Mind and Body

Exercise!?$%*^! Aaaagh...

We're not talking gyms and lycra and being intimidated by frighteningly fit people (unless that makes you feel good, obviously). But it is true that moving the body around a bit can help shift our view of the world, take us out of ourselves and reduce the chance of getting physically ill. Being under the weather in body can make keeping sunny in mind difficult, and in nice balancing way, keeping sunny in mind can make the body feel better. Neat, eh?

So what's this got to do with comedy?
Off the Wall may be a comedy festival, but with a difference. We're aiming to make as many people LAUGH as possible, and it's not just comedy that does that, so we're about more than comedy.

This is a new idea for Off the Wall, and we're still at the dreaming up ideas stage. We're launching the MIND and Body link with a 5 a side football tournament organised by Sports in MIND.. and On the Ball at Off the Wall event.

We're also planning on launching a competition about Football chants -variations on the standard ones around the country to make us laugh... It started with Matt Harvey wondering if the chant for the Totnes Football Team would be something along the lines of "You're going home with your chakkras re-aligned", which made us laugh so much that we thought we'd encourage more such silliness.... Watch this space.... Meanwhile send us your favourite sports jokes to inspire us.

We'll be adding some ideas for how and where you can improve your mood using exercise - a bit of moving the body about a bit to shift your view of the world...

And for more information about exercise and mental health browse the Mental Health Foundation website.