Dancing away from cancer with Melanie Griffiths

In this episode, Sarah Bolitho speaks with Melanie Griffiths about movement, holistic wellbeing, and Melanie’s experience of healing after a cancer diagnosis. They stress the importance of seeking advice from qualified medical professionals and making informed choices about treatment, whether conventional, holistic, or a combination of both.

Melanie works mainly with women, helping them reconnect with their bodies through dance, movement, and intuitive guidance. After being diagnosed with cervical cancer 21 years ago while living in the US, she chose to focus on healing holistically rather than immediately pursuing the recommended surgery and radiation. Over four years, she developed her own healing approach that included meditation, journaling, dietary changes, movement, and personal reflection. When she later returned for medical testing, the results came back clear.

The conversation highlights the importance of listening to the body, recognising early signs of imbalance, and reconnecting with movement. Sarah and Melanie discuss how modern lifestyles have reduced everyday activity and argue that movement should be enjoyable and intuitive, not just structured exercise focused on performance or appearance.

Their key message is that building a relationship with your body and finding movement you enjoy can support better health, wellbeing, and a more active life.

Melanie is a Dance Facilitator and Holistic Practitioner who helps women rise and radiate through their bodies and in their lives. After holistically healing from cancer 21 years ago, having been given six months to live, she now supports women in reclaiming their health and vitality.  She offers online dance and fitness classes, 1:1 intuitive guidance sessions and wellbeing holidays designed to help women unlock their joy and life force.

 For more about Melanie, find her at:

 Linkedin:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/melaniegriffiths/

 Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/melanie.griffiths.58

 Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/movementmelanie/

 YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/@melaniemjgriffiths

 Website:  https://www.melaniegriffiths.co.uk

For more about the training and support Sarah offers, visit www.sarahbolitho.com or contact her at admin@sarahbolitho.com.

Follow her on social media
Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/fabnewlous_active_lives
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fitnesscareermentor
Linkedin:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahbolitho

Transcript

Sarah Bolitho (00:01)

Hello and welcome to Creating Active Lives with me, Sarah Belytho, and my guest this week, Melanie Griffiths. And I'll talk a little bit more about Melanie in a moment. We're here to share kind of the science, but also the strategies that will inspire you to create a more active life in whatever way that works for you. So today I'm really pleased to be talking to Melanie Griffiths. Melanie is a, she helps women rise and radiate through dance, movement and holistic healing and which just floats my boat totally, really does. But also we're here really to talk about how she survived cancer through her way. 

Now what I will start by saying is both of us strongly recommend that if any diagnosis of cancer is in your life then speak to the appropriately qualified medical professionals, get all the information you can and make an informed decision on the best treatment route for you. For some that might be conventional treatment.  For others, it might be a more holistic approach. And for a lot of people, it is a combination of the two. So please, please, please do not think we're saying, don't go down that medical route because it's absolutely essential for some people. But it's important that you get lots of information so that you can decide what works for you and what's best for you. So Melanie, tell us a little bit about what you do first of all, and then we'll talk about your experience.

Melanie (01:27)

Oh, hi, Sarah. It's really good to be on here and and exciting to talk about health and well being. So what I do is work with primarily women, helping them become more of who they really are in themselves, create better relationships with their bodies and just thrive in life. And and I do this through different styles of dance and fitness that I run. And I do intuitive guidance sessions with people which helps look below the surface to see the things that might be holding them back that they can't see themselves.

Sarah Bolitho (02:05)

Lovely. it's, you know, it's really funny because a previous guest, were talking about being in touch with your body and how quite often people have a fixed body image. I must be, but actually once you get back in tune with your body and you start appreciating what it can do and how it works, the image of what your ideal body is changes and it changes from, I must look this way to much more of an intuitive feeling a certain way. You become more grateful for the fact often that you've actually not treated your body very well for a number of years and it's managed to keep going despite that. So yeah, so tell us about your what happened with you and cancer because that's one of the main things we want to talk about.

