A pair of local musicians will help kick off the fifth season of Heppners Music in the Park summer concert series.

Frazer Wambeke and Luke Basile will perform Sunday from 5-7 p.m. at Heppner City Park, 444 N. Main St. There is no admission charge. People are encouraged to bring a blanket or lawn chair and enjoy a relaxing evening listening to music. In addition, pulled pork sandwiches with all the trimmings will be available by donation to the Shared Ministrys well-building efforts through Living Water International.

The monthly series also features Bram Brata (July 9), Elwood (Aug. 13) and Eric Jepsen and John Wambeke (Sept. 10). In case of inclement weather, the concerts will be held at Heppner Elementary School, 235 E. Stansbury St.

For more information, contact the Heppner Chamber of Commerce at 541-676-5536 or heppnerchamber@centurytel.net.

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Wambeke, Basile to perform in Heppner - Hermiston Herald

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Is today going to be another day filled with little annoyances? Not if we can help. Here are some expert-approved tips to decompress.

I take a walk in the Botanical Gardens, said Robert Bilder, a professor of psychiatry at the Semel Institute and director of the Tennenbaum Center for the Biology of Creativity in the Semel Institute at UCLA. One of the most important tips is to unplug and get away from the constant tyranny of email, messaging, Twitter feeds, and the other ubiquitous stimuli that tend to take over our plans for action.

I try to go out to lunch everyday to get myself out of my office and let someone take care of me (food is cooked for me, cleaned up for me, etc.). It's a break from taking care of others, said Ann Kearney-Cooke, a psychologist at the Cincinnati Psychotherapy Institute.

I find it easy and convenient to self-massage acupressure points classically used to ease stress and promote relaxation. These are easy to reach on my hands and my wrists, said Dr. Lawrence Taw, assistant clinical professor UCLA Center for East-West Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.

I pause and think of a few people who love me and trust my intentions, said Dr. Amit Sood, a professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic. I send silent good wishes to the person in front of me.

Stop, drop and do yoga! Even just a pose or two can help to calm the mind and recharge your batteries. Try Tree Pose standing by your desk, or a twist sitting in your chair, said Rachel Brathen, aka "Yoga Girl" and author of the new book Yoga Girl.

I use mood food to turn my mood around in the very short time, said Frank Farley, a professor of psychology at Temple University.

I listen to Mozart (elegant, beautifully structured, relaxing), said William Fullard, professor emeritus of psychology at Temple University.

I meditate, said Sood. I cultivate habits that relax the mind for example, when I wake up, I think about five people I am grateful for before I start my day.

Know that life is not as serious as your mind makes it out to be. There are a lot of beautiful things around you. When you feel stress creeping up, focus on them, said Brathen.

When I get home from work I have created my own ritual of transition, said Kearney-Cooke. As soon as I get home I change into more comfortable clothes, turn on jazz or classical music and after eating dinner, engage in some type of movement (exercising, dancing, etc) or connecting with others in a casual way.

TV and some online activities can often be very relaxing, said Farley.

I connect each day with my adult children and husband and close friends and the closeness with them is fulfilling and often shifts my energy after a tough day, said Kearney-Cook.

When things get super busy and you feel like you have a hard time keeping up stop. Close your eyes. Take five, very slow, very deep breaths. Focus where you are in this moment. Then get back to work, said Brathen.

Surround yourself with role models who inspire you by their words and actions, said Sood.

I reboot on a weekly basis by volunteering at my church where I serve as a childrens Sunday school teacher. This is a way to take the focus off myself and direct it towards others, said Taw.

Commit to finding happiness through kindness, said Sood.

Take a dance break (yes!), go for a walk outside, hug your dogs. Come back to light and love, said "Yoga Girl" Brathen.

This post was originally published in May 2015

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17 exceptionally easy ways to relax from people who know how to chill - Today.com

How do you react to stress?Do you tend to become angry or agitated? You may respond best to relaxation techniques that quiet you down, such as meditation, deep breathing or imaginary.

