When a stranger asks what we stand for, we at Body & Soul sometimes find it hard to quantify. We stand for love, compassion, hope, trust and empathy.

All of these things are hard to quantify because to feel them, to have them for another human being, means to have them wholly, without exception or restraint.

What I mean is, you can’t measure how much love you give or receive, you can’t measure how much hope you have, because to have love, or to have hope, you must have it endlessly – no caveats, no restraints. There is no degree of love or hope. We are either hopeful – full of hope, or hopeless – without hope. There’s no middle ground. And M knew that.

A few months ago, after a long Saturday morning deep in thought, M told me that he’d realised what Body & Soul was all about, beneath everything. ‘It’s about love, that’s it’. Again- hard to quantify until you feel it and know it to be true, and it came to M like a revelation.

We all know that people like M are a rare thing, and we all feel better to have known him and to have shared his warmth and his gap-toothed smile and to have had him in our lives. But the reality is, M embodied totally what we stand for – his love, compassion, integrity, honesty and empathy were so, so real.

When people ask me in the future what Body & Soul stands for, I’ll think of M, and try my hardest to explain what is so hard to quantify, that we’re about love, we breed it here, and can say that we are proud to have known and loved such a remarkable person who stood for everything we know to be real and true.

Fundraising Internship

Are you confident, self-motivated and imaginative? If yes, we are looking for you to join our Fundraising & Partnerships team at Body & Soul.

We are currently looking for an individual with the initiative and drive to help take Body & Soul’s fundraising to the next level through increasing donations from challenge events, individual and payroll givers, foundations, and university fundraising.

This role is an excellent introduction to fundraising. Within a small, ambitious team, you will have the opportunity to take on responsibility and develop the role in line with your own interests. With support and under supervision, you will be responsible for:

• internet-based research into donors
• maintaining up-to-date donor records
• administering the departmental database, processing and acknowledging donations and basic fundraising applications.
• advancing community events and corporate relationships
• sourcing gifts in kind

We are looking for an intern who is:

• Committed and enthusiastic
• Genuine & passionate about Body & Soul’s aims
• Articulate, with a strong attention to detail
• Versatile when communicating with people on all levels, from potential funders, to members of the charity.
• A self-starter who is willing to take on responsibility in this innovative charity

We ask interns to commit to coming in for a minimum of three days per week for three months. This gives you the opportunity to see fundraising events and applications through from start to finish and ensures you have concrete achievements to add to your CV at the end of your placement.

The closing date for applications is Friday 3 May and applicants must be available to interview w/c 6 May and start w/c 13 May.

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Internship in Frontline Support Work in the HIV sector

Body & Soul has developed a unique range of internships that offer graduates an excellent opportunity to gain experience working in a frontline charity. This internship is aimed at providing key skills and direct experience in casework and support & advocacy. Based within the Adult Services, you would have the chance to work in an experienced multi-disciplinary team delivering what is regarded as a unique and exceptional service.

We are looking for interns who…

• Versatile when communicating with people on all levels, from potential funders, to members of the charity.
• Are looking to gain work experience in the field of HIV/advocacy/support work.
• Are willing to take on responsibility in this innovative charity.
• Are passionate about Body & Soul’s aims

Role Description

• Assisting with research, planning and liaison in preparation for Adult Service Evenings.
• Providing telephone support to Body & Soul Adult Members
• Providing administrative support to the Adult Programme
• Providing advocacy and casework on behalf of adult members, including hardship applications, liaising with social services, and letters of support.
• Giving 1:1 support to Body & Soul adult members.
• Facilitating small group sessions.
• Potential for involvement in specific areas of the Adult Programme depending on interests.

We ask interns to commit to coming in for a minimum of three days per week for three months. This gives you the opportunity to see fundraising events and applications through from start to finish and ensures you have concrete achievements to add to your CV at the end of your placement.

The closing date for applications is Friday 3 May and applicants must be available to interview w/c 6 May and start w/c 13 May.