Melanie (02:49)

Yeah, so it's got it's about 21 years ago. And I was so I sort of have to lay some of the background down because it's relevant to to the healing. So I originally grew up doing a lot of dance and got to a point at the age of 18, where I lost interest, I found it sort of pressurizing just what we were talking about in terms of it was very structured pressurizing around performance and technique and I lost the joy of movement. So I stepped away from that, went off on a whole other path, did a business degree, went off traveling and found myself out in the United States in California. And I embarked on, I started to do some training with a group called the Berkeley Psychic Institute and which, and they taught me a lot about the mind body connection, which I didn't, I was in the sort of phase of discovery at that point. ⁓ joined their program, did, did a lot of learning. In that time, I got very ill. I had, ⁓ I actually had a diagnosis before of not, not of cancer, but I'd had menstrual haemorrhaging. So I'd lived with that from, ⁓ which, which is what kind of pushed me down the spiritual route. Cause I wasn't, I wasn't actually getting answers from the medical profession at that time. So then several years later, I had a smear test that came back abnormal. And it was revealed that there was some cancer in the cervix. And this was happening alongside me, realizing that I was not happy in life where I was. wasn't, was in a marriage I wasn't happy in. I was living.  I wasn't doing anything I really wanted to do, but I hadn't really been paying attention to it. So the diagnosis comes in, and I've had this training around the mind-body connection, and I start to put the pieces together. And I realized this diagnosis is indicative of how out of sync I am with myself in my life. I know this, and I kind of had this really strong sense inside.

I, after the diagnosis, I sat for about a week and sort of drifted in and out of meditation throughout the week. Didn't really talk to anyone because I thought I really need to go deep within myself to find out what to do here. What was being recommended was a radical hysterectomy, radiation of the ovaries and removal of the lymph nodes, which was a big thing. And I didn't really want to do that. But I also needed to connect with myself to sort of figure out what I did want to do. So I sat for about a week. And at the end of this week, I came out of this space and I thought, need to go back to the UK and I need to leave this marriage. And that was all I knew at that point. And then I started doing some research and I found someone who lived in a different part of the States, who'd had a very similar diagnosis to me, but she'd healed herself holistically.

was using a macrobiotic diet and other methods. And she worked with women. And I thought, I don't think I want to work with her, but now I know there's someone out there who's done this. I feel sure this is what I want to do. So I came back to the UK and I had sort of made this decision that I want to heal holistically. And it was more of this recognition of even if I have the things that are being suggested on a medical level, I know that won't change what's going on for me in life. And I think that it's the connection between what's going on in my head, my heart and my life that's part of my healing from this. So, because people often say, that was very sort of courageous, but I think I wasn't thinking about, I was saying to you earlier Sarah, I wasn't thinking about survival. I was thinking about healing. And I almost had this sense of, I may not survive, but I'm going to heal. And I kind of had this recognition in that moment that they were two different things. Obviously, I hoped to continue living, but I knew that the healing was really the goal here. I sort of literally ripped the floorboards up of who I thought I was. That's how I've often described it. And over four years, I did a multitude of things. I prayed, I meditated, I journaled, I went back to movement, I took up running because I was intuitively guided to do that. I ⁓ did some dietary things. I let myself be serendipitously guided to different situations and people that were of benefit to me read different books. And I slowly put together what I would describe as my own healing program. And at the end, and sort of I'm saying all this in a nutshell, at the end of four years, I woke up one morning and thought, I think it's time to go back and get a smear test. So I'd chosen not to work with doctors and that's a very personal choice.

So, and I think it's important, as Sarah said at beginning, it's really important to know your own self. I didn't make this decision kind of plucking it out of thin air or based on things I'd seen. It was very much, actually, this is what I feel I need to do. So I did rip the floorboards up for who I thought I was. And after four years of doing different things, I woke up and I thought, I need to get a smear test back. And it came back clear. and we had a big party as a family.

Sarah Bolitho (09:07)

Yeah, well, it's funny, isn't it? But any diagnosis like this, I think people can go two ways. They can either go into a spiral of, well, that's it. Or as in your case, it's almost like it shines a magnifying glass on your life and you it makes you think about what isn't making you happy. And like you say, and before we came on, you were saying it was it was do or die. And it wasn't a question of you.