Do you tend to become depressed, withdrawn or spaced out? You may respond best to relaxation techniques that are stimulating and that energise your nervous system, such as rhythmic exercise. Do you tend to freeze speeding up internally, while slowing down externally? Your challenge is toidentify relaxation techniques that provide both safety and stimulation to help you rebootyour body system. Take up activities, which make you busy like a morning walk, yoga, meditation.

Arm yourself with healthy snacks:

According to an American Psychological Association (APA) survey, more women than men (one in three)turn to comfort food such as ice-cream and cookies to ease stress. Its common for women to denythemselves favourite foods because theyre trying to lose weight. But under stress, the urge for thembecomes even stronger.In fact, researchers at Montcalm State University in New Jersey recentlyconfirmed that dieters are more likely than non-dieters to overeat when under pressure, binge on thevery same high-fat foods they normally try to avoid. The key is to not deprive yourself. Keep three orfour healthy snacks on hand that you know youll probably wantpeanuts, if you like salty; string cheese,

Speak S-L- O-W- L-Y, not that you annoy everyone by completely altering the rate at which youspeak. But if you learn to pace yourself and think what you say, youll trick your mind into a calmermood.

Stop watching the clock:

Were constantly reminded of how we are used to see the clock when there is no time left. This fuels frustration and we put ourselves under pressure to make deadlines for our work. Try to finishyour work the day you get it and limit the number of clocks in your home.

Prank It out:

Laughter is an instant cure for stress. We all know this, but we often fail to take advantage of it. Theres no limit to how much fun you can have, and people dont have enough! No ones watching and waiting to criticise you for laughing too much. So buy some water balloons. Play a prank on the kids.Inject some innocent immaturity into your family life. Its healthy.

Engage your mind:

Most people stop learning and reading after college. Mental health and longevity studies consistentlyshow that humans who engage their minds with activities like puzzles, reading, art, travel, new hobbies,and languages are happier, healthier, and live longer and are in fact away from stress and depression

.This is your one, precious life make the most of it! It doesnt matter if youre a lousy painter or canbarely catch the ball. If you like it, do it.

Be present:

Slow Down.Take 5 minutes and focus on only one behavior with awareness . Notice how the air feelson your face when youre walking and how your feet feel hitting the ground. Enjoy the texture and tasteof each bite of food. When you spend time in the moment and focus on your senses, you feel less tense.

Listen to Your Favorite Music:

This is something that works its magic almost every time it is put to use. All thats required is assemblingyour favourite music so that you can play it any time you feel stressed. Choose songs that help you torelax rather than those that get you pumped up. Many people find that separating their music basedon what they need it for works best. You can have a pre-workout list of songs at the ready -a stress buster list for at work when you still need to be alert, and relaxing list of songs for when you gethome and can chill out.

Stress is not something you banish from your life once, and youve slayed the dragon for good. It canrear its ugly head at any time. Do your best to make much of thislist a part of your life and youll find that you stress less and less.

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Seven simple stress relievers for good health - The Statesman

Martin Husling | Fred Marvaux/European Union

Martin Husling wants the European Commission to preserve an expansive definition of organics.

By Emmet Livingstone

6/6/17, 1:05 PM CET

Updated 6/6/17, 10:28 PM CET

One of sustainable farmings old warhorses spent the better part of the lastthree years fighting to keep pesticides in organic produce.

German Green MEP Martin Husling, 56, leads the European Parliaments negotiating team in a legislative battle over the very identity of what it means to be organic.Years of grueling talks over that hotly disputed organics dossier nearly collapsed last week.

Huslings unwavering vision for the future of organic food, and his unwillingness to compromise, has likely sealed the fate of abortive legislative reform.

The debate hinges on a popular misconception about what organicreally means. Producers who use the label profit handsomely from consumers who think it means chemical-free.Thats not what the label actually mandates in the EU.

For organic farmers likeHusling and under European law the label means a series of standards and practices resulting in amore sustainable method of agricultural production.Organic products frequently contain pesticide residues.

