Guest blog by Joanne Marie from Breathe Holistic Therapy in Kidderminster...

I am not a naturally calm person.  I had a tendency to churn things over in my mind and inevitably this could lead to anxiety.  I was one of those swans……calm on the surface but paddling like crazy underneath. 

The realisation that stress was damaging my well being and happiness lead me to make some big changes in my life. After discovering the wonderful relaxing effects of reflexology. 

I knew others could benefit too. I established Breathe Holistic Therapy in Kidderminster and I’ve been happily relaxing people for the last 8 years, but most of us can’t employ a massage therapist on call so how can we relax easily at home?

Crafting is well known for its calming properties. I have ventured into many forms of craft but if I’m honest I’m not naturally creative and I’m just a little bit clumsy! I’m not sure my kitchen has never quite recovered from the candle making experiment.  I did however have a secret way to relax which harnessed the tiny threads of creativity that were lurking inside. I was a closet colouring in fan. Give me a colouring in book and some pens and I could happily lose myself, relaxing and forgetting any of those churning thoughts.  For years I encouraged my son to join me just so I could indulge in my own guilty pleasure. I have to admit that star wars characters, cars and robots weren’t exactly perfect subjects but I still loved the process of gradually filling the white page with colour.

Little did I know that my secret was actually incredibly fashionable with the stylish ladies of Paris. It appears I was ahead of my time. Stressed mothers across the Channel are just like me reaching for their colouring in books. Ever stylish, their books are somewhat more artistic than battling star wars figures. Truly beautiful colouring books are sold as “art therapy” and specifically marketed for reducing stress and anxiety.

But why is it so relaxing? Colouring in requires focus and for me feels quite meditative. I am completely in the moment, not analysing the past or worrying about the future.  I also love the freedom from concern about failure or doing things right.  Sitting and colouring is a refuge from the demands of life, it is a moment of freedom.  When immersed in my colouring I almost feel like I’m in a hypnotic trance. You can feel creative and peaceful, and above all I find a genuine happiness in the process.

In France the colouring in for calmness books can outsell cