(Scroll to bottom for what's coming up next week!) Knowledge V Wisdom

There are many positives about running your own business and being your own boss. However, there are some unavoidable bumps in the road from time to time. One of those for me was finding my beloved Labrador Bertie collapsed last night which caused me angst for more than one reason. Firstly and of course most importantly was Bertie's health but immediately I was faced with what was going to happen for everyone who was expecting to join one of 2 classes in the morning while I had to step away and deal with the immediate issue. It has taken me many, many (many, many!!) years to have the confidence to choose to prioritise me (or in this case, Bertie) and on this occasion I cancelled classes in order to take Bertie to the vet.( I will have to add to our list of functional exercises, picking up and carrying a 38kg Labrador out of the house and into my van.) However we are a community and support each other and that was demonstrated very much by a) me worrying so much about letting everyone down and looking at where I can add the missed classes back in as catch up's and b) the many lovely kind messages I have received throughout the day offering care and support. Thank you very much for that. It is truly valued. Bertie has had excellent care and the next few days will tell us more. Seadown Vets are just up the road from me and have taken the very best care of me and my fur family for decades. So.... back to the title of "Consistency is key"... although I think this links in. We all know that in order to get results we need to repeat and repeat again whatever our end goal is. I have lost count of the amount of times people say to me "I have never been able to do xxxx" to which I ask how many times they practise and the answer is always.. never! In which case... what do we expect? When I was teaching students for their Pilates and Gym instructor exams, one of my favourite quotes with regards to preparing for their practicals was "practise until you get it right and then practise until you cannot get it wrong." In order to improve, we need to keep turning up. Consistency is the game changer. There are any number of reasons why we can excuse ourselves and skip a class or training session and I can assure you, I am an expert on this. Despite popular myth, I am not a machine and there are many times I am lying in bed thinking that an extra hour under the duvet is FAR preferable to getting up to do exercise. When we do override the negative voice though and turn up - those are the sessions about which we feel the most virtuous or feel we have really achieved. I know I do. Powering on through the negative voice and turning up and doing it - those are the biggest wins. Having the self discipline to get on that mat despite really not feeling like it... that is the biggest success! What happens on the mat is secondary.... getting there when you really don't feel like it - that is achievement. The real key is to make it habit - make it a part of our lifestyle so that it is just "what we do". Why wait until Monday or January or until the holidays are over or we have more time or after we have finished painting the hall or once we have finally tidied the loft? Those things will ALWAYS be there and we will be able to add more and more tasks. We know this. One thing us "onliners" have discussed when we get together is the community spirit we feel online and I really do treasure this. We have all been meeting up multiple mornings a week FOR YEARS and really know and care about each other. It isn't just about the exercise - it is a part of our routine on one or more mornings a week. Getting up, setting up, meeting up and working out. It has become just part of our daily routine. This is what makes taking part so much easier - you know where you are, what to expect and it fits into your daily life, without you having to think about carving out the time. What is important however is not to lose momentum. Isn't it easy to skip a class because you are too busy or going on holiday and that one class quickly becomes 2 classes to a week and before you know it, rather than your regular habit, it has slid to the back of the pile. From here, it takes SO MUCH more effort to start again and pick it up. In order to keep moving forwards, just keep turning up. Easy to say? I have days (doing my own training) when the high intensity or weights session I had planned just seems too much and I want to skip. Never more so than now as there are bugs and sniffles and dark mornings and energy levels can dip. However I have learned through experience to still get onto the mat at the allocated time but I will do a stretch session or even some simple meditation and breath work. Before, I would have definitely just avoided it altogether but I have found out how beneficial it is just to keep turning up. I may not be doing what I had originally planned but I am still keeping to the plan - keeping that time for me and not quickly filling it with other things that are queuing up to take over. Skip that one session and it is incredibly easy to lose that routine. I know what we are like. We think "oh what is the point, if I am not doing much, what will I get out of it?" ... but if we turn up we are still getting some mind body connection, being accountable, sticking to the plan..... just doing half as much, and taking our time will still tick all the aforementioned boxes and we get to leave our mat feeling we have at least "done something"...even if it is a 10 min stretch. If you are not up to doing that tough abs class or do not have time to do a full hour then 15 mins stretch and mobility is still ticking the box and is achieving so much more than avoiding it altogether. No-one ever regretted the workout they did. Don't let the avoidance become habit. After the day I have had (writing this on Thursday), I can promise you that my cosy sofa is very appealing but I am now going to practise what I preach and I am heading to my mat for some gentle stretch and breath work. It isn't the tough Pilates sequences class I had planned for 8am or the Back Care work I was teaching at 9am but it will take me out of my head for half an hour, stretch me out, relax me and will keep me on the straight and narrow before Shetland on Iplayer and choccy biccies win the day and talk me out of it.