The European Commission wants to change that with a plan to bring the industry in line with what consumers really think organic food is and limit pesticide residues.

In response, Husling said that any measure limiting pesticide levels in organic products would hamstring green-minded farmers and ultimately prove harmful to the environment. Reducing organic to a production without pesticides thats only one part of organic, Husling said. What angers me is the fact that the Commission just picked this one criterion and made it the decisive one.

Huslings opposition to the Commission has pushed the talks to the brink of collapse.

The Maltese presidency of the Council of the European Union canceled the latest negotiating round, scheduled for last Wednesday, after a majority ofgovernments rejected a proposed compromise.

Husling said last week that the reforms would fail if they are not wrapped up by the end of the month.I dont see any other possibility with us carrying on with this [afterward], he said.

If the talks do collapse, few in the organic farm industry will complain. Jan Plagge, the president of Germanys largest organic association Bioland, said that German farmers in fact routinely criticizeHusling for not fightingthe Commission hard enough.

When Husling took up the mandate, the expectation was for him stopthe process, he said.

Europes ravenous appetite fororganic food isonly abouta decadeold. Themarket nearly tripledbetween 2005 and 2015, jumpingfrom a 12-billion-a-year industry to one worth some 30 billionannually.

Brussels introducedits first tranche ofrules in 2008,but the industrys meteoric risesent policymakersback to the drawing board. Fearing the regulations were unfit for the exploding industry and fraudsters could exploit gaps, the Commission floated a change in 2014 intended to preventa massive loss of consumer trust in the sector.

Everyone agreed that several issues needed fixing, and fast. For example, the EU acceptsorganic imports from countries with vastly different rules, such as the U.S. or India, and leaves quality checks up to foreign authorities a set-up ripe for scandal.

Things got complicated when Brussels proposed controls in Europe that wouldbring organic labeling into line with what consumers cameto believe it stood for.Wehave to defend the integrity of the organic label, European Commissioner for Agriculture Phil Hogan told POLITICO last year.

The Commissions more contentiousproposals include annual controls on organic farms, forcing organic crops to be grown using onlyorganic seeds (of which there is a shortage) and most controversially decertifying products containingpesticide traces abovea certain limit.

Mainstream organic producers bridled. They had only justgrown accustomed to EU regulation, and now Brussels was proposing a fundamental rethink likely to raise theiroverheads.

The big message is that we didnt ask for this reform, said Christopher Atkinson, the head of standards at U.K. organic certifier the Soil Association. Rather than simply tightening up legislative sloppiness, what Brussels was proposing threatened to be disruptive to organic food and farming in the EU, he added.

Huslingsplace at the center of the debate gave him what will likely be the greatest political influence he will ever yield.

He is a soft-spoken, unassuming and rumpled farmer from rural Germany. His mop of untidy silver hair and collection of somber blazers project a professorial air.

Born in Hesse, he said that he was politicized when he entered local politics in 1981 for the German Green party, convinced that energy and environmental policyneeded radical change long before greenissues became as mainstream as they are today.

He took over his parents farm and, determined to make his personal lifestyle match his politics, converted it to organic in 1988. Im an organic farmer of the first guard, he said. There werent even 20 organic farmers in all of Hesse. Organic farming was a total niche.

Kellerwaldhof, Huslings farm,is a picturesque placenestled near woodlands. It boasts cows, pigs and even Shetland ponies though the lions share of revenue comes from organic cheese and milk production. Most of its power is supplied bywood or solar energy.

Husling, who was elected to Parliament in 2009, said his son and his sons girlfriend now run the farm, while his wife is still deeply involved in its day-to-day business.

ForHusling and the majority of farmers in the industry organic farming is less about protecting the consumer than preserving the planet.

If you look at where a lot of environmental problems stem from, the root cause is often agriculture Martin Husling

If you look at where a lot of environmental problems stem from, the root cause is often agriculture, said Husling, pointing out that modern agriculture produces much of the worlds greenhouse gas emissions. Converting to organic will help safeguard water, soil and other natural resources a lot, he added.

