It may be a bit of a cliche, but it does feel like the older we get, the harder it is to make friends. This difficulty in forming social bonds as we age is often compounded when we have to move for work. So many of us relocate to larger urban centres when we want to further our careers. That means leaving the village or town we grew up in to begin working in a larger metropolitan area like Dublin. While there are endless ways to meet a romantic partner, ways to meet friends are often elusive and hard to find. That's why Just Us is committed to creating welcoming spaces for women who want to meet and form friendships with other like-minded women. Our unique approach to facilitating friendships makes us that much different from some other social clubs.

Walking Clubs

One of the most popular methods for helping facilitate social relationships is our walking club. Walking as an exercise is incredibly beneficial to a person's health; however, it also helps to relieve tension or any initial awkwardness when meeting new people. At Just Us, we take the time to carefully design our walking routes to ensure they are challenging but suitable for people of all fitness levels. We focus on the social element of walking. For people new to our walking club, we always try to assign them a buddy, which helps introduce them to the rest of the group. This method allows a new person to integrate with the walking group and immediately feel part of this unique, fun and highly social activity.

Book Club

Along with our walking groups, we also organise our ever-popular book club. Our readers enjoy everything from the newest literature to classic novels. Just Us reading clubs are certainly not an exercise in academic criticism. Instead, it's a space where members can freely discuss the merits of a book. At our book club, there is no right or wrong answer. Everyone is encouraged to share their opinions in a friendly and inviting environment. We create a fun and welcoming social environment by giving everyone a chance to express how they feel about a shared piece of literature.

If you are interested in making friends in Dublin, please contact us today, and we can help you become part of a walking group, book club, or even both. Our clubs and events help women meet new people in Dublin and form long-term bonds of friendship.

We’re going to resist the urge to make the obvious joke and say we do a lot of walking at our walking club – whoops, have we just said it? Instead, we want to focus on some of the questions we get from real women considering joining our walking club.
Let’s start with trying to relieve any fears. We understand that joining any kind of club can be intimidating. The thought of walking into a new social dynamic and meeting strangers is enough to make most people feel a little bit anxious. But let us reassure you, feeling nervous about joining our established Dublin walking club is completely normal. Most of our regular walkers – some of whom have been with us for years – felt anxious when they first joined. At Just Us we understand that the key to an enjoyable and vibrant waking club community is in creating a welcoming atmosphere for all.
We’re proud of the welcoming and fun atmosphere that pervades each and every one of our walks. It is this atmosphere, and our ability to integrate new starts with our community, that has made us one of Ireland’s fastest-growing walking clubs.
However, for that little bit of extra peace of mind. Below is a rough outline of what happens at a typical walk.

Planning the Walk

First and foremost our team go about planning the walk. Every one of our Dublin walks is planned around the following criteria.

• Enjoyable
  We want to make sure that all our walks are enjoyable. Therefore we do a lot of research on organising a walk that goes to fascinating areas around Dublin. We also do our best to vary the terrain from time to time to ensure the walk remains interesting from start to finish.

• Suitable For All Fitness Areas
  Our walks are designed to be enjoyed by all fitness levels. While certainly there is a bit of challenge involved, we make sure that the routes we pick are accessible to the average person.

During the Walk

There are few things more conducive to conversation than the outside air and a long walk. Yes, this may be a walking club but it could be better described as a social club. Our community of women get to enjoy each other’s company while being exposed to some of Dublin’s beautiful scenery and/or unique architecture.

Do you still have some questions about our walking club in Dublin? Please contact us today. Our team can address any concerns you may have. For information on the next organised walk, please subscribe to our walking club newsletter.

We hear it all the time. Walking is good for you. You should walk for at least 30 minutes a day or you should take 10,000 steps every 24 hours. From health professionals to Instagram fitness gurus to our smartwatches, everyone seems to be telling us to get up and start walking.
But why exactly should we walk? What scientific benefits does walking offer? And why should you join a walking club instead of just walking on your own? In today’s blog, we’re going to use the power of science to answer all of these questions.

Scientifically Proven Benefits of Walking

Of the myriad of exercises, few have been as studied and scrutinised as much as walking. For generations, everyone from sports scientists to nutritionists has been studying and proclaiming the benefits of walking. So what does the science tell us?
Walking is a cardiovascular exercise. That means it’s an activity that uses our aerobic metabolism. We know our aerobic metabolism is engaged when we’re involved in any activity that makes our heart beat faster or makes our lungs breathe deeper. Any cardiovascular exercise done over time will stimulate adaptation in our vital organs. Therefore walking a little bit every day helps improve the function of the heart, lungs and the circulatory system.

