Greetings to our fantastic followers, students and family of Arthur Murray UK. From all of us here in the London studios, we hope this message finds you and your families safe and well in these challenging times.
As you know we have taken the decision to close our Arthur Murray UK, London Studios (until further notice) following the Government advice which is vehemently encouraging people to practice social distancing. We made this decision in order to place the health interests of our team, our students and the wider community at the forefront of our strategy to inhibit the spread of Corona Virus as much as we could.
Because of this, we wanted to say a huge thank you to the many students who have been in touch to offer support and wish us all the best as we embark on our new format of online teaching.
It has genuinely never been more important to stay fit and healthy as we all experience this time of self isolation and because we know this, our teams have been working hard to provide you with a variety of at home tuition aids which will help you to keep dancing. This will not only continue to keep you physically fit and healthy, but it will support a positive state of mental well-being and reduce any additional anxiety and stress.
As well as the online personal and group lessons packages available for you, we will also be filling our communications and social media with lots of exciting new ideas for keeping physically and emotionally fit, with a host of additional resources for you! With this in mind, one of our very own students from the former Barnet Arthur Murray branch has offered our community some valuable words of wisdom.
From her position as a professional counsellor/psychotherapist and coach, Anita has kindly extended to us some excellent advice on how to stay positive and counteract anxiety during these uncertain times.
“If you are feeling anxious in this time of uncertainty, this is something that could help you. Say this Hawaiian prayer called Ho’oponopono:
“I love you. I’m sorry. Please forgive me. Thank you. I love you”
Say the prayer out loud but if you can’t, say it in your head. At the same time you could tap both the inside of your wrists together (but it’s not a necessity). As you say it you will realise that the prayer contains the words; Love, Forgiveness and Gratitude which are extremely powerful feelings. This is for you to say to yourself. It helps if you say it over and over whenever you can. It’s remembering to say it that can be a problem. Even for me when it comes to settling my nerves at the Arthur Murray Barnet Spotlight events. But when I do put this into practice, I find it works with any feeling/emotion to focus and calm anxiety.
There is another way that I found useful to calm nerves during this time of uncertainty and that’s to acknowledge the anxiety. Ask yourself how you want to feel (possibly calm and happy but whatever it is for you). I felt anxious and then started moving my whole body as I felt the anxiety. For me; walking back and forth, a bit like a caged lion with no purpose and not knowing what to do. Your movement might be different, it’s not important, but moving your feet and body is. Then I turned it into a dance and started to feel a sense of where I was going. Then I turned the dance into where I wanted to be: Calm and happy. The dance changed and I found myself using steps I’d learnt at the Studio, just automatically (you may not…that’s not important). It really helped and then I moved calmly back into my life and just got stuck in to all that I could do. I did this in a fairly small space so you don’t need a big room.
After honouring where you are, look forward and see yourselves back at the Studio dancing and smiling and happy. Notice how you feel and step into that picture and enjoy the feeling it gives you.”
For more information or to seek further advice from Anita, check out her website at: Www.anitajackson.co.uk
As Anita said, picturing ourselves back in our ‘happy places’ our ‘dancing places’ and back within our Arthur Murray families are wonderful visualisation techniques to counteract feelings of worry and anxiety, as we face these strange and uncertain days. The brilliant other techniques she relaid like tapping and positive affirmations are terrific additions to your dance medicine and we from your Arthur Murray Family want to encourage you to do everything you can to maintain your positive states of mind.
We will get through this together and with the continued support of all of us in this sensationally positive Arthur Murray UK community, we will all, not only get through, but thrive in this time of self isolation.
If you haven’t already, contact us directly on: 07483 112009 to book your Complimentary 20 minute online personal lesson and let’s get your virtual dancing journey underway!