The Commissions proposal to limit pesticide levels on organic produce would cripple the industry, he said. Though organic farms face strict limits on what chemicals they can use they often sit next to conventional plots, meaning traces of pesticides are impossible to prevent.

If I didwhat theCommission proposed, then Id put all the costs onto the sector thatdoesnt really use chemicals, hesaid. Thats a distortion and an unfairness thatwill pushthe organic industryback into a niche.

Powerful countries such as Germany vehemently opposed the Commissions pesticides plan.Others such as Italy are deeply committedto it. Parliament, meanwhile, underHusling, declared pesticide limits to bean undebatable red line.

The Commissionsaid in December 2014 thatif negotiators did not reach agreementwithin six months it would withdraw the proposal. And yet the talks trundled along, longer than any other legislative negotiation in recent memory, eclipsing even the length of 2013 talks to reform the EUsbyzantineCommon Agricultural Policy.

The impasse, said Soil Associations Christopher Atkinson, came down to incompatible definitions of organic.Its like trying to reach a compromise between deciding whether you drive on the left-hand side of the road or the right-hand side of the road, he said.

Many blameHusling for the gridlock, with several sources saying his inexperience and strong convictions have tried patience and slowed progress to a halt.

I have never been involved in anything as shambolic Julie Girling, Conservative MEP

Its very bad form as a fellow MEP to criticize him, but I find it quite hard not to, said Julie Girling, a Conservative MEP and one of Huslings so-called shadows from another parliamentary group, who is now calling for the reform to be scrapped. I have never been involved in anything as shambolic.

Tim Heddema, a Dutch diplomat who participated in the talks, saidHusling was woefully underprepared forthe largely technical talks. He added that Husling is notoriously difficult to meet in person, which contributes to the huge delays.

When Heddemadid manage to sitdown withHuslings team,Heddema said that they wouldwaste time with philosophical discussions about the nature of organic food rather than delving into nitty-gritty legislative details but then turn around and challengeminor pointsduring the talks.

Parliament made every detail political, he said. There wasnt much love lost.

Husling pushed backat suggestions that he was lax about putting innegotiating legwork, though he allowed thattime constraints and fewer staff at the European Parliament made it impossibleto meet everyone.

Othersources who spoke to POLITICO on condition of anonymity said everyone was exhausted and fed up with the file. Anothersaid thatHusling and his small staff worked ridiculous hours on the dossier.

All the negotiators, including Husling, areadamant that they do want to arrive at a solution, however unlikely one is. But increasingly, industry veterans and policymakers say the organic talks will slide into oblivion, leaving existing rules that open organics to fraud in place.

Jakob Hanke contributed reporting.

Link:

The German Green who fights to keep pesticides in your organic food - POLITICO.eu

Hallie Miller, WUSA 2:17 PM. EDT June 06, 2017

Free range chickens (Photo: Jupiterimages, Getty Images)

More aisles, more choices and more unfamiliar terminology: grocery stores housing organic foods may appear more foreign and confusing than ever before.

Eliminate the stress and confusion that accompanies the weekly voyage with this simple guide to all things organic!

The pros and cons

The term 'organic' generally refers to the way farmers grow, produce and process food. Typically lower in artificial chemicals, fertilizers, hormones and bioengineered genes (GMOs), organic crops tend to cost more. The same goes for conventional meat, poultry, dairy and eggs: while the animals tend to enjoy more access to the outdoors, healthier feed and little-to-no hormone or antibiotic treatment, the products tend to sell for higher than their non-organic counterparts.

Evidence also exists that indicates organic foods may taste fresher than non-organic since they do not contain the same preservatives designed to make them last longer. Yet, by the same logic, organic products may spoil quicker.

A 'good egg?'

From 'cage free' to 'all natural,' the typical egg aisle boasts a breadth of options. However, these jargon-laden termsoften misrepresent true hen-raising practices. Cartons with the 'Certified Humane' seal tend to abide by the highest egg-production standards.

