Welcome to our Summer newsletter!

After a long stretch of Easter Holiday’s, Bank Holiday’s and a Royal Wedding it is easy to get out of the habit of looking after oneself. But do not worry, Earthlife is here to help.

Our new Fitness Schedule starts week commencing 6th June for 7 weeks and some classes are running for another 4 weeks from 25th July. To take advantage of our 10% early booking discount on full courses, please book and pay by Saturday 4th June. Again there have been some changes to the time table, with the Wednesday class 20:30-21:30 turning into a Jazz Dance for Adults with Lucy Potter, who many of you know from Tuesday and Saturday am Yoga.

On Tuesday evenings the Hatha Yoga will be at 18:30-19:45 and Zumba with Carolina at 20:00-21:00. Come along and have some fitness fun!

Also, to help you look after yourself, we have some great treatment offers: 50% off an initial Chiropractic treatment with Dr John Stoker (Dr of Chiropractic); £10 of our ‘cellulite busting’ Body Wrap and £10 off a ‘Face & Nail Express’. Beauty Treatments are

available on Friday’s and every other Saturday and Chiropractic treatments on Tuesday and Friday’s between 07:00-13:00. Should you wish to book an appointment, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Our Acupuncturist, Tyler Cornelius, has done some exciting new training in Structural Integration, which you can read more about in this Newsletter. She offers a 20 min free Introductory Consultation and a simple body-reading, for the ones who would like more information on this great treatment.

Meditation can be an effective form of stress reduction and has the potential to improve your health. Meditation involves controlling your thoughts and not following stray ideas and thoughts that your brain creates. If you have little or no experience with meditation, our ‘7 Simple Steps to Meditation’ workshop with Karen Young on Saturday 2nd July, will get you up and started quickly and easily.

Other exciting workshops are Active Back Care on 4th June, Iyengar Yoga on the 11th June and Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) on the 25th June.

For Pregnancy and Mum & Baby workshops, we have HypnoBirthing, Breathe to a Better Birth, Breastfeeding Workshop, Baby Massage, Baby Resuscitation and Childhood Illness & Accidents. You can read more about all of these on our Workshop page.

We are looking forward to seeing you at Earthlife over the Summer and also hope to see you at our Marquee at the Kew Midsummer Fete on the 18th June.

CHIROPRACTIC
½ price Initial Consultation and Treatment during June

Chiropractic is a health profession concerned with the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of mechanical disorders of the musculoskeletal system and the effects of these disorders on the functions of the nervous system and general health. Chiropractic is effective for back, neck and shoulder problems, join, posture and muscle problems, leg pain and sciatica and many other conditions.

Our Chiropractor, John Stoker, is available on Tuesday's and Friday's between 07:00-13:00.

Face & Nail Express
£10 off during June & July

Get ready for Summer with a Mini Facial and Shape & Paint on hands and toes.

Body Wrap
£10 off during June & July

An intensive detox for cellulite, hydration, improved circulation and skin texture. After exfoliation, a seaweed gel will be applied to all or part of the body, before being wrapped up in towels to relax with a head massage.  

To book your treatment, please contact us on 020 8940 0888 or info@earth-life.co.uk.

KEW MIDSUMMER FETE

Make a note in your diary for a great family day out – on Saturday 18th June from 11am to 6pm Kew Green takes on a festival air with the Kew Midsummer Fete. There’ll be music and live events throughout the day, a variety of delicious food from local restaurants, plus a beer tent, a wine stall and a Pimm’s bar. Enjoy all the fun of the fairground with vintage rides, sideshows, 

a Bucking Bronco and a Ball Pond, as well as the Friendly Dog Show. With over 100 stalls, including a Crafts Marquee, there’ll be lots of shopping opportunities for the sort of things you can’t buy on high street – and great prizes to be won in the big Charity Raffle and the Lucky Dip.  

The Kew Midsummer Fete is run by local people for local people. Entry is free and all the fete profits will go to local charities – so roll up, roll up for a very good time in aid of very good causes. For more details log on to www.kewfete.org.

Meditation is a very safe practice that promotes a deep state of relaxation which is very beneficial to the body and mind. Meditation is all about living in the present moment, in a focused, concentrated and mindful way; the practise of meditation can quite quickly bring significant changes to how we feel emotionally and physically.

However for many people, getting started can seem daunting particularly as most feel that they have busy, ever chattering brains that are impossible to switch off.

The following short exercises are designed to get you started in a comfortable way, boost your confidence and provide you with insights into how you breathe and how to recognise your thoughts. Before you start these exercises, make sure that you are in a comfortable position with your spine straight and supported by the lower half of your body.

