred in me, even from a young age, I loved it. From an early age I was given the opportunity to take part in solo’s and duets at competitions. There is one memory that sticks with me. I was performing at a competition and have lots on fun, until I managed to forget my dance!!! It left me with such a feeling of embarrassment, upset, and shame. It made me shrink back from performances.
Who has felt that tug of the Holy Spirit, the nudge that you should do something, or that total abandonment feeling that the Holy Spirit is there right with you? Who has had that through movement? What an experience! The first time this happened, my eyes were opened to how I could share my heart with God and be lost in the process. There was no pressure to do things a certain way, or wonder about whether I was doing it right. It was just purely sinking into God in that moment to grow closer to him through dance and movement.
The impact…
These two very simple stories, are what started my journey to where I am now and influenced me moving forward.
Amazingly, as a result of the stall in performance as young girl it means that when I perform now, I have to make the choice to lean on God throughout the whole dance.
Making the effort to breath is the most important thing! Although breathing seems such a simple thing, it enabled to remain grounded throughout the dance and choose to put my focus on God. There have been many times since then, that I have struggled with performances, and I know during those times it was because I wasn’t leaning on God and trying to do it by myself.
Recognising the nudge from the Holy Spirit has made me more
aware of my journey and conversation with God. That important thing, of both
talking and then allowing time to listen back. Realising that the reasons you
move, may be different to what others may see in your movement. Where you have
the chance to be blessed and bless others. To look for the GRACE in that moment
and seize that conversation with God.
3 – Making training a priority for my dance ministry teaching
I mentioned at the beginning about how I see faith and dance intertwined as one thing. Think of it like this –
As you grow in dance, you grow in God.
As you grow in God, you expand you dance.
This quote is brilliant as it demonstrates how our relationship can go round in a continual circle. By investing in one of the things (faith), it influences the impact that the other (dance) can have.
Most importantly it offers the chance for continual growth. Part of recognising the space for that continual growth is immersing myself in God’s word. Allowing space for the scripture and it’s application into my heart and how I can apply it.
For dancing, it’s taking the opportunity to learn and be grounded in dance technique, that has been essential in the development of my dance skills. Part of learning those skills and technique involved going back to university as this offered the best place for me to grow in teaching styles and and understanding of creative process.
Creative process within dance teaching ministry is extremely important as it’s where we really let the Holy Spirit fly. Choosing grow in your faith and dance will have no impact if you don’t let Holy Spirit work alongside you.
Living Colour February 2018
What does this mean for me?
In your personal dance ministry teaching you need to understand how the past, present and future can impact it. Here are some simple things for you to think through and how they could affect your teaching journey as you go forward.
Your past experiences influence the passion that drives you. What speaks to you most, what stories do you remember the most? How does your faith connect you to your dance and movement journey?
Your present situation will help you define the purpose that you stand for with your teaching. Do you feel adequately equipped to step out into dance ministry teaching? Are there things that you need to learn more of?
The future offers you a chance to bring freedom to many through dance and movement. However, in order for this to happen, you need an open channel of communication with God, a continuous conversation allows both parties to listen and respond.
What’s your story? What got you to where you are, at the moment?
It’s been an awesome start to our events this year, with our
first Living Colour morning of 2019. Such a privilege to meet with all the
dancers and spend time catching up.
Our focus during the workshop session was exploring Proverbs
3.1-8, by looking at 3 main sections, Gods teaching and foundation, his
faithfulness and understanding when we are struggling and having help come
around us.
There was a great conversation about verse 1, and the
different interpretations in different Bible versions. One version talked about
‘storing’ commands not keeping them, which is an image of treasuring the things
that God gives you.
In verses 3 and 4 we chatted about how we can forget the small things that God is faithful in, and that it’s important to remember them daily. Participants worked in pairs to pick 3 or 4 areas that they felt God was faithful in. They wrote these down on separate pieces of paper and placed them at staggered points across the space. Working with their partner they put those faithful things into a journey, what they realised as they danced and shared with others, was the importance of fellowship and being with someone as you share in your faithful journey.
Below is short film of Servina and Jane’s, and Caroline and Helen’s Faithful Journey.
Our next Living Colour is planned for Saturday 22nd June, you can check out the info here. But why not join us before that at one of our dance days.
Last night I had the privilege of being invited to be part
of the Candlemas service at St Micahel’s, Aldershot, it was such a lovely
evening, I left buzzing and I want to share some of what God spoke to me during
the service.
I had been asked if I could find some dancers who could
respond as the felt led to a piece of live piano music based on Psalm 121: I Life
my eyes up, to the Mountain. The lovely Helen Warren joined me as a second
dancer, and our prayer before we danced was that we would reflect some of Jesus’
heart, that people would be drawn in with a desire to explore God more through
our movement.