Melanie (09:21)

no, use the word minding, but it wasn't a question of saying, you know, I must do or it was like, whatever happens, I don't want to be in this unhappy situation. Whatever happens forward. And like you say, it is about choice. is. And, you know, for a lot of people, it's a combination of more conventional treatments as well as changing your life. And, you know, a lot of things you said, you were guided and it was it's and sometimes people think, you know, spirituality and it's all being, you know, you get messages from the whatever. You don't. You just open your mind to possibilities that are already there. You see things. It's a bit like, I always say, it's a bit like going on your normal walk, but noticing things that you wouldn't normally notice because you're too fixed on your phone or getting somewhere quickly. Sometimes when you slow down and open your mind, open your eyes, open everything, you notice these things that are already there.

No, there's no invisible force suddenly going, ⁓ Melanie needs this and Sarah needs that. These opportunities are there. The information's there, but we sometimes are closed off to it because it's not the right time or it's not the right way it's delivered for us. And I just think sometimes these sorts of things make you slow down and kind of open to, okay, what else is there? What can I do to help myself? And like I said, sometimes people are well, medical profession, you fix me, that's your job. But it's much better if you can say, what else, what can I do as well that will improve, whether it's movement or changing the way you eat or managing your stress levels more? And there's so many different ways, aren't there? But I think you have to be open to seeing them.

Melanie (11:26)

Yeah, and we have to, and I think we have to, especially in the busy, busy worlds that we live in, we have to create the space. And I think this is what I had at the time. I was able to create that space. And, and, and it was like, I often sort of describe it as like clearing the rubbish bin. I had to, and journaling was a massive part of it. You know, I was journaling every day, just stuff, clearing, clearing, clearing because I couldn't hear or I couldn't sense that connection. And I think it comes through the body as well. And the body, my sense is the body is showing us with whatever health issues are coming up, this is out of alignment. This is out of sync. You're not listening. And I say, I often say to my students in classes, you know, with with muscles and things, it's like, are they talking to you? Or are they now shouting at you because you're not listening?

Sarah Bolitho (12:23)

And that's it, isn't it? Sometimes, you it's, it's, you wait for a sign, a sign. No, no, that's not the pain in my knee isn't a sign. It's I'm waiting for my knee to collapse. And it's actually no pain in your knee is telling you there's something that it might be the shoes that you're wearing. It might be that your muscles have got a bit weaker because you're not doing as much. There could be any number of reasons, but it's it's kind of okay, what's going on here? And it's, you know, I get little I get aura migraines, so I don't get the headache.

I get the visual disturbance. When that kicks in, it's a sign for me to say, what am I not paying attention to? And I'll take a couple of painkillers, and it goes away because obviously I don't particularly want to have the sparkles, but it's just, it's not, I'll take painkillers, it will go away, forget it. It's okay, what's going on? What's my mind trying to tell me? And I think, again, we've lost that sort of connection with our bodies. And you talk about movement, and I know you do, Nia, which is for that, well, you can explain what it is in a moment, but I have done a couple of sessions and it is really quite ⁓ cellular, is a word I want to use, and I'm not sure why. But again, we often tend to think of things like movement as hot and sweaty in the gym and running as fast as we possibly can.

we've lost that kind of joy which is something you mentioned. We need to enjoy movement and for some people it's gentle and for some people it's brutal. It's what gives you that sense of joy of being in touch with your body isn't it?

Melanie (14:01)

Yeah, completely, completely. And I realized sort of in the last 10 years that this relationship with my body and movement is my lifelong path. It's been going, I remember being a tot and being a fidgety child and my mum putting me in tumble top classes because I wouldn't sit still. And that was the beginning of realizing movement was a massive part of how I connected to myself and the planet. And then it's just been an evolving journey since. And I'm glad you brought NEAR up because NEAR was the system that brought me back into the joy of dance. It was, dance up until that point for me had been about training for exams, performance. So you were in a slightly, and I still maintain this now, with performance, you were in a slightly altered sense of yourself because you were creating shapes for the visual aspect of how they looked, not for how they felt from within your body. And Nia taught me about movement is coming from within. And we can create those same shapes, but it has to feel good. So we get there in a different way. it was, yeah, it was absolutely, I mean, I've often joked that Nia is the longest thing I've had a relationship with. I've been in a relationship with Nia for...