We’re looking for a few more people to join the team for this once in a lifetime opportunity. This challenge promises to be breathtaking(hopefully not too literally!) you will make new friends, have new experiences in a magical country and really test yourself physically.

If you’re interested in taking part, send us your details through the blog, or get in touch with polly@bodyandsoulcharity.org.

In the current culture of austerity and budget cuts, I think it’s fair to suggest that we may have lost sight of an intrinsic measure of social good and wellbeing, that of happiness. Surrounded by such economic hardship, we’ve become increasingly obsessed by defining measures of neo-liberal economics as the be all and end all.

Perhaps, the pervasive austerity culture we find ourselves in dismisses social and psychological factors such as happiness, because we can’t measure these by numerical calculations and projections of economic growth? But if there is one basic human right that we are all entitled to, regardless of the state of our economy, surely it is the right to pursue and achieve a state of happiness and wellbeing.

On the 20th March this year, the UN asked us to take a moment to appreciate and recognise this pursuit, in celebration of the first International Day of Happiness. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon proclaimed, the world “needs a new economic paradigm” where “social, economic and environmental well-being are indivisible. Together they define gross global happiness.” In light of this, and to help readdress the need for a more nuanced and inclusive approach to economic growth, I thought it fitting to bring this inspirational TED talk to your attention:

Social researcher Brene Brown has spent years exploring the connection between happiness and vulnerability. Brene believes that these two emotional states are intrinsically linked, because they allow us to feel emotionally connected. The state of emotional connection is what gives us purpose and meaning to our lives – in other words it is what brings us happiness. To be happy, is to experience positive emotions, such as amusement, hope, courage, pride, inspiration, love, and authenticity. These emotional states fill us with a sense of belonging and purpose, but above all they enable us to feel worthy of ourselves, to love ourselves for who we are.

Brene looked at those who had a “strong sense of worthiness, a strong sense of love and belonging” and she found that they were separated from those who didn’t by their ability to “believe they’re worthy of love and belonging”. They believed quite simply. They had “the courage to be imperfect… to let go of who you think you should be and be who you are”. Importantly, they felt “what made them vulnerable made them beautiful…the willingness to do something when there are no guarantees”.

I think Brene’s message is so important because it says something universal and so intrinsic to the human condition. Those who appeared to have happiness, were those that found solace and peace in themselves, whatever their imperfections. They acknowledged that to feel vulnerable was ok. In this age of economic austerity, I hope that the current government and those involved in public policy take a second to consider the work of Brene Brown and others, in an attempt to understand happiness, just a little bit better.

As Chanakya once said in the true definition of austerity, “there is no austerity equal to a balanced mind, and there is no happiness equal to contentment”. I hope as global citizens, we can all begin to recognise and realise our unalienable right to feel happy, to feel connected, and I hope the work of Brene Brown and initiatives such as the International Day of Happiness, can bring us all a little closer to achieving this goal.

If you’re interested in community work in theory and practice and social justice, this is really worth a listen.

Thanks to the Dulwich Centre in Adelaide, Australia for sharing this video.

At Body & Soul, we aim to create a sustainable income stream through hiring our building for events, meetings and conferences. It’s really important for us to have up to date, visually appealing photos of the building that demonstrate its versatility, great furnishings and careful attention to detail.

We’re looking for an experienced interiors photographer to take some shots of the building for us to use online and in publicity. If you’re interested in donating your time and your photos, get in touch, we’d love to hear from you!

Last Thursday I was giving a presentation to a group from a major bank. I was describing our Life in my Shoes campaign and how it was addressing the stigma, discrimination and bullying that can come from living with a condition like HIV. When I asked the group about their experience in school, almost every head in the room nodded because most of us at some point during our school days have felt what it is like to be bullied.

Over the weekend I caught up on the week’s news and the story of Lucy Meadows struck a chord with me. Here is a woman who took her own life and while an official investigation still needs to be completed, it appears that she was being harassed by the press. But let’s face it harassment is just another word for bullying.

Lucy’s story is not an isolated example of bullying. Somehow, certain types of bullying appears to be fully sanctioned in our society. What was Levenson if not an investigation into how bullying was allowed in the press for years – and government, police and civil servants may have colluded in the process.

