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.
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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.
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.