Sarah Bolitho (15:28)

But it's the thing I liked about Nia is there's no right or wrong. With a lot of other things, there's pressure on you to look or be in a certain position. sometimes it's okay to get things wrong. Sometimes it's okay to do things in your way. Anyone who listens will know that I can't journal. Journaling just doesn't fit with me, but I sketch instead. So I'll sit down every day and do a sketch of something. And sometimes it's something I've seen during the day. Sometimes it's what's going on in my head, which can be bizarre sometimes. just let the create, I let my, comes out in that way. But I've also started doing tiny little embroideries. So just a little object and they're the size of your little fingernail. They're very small and they're very bad. They're really bad. Bit like my sketchy, but I don't care because it's my way of expressing something. it, you know, sometimes I think we need to let go of that.  That it’s got to be perfect, it's got to be good, it's got to look a certain way. You know, do you know what, sometimes it's okay to colour outside the lines, but we've got so fixed with that sense of choreography or aesthetics that we've forgotten about the joy of moving regardless of how it looks. And that's so important, isn't it? And for me, that's what Nia does is you feel the movement rather than doing the movement, if that makes sense.

Melanie (16:55)

Yeah, yeah. And I think it's that authentic, what I call authentic movement. People aren't, they're just not sort of, we're not guided into that. And I hate to bash the fitness industry, but I do think that they are responsible for a lot of very structured approach, which can work for some people and it doesn't work for everybody. And I think it's still creates this disconnection, the industry is almost set up to create this disconnection. And I think from authentic movement, you can still build strengths, you can still become a fantastic performer. And I think that since I started on my journey with New York, which about 35 years ago, the world has shifted, the dance world has shifted, and elements of the fitness industry as well. there is more availability on that level but I still yeah I still think it's there that that lack of permission.

Sarah Bolitho (18:04)

Our bodies are designed to move and when you think about the way we're designed to move in less structured ways, you like, fitness is my background, it has been for decades. And I have seen a lot of changes. And yes, for a lot of the equipment and the machines, you have to have certain techniques, you have to be doing things in a certain way. But the problem is, that's not necessarily how our bodies move in real life.

Melanie (18:12)

Yeah.

Sarah Bolitho (18:30)

we do things in, like you say, in a very structured, very linear way in fitness, but our bodies don't, they don't move that way when we're moving. And I think there's place for both, definitely, but quite often the aims in fitness are to get fitter or stronger. Whereas the aims of movement for me are enjoyment and just being able to keep moving in a certain way.

You know, anybody who's done a course with me will know about one of my rants and I had another one the other day about something else. I do rant a little bit because I think we are, very struck, as I say, there is a place for structured exercise, but it should be as a way of getting people to be able to move more freely in their normal life than as a just get fitter, get stronger, lift more weight. Why are you doing that? You know, it's for me, we need to be I know when we talk about cross training, it's about doing different types of activity, but actually we need to be cross moving. We need some structure, but equally we need the freedom and flexibility of moving for the joy of moving, even if it's completely random. Sometimes.

Melanie (19:37)

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

And I think it ties in. I often have people, know, less so now, I think, because I'm clearer with what I'm doing. And I see it out there, women and weight loss.

And they come at the whole movement piece from an outside place. I think, but actually, if you just engage from an internal place, your body shape will shift in an organic way that is aligned and feels good for you and is ultimately sustainable.