Self-sustaining practices

Since organic farms cannot use standard fertilizers, pesticides, antibiotics or genetic modifications, instead they rely on plant-based soil enhancers, frequent field rotation, insect traps, natural pesticides and healthier living conditions for animals. The added labor and resources help to explain why organic products prove more expensive.

Beware of the "halo effect"

Organic foods do not necessarily improve health or contribute to a diet. Organic products (or those made with organic ingredients) may still contain high counts in calories, sugars, carbohydrates and unhealthy fats. Likewise, food labeled as 'all-natural' or 'farm fresh' may not derive from organic farms or originate via humane practices.

Want more articles like this? Follow Great Day Washington on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram for more! Watch everyday at 9am on WUSA9.

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The essentials of organic food shopping - W*USA 9

I first triedmeditationin my office about three years ago, when a group of colleagues met in a conference room for a quick guided session.

I remember that firstsimple meditationso well:After about 10 minutes of sitting with my eyes closed, in a circle of plastic chairs, I felt like Id been in a spa for hours. My mind was quiet and my body moved slowly. I walked back to my desk bleary-eyed and relaxed, like I had just consumed a glass of wine.

What was this, magic? I was hooked.

Meditation, in its simplest form, is the practice ofobserving your breath. It canreshape behavior, change brain compositionand permanently boost your ability to regulate emotions. Studies have also shown meditationreduces inflammation in the brain, thus lowering your risk for cancer and other diseases. Additionally, itsets you up to feel awe, relieves pain and protects the brain from aging. Meditation can help withanxiety, depression, insomnia and fatigue.Its no wonder the humble practice has grown into a billion-dollar industry.

Despite the benefits, I hadnt continued to meditate on my own outside of those office sessions. So I decided to try it out for a month. I set a modest goal to meditate for five minutes, three times per day.

I failed miserably. On average, Id say I meditated for five minutes only once per day. But I still noticed results. Theyre by no means scientific and just my personal experience. However, if I feel that Ive changed this much from a relatively small dose of meditation, then just imagine what a consistent practicecould accomplish.

Heres how my month of meditation made a mark on my life:

Since starting my meditation experiment, it feels like my brain works more slowly and rationally. This becomes most apparent when Im speaking. You know how podcast hosts soothingly enunciate every word and outline their thoughts deliberately? Thats how I talk now.

It also helped me stay more aware in the moment. I used to struggle with staying focused in conversations. While my mouth moved, my brain would wander to my to-do list or fall into cyclical thoughts about upcoming plans. Since learning to live in the present with meditation, those issues dont crop up as often.

Experts say meditation canhelp you become more self-aware of your thoughts as they come, which Ive found to be true. I feel like I inherently know whats important to me and what I should focus on in a given moment or conversation. And Im better at letting those other random thoughts go.

Suzy Strutner

Situations that used to make my face burn with anxiety (traffic jams, tightly-packed elevators and time crunches, just to name a few) dont fluster me as much since I started meditating. Without even needing to remind myself, I feel my attention drift toward my breath and it becomes an anchor that keeps me calm until the frustrating event ends.

Yes, Im aware this sounds like mindfulness mumbo-jumbo, and I wouldnt have believed it could happen a mere month ago. But it has. And its backed by science: Research hascontinually shownthat mindfulness can ease stress.

Now that I know meditation improves my mental state, Im hyper-interested in any activity that can spark that feeling. Yogais one of those practices.

I find it easier to stay focused in a yoga class than when Im meditating alone, because its guided and other people are there to keep me on task. Its longer than a typical five-minute meditation session, so my brain feels calmer afterward. I can also write it off as my workout for the day: Research shows it certainly is a healthy form of physical activity. Win, win, win.

Suzy Strutner

Ive learned that taking time to just be is not only permissible, its necessary if I want to feel my best. I dont need to constantly be doing something, going somewhere or achieving some goal in order to feel like Im spending my time wisely.