I am a dog person. No doubt. I mean, I love all animals and horses were my raison d'etre for decades but dogs are my true love. One of the earliest stories is of me as a small toddler found missing from my bed. An "extensive search" was launched (which I highly doubt. Knowing my mother there would have been an eye roll, a large sigh and a casual, brief glance about at best. One of my brothers while still only at crawling stage was found missing once and located some half an hour later, squealing with joy, sitting on the roof tiles of our 2 story house at the top of a ladder my father had left propped up against the wall. At 20 months old, I broke my leg. Unobserved we have to assume. I had crawled up the steps of the slide, gone down backwards while managing to lodge one leg into the metal rails at the side so while I set off down the slide, my leg stayed put. The best part of this is that whenever my mother recounted the story of how she "had to entertain me for hours until the plaster cast dried", she always did so in a "Honestly, Juliet was SUCH a nuisance" type of way. She was 24 when she had me and I was the youngest of 4. We can only assume she was a little "over it all" and somewhat nonplussed with childcare by this time. So, "extensive search" is said with some doubt... ) Anyway, after the "extensive search" I was located in the dog bed with my arms wrapped tightly around Sally our beautiful German Shepherd with little Velvet, our Sealyham terrier tucked in behind, all of us fast asleep. Things have not changed much and I have never been without canine company since. In my world, the best breed of dog is RESCUE and I have been blessed with many, many much adored rescue friends over the years. I was listending to Supervet Noel Fitzpatrick the other day ( I met him at Carfest and he is honestly as lovely as he seems) and he said that dog lovers often give the love to their dogs that they are not able to give to themselves. Yup- I totally get that.. but that dogs give back that love ten fold over. Unconditional, total and immeasurable. 3 years ago this Christmas, I was looking at dog charities. We were still in a sort of lockdown so long distance travel was not an option but I located a sad looking little Jack Russell (with a side order of Daschund) being fostered in Midhurst. I brought her home on December 27th. She had lived her entire life in a cage on a puppy farm churning out litter after litter. She was thin, scared and completely overwhelmed but clung to me. She was shaking and just didn't know what to do with herself so I sat with her on the sofa with the ever tolerant Bertie at my feet. I put on the tv and as it was Christmas, The Sound of Music was on. She was totally mesmerised and thus gained her name - Gretl (Von Trapp). Fast forward and thanks to Bertie the magnificent being totally unfazed and me being well used to anxious rescues, Gretl has found her way and is quite the sassy miss but it has taken time. Out walking she would not let me out of her sight and would always stay so close to me that if I stopped she would frequently bump into me. This meant that she has only ever trotted with the very occasional canter as she she has never let me get far away. Until now... I rarely look for my dogs as they are always so close (possibly a risk here of climbing ladders or slides?) and a couple of months ago I glanced back to see...... no Gretl. This was a first and I was slightly worried when suddenly she appeared from round the corner and she was galloping. Full pelt, ears flapping, totally airborne with every stride galloping. The thing that truly melted my heart was the look of pure joy on her face. She continued past me, turned round and galloped back and so was born Galloping Gretl. It is now her favourite thing and is to be enjoyed at every possible opportunity and believe me, the joy on her little face is something to behold. She gallops away, she gallops back, she gallops over puddles, she leans into corners and those little 3" legs explode with a new found power. Why am I telling you this? Well, because Gretl is 10. That means that in dog years, she is 70. Galloping Gretl is 70 and despite a hideous 6 years of caged life, neglect and abuse, she has put her total trust into me not leaving her and she has discovered the joy and liberation of galloping. I find it utterly humbling. With 3" legs but the heart of a lion. So my point is, as always that age is just a number - a reference to the amount of times we have passed the sun. That it is never too late to start. Also though, just the freedom to be gained in letting go of stuff and finding joy in the simple pleasures. I always relate it to exercise but not today. This time I ask us all to consider what we can do that is simple but makes us smile or even laugh, be it kicking the piles of fallen leaves, dancing in the Kitchen, singing to the radio..... maybe remembering how much we enjoyed art at school and finding a local class or learning a musical instrument just for the heck of it. Hanging on to the burden gets really heavy and you simply cannot gallop when you are carrying baggage - you will forever only trot, Just have the courage of Galloping Gretl to let go - cast off the doubts. the insecurities, let go of what was and lets allow ourselves to be joyful and embrace the fun. Remember - the more we care about ourselves, the more we can care about others. The happier we feel, the more happiness we can share. A quote that I wish was mine..... "Whatever you do today, do it with the confidence of a 4 year old wearing a Batman T shirt."