The Benefits of a Walking Club

Okay fine, the above are the benefits of walking and we’d get these benefits if we walk in a group or on our own. However, to maximise these results the science seems to indicate walking in a group is the preferred method.
Like we mentioned, to get the most from walking it’s an activity that needs to be done regularly over a prolonged period of time. So the real challenge of walking is making it a habit and creating a habit is easier in a group. According to a study published in the International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care, individuals seem more likely to stick to an exercise regime if they are part of a group. This same study also found that group walking improves the overall standard of physical activity while increasing quality of life.

Conclusion

Walking is great but walking in a group adds tangible benefits to this already valuable activity. To be clear you don’t need a science degree or a field of researchers to discover the benefits of group walking. Instead, you can join one of our Dublin walking clubs.
As one of the most popular walking clubs in Dublin, we have groups for all fitness levels. For more information on our walking clubs please sign-up for our walking club newsletter.

We all know that your mental health is equally as important as your physical health, so why not target them both with exercise?

Keeping fit and active is an amazing (and free) way to keep your mind stimulated while boosting your energy levels and reducing stress.

When we exercise, serotonin and other hormones are released in the brain. This is known as our happy hormone, which is why you feel such a high after doing a workout.

You might try telling us that exercise isn’t for you, but with the right routine and by incorporating some fun into it you will end up falling in love with keeping active!

The very first thing you should do before picking a workout plan is to stop associating exercise with losing weight. Of course, that is one of the great benefits and is a goal for some people, but if you are killing yourself with HIIT workouts you will burn out and there is no way that can be enjoyable.

Focus on what your goal is, don’t set yourself unrealistic expectations and choose fitness that makes you feel great!

With that being said, what different types of exercises are out there?

Walking is often disregarded as an exercise; however, it is a favourite for a lot of people. With walking you can make it as strenuous as you want. You could listen to your favourite podcast on a stroll around the park or put the music on full blast and do a few rounds of speed walking.

Start of small each week by setting step goals, even a walk to the shop can help you reach those targets while getting some positive energy flowing.

For some people, the best way to keep on track is by having a clear plan for a week or month. A great way of doing this is by taking part in challenges to keep you motivated.

Our March fitness challenge combines three basic exercises; sit-ups, crunches and squats. These are simple but very effective. As each day passes you increase the amount of exercise you’re doing and feel free to add in anything extra yourself. If you don’t know where to start with your fitness journey, we would suggest our monthly challenge as it comes with a support group and will help you reap in so many benefits. Register at http://www.justus.ie

In the challenge, there are some rest days. If you don’t like doing nothing on the days off yoga is a relaxing form of exercise that allows your muscles to relax without doing nothing at all. The most important thing during yoga is to focus on your breathing; taking long, deep breaths can calm your mind which can reduce any anxieties or stress you have.

Don’t worry too much about creating a structured routine with yoga. Instead, look online for some different poses and choose which ones you can do best and that make you feel most relaxed. A great way to incorporate mindfulness into your yoga session is to take a quote from our positivity jar and keep that in mind while focusing on your breathing.

There will be some days you just won’t be in the mood to do a workout. Try to motivate to do it before skipping a day, but if all else fails just dance it out!

Stick on your favourite music and dance until you can’t anymore. The combination of the freeing movements and the upbeat music is an incredible mood booster that leaves you feeling energised and happy. You might even be in the mood of another workout after!

Keeping active is so important, but it is also free. You don’t need fancy equipment or even a big house to workout. The key is finding a routine that works for you and sticking to it for a happy and healthy mind.

Keep Active & Keep in Touch!

There are a number of different journals and diaries you can keep, such as travel, personal, dream, and gratitude to name a few. You may have a few different journals to reflect on various aspects of your life, but overall they share amazing benefits!

Our Just Us Planner can help you set out exercise and daily goals, track your sleep and practice gratitude. With that in mind, here are five benefits of using a journal!

Just Us Journal at www.justus.ie

Set and achieve your goals

A journal is the best place to track your goals, aspirations and ambitions. A great idea is to set bigger monthly goals, like reading that book that has been sitting on your shelf for way too long. Then each day set smaller, achievable goals such as getting 10,000 steps or drinking more water.

By keeping them all in one place you can monitor your progress and fuel your motivation to cross off each goal as you achieve them!

Relieve stress

Use a mood tracker to express yourself in your journal. Writing down your feelings helps you to unload all of your anxieties or frustrations that could be stopping you from having a great day. The best time to do this is in the morning so you can get it all off your chest before carrying on with your day.

Overall, this allows you to free up any tensions but also allows you to see if there are any recurring things that are leading to your anxiety or negative emotions.

Self reflection

Following on from tracking your moods, journaling can help you learn so much about yourself. A journal allows you to stop and take a look at what you’re grateful for and all that you have achieved.