Sometimes its hard for me to believe that five minutes of forgetting about my to-do list is more productive than five minutes of working on it. But after I take a meditation break, the tasks simply dont feel as urgent or stressful anymore. Ive realized that just being is an okay place to be.

Those five minutes are a small investment that pays off in big ways.

More here:

I Meditated Every Day For A Month And Here's What Happened - HuffPost

In our next installment of the Meditation How-Tos marriage advice series, the Kundalini guide behind Benshen , Desiree Pais, gives you the step-by-step methods you need to practice to stay focused and calm before, during, and after you tie the knot.

A woman is really only as happy as her hormones are balanced. Hormones, the chemical messengers of our bodies, are what keep us looking and feeling beautiful, vibrant, and healthy. They govern everything from how clear our skin is to how toned our body is to how well we sleep at night. Unfortunately, one of the quickest ways to throw our hormones off is stress and, for many, planning a wedding is not exactly a walk in the park.

As I mentioned in our first article of this series, meditation is a simple and powerful way to not only de-stress, but to also bring your body and mind back into balance. Personally, after trying many different flavors of meditation, I have found Kundalini yoga and meditation to be extremely effective. And trust me, the last thing you want to worry about when planning a wedding is hormonal imbalance ( breakouts , bloat, tired eyes) when your main goal is to look and feel your absolute best on one of the most memorable days of your life.

One of my favorite Kundalini yoga meditations is a very easy practice called Kirtan Kriya . Its simple and only takes 11 minutes a day of practice to experience profound results. Dont be fooled by its simplicitythe benefits are numerous and include reducing stress, improving sleep, balancing pituitary and pineal glands (master glands for hormones, meaning it balances your hormones), helping to break addictions and cravings, and, most importantly for long term, it keeps your brain functioning optimally.

See more: How to Stay Present with a Kundalini Guide

This meditation uses a mantra but dont be weirded out! Broken down, "mantra" comes from man, which means "mind," and trang, which means projection. It's just using sound to direct your mind into a positive direction. The mantra used in the meditation, Sa Ta Na Ma, uses the basic primal sounds which act like an atomic bomb in your subconscious mind, breaking up old patterns and creating the space for new positive patterns to develop.

Kirtan Kriya is a gem of a meditation and is a powerful tool to help you feel your absolute best on your wedding day.

How To Do Kirtan Kriya

Find a comfortable seat.

Close your eyes and roll them to the space in between your eyebrows.

The mantra is Sa Ta Na Ma (the A sounds like when you open your mouth and say AH).

On the sound SA: touch your index finger and thumb together.

On the sound TA: touch your middle finger and thumb together.

On the sound NA: touch your ring finger and thumb together.

On the sound MA: touch your pinky finger and thumb together.

Begin in a normal voice for two minutes, then whisper for two minutes, then silently for three minutes. Then come back to a whisper for two minutes, then aloud for two minutes.

To end: inhale deeply, and exhale.

For ease, you can practice this meditation along with this video !

Desiree Pais is a meditation and Kundalini yoga guide, and a natural beauty alchemist. She is currently pursuing a master's degree at Pacific College of Oriental Medicine and studied Daoist Healing with Grandmaster Sung Baek. She teaches Kundalini yoga and meditation classes and workshops around New York City. She aims to make these ancient methods available to anyone who is interested in using this profound practice to create the life they want to experience.

Continued here:

Meditation How-Tos with a Kundalini Guide - Brides.com

Hugh Jackman's secret to his long-lasting relationship with Deborra-Lee Furness is meditation.

The 'Logan' star believes mediating with his wife and their friends helps keep their romance strong.

Asked what makes their relationship work, Hugh said: "Meditation!"

Whilst Deborra-Lee added to People magazine: "We meditate together. And sometimes we have friends over to do it, too. It's a lovely Sunday-morning thing. Everyone comes over, and then we have breakfast."

Meanwhile, the 48-year-old actor previously praised his wife, calling her "the greatest thing" that has ever happened to him.

