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On Saturday 16th November, City Arts teamed up with OSCAR Nottingham to deliver a day of arts and well-being activity for their new project: Wellbeing and Health for You (WHY).
The aim of OSCAR’s WHY project is to engage and inspire Nottingham families with health issues to improve their quality of life through education, motivation and understanding. The idea is that communities are able to become healthier by taking steps towards preventing serious illness.
“My spirit has been brightened. Stimulating, invigorating, fun.”
On the day we ran two engaging workshops, with 39 people in attendance.
In the morning Isabel Jones, Director of Salamanda Tandem and the Co-Director of Movement 4 Health, led a very relaxing session exploring movement and body awareness. She spoke about the effect breathing can have on our health and demonstrated patterns of breathing that can aid relaxation. Afterwards, she taught the group a series of yoga techniques and simple stretches leaving everyone looking very content and relaxed.
Biant Singh led the afternoon session which looked at how drumming, particularly drumming in groups, can have a positive effect on well-being. Evidence shows that drumming triggers the release of endorphins which energise the mind and body, and bring about feelings of wellbeing. Using Djembes and Tablas, Biant encouraged participants to find a voice for their drum and taught them a selection of simple rhythms.
“Very energetic and enjoyable, made my heart beat a bit faster”
Biant’s session certainly put a smile on people’s faces. It was great to see people of all ages working together, at the end of the workshop participants were invigorated, energetic and happy!
Kate Duncan, from City Arts, said of the day:
“It was a pleasure to organise the workshops in partnership with OSCAR Nottingham. OSCAR is a warm and caring organisation, with a real passion for advocating for wellbeing and raising awareness to improve the quality of life through this programme. Biant and Isabel revealed their wealth of expertise and passion for their work through their facilitation approaches. Both practitioners created a sense of wellbeing throughout the session, enabling people to have their say during the session and offered a philosophy for wellbeing that participants could take away with them to use in their daily lives.”