How are we ever going to stop bullying in schools when we let it continue so visibly in society? What lesson are we teaching our children and young people when we tell them not to bully and allow a terrible thing like this to happen?

If we want to truly end bullying then we need to hold bullies to account regardless of age or how difficult it is to speak up.

For Body & Soul, having celebrity supporters and advocates is so important. Famous and familiar faces raise the profile of the children, young people and families living with HIV in the UK who we support, they talk about stigma as a real issue in society, they take our message and our work to a wider audience that we could never reach alone.

You may have noticed in the Red Nose Day Films and soundbites last week that all of the members who spoke were anonymous. The really tangible stigma and fear of social isolation that young people face because of their HIV is so much of a reality that virtually all of them feel unable to speak openly and publicly, despite having so much to say. This is where the support of famous faces and celebrities becomes so much more vital. Young people need a mouthpiece, they need people who understand them and offer them compassion and empathy, who will tell their stories for them to the nation.

We want to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you too all of our patrons and supporters who have visited and championed Body & Soul recently. We are grateful and honoured to call you friends.

Love everyone at Body & Soul xx

We offer regular yoga classes to our adult members on a Tuesday evening. You will need to be able to teach a gentle restorative yoga class to a relatively small group of people who regularly practice yoga.  The class is 5-6 on a Tuesday.

If you know anyone, or you’re interested in joining the volunteer yoga teacher pool, please get in touch!

Thank you!

Feeling awful? Girlfriend dumped you? Bad day at school or at work, it’s pouring down rain, you’ve got blisters on your feet, wearing inappropriate footwear, lost your Oyster card and a moron cab driver just drenched you head to toe by driving into a puddle?

Despair not – we’ve all been there!

Put on these tunes and you’ll be shimmyin’ down the street in no time.

To start off, a classic that never fails to bring a smile onto my face. Yes it’s a bit silly, but it’s also so…. Lovely. A bit like a hug. A musical hug. An – arguably – very funny hug. There are dancing cartoon sharks.

Bonus: here is the full version (no dancing rasta sharks, though)

Another essential Bad Day song…. No matter how miserable you’re feeling, bet you can’t suppress a smile on lines like “even my skin is acting weird/I wish that I could grow a beard”

Up – Shania Twain

Are you feeling bad because you’ve been wronged? Someone’s judged you, mistreated you, you’ve been treated unfairly? This song is an amazing example to all of us of how you can take all that rage, hurt, resentment and make it into something beautiful, make art.

The story is that Lupe Fiasco was being bullied by his record company to the point of giving up altogether… but instead he channelled his rage into this song, which became a worldwide hit. It’s the ultimate revenge – I’m going to take your nasty and turn it into my success! As Lupe put it in an interview, “that’s my therapy… To give you this song… Now you have to make it a worldwide smash. You have to play it on the radio… So every time you hear it, you’re going to hear me talking about your as*.”

Show must Go on – Lupe Fiasco

This next song is best listened to during the last leg of a marathon, or the last stretch of an arduous task that is taking the life out of you and you feel like you just cannot go on anymore…. It reconnects your with your innermost strength and motivation. Whatever it is you set out to do – keep going! As the opening words go:

‘Cause sometimes you just feel tired,

Feel weak, and when you feel weak, you feel like you wanna just give up.

But you gotta search within you, you gotta find that inner strength

And just pull that sh*t out of you and get that motivation to not give up

And not be a quitter, no matter how bad you wanna just fall flat on your face and collapse.

Till I Collapse – Eminem feat Nate

Because sometimes the best thing you can do to clear out the cobwebs and chase out the blues is… Shake ya tailfeather!

Saving the best for last…

It’s been a rough night. You wake up the next day, salty streaks on your cheeks … peaking out through your still-sticky eyes, you realise there is a beautiful dawn breaking through the darkness outside. A fresh day is about to begin. Twenty-four brand new hours. A chance to start anew… then this beautiful song comes on:

One Day Like This – Elbow