Recently I recognised that I spend a lot of time teaching
and delivering, and not so much time dancing for myself. Last night gave me the
opportunity to come before God and thank him that I have the ability to move,
but also reinforced that for UC Grace to grow, and share Gods heart, I need to
make sure I am giving God mine, and that in turn requires time set aside for me
to dance, and be lost in his love through movement.
As the service progressed, Alwyn, the Vicar asked if we
would dance again later in the service. By this point me and Helen felt we had ‘warmed
up’, laid the foundations of showing Jesus through movement. So, as Jesus
Christ, I think upon your sacrifice played, our hearts were stirred more by the
spirit and we loved sharing more of that through dance and movement.
Much of the journey I have been on over the past week has
encompassed the desire to draw back to the centre of what and why I do what I
do with UC Grace. There were several things that God drew my attention to last
night, it made me chuckle as the theme seemed to be everywhere I went at the
moment.
In my previous post I mentioned about the interaction between creativity and the heart, and that my desire when I started had always been that it was about the hearts impacted not the numbers. You can read more about it here. It is this theme of people’s hearts and prayer that keep cropping up.
This prayer below reminded me that God places me where I
need to be and with who I need to be, and I need to be willing to serve Him in
what ever way that looks like.
It’s really hard in reality isn’t it to keep that sense of doing what God wants and following his will. This chorus of ‘I the Lord of sea and sky’ (brilliant song, you can listen to here), sums it up very well.
I will hold your
people in my heart. The people that God puts in front of me at events, in
conversations and through dancing. Each one is important.
We did manage to video some of what we did last night. Not
everything is in full view. But it will give you a flavour from our first
dance.
What special services have you danced in? Let me know.
Keep up to date with the latest with UC Grace, by joining our mailing list here.
The word creativity has been on my mind a lot recently, it’s taken me right back to why I started UC Grace, and how Living Colour dance workshops came about. I’ve been reading through previous notes and realising that at times it’s important to go back to your roots.
The ultimate reason I began UC Grace in 2010 was a passion to share with others the impact that dance and movement can have with our faith, and how it can be instrumental in encouraging others in their walk, bringing others to faith, and teaching Gods word. I wanted to acknowledge that God has given us a creative spirit, to explore, move and grow with. To put ourselves outside the box.
But as with so many things in life, distractions arise and
before you know it, where you think you were, you no longer are.
A dear friend gave me a card with the saying ‘Creativity takes Courage’. Initially I
read it and put it to one side. Until last week, when I was drawn back to it,
and the need to understand the implications of what that phrase means to me and
to UC Grace.
Creativity has been a fundamental part of how UC Grace has
developed, it’s integral to how we deliver our workshops, training and dance
weekends and is actively encouraged amongst participants to help them draw
closer to God.
However, I’ve felt challenged, that this fundamental root,
the thing that shines through our work and sets it apart from others, has wilted.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve delivered all events with the same amount of gusto and
passion, but had a feeling like something was missing, but not knowing what.
As this year has got underway, the Holy Spirit has whispered
in me more, and I’ve realised its creativity
that’s missing. Or more specifically how I share the connection of dance and
movement and our faith, by offering a creative channel within which to do it.
Let me share for a moment what I mean by creativity with dance and movement and our faith!
An aspect that we look at a lot, is our journey, how we’ve got there, and where we might be going to. At one particular Living Colour session I asked participants to take a piece of paper and think about the journey that they had been on over the last week, and if they drew it, what would it look like? I then asked them at what points on that journey did they know that God was with them, and to mark it on the paper. From there their task was to transpose that picture into movement working individually initially, but then as a group. You can read more about how they did it, by reading the workshop plan here. But for now, look at the video below to see how they went from a picture to movement.
So why does it take courage? It takes courage, because for a lot of people creativity is something they don’t experience in their day to day. It’s something that doesn’t have a written step by step process, or tick boxes. It’s something that draws us to discover something new about ourselves, by stepping out the box.
The process is as important as the result is, both of which you might not have control over. Creativity takes courage, as it challenges your perceptions, your routine and your mindset. At UC Grace, that discovery happens in a safe environment, where whatever the result is, we support you as best as we can. Most importantly though, you join in as much or as little as you want.
It’s never been about the numbers that come to events. It’s about the hearts. I believe that if you join us at our events, God has put you there for a reason, and I value that. The connection between creativity and people’s hearts is so important.
Over the next month or so, I am looking forward to continuing to weave this strand, across the whole of UC Grace, some of what is on our website currently is not where UC Grace is now. As God moves each of us on in our journey, God also moves UC Grace, and I’m looking forward to delving into putting creativity right back at our heart, as well as revisiting our values and vision.
We started with that phrase in 2010, let’s head back their in 2019 and see where it takes us.