Sarah Bolitho (20:30)

Absolutely and also but also listening to your body am I actually hungry or am I thinking about food because it's lunchtime or whatever it's getting back in touch with hunger but also pausing to think what what's my body asking for at the moment what's it mean and it's funny actually just talking about the joy of movement and stuff and anyone out there who's ever been to a nightclub disco whatever whatever you call think about the movements the shape you you just literally you do whatever feels good for the music and you don't sit there thinking ⁓ this is how I must I must move in this way or that way you just do what feels good and some of it is utterly bizarre and some of it is maybe a little bit more traditional but just remember the joy that you feel coming home from that sort of environment late at night ⁓ the just the sheer god that was brilliant you know really enjoyed that it was such a fun night out

And a lot of it is because you were moving your body in a way that is just free. And we don't connect that we think, it was because of the friends or they've had a glass of wine or whatever, or the music. We don't necessarily connect it with the fact that we've moved our bodies in a just a joyfully free way. And I think we need to get back in touch with moving for the sake of it. And I know a lot of people now who they do, I believe it's called naked running, which always sounds a bit dodgy, but it's, it's not running naked because you please don't do that because you know, you might get arrested, but it's running with no technology. So you just go for a run for the joy of running and you run for as long as you feel like. And you know, it's like, how far did you run? Don't How long were you running for? Don't know. I just ran because I felt like running. And I think again it's coming back to that sort of I'm going to do what feels right for my body today and that might be some resistance training, it might be dancing, it might just be to go for very slow walk.

Melanie (22:29)

Yeah, and it's having that permission, isn't it? And when you were talking about the nightclub dancing, I was thinking how people put that in a box and then they put their fitness and their movement in another box and it's like, hold on a minute. You're still moving, you're still ⁓ engaging and maybe not compartmentalizing it all. So that actually movement is something that we get and is beneficial, whatever we're doing. 

⁓ And I always think back to before the days of technology and you obviously going back further through history when life was a lot more physical generally.

Sarah Bolitho (23:08)

Yes. no, this is it. didn't have to create opportunities to be active because we actually had to create opportunities to stop because lives were busy. know, go back to say the fifties, probably not a lot people had fridges or anything, which meant shopping had to be done daily. They probably almost certainly didn't have two cars in the household. The husband might have taken one. And I'm not stereotyping here. It is how things were in the fifties. You can't get away from that.

Melanie (23:10)

And we didn't have to create things to go to to get.

Sarah Bolitho (23:37)

So the woman probably walked in from the shops every single day to get fresh food. So, and actually I've got some statistics that probably the average woman did around four and a half thousand calories a week on just household tasks, not activity or exercise or anything, but just on household tasks. Whereas we just, we probably do less than 400 now because everything's automated.

And again, like you say, we can compartmentalise fitness, clubbing. Yeah, we should be looking more at general activity. I think, you know, we know physical inactivity is a risk factor for cancer, for obesity, for cardiovascular disease, for so many things. Physical inactivity is a ⁓ known risk factor. And it's actually up there, probably the highest now as I mean, smoking is obviously the worst thing you can do.

Melanie (24:10)

House cleaning, yeah.

Sarah Bolitho (24:34)

but fewer people smoke now, but more people are physically inactive. And by physically inactive, don't mean doesn't exercise. I mean, they're not active in their everyday life because exercise, know, structured exercise, yeah, great, do it if you want to, that, But what are you doing for the rest of the time?.

Melanie (24:46)

Yeah, yeah, because I often say to people, look at your own body, look at look at the skeleton, look how everything is designed to move. We're not designed to sit still. So yes, you may that might be part of your job. But you have to recognize that actually your skeleton isn't actually designed for that. And so it's going to need engaging more.

Sarah Bolitho (25:17)

Yeah,

and we have we have what we call freely movable joints and they, you know, the whatever is in the name, it's movable. And yet we get stiff because we're not moving these joints and not finding a way. it's, you know, for so many people, it's about finding what works for them, what lights them up, what they look forward to. And that might be a walk in nature. It might be near dancing. It might be you know, going back to ballet for the fun of it. It might be the gym or whatever, whatever. it's the I mean, as somebody once said, the best exercise is the one that you do. Yeah. Yeah.

Melanie (25:58)

That's what I've always said, yeah. Yeah, it's what you're gonna stick with, isn't it? It's like, and often it's a combination. You know, as you start to really get in touch with your body, it's like, well, today I want to do something slow, and then tomorrow I want to do something fast, and today I want to do something cardiovascular, and tomorrow I want to do something with a little bit of weight bearing in it. And yeah, and you build your own program.

