BPNW'S Autumn Training and Workshop programme 2008

Wow! Is it really autumn so soon, it feels like spring was just a few weeks ago! We hope everyone had a fun summer whether you stayed at home or travelled further away.

The autumn programme is, we hope, a mix of old and new. We have responded to requests from service users and volunteers alike to include workshops that they wanted – if we missed one you were keen on, don’t worry, it will go in to the spring programme.

September is the launch of our fundraising programme and we’re looking to you to bring your imagination and enthusiasm to the workshops. We hope to look at how BPNW can have sustainable income generation projects which allow us to continue to do our day-to-day working, but also allow us to do some of the extraordinary projects that have been suggested both by service users and volunteers.

BPNW has long believed that those of us living with HIV fare better if we eat well, rest well, exercise well, and generally look after ourselves. We all know that feeling better about ourselves goes a long way to making sure we do all the things we ought to do to keep ourselves at our very best. Well, this October will launch our Health, Well-being, and Nutrition programme with some exciting workshops on food, nutrition, budgeting, as well as a whole range of ‘be good to yourself’ relaxation techniques.

November and we are in the midst of Keats’ “Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness”, the trees will be bare, the scent of autumn will be heavy in the air and what shall we do? Well, November is ‘Speaking Out’ month, the start of a season of workshops which look to encourage us to ask for the good things we deserve, teach some new skills to those of us who want to present workshops, talks or just feel more confident about ourselves.

December and we look to Celebrating Ourselves. The drama workshops will present over two days the work that they have been looking over the autumn and we shall be looking forward to ‘awards’ ceremonies for all those who have taken part in the workshops.

There are three volunteer courses running over the autumn, we expect all our volunteers regardless of how long you have been with us, to sign up for one of the 2-day workshops.

The drama workshops on Wednesday evenings will be a safe space to explore another way of expressing yourself.

Yoke will continue her fantastic programme of walking and Qigong on Wednesday mornings.  Qigong (or ch'i kung) refers to a wide variety of traditional “cultivation” practices that involve methods of accumulating, circulating, and working with Qi or energy within the body. Qigong is sometimes mistakenly said to always involve movement and/or regulated breathing; in fact, use of special methods of focusing on particular energy centers in and around the body are common in the 'higher level' or evolved forms of Qigong. Qigong is practiced for health maintenance purposes, as a therapeutic intervention, as a medical profession, a spiritual path and/or component of Chinese martial arts.
The 'qi' in 'qigong' means breath or gas in Chinese, and, by extension, 'life force', 'energy' or even 'cosmic breath'. 'Gong' means work applied to a discipline or the resultant level of skill, so 'qigong' is thus 'breath work' or 'energy work'. The term was coined in the twentieth-century and its currency, Ownby suggests, speaks of a cultural desire to separate 'cultivation' from 'superstition', to secularize and preserve valuable aspects of traditional Chinese practices.
Attitudes toward the scientific basis for qi gong vary markedly. Most Western medical practitioners and many practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine, as well as the Chinese government, view qigong as a set of breathing and movement exercises, with possible benefits to health through stress reduction and exercise. Others see qigong in more metaphysical terms, claiming that cosmic qi can be drawn into the body and circulated through channels (aka meridians). (Wikipedia 2008)

Positive Self Management groups continue over the autumn as do many other workshops.

If you want more details on any of the above or on any of the workshops, please contact Emma on:  info@bpnw.org.uk