We recommend filling out half of your gratitude list in the morning, and completing it before bed to get a full rounded view of your day and what influenced it.

Keeping organised

There are no limits to what you can record in your journal. Track your workouts, steps, water intake, moods, goals and more! You can even take note of key events or meetings you have day to day.

Not only can it keep you physically organised, but you can become mentally organised too. You can keep track of what influences both positive and negative moods, for example, to take charge of your wellbeing.

Inspire creativity

When jotting down thoughts and goals, you may find yourself getting into a flow of writing. If you get into a flow, don’t stop! Grab another notebook, date the page and write to your heart’s content – there are no rules to what you can and cannot write in your personal journal.

We all have the ability to be creative, whether you realise it or not. Let your imagination run wild and explore your artistic side.

There are endless benefits to keeping a journal, so why not start now? Once you start you will never want to stop!

When you first think of manifestation, a lot of people immediately think of crystals and witchcraft and assume it’s a load of nonsense. However, it is actually a great way to promote a positive mindset to help you achieve your goals.

Manifesting is the “practice of thinking aspirational thoughts with the purpose of making them real” as explained by Vox. This means that by focusing on something you want, it can help make it reality.

You can practice manifestation through meditation, visualisation, journaling or even just through thought.

While there is no right or wrong way to manifest, there are five simple steps that can help you get started.

Step 1: Choose what you want to manifest

When you pick something specific to manifest, you must know why you want it in your life. It is essential you give yourself a practical time frame, so if you want something within the next 24 hours, ask yourself how realistic that is.

You need to connect with the thing you want to manifest and ensure you want it for the right reasons. You can do this by asking yourself the following questions:

Do I really want this?

How will I benefit from having this?

When I think about having this, does it feel right?

How will it be good for me and others

Set a clear intention and believe that you can get what you ask for.

Step 2: Get rid of things that stand in your way

Since manifestation is you sending messages out to the universe, it is vital that nothing is standing in your way to success. Unfortunately, there almost always is something in the way, but that is just part of the process.

The three most common blocks are a negative mindset, toxic people and timing.

You need to be in a good mindset before manifesting as you cannot focus on the negatives and still attract good into your life.

It is a good idea to step away from people who make you question yourself, or who are constantly putting you down. This will benefit you in the long-run and not just for the sake of manifesting.

Make sure you are patient, just because something doesn’t happen straight away doesn’t mean that it never will. Trust in the process.

Step 3: Visualise what you want to manifest

This is best done somewhere quiet and private and take just a minute to completely visualise what you want.

Pour all of your energy into doing this and remember to focus on the end result, not how you will manifest it. Add as many details as you can, so it almost feels like yours already.

For example, if you want to find a new job then focus on exactly that and only think positively about it. Try to visualise yourself in this new job, imagine doing a great interview and getting an offer.

Step 4: Take action to manifest what you want

There’s nothing in particular you have to do to aid the manifestation process, but if you feel the urge to do something don’t stop yourself.

This could be writing down your aspirations and intentions or even saying them aloud. This can give the universe extra fuel to help you manifest your goals.

An important action to take is to stop doubting yourself. If we take the job example again, there is no use in hoping you get the offer and later thinking “well, they wouldn’t pick me because…”. Negative thinking and beliefs can disrupt the whole process.

Step 5: Recognise and appreciate

Once you achieve your goal, it is absolutely vital that you fully appreciate it. It can be very easy to forget that you actually asked for this, so think back on the process and connect what you visualised with what you ended up achieving.

Sharing your success with friends and keeping a gratitude journal are just some of the ways you can help make this connection.
http://www.justus.iehttps://www.justus.ie/

If some of your goals don’t work out as planned, don’t worry and don’t let this set you back too much.

Of course, manifestation won’t work for everything – you can’t think of winning the lottery into existence. The key is to set your goals and think and speak positively about them until they turn into reality.

Here at Just Us, we want to help you boost your mental health and wellbeing through socialising with other women. Interacting with other people has a positive effect on our mood and confidence.

However, you shouldn’t just rely on other people to make you feel great about yourself. That’s why we believe that it is important to practice self-love.

When you stop to think about the people you love and how you would do anything to ensure that they are doing well, do you also think about yourself?

By practicing self-love, you are not being narcissistic or vain, you are making your needs a priority. By loving yourself you will start to believe in yourself and push yourself to achieve your goals.

Of course, it’s hard to know exactly where to start, so we’ve put together five ways you can practice self-love to help you become the best version of you, for you.

Create a positive morning routine

The way you start your day can have a knock-on effect of how the rest of your day will go. Your routine could start with getting up and making a list of goals for the day. Our Just Us journal is a great way to track your goals, moods and exercise each day. Make yourself a nice cup of tea or coffee, take a deep breath and start your day.

