WELLBEING Kate does… Online Body Wisdom Coaching YOUR wellbeing editor Kate tries out a treatment or event or activity each issue this time she samples virtual coaching.
I INSIGHT MEDITATION IN THE BUDDHIST TRADITION
www.gaiahouse.co.uk
Jenny Heaton BA RSHom Registered Homeopath and Massage Practitioner Natural, holistic healthcare
07794 288172 jennytheaton@gmail.com
Take a deep BREATH...
Learn how to use your breath to overcome stress and re-energise your body. Improve your health and help clear emotional blockages. Online 1:1 sessions available. Introductory workshops will recommence when it is safe to do so, please check the website.
Transformational Breathing
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“Rough Diamonds”
Festival of Solo Autobiographical Theatre 10-12 July Totnes Angel Studios and on-line
Directed by Agata Krajewska and Phil Barber of Stories for Change Tel: 0779 500 2816
www.roughdiamonstheatre.co.uk www.theatreofawakening.co.uk 26
N THE last issue before we moved into this strange, virtual world, I met up with Fiona Montgomery from Body Wisdom Coaching for a taster session. I was so inspired both by hearing Fiona’s story of recovery and by my brief introduction to her work that I’ve continued to work with her in the ensuing weeks and months. So, for the first time ever, this issue’s Kate Does… is a follow-on from the last. The only difference is that these sessions have been online rather than face-to-face. We’ve all faced our own challenges in adapting to our vastly curtailed freedoms. I’m not alone in experiencing personal, health, work and financial pressures and I have been very grateful for my weekly, and latterly fortnightly, Skype sessions with Fiona. To summarise how the therapy works, all of us have an emotional brain, which exists in our gut, and a thinking brain, which is the rational, reasoning part of ourselves. Body Wisdom Coaching – which is derived from Mickel Therapy – says that any physical or mental health symptoms we experience are an attempt by the emotional brain to get its needs met. In an ideal world, we would respond to messages from this deeply intuitive part of ourselves using our thinking brain. However, all too often, the logical part of ourselves overrides our gut instinct. We may become overanalytical or negative and this is where the problems start. Failure to act on what the emotional brain is telling us leads to something called a suppression neural pathway. The hypothalamus (responsible for the body’s fight or flight response) becomes overstimulated and, unable to get our attention in any other way, the emotional brain may start to create chronic symptoms within our body. Body Wisdom Coaching teaches us to reconnect with this more instinctual part of ourselves, to listen to what the body is trying to tell us and to act on these messages. The therapy appeals to me because it is dynamic and proactive. Rather than simply identifying issues, it provides a range of “keys” that you can use to address them.
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The issues I face are a mix of physical symptoms – I’ve had a frozen shoulder for nearly two years and a deep ache inside my hips for a year – and mental health challenges – I’ve had ongoing depression and anxiety for a few years. Using the pain in my hips as an example, Fiona asked me to “tune into” the area to see if I could identify any particular emotion associated with the pain. I was surprised to experience a flush of hot anger bordering on rage. We began discussing what might be causing the anger and I identified a number of issues from past and present day. Over the last few weeks I have been trying to acknowledge this anger, communicated from the deepest part of myself, and respond using some of the techniques recommended in the coaching. The pain hasn’t yet gone but it is no longer constant and I’m finding it less debilitating than I did. Like any kind of coaching, the process is emotional and challenging and it can feel like a hard grind. But I am constantly inspired by Fiona who spent 12 years in bed, unable to walk and barely able to eat due to a severe energy disorder. She used the process she now teaches to heal herself and is now the picture of radiant health and vitality. When my energy starts to wane, I reinvigorate myself by watching the Facebook video of her leaping into the River Dart and singing with sheer joie de vivre. Some of that please…. l To book an online Body Wisdom Coaching session email Fiona at: fionamonty1@ gmail.com. Visit: www. bodywisdomcoaching.co.uk
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