The Body Scan
Systematically focus on each muscle area of your body, starting with your scalp and continuing down your face to your forehead, temples, eyes, jaw, mouth.

Continue through to your neck and shoulders, upper, middle and lower back and now through your arms to your hands. Extend your focus through your chest, abdomen, pelvic area, thighs, knees, calves and feet. If you feel tension at any point during your scan take an easy, slow breath in and then as your breathe out visualise the muscles in the particular area relaxing and releasing tension.

Naming your thoughts
Meditation is all about letting go of our thoughts in order to focus on a given subject whilst being completely in the present. This exercise is therefore a useful one for us to start recognising, naming and letting thoughts go. For the next 5 minutes sit quietly and wait for your thoughts to occur; as they do so put a name or category to them (without judgement) – it could be as simple as “work”, “past “, “future”, “food” and then gently let them go and wait for the next thought . It is often illuminating and empowering to recognise your thoughts in this way.

Eating a Piece of Chocolate
Tasting a piece of dark chocolate (the highest % of cocoa that you can find) can be an intensely rewarding experience!

Take at least 5 minutes over this exercise. Start by closing your eyes and just smelling this small square of chocolate; be aware of sensations, even colour imagery. When you are ready, pop the chocolate in your mouth and let it slowly dissolve – try to avoid chewing. Be aware of the texture, the taste on the tip and back of your tongue, on the roof of your mouth and when you swallow. Even when you have finished this piece of chocolate, focus on the aftertaste in your mouth.

Awakening the Senses
The quickest way to relaxation is to be in the present. The easiest way to be in the present is by focusing on your senses: sight, sound, smell, taste or touch. To enhance your sense of well-being, try to consciously taste, smell, see, hear and touch more every day. Learn to increase those small moments of sensory sensations.

Put your full focus into this, keeping thoughts and distractions in the background.

To book Karen Young's Meditation workshop on Saturday 2nd July, please contact us on 020 8940 0888 or info@earth-life.co.uk.

Structural Integration consists of a 12 session protocol of deep and slow myofascial manipulation, coupled with movement reeducation focused on unwinding the strain patterns residing in your body. The intention of the 12-Series is to initiate change, for the better, in your posture, movement, function, flexibility, adaptability and energy levels.

Good structure mean a body that works efficiently, moves with grace and ease, stands tall, upright and is open and relaxed.

The body’s adaptability, movement, shape and posture is governed by the soft tissue. All of our muscles, organs, nerves, tendons, ligaments and blood vessels are ensheathed or made up of fascia. When it is healthy it is pliable and elastic.

However, our bodies encounter many stresses: playing sports; sitting at a desk; driving; injuries; exercising; surgery and even your emotions can create strain. We are shaped by our experiences and habits. These become integrated into the very fabric of our bodies, held below our conscious awareness.
The effect of stress within the layers of connective tissue is like a pull in a knitted sweater.

A tug affects the whole fabric as the connective tissue shortens and thickens. This significantly effects how our muscles and joints function and we experience pain, tightness, weakness, diminished movement, fatigue or emotional stress. We literally feel this as being out of balance within our bodies.

The Structural Integration approach is to free the bound and shortened fascial tissues and to reeducate and reintegrate your movement patterns to hold a more efficient, balanced and natural position. Each session has a specific focus on a particular fascial line/area of the body and progressively works to free restrictions and improve your posture. You will be asked to move in specific ways and to walk and stand during the session to facilitate the opening and realignment of tissues and to help you integrate any changes you feel.

A Structural Integration Series is able to create ongoing changes for a long time after the initial 12 sessions and there is further improvement in posture a year or more after. Many clients do choose to come back for ‘post-Series’ work on a particular issue or for a tune-up, or a mini-series following an injury or a stressful time.

The Goals of Structural Integration are:

•    Improvement in body and
     movement awareness
•    Chronic aches and pains are
     relieved or resolved
•    Increased range, ease,
     efficiency and strength of   
     movement as parasitic tension
     and compensations throughout
     the body are reduced
•    Increased ease and space in
     the body and its movement
•    Improved posture
•    Improvement in stability and
     balance
•    Enhanced physical
     performance
•    Greater physical and mental
     energy
•    Emotional integration and
     better able to handle mental
     stress.
•    Old attitudes that were held
     and encouraged by stuck body
     patterns becomes easier to
     recognise and release.

To book in for this treatment or for more information, please contact Earthlife on 020 8940 0888 or info@earth-life.co.uk.