It is FOUR AND A HALF YEARS since I moved my business online. Can you believe that?! 4 1/2 years from that dreadful Monday evening when Boris made his statement to lock us all up. 4 1/2 years since I stayed up with no sleep and a lot of adrenaline for 2 nights and 3 days, sitting at the breakfast bar in my kitchen, drinking a lot of tea and shedding quite a few tears and expletives, learning how to set up payment platforms, membership platforms, how to edit my own website, record and edit classes, how to store recordings, what video program to use, how to use Zoom, what microphones and external cameras to use...It still makes me shiver, just thinking about that time. WHAT a long way we have all come. I'll be honest. I had become a bit stale and was worn down with driving up hill and down dale (that's a Yorkshire saying - it's almost totally flat around here but I thought it added some theatre to the story) from one venue to another. I was starting to think about the "what next" options. Despite being asked many times over the years, I have never wanted to take on a commercial premises so what was I do to next? Maybe it was time for a total career change. Maybe I would even park up what limited common sense I had and go back to working with horses. Yes, I did give this serious thought... but then this coincided with a deeply unhappy time in my life and some"running away from it all" was also in play. Then as we approached what we knew was on the cards and I was faced with losing almost 2 decades of hard work I became passionately protective of my business and was determined to keep it going. Hence not going to bed for 3 days and though I say so myself, I am very, very proud of turning it all around in a week and being one of the first to be up online and teaching. 6 weeks of live classes every single day, totally free on Facebook and Instagram live- those were exhausting days but we had HUGE classes, beaming all over the world and my goodness, did it teach me a lot very quickly. Friends and family could connect from different continents and work out together and we had people joining from midnight to midday their time. There are some wonderful memories from those experiences and I honestly treasure them. Oh those early days of Zoom!! When none of us had a clue about mute, who could hear what... and the amount of people with me 4 years down the line who were "absolutely not doing online thank you".... my favourite story from those days is "Granny" doing a video call to her grandkids in Australia and telling them that as her wifi was playing up, she was hot spotting from her mobile, and mirroring their stunned expressions onto her tv screen!! Serious kudos to Granny on that one!! Bertie the magnificent Labrador made regular appearances, sitting in front of the camera, or coming for a cuddle and knocking me off my roller mid class, and I ate my stress and unhappiness and became the fattest I have ever, ever been. A wonderful irony given that I was suddenly on such a big platform and being seen in homes all over the place. As my audience grew, so too did my worry about letting everyone down which sent me scurrying off to bury my head in the biscuit tin and as there's a Tesco express a mere somersault from my house, I was doomed. We had The November challenge where I linked up with fellow local women in business (see photo above) and we did events live every day, We had an online "wear a hat" party, we had classes around The Olympics (lockdown version), the Jubilee, the Coronation, we celebrated the NHS.....we had guest teachers and speakers....we had socially distanced classes in the forest being attacked by donkeys and we have celebrated new babies, puppies, weddings, house moves.... we have discussed where to source hard to find wall paper, holiday tips and have shared so much as we have slowly built our online community and seen it grow year on year. I honestly cannot tell you the pride I feel in what we have achieved together. True friendships have formed and the ease and convenience of being online continues. It really is a way of life for us now. However, while we appreciate that side of things (and the fact that I can work and you can join from anywhere in the world and you now have access to 8 classes for the same price you used to pay for one), the social side of things is so very important. We have had walks and pub lunches, jolly's to London, we have been to Kefalonia to visit one of our members there and France to visit our member there (psst - Madrid and Hong Kong - watch out!) to name just a few events and this means so much to me. Last year we had our second annual Christmas lunch which saw nearly 40 of us get together. Several of you travelled from far flung destinations on trains and motorways and it was a time of immense joy and pride for me, not least when some who were nervous about not knowing anyone, left telling me how many new friends they had made. When I went home, I just sat on my sofa, looking at my cards and reflecting on the day and how much it had meant to me and all the wonderful things that had been said. I would like you to know that that was a turning point for me. Things are not always as they seem and I have been running on empty for quite some time (well, and a fxxk load of biscuits!!) but that was a very special time that I reflect on regularly. Just what we have achieved and how far we have come and what we have created. So thank you all. I honestly treasure you more than you could imagine. That is why I am always looking at new ideas, new challenges and how to keep it fresh, current and entertaining so..... here goes... non members this involves you too STRENGTH, MOBILITY, FULL BODY STRETCH, MAT PILATES, FUNCTIONAL WEIGHTS. 48 CLASSES FOR £45 I hate to be the one to use the C word BUT…. With just a few weeks to go, I have decided to dig deep and put up some more challenges to help us focus and see out the year stronger, fitter and determined to be sleeveless for the whole of Christmas just to show off our toned arms. If you are already a subscribed member, you will have access to ALL this but if you are not yet online with me, please read below and see how you can join us for a special, early pre Black Friday, pre Boxing Day sales price just in time to finish the year. I am a bit nervous as I have only just started to recover from the extra classes the other week (or to be honest, all the prep. behind it!) but hey!! Friends who workout together stay together and I know how much we are all going to benefit. So here goes. The 6 week Christmas strength challenge. Each Tues and Fri, I will deliver a strength class, built around the same format. Each week the class will be recorded and go straight into the library and I ask you to attend the class and then repeat the class on demand twice more that week before we have a new class the following week (Of course, if you cannot attend live, you can just access on demand but the key is to repeat x 3 times) Tues 9am and Fri 8am starting Nov 8th. 6 weeks - all details will follow to subscribed members in the live calendar. The Technique clinic. Thursdays 8am. Working through Nov - All those moves that seem very complicated or that you just cant “get” - as well as finding out why your neck aches when you curl up, why you cant roll up from lying, how to open those shoulders for roll over - that type of thing. Let me have your requests and let's really nail some of those tricky ones. THE 34 MOVES It’s time! We are building up… in Dec., we will have part 1 on Tues 10th 8am, part 2 on Thurs 12th 8am and alll the way through on Tues 17th 8am . Put it in your diary! You know you love it and WHAT a way to wrap up all our hard work. The Back clinic. Thursdays 9am through NOV. Addressing those common back problems -let's have a look at all the different ways we can improve our spines and how we move them. Let me have specific concerns or issues to work with. Bring all your props and let’s get smiley spines. Finally where would we be without The 12 Moves of Christmas …. It never gets any easier and you will be required to wear sparkles but we LOVE it…. more of that in due course. New in the library is this week's Functional Strength class. .. using weights to help us live well, strong and independently. This class includes lying on the floor to reach under the sofa, chopping wood (I don't know - you might!), Golf swings, doing up the top of a zip, undoing the bottom of the zip, lifting heavy bags, lifting heavy weights to do an overhead throw into a skip (it will make sense when you do it), putting luggage into an overhead locker, getting up and down from a low seat, lifting a heavy wheelbarrow, digging in the garden.... and lots more. Check it out in the "Mixed ability" collection.

This week was going to be all about the social side of our online community but please allow me to carry over to next week as I have been knocked off my feet with whatever is currently doing the rounds and have downed tools for a couple of days.