It is always a good idea to avoid checking your phone as soon as you wake up as it pulls on your brain for attention, which can increase your stress levels throughout the day.

Stop comparing yourself to others

We are all unique and great in our own ways. We all have different bodies, personalities, coping mechanisms and even different ways of measuring success. If you find yourself constantly comparing your life or your body to people you see online, you need to stop following them, or even take a complete break from social media.

It is important to focus on yourself and acknowledge that you are doing the best you can and that is enough. You should be your only competition in life.

Celebrate small wins

As we said before, everybody has their own way of measuring success. You don’t need to do something big like get a new job to be proud of yourself. For some people a ‘win’ could count as getting dressed before 12pm or making your bed a few days in a row.

It is important that you celebrate all types of wins to help you stay positive and to gain confidence in your actions.

Energise your body

Take part in our new weekly track & share club to keep yourself active and on track while getting support from us and other amazing women. Your body does so much for you, so you should try give back by moving it and filling up with nutritional food.

You don’t need to be running marathons to keep yourself energised, choose a way of keeping active that makes you feel happy and healthy without putting any pressure on yourself.

Take time to unwind

Of course, if you are starting your day on a positive note then you should also end it the same way. Take a few minutes of each day to switch your mind off, doing this can benefit your wellbeing and your sleeping patterns. You could have a cup of tea, run a bath, do some face masks or read a book – the possibilities are endless!

At Just Us, we rise by lifting others. But, in times that we have no choice but to be apart, remember to lift yourself too.

This year has seen a surge in home workouts and people using lockdown to get fitter and healthier. While it is important to stay active and keep on top of your mental health, it is equally vital to make sure you aren’t doing it as a radical way to change yourself.

Regardless of any imperfections you may think you have it is so incredibly important to love and accept yourself for who you are.

Doing this means you should embrace body positivity. The last few years, the body positivity movement has become highly popular, teaching men and women to accept their body for what it is.
“Your words have so much power. Every day, if you tell yourself ‘I love you,’ if you give yourself one word of validation, it will change your mind.” — Ashley Graham

Everyone’s body is different, coming in many amazing shapes and sizes. You can’t simply assume someone’s lifestyle and health because of their size. Body positivity involves you embracing every single one of your features – your skin colour, weight, body shape, stretch marks and so on.

If you look in the mirror and can’t help but noticing something you don’t like, say for example the shape of your hips, try to channel that negative thought into a positive one and accept that you are beautiful despite these features you may not like. You don’t necessarily have to be over the moon about it, just simply accepting your attributes is enough.
“You can’t hate yourself happy. You can’t criticize yourself thin. You can’t shame yourself worthy. Real change begins with self-love and self-care.” — Jessica Ortner~

It is essential that you take care of your body and focus more on what your body needs from you, rather than how you would prefer it to look. An example of this would be starting to exercise and diet because it gives you energy and makes you feel great about yourself as opposed to killing yourself at the gym trying to achieve your ‘ideal’ body type.

Use your Just Us Journal to make a weekly plan of your workouts to help you keep on track. Our planner also allows you to list what you are grateful for and track your goals. We suggest listing that you are grateful for your body, or make it a goal to become more body positive.

Taking a break from social media or even unfollowing people who make you feel badly about your body can help you move towards a more body positive mindset. You need to acknowledge that everyone is different and although you may not look like someone on your Instagram feed, this does not mean that you are less than them.

“Life is so much more beautiful and complex than a number on a scale.” — Tess Munster

When you’re scrolling through Instagram it is so important to remember that anyone can achieve that ‘picture perfect Insta model body’ with the help of a few filters, lighting and auto tune. Most of the time these portray a false body image and false expectations of how you should look. So long as you feel happy and healthy that’s all that matters.

Choosing to be body positive doesn’t mean you have to choose an unhealthy lifestyle. You can still exercise and eat good food, so long as you do it for you and nobody else. Motivate yourself with how you want to feel, rather than how you want to look.

“To be beautiful means to be yourself. You don’t need to be accepted by others. You need to accept yourself.” — Thich Nhat Hanh

Being body positive is not only about accepting yourself, but also other people to ensure everybody can be comfortable in their own skin. If you hear of someone being bullied or shamed over their body image, it is important you stand up for them.

This goes for you too – don’t allow yourself to pick at your body and say negative things about yourself.

Next time you are in front of a mirror stop and tell yourself what you like about yourself, don’t be afraid to be cocky you deserve to love the body you live in. Step away from any negative thoughts you may have and try your best to love yourself.


“You know how long it took me to fall in love with this body? My butt was my least favourite thing about myself. And I learned to love it. And now it’s the thing everybody can’t stop talking about … Be you. Do you. Don’t let anybody steal your joy.”- Lizzo