I’d love to know your thoughts and experiences, if you have danced and moved with UC Grace. But also, those that haven’t, how do you use creativity? What does it mean to you?
So here is a simple workshop plan. Sometimes my plans are
written out in detail, others are not as I know that there needed to be a lot
of space to let God move and see where the session was going to take us. So
below is an example of a ‘light’ plan. When I delivered this session, it was
one of my busiest for a while, so it was lovely to see how each person developed
their individual movement style.
Let me know how you get on!
Pray – always begin
with prayer, welcome God into the space you are in.
Read all of Romans 8 – what are your initial thoughts?
Focus on the following areas for discussion –
Verses 1 – 4
Verse 14 – children of God
Verses 37 to the end.
Creative Task – Life through
the spirit
What has you week looked like? Where has the spirit been in
it?
Take a piece of paper and draw or sketch your journey. Think
about peaks and troughs and how you travelled from one space to another.
Get Moving
Individually –
identify ways that you can put movements together to demonstrate your journey.
Share with others if you comfortable.
With Others –
Link your journeys together. Do this by first all doing your own journey at the
same time. Then identify points at which your journey can intersect with
someone else’s. Finally, how different does the journey look if you add some
one in?
You should 3 variations now. Your own with others, your own
that intersects with others and finally your own with someone else in the
journey at some point too.
Share with others your finished dance. Use it as a time of
blessing, both to give, but also to receive.
Throughout history flags and ribbons have been used in many significant ways – declaration and proclamation, worship, battle and celebration. Flags have become increasingly popular in churches to demonstrate freedom of expression and encourage other people to experience and try out dance and moving with their faith. Today I want to share 4 good things to know about worship flags in the Bible.
Know this before you start
Flags and banners themselves have no power. The significance
is in Scripture and what they symbolize, God ‘inhabits the praises of His
people’ and brings the kingdom in when we choose to take them up in faith.
However, I feel strongly, that flags and banners should not be picked up lightly. There is a lot more power in them, than people realise. They are a vehicle to talk to God, to communicate, worship and share your heart. Be aware of this, as you choose to move with them.
Let’s try and understand them a bit more…
How are worship flags used in the Bible?
Historically in the Bible there were 4 different ways worship flags and banners were used. Let’s look at an overview.
Israel’s banner of God being with them demonstrated how they were a people who belonged to God. They housed the Ark of the Covenant, with them morning and evening. It was a symbol of God saying I am with you, just like we have the Holy Spirit.
Each tribe had one rallying point for the fighting men of the tribes. This brought together a demonstration of military and fighting force. They could look to the horizon and know the banner they needed to get back to.
The next level was tribal unit identity. There were 3 tribes on each side NESW, so they knew exactly where they belonged – their identity.
Finally there were family clan units – these were based on the location of other banners, families always knew where to camp. The banners acted as reference points, therefore giving individuals purpose and vision.
What can banners do?
Tell people who you represent, bit like a signal pole always high on a hill.
Signal of intent about what is to come – Jeremiah 51.12
Indicate past victories they’d come through – different ribbons are attached to their pole under their banner depending on the battle won. Psalm 20.5 and 7
Indication of Gods presence – Moses and Aaron’s staff are banners that have been lifted and a response occurred. Exodus – 25
Put enemies to flight. Isaiah 31.9
Remember this going forward about worship flags in the Bible.
This is very quick overview of the use of worship flags in the Bible. But hopefully offers you a small insight into what the Bible says, and areas to think about when you choose to dance with flags.
I like to remember it as a visual demonstration of a spiritual truth. Just like moving normally, you never know the impact moving with flags and banners can have on you and others who may witness it. The colour you use can create just as much impact.
Finally, want to come and try using resources during your worship? Then get in touch with me here to chat about me coming to your church, where you can try out ways of moving with flags, ribbons and material. No prior experience necessary!
You can also head to Shop where there is a selection of flags, ribbons and streamers that you can purchase to get you going.
Want to keep up with UC Grace journey? We’d love to keep you in the loop. Head here to get your name down!
I don’t know about you, but from the moment you find out you’re
pregnant all the ‘preparation’ that you are told about, explore, look up seems to
centre on most of these topics – how your pregnancy will develop, how the baby
grows, things you need to be aware of at birth, what to remember at birth, breastfeeding,
bottle feeding, what changes the baby goes through and much more. What isn’t spoken
about enough or made aware to mums enough is the reality of how you and your body feels physically post birth.
When I had my daughter, this was the bit I struggled with
the most, since then I’ve spoken with many mums about how they actually felt
post birth and it’s shocking. It’s the one thing they weren’t prepared for,
hadn’t been told or heard about, and it’s the thing that had one of the
greatest impacts on them as they came to grips with being a new mum.
9 hours old – newborn snuggles once I could feel my arm!
