HealthyMindsHealthyBods

  Slightly annoyed at myself as I headed off to a meeting this morning only to find it was for tomorrow.  Not sure how I managed to put it into my diary on the wrong day!!! It's a gorgeous Monday morning.  Sun is shining brightly.  However it is still a little nippy.  This month seems to have flown by. This week - which ends with the start of April on Saturday - is going to be another busy one - both project wise and personal. I still have to get a couple of courses organised.  Two with job centres, both of whom said they had venues we could use and then told me that I had to arrange our own - which is very frustrating.  We also are trying to organise one with Haringey Well-Being Network, and they are dragging their feet a little.  It all adds to the stress. I have been promoting our Clissold Park walk online, and will be doing the same with the Highbury Fields one from the start of next week.  I am also finding places to drop off posters and...

  So, above is one of our fantastic promotional posters for our walk - there is another one with a fantastic tree picture created by Ros - but I am having trouble finding the JPG for it. The one above was created by Georg, and I am particularly pleased with it as it connects up with the two new walks we are going to be starting this year.  The orange surround actually is equal on all four sides, but this pic does not show that. One of the genius things about this one is the "green" figure is actually in the shape of Clissold Park itself, with the eyebrows being the two ponds and the nose being the river. The new walk starting in April has a red surround, and the figure is in the shape of Highbury Fields.  Clever!!!! We also have produced flyers - they have the same front as the poster but on the back are more details about HMHB and why we are walking.

  Above is the photo taken from our Clissold Park relaunch back in February 2023.  What a wonderful turn out we had and it felt very special. So why were we doing a relaunch?  Well, towards the end of last year we applied to the Walking and Cycling Fund from the London Mayor.  This was a three year plan to expand our walks in London.  We wanted to be the only project provider offering free health walks in multiple boroughs. To our excitement we managed to achieve the maximum grant we could get - which was amazing. Our application detailed our plans to: relaunch our weekly Thursday Clissold Park walk in February 2023- which is in partnership with Highbury Grange Medical Practice and Clissold Park User Group - this covering Islington and Hackney launch a new weekly Wednesday walk in Highbury Fields in April 2023 - in partnership with Islington Central Medical Centre and Better Gym - this covering Islington launch a new walk in Finsbury Park in July 2023 - we are l...

  One of the best things that we do is arrange outings and trips to various different places.  It is a highlight for me as not only do I get to visit some fantastic venues and experiences but I also have ten to twenty friends to talk to about it too. We have had some terrific afternoons so far at: Science Museum Natural History Museum Victoria and Albert Museum National Gallery Museum of London Docklands Museum Imperial War Museum English National Opera London Coliseum Theatres London Zoo Sky Garden Experience Islington Museum  - that is the one for the photo above And more.  It's been amazing.  Really really, cool.  The best thing is bringing people together from our different sessions - we have a course we do with organisations and projects, we have free exercise sessions, our amazing walks.  These social events are precious. I have to arrange two for April 2023.  We are already taking ten people to a comedy night on the 29th at the Pleasance Th...

  I am a little bunged up as I sit in the "office" - White Swan Wetherspoons Highbury.  Coffee is £1.45 and free refills all day.  Hopefully just a passing cold and nothing that's going to knock me out. This week is going to be taken up with the eight courses we are arranging to deliver over the next two to three months. They are: Kentish Town Job Centre - Apr/May  - still sorting dates (provisional done) and venue Kentish Town Job Centre - May/Jun  - still sorting dates (provisional done) and venue Finsbury Park Job Centre - Apr to May  - ORGANISED:  dates organised and venue organised Barnsbury Job Centre - Apr to May - still sorting dates (provisional done) and venue Single Homeless Project - May or June - still sorting dates and venue Stuart Low Trust - Apr to May - ORGANISED:  dates organised and venue organised Better Lives - Apr to May - ORGANISED:  dates organised and venue organised AGE UK:  April - ORGANISED:  dates organi...

15th March - 3:55pm It's the middle of March but I have just about finished the 40 page April issue of our Monthly Health Packs.  Only thing to add are a couple of photos and write-ups for two future HMHB events (a British Library visit on Friday 17th March, and a History/Health walk on Friday 31st March based around Elthorne Park in Islington. I started the packs back in 2020 when the Covid pandemic hit us.  It came to the first lockdown and we needed to decide how HMHB was going to react, and what we could do for the local community. There were plenty of organisations looking to get involved in food deliveries and medicine deliveries, but I wanted to do something different, to help people stay motivated and encouraged, especially knowing myself how depression and stress can overwhelm someone. I cam up with the idea of a weekly health pack - focusing on Mind-set, Nutrition, Exercise, and Health - the first issue being just 10 pages.  That became 14, then 16, up to 20, an...

  I will confess that the previous blog had not had an entry for around a year and a half.  Not because I did not want to, but I got out of the habit and then it just ran away from me. It was www.hmhb2016.blogspot.com So that is still available to look at for back history. However, I have been determined to start a new blog since the start of 2023 (you can see how long it has taken to get around to actually doing it!!!). So here we are. This blog is going to be talking about what I did that day (or the day before, depending on when I type the entry into it). I am not going to bother going into too much history here - you can see that on our website on our "About" page: www.hmhb2016.org.uk Do sign up for our blog to see how we are progressing.  2023 is going to be a busy year for Healthy Minds, Healthy Bods, and it would be terrific to have people following us, supporting us, and that gives us encouragement and focus.