LGT Year in Review 2017

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LGT Christmas Party

We had a fabulous LGT Christmas Party this evening with 31 wonderful women joining in the festivities. Lots of delicious and healthy food as well as some lovely sweet treats. Thank you to all our very talented presenters who give their time and knowledge freely and to all of the participants who come along to the sessions to learn new skills, listen to stories and share a cup of tea and a chat afterwards. For those of you who were there tonight you will know that I am handing LGT back into the very capable hands of Anne Mckenzie who came up with the idea and started LGT 2 years ago, what a fabulous idea it was. It has been a fabulous 18 months facilitating the group, I have loved each and every session and learnt so much. Thank you to all of you for supporting LGT and giving it a real sense of community. xx Pamela

 
 
 

Bike Maintenance

Thank you to Clair for giving us such a comprehensive hands-on learning session at the Bicycle Maintenance session tonight. We learnt so many practical and useful tips and being able to perform the tasks on our own bikes reinforced the knowledge that Clair shared with us. It was amazing seeing how easy it is to get a wheel off, change the inner tube and get it back on the bike. Clair also prepared hand-outs for everyone with lots of useful information and also said YouTube has videos on just about anything you want to know about your bike. After the practical session was finished we were treated to a cup of tea with Clair's hazelnut torte - delicious!! Clair is definitely a lesbian of many talents.

Line Dancing

Yeehaa!! What a great turnout for beginners line dancing with our dynamic duo, Carol and Christine.  
We took over the car park doing steps to the front and steps to the back, drunken sailor step (I think a drink is needed to perfect that step), pointing and pivoting, clapping (for those who could coordinate hands and feet at the same time), knocking knees and wiggling.  
It was a lot of fun and entertained the people in the flats behind the carpark with one shout of encouragement.  
For those of you who missed out, we may be able to get lovely talented lesbian couple to give us an encore performance at the Christmas party.  
Thank you Christine and Carol for sharing one of your many talents with us and providing a lot of fun and laughter.

Mindfulness and Mental Health - 3 October 2017

Mindfulness is awareness that arises through paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, non-judgementally - Kabat-Zinn

We had another enjoyable and educational evening at LGT thanks to our wonderful Blue Mountains Women’s Health Centre Counsellor, Jenny Gill. 

Jenny began by explaining some of the science and physiology of the brain in a way that made it easy to understand that how we think impacts the way we feel.

We practised three types of mindfulness - two of them lead by Jenny in her quiet and peaceful voice and a third using an object from nature as our focus. All three methods demonstrated how easy it is practise mindfulness and the positive impact it has on how we feel in such a short time. 

It was joyful to tap into our inner child and really see natural objects with the wonder that children have at seeing, listening, feeling and experiencing something for the first time.

Jenny also gave us an art therapy exercise that really highlighted the positive impact mindfulness had on every one of us. Each woman in the room created a much more serene pictorial interpretation of how she felt at the end of the evening than the initial drawings. It really demonstrated, that although issues were still there, they no longer held the strong emotions and negative impact they had at the beginning of the evening. 

Some of us enjoy sharing the experience of mindfulness with others; some prefer solitude and nature to help them focus on the present moment. There is no right or wrong way to be mindful, but it was apparent that everyone could benefit from being mindful. 

Thank you, Jenny Gill for showing us how easy it is to be mindful and the positive effect it has on our psyche.

Start to Feel Less Stressed

Thank you, Gill for giving us an insight into mediation and dispute resolution. Listening to Gill explain how the mediation process works - it really is logical, however, people in the stressful situation of separating or conflict do not always act in a logical manner. This is where the role of an impartial, unbiased mediator can diffuse the emotion and allow each of the parties to be given an equal voice in a confidential, safe environment and begin the process of communicating with the intent to empower them to agree on a positive solution that works for them without the expense and added stress of courts and solicitors fees. 

A very important point that came through is that talking to a mediator as a FIRST point of call can save a lot of heartache and expense. A mediator is not going to give you legal advice, their role is to help you come up with a palatable solution to your situation. This can then be documented and registered with the courts as needed. In all situations that involve children, mediation is now mandatory, however, this often happens as a last step rather than the first step, sometimes after people have already spent thousands of dollars on court fees. 

We were also fortunate to have Nadia Messiha from Hills Family Lawyers come all the way from Castle Hill to answer our legal questions. 

If you have any questions, want more information or just want an initial chat about your situation or know someone who could benefit from mediation, contact Gill at Logical Mediation http://logicalmediation.com.au or her Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/logicalmediation/

French Stencil-Pochoir - 16 August

French Stencil-Pochoir. We had a wonderful night learning a new skill thanks to Nadège sharing her talent with us. This is a very interesting form of artwork, cutting away sections that will later form the detail, whilst leaving a framework. It is a many stepped process, and we were all very excited to lift off the stencil we had made to reveal our individual artworks. We were so engrossed in the process that we didn't have time for a cup of tea. I've included lots of photos as every artwork was so unique. Thank you Nadège for sharing your time and skill with us. I am sure we will be having another attempt at using this lovely method of creating art.