Sarah Bolitho (26:22)

Yeah, it's noticing, gosh, you know, actually my, I'm going upstairs is getting a little bit tougher. So maybe I need to do a little bit of work on, on my muscles. It's, but it's, again, it's, you need to get back in touch with your body. And it sounds like for you, even though you were doing things already, there was a, there was a definite pull towards becoming a lot more holistic, a lot more joined up between your mind and your body.

Melanie (26:32)

Yeah. Well, when I got the cancer diagnosis, I was not doing anything. This is what's interesting. I hadn't danced in years. And as I got, I remember being out for a walk and I was living in Maine at the time. So on the East coast of America, and this would have been in winter. So it was just snow everywhere. And I remember being out for a walk and I almost, this this might sound a bit sort of spiritual woo woo for people, but I did hear this sort of voice in my head say, I want to go faster. And that's when I started to take up running, but not running as in timing, like what the sort of running you've been talking about, where I would just put my shoes on and go, and go as far as I wanted to go and come back. And so that was the beginning of sort of re-engaging. And then I, think the next class I stepped back into was a belly dance class. And then I found my way back to NEA. And then I realized I wanted to do go back to my original dance training, which was sort of jazz and ballet. And then I wanted to kind of and so it just kept evolving. And then I wanted to teach and so then I got my aerobics instructor license. And then I found myself teaching hen dance parties and themed. Yeah, so it all kept evolving my own journey with movement in my body and then what I was sort of delivering in the world as well.

Sarah Bolitho (28:20)

It is interesting, isn't it? Because I think the more we move, the more we want to move. And the more we want to move in different ways. You like you say, it's like today I feel like doing this and today, actually, I feel like doing a bit more. And today, no, today's, I'm going to a bit gentle stretching or whatever. But it's the more you move, the more you realize you want to move. And it's, again, it's finding that initial step, isn't it? If you are inactive, if people are doing very little movement and activity, it's finding something that you think, okay, I can do this, I'm enjoying this. And then what else could I do? Where else can I have a look? I think you start to look for things. think, I mean, it could, like you've mentioned, like, those are different things, but it could be swimming, it could be martial arts. Yeah, it's something that you look forward to and that you've you come away from thinking I'm doing this and I think you know a lot of the time people go to they try things out that are above the level they're currently at and so they go away thinking that was too hard it was too difficult I couldn't keep up and then they blanket the whole activity thing with it's not for me rather than saying do you know what that that class wasn't the right level for me

Melanie (29:18)

Yes.

Sarah Bolitho (29:43)

Where can I find one that is the right level? And I sometimes think as instructors, we see people and instead of saying, look, this is probably a next level class for you. I recommend you go and see Jane down the road because actually her class would be a better level for you now. And then once you've done that for a while, you can come back up to this. And I think, you know, again, within the fields, we need to be recognising when something isn't right for somebody, but giving them a suggestion of what is, so they don't go away thinking, it's not for me, they go away thinking, ⁓ that sounds interesting.

Melanie (30:12)

Yeah.  And I think another thing people do is they see out there some new fitness fad that's advertised.

Sarah Bolitho (30:28)

We're both laughing by the way, we can't see but we're both chuckling.

Melanie (30:29)

We're both laughing because we've been in the fitness industry long enough to know how this game works. And they go, I need to be doing that. They start doing that thing and they either hate it or it, like you say, the level is too high for them. And so they continue to force themselves to do it. So they're building an unhappy relationship with their bodies.

Sarah Bolitho (30:34)

Yeah, yeah, the body's kind of going no, no. And it's and I'll be perfectly honest with you. There is nothing new in fitness. It's all just different packaging. Yeah, there's nothing new. There are different ways of doing things. There are things that are repackaged or renamed or whatever. But at the end of the day, this I think step was probably the last thing that was completely brand new.

Melanie (30:58)

Yeah!  No, that's what I always say. I say the same. It's nothing new.