He said: "It gets better and better, I can honestly say that. She's the greatest thing that ever happened to me. She was the star and I had this major crush on her. Everyone did. The whole crew had a crush on her and I was so embarrassed by that, I didn't talk to her for about a week.

"I had a dinner party and I invited her over and about 20 other people. And she said, 'What's a matter, have I annoyed you? You're not talking to me anymore. What have I done wrong?' and I said - I'd had a couple - and I said 'oh look, I've got a crush on you, I'll get over it.' And she went, 'Oh really,' " and I was like, 'Oh, this is bad.' And she goes, 'Yeah, I got one on you. too.' And I'm like, 'Oh, great!' So that was it.'"

And Hugh previously quipped his slogan in life is "happy wife, happy life".

Asked if he has a slogan he lives by, he said: "Have a go. The other one, the most important one, is drummed into me every day. Happy wife, happy life. That's the slogan. We're about to celebrate our 20th."

Continue reading here:

Hugh Jackman: Meditation is the secret to my successful relationship - Salamanca Press

PEOPLE.com

Kerry Washington's Go-to Pregnancy Workout Was '70s-Style Water Aerobics: 'It's Harder Than You Think' PEOPLE.com Kerry Washington swore by pool workouts when it came to staying in shape throughout her pregnancies. The mom to daughter Isabelle, 3, and son Caleb, 8 months, said on The Ellen DeGeneres Show that she loved doing 70s-style water aerobics with the ... Kerry Washington Did Water Aerobics When She Was Pregnant: It's ...E! Online Kerry Washington Did Prenatal Water Aerobics | Celebrity Baby ScoopCelebrity Baby Scoop Kerry Washington gifts her parents on HER birthday | Daily Mail OnlineDaily Mail all 9 news articles »

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Kerry Washington's Go-to Pregnancy Workout Was '70s-Style Water Aerobics: 'It's Harder Than You Think' - PEOPLE.com

PUBLISHED: 17:55 06 June 2017 | UPDATED: 23:06 06 June 2017

Karen Bethell

Splash fitness instructor Kate Thomas (centre) puts Sidestrand Hall School students Tom, 18, and Tiarney, 17, through their paces. The Sheringham centre, which already runs sessions for young people with complex needs, is launching a new series of exercise classes for adults with autistic spectrum disorders. Photo: Karen Bethell

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With upbeat, low volume music, the stress-free sessions have been designed to take into account the challenges faced by people with autism or Aspergers syndrome.

Stephen Mews, who is general manager at the Weybourne Road centre, said that after the centre ran ASD training courses for gym and poolside staff, he was keen to hold classes for people who might find traditional, fast-paced, high volume sessions difficult.

After speaking to customers, we did feel there was a need in the north Norfolk area, he explained. Regular classes can definitely be off-putting for people with autism and Aspergers, so what we have tried to do is to design classes which are small, where people know what to expect, and which give people more time to follow directions.

Splash already runs regular studio-based sessions for students with complex needs from Sidestrand Hall School and Sheringham Woodfields School, where groups of teenagers and their teachers are put through their paces by trained instructors.

Those taking part in the new classes will be given a welcome pack with photographs and information about the class instructor and details about exercises.

Splash staff have also created traffic light-style flash cards, so that people with more severe communication problems will be able to let the instructor know if they are finding any aspect of the session too stressful or difficult.

A quiet room has also been set aside for those needing a break from sessions.

I think the training really highlighted for us that there are changes we need to make to classes in order for them to be successful for people who need something slightly different, Mr Mews said. We have designed them to be suitable for all abilities and hope that by doing this, we can help more people find a way in to fitness.

Autism-friendly classes for adults aged 18 and over will run weekly on Tuesdays between midday and 1pm from June 13. Fees are free for centre members or 3.50 for non-members. For more information, or to book, phone 01263 825675.

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New autism-friendly aerobics classes launched at Sheringham - Norfolk Eastern Daily Press