**edit: Thursday 6 February now FULLY BOOKED! Some places remaining for 27 February.**
Thanks to a grant from the Northern Ireland Museums Council and to the continuing support of the local Alzheimer’s Society, Armagh Robinson Library and No 5 Vicars’ Hill are able to build on its outreach to those living with dementia and their carers.
The Library is keen to encourage people living with dementia and their carers to visit both buildings again and again, for planned activities and for individual visits. Aware that there will shortly be a new Dementia NI Empowerment Group in Armagh, we would like their members to learn about us and to know that we are safe and welcoming places.
The Library’s team wishes to promote Dementia Friendly Yoga to those living with dementia and their carers. It will be offered on Thursday 6 February 2020 in No 5 Vicars’ Hill and on Thursday 27 February 2020 in the Library’s Long Room, both running from 11.00am – 12.30pm, which will include light refreshments.
Local yoga teacher, Karen Wasson of ‘And Breathe NI’, has been engaged to carry out both chair yoga sessions. Speaking ahead of the events, Karen said, “Chair yoga provides safe accessibility to exercise for people living with physical and cognitive change, helping to promote connection, relaxation and understanding. It is exciting to be back teaching in such a beautiful and cultural venue as Armagh Robinson Library ‘the healing place of the soul’ and No 5 Vicars’ Hill, which provide a calming and grounding environment to practise yoga.”
Chair yoga will be a new activity in the life of the Library and No 5. It will follow on from the ‘Late Shift Museum’ event of gentle yoga, mindfulness and relaxation which Karen gave last year in the Library. In addition, ArKe Sure Start has run reflexology sessions for babies in the Library’s Long Room, and the atmosphere added greatly to the babies’ and parents’ experience. We would wish to offer chair yoga for those living with dementia and/or their carers as an extension to this sense of well-being which the Library and No 5 offer.