Sarah Bolitho (31:21)

Everything else is just a variation on a theme and even steps just a variation on running up and down stadium stairs that they used to do for athletes. So, you know, there's I don't know there's nothing that is brand new. It's just a new packaging. It's a new way of doing it. And fair play. People buy into it. They go and give it a go at it all. But, you know, I've lost count of the number of things that have fallen by the wayside. And, you know, and it's a shame because some of them were, you know, were fun. 

Melanie (31:27)

Yeah. Yeah.

I know.

Sarah Bolitho (31:50)

But they didn't capture the attention probably because like you say, they were too high level for most people coming in to try it. And you know, it doesn't matter what you do, it just matters that you do something. And if you're doing nothing, then some is better than none. And then once you're doing some activity, you can look at doing more or different activities. But you know, don't push yourself. If you're doing nothing, then five minutes a day of just free dancing. 

Melanie (32:21)

Yeah, that's what I've often said, just put on a playlist or create a playlist on YouTube or Spotify, whatever you do, and start moving in your living room, your kitchen, your bathroom, whatever, or five minutes walk around the block one way, five minutes back, and it's like, or in your chair, start move, you know, if you have a sitting job, yeah. I think people don't think of that, do they? And I think, okay, I'm going to blame the fitness industry again.

Sarah Bolitho (32:30)

Yeah. Get up and move around just every couple of hours.

Melanie (32:50)

Sorry, fitness industry. Yes.

Sarah Bolitho (32:50)

Yeah, sorry fitness people. Come in the industry, you know, there are bits of it I love and there are bits of it that, that, they take it too seriously sometimes.

Melanie (33:00)

I know, I think they don't connect enough with people literally just getting off the couch for the first time. And that first flush of connection and movement with your body, and that's the bit, because that's the bit that ignites that inspiration, and then people are like, I want to do more from there.

Sarah Bolitho (33:06)

Yeah. Yeah. exercise to energize, whereas most people exercise to exhaustion and then they feel awful and they ache and they can't do anything and they go away, oh, this is horrible, I don't like it. Whereas if you come away thinking, oh, actually, that's given me a bit of energy, then you'll think next time you're feeling knackered, you think, oh, do you know what, I'm just gonna go for a quick walk around the block because that always gives me a bit more energy. And it's like you say, it might be five minutes and that might grow to six minutes and then seven minutes and then ten minutes. People think, ⁓ the guidelines are, you know, 150 minutes a week or 20 minutes a day. I can't do that. Yeah.

Melanie (33:46)

Yep.  Or I'm not getting the benefits unless I'm in exhaustion. That's something that I've seen come up a lot. And I'm like, no, where did we get that? That was the 80s, I reckon. Exactly. Pain.

Sarah Bolitho (33:58)

Yeah.

If it, no pain, no gain. I'm sorry, but pain means there's something wrong. Yeah, and again, it's, get the message out there that any movement matters. Maybe we stopped talking about exercise and fitness and we just talk about moving. We talk about the joy of movement. We talk about just letting our bodies do something that they feel, they feel good. And like you say, certain songs come on and you hear them and you want to move.

If that's what motivates you, create that playlist, create that kind of thing, or look at something that may be a bit different. I spend a lot of time in the States and the whole Ninja Warrior, I mean, it's huge over there. You can't move for ninja gyms and it's different, but it's whole body holistic and fun and it's challenging and it's hard and bits of it are easy. If that's what floats, give that a go.

If that's not what floats your boat, see if there's a nice spa near you that does, you know, nice gentle classes. It's giving things a go and, being informed about it, not saying, I went to that class and it was too hard, therefore exercise is bad for me. It's saying, you know what, that's not my type of exercise. is. See what fitness walks or health walks there are in your area. Cause there's bound to be some. There's a lot of women's walking groups as well. If people feel more comfortable in a group.

Melanie (35:09)

Yeah. They don't want to go there, right? Yeah. Yeah.

Sarah Bolitho (35:32)

Yeah, but it's, you know, it's trying things out and saying, yeah, that's not for me. Because then if someone says, what about doing this? You can say, no, I've tried it. I don't like it. This is what I prefer. You've made an informed choice on what works for you at this time. You might change your mind. 