I want to share with you two things – my post birth pain
story and how you can help yourself to get out moving after birth that will aid
healing in the right way. I recognise everyone’s story is different, and for
some mums, they may be the lucky few that experience a positive birth, with
minimal visible damage and easy movement after. But sadly, there are a lot of
mums that don’t get that.
The birth of my first child wasn’t what I pictured it would
be. To start with she was 10 days late! I was in slow labour, with sporadic contractions
for 5 days. My waters broke but I didn’t have any regular contractions and I
was scheduled to be induced. A high-powered walk eventually shifted things into
regularity. However, in the final pushing stages it all went wrong… very quickly,
and I ended up in theatre with an episiotomy, forceps and a baby not breathing,
after 6 very long minutes we heard our baby. Thank you, God.
In the hours after the birth I eventually managed to get up,
although I could walk, albeit very slowly, I could not sit. What followed as I
attempted to recover, navigate a very painful breastfeeding journey (a story for
another time), go through all the new mum, baby, family processes. Was the
realisation that whilst I was prepared to ‘become a mum’, I most definitely was
not prepared (nor had I read anywhere) for the immense pain, immovability and
recovery of my body. The hardest part was transitions, once standing, or
sitting in a fixed place I was okay, but moving from one to the other, turning
over in bed, getting baby in the night to do feeds, was excruciating, it was at
least 4 weeks if not longer before I could sit comfortably and transition between
standing and sitting comfortably.
9 days – the tiredness has kicked in.
Mentally I really struggled with this. I’m a doer, some one who likes to keep busy, and realising that I still needed to be on a ‘go slow’ a lot longer than I thought, I struggled with. It was around 4 months post-partum that my friend invited me to try out Buggyfit. What a God send! By this point I had worked out that sleep and my daughter didn’t mix. But the outdoors and buggy produced a small amount of sleep, hallelujah! Over the next 3 or 4 months with Helena at Buggyfit Farnham, I learnt a lot more about our post-partum bodies and rehabbing them in the right way. Plus, the importance of knowing if we have diastasis recti (tummy gap), and how strong our pelvic floor is (let’s be honest, we all mean to do the exercises, but the reality of actually doing them…?!).
I took a lot longer to recover than I thought I would, in
fact it hadn’t crossed my mind that it would take long to recover – I mean
nothing is said in any of the magazines. But think about it, you’ve taken 9
months to grow your baby, allow it time to recoup, recover and regrow as
needed.
4.5 weeks – Frensham Pond walk
Fast forward to now, I’ve been a Buggyfit instructor for 3 years running classes in Odiham, Hook and Alton (more info here), I love it. I’m passionate about ensuring mum’s get moving in a safe, supportive and fun environment and I love being able to encourage them not only in their fitness journey, but also in being a mum.
So what can you do to help your movement post birth? Here’s
3 things that I would make a priority –
Slow and steady wins
the race – giving birth is equivalent to doing a marathon, not only pace
yourself during your labour, but also after it. No consistent* running, high
impact, jumping, HiiT, Boxercise or similar until you are 5-6 months. This
sounds like you must wait an eternity, but although you might look and feel great
on the outside, there are many layers of muscles and healing that need to take
place deep down. Follow the advice of your postnatal trainer but depending on
your recovery some of these can be started sooner. Walking is the best place to
start.
Little and often –
get out for a walk every day. This might mean on day one, you walk to the end
of the driveway or garden and back and that’s it. But firstly, you’ve moved and
secondly you got outside, win win! Fresh air helps you to regroup, blow away a
little bit of tiredness and help you feel like you’ve done something. Moving,
wakes up your muscles to help them to start contracting back to where they
should normally be. Each time you walk, walk as fast as you can, this might be
like a snail to start with, but you will get quicker!
Remember your breathing – just like during labour, breathing is your lifeline. Taking several lots of deep breaths, a day will not only send more oxygen round the body to your muscles, but also help rebuild your pelvic floor and tummy gap.
If you’re keen to get out and get moving soon after birth,
then I’d recommend heading to a local Buggyfit class where you can get your
outside fresh air fix, baby can go to and all the instructors are postnatally
trained, so you will be in the safest of hands to get your body moving and
active post birth.
When looking for classes postnatally, it is really important
that you check (ask to see certificates if need be), that your class instructor
is qualified to teach postnatally. You will do more damage to your body if you
go back into exercise and begin throwing weights around, doing sit ups, running
sprints and more. There are many other exercises that work more effectively to
rebuild your core, tone your muscles and build strength.
Put your body first, let it recover, know that it might be painful and accept you might need to watch a little more tv whilst you recover!
*Running for short bursts
within for example, a set of circuits can be fine, but isn’t recommended before
12 weeks, at the discretion of the instructor depending on the mum’s recovery.