Melanie (35:52)

Yeah. And I think that that does, I think through life, that's the other thing I've noticed is it's like, your body may not want to do the same things at 20, that it did at 20 when you're 50 or 60 or 70 or 80. It might, but it might not. And it's being open to that shift as well, that we evolve with our bodies.

Sarah Bolitho (36:13)

And it's understanding how your body's, how everything about your body changes with age. It doesn't have to be a decline, but it's different. So it's not saying, oh, I'm getting older, I must slow down. It's saying, I'm getting older. What can I do to stay fit and healthy? And for me, don't start thinking about slowing down as you get older. Think about speeding up actually, because for a lot of women, menopause average age 50 or so potentially you've got another 30-35 years of life, you don't want to start slowing down. You want to start getting fit to enjoy your retirement rather than slowing down to slump into it.

Melanie (36:46)

Yeah, it might be taking an adjustment, a little mental adjustment to go, okay, where am I now? What works for me now? And I found that, I definitely found that with movement. I found when I went into menopause that I did have to kind of think differently and things did shift and it affected my work as well in terms of teaching.

it was just okay, I need to sit down again, find the choir and tune in to what do I need to do from here, what feels good now, what feels good in terms of movement now. And again, still shifting on a daily weekly basis, but I did notice a shift from pre menopause to being in menopause. Yeah.

Sarah Bolitho (37:40)

Yeah, it's not, it's changing what you choose to do rather than stopping what you choose to do. And if like me, jumping in puddles is your thing, then carry on jumping in puddles. Even if your grandchildren look at you strangely, but you know, why not? It's fun. It's, it's so important. And I think the thing that's really coming across from what we're talking about is we'll probably have to have another episode at some point.

Melanie (37:48)

Yes.

Sarah Bolitho (38:08)

Maybe we'll big up fitness industry next time. And I think both of us know that there is a very, very important place for the fitness industry in our world. But it isn't the only option. And there are a lot now of very informed instructors who actually work in very different fields and can really support people in creating an active life, which is what we want. But what's coming across really is, you know, it's...

Melanie (38:15)

Absolutely. Yeah.

Sarah Bolitho (38:38)

being informed enough to be able to make the decisions about whatever you do, whatever you choose, it's getting all the advice you can and then choosing whether it's to do with treatments, whether it's to do with movement, whether it's to do with the way you live your life. It's not just blindly picking something and saying it's okay I've got all the information I want, this is for me, that isn't for me and having critically making a decision rather than just, you know, look, I've read an article that said this, bang, that's what I'm going to do. It's critically evaluating the information to make the best decision for you at that time. And do you know what? You can always change your mind. You can always make a different decision at some point. And I think that's what's really important. So where can people find out more about what you do?

Melanie (39:12)

So I have a website (www.melaniegriffiths.com) and I'm on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube. And yeah.

Sarah Bolitho (39:40)

Brilliant. So your website, you're like me, you've just used your name for ease. So MelanieGriffith.com, I'll put all the links in the thing as well. But if people do want to find out more about you, they can contact you and see what goes on. What would be your overriding kind of message for people?

Melanie (39:45)

Yes.  I think make it a priority to get to know your body, to get to know your body and cultivate that relationship. However you do that so you can listen and then take appropriate action as you were saying, Sarah, whether that's health, that's your fitness, all of it, but make that a priority. think, yeah.

Sarah Bolitho (40:29)

Thank you so much for coming on. It's been really interesting. It reinforces for me that movement and active life is what matters, exercise and rigidity. It's the fluidity, the flexibility and the joy of movement that we need to get back in touch with. So thank you so much for coming on and chatting. I have no doubt you'll be back on again. We can talk about something else at some point because it's been really good. And to everybody out there, thank you for listening to Creating Active Lives with me, Sarah Belitho and my guest this week, Melanie Griffiths. Join me in each episode for more on how to create safe, sustainable and more importantly, enjoyable activity in your life because at the end of the day we want more joy so thank you for listening and listening again soon.

Melanie (41:22)

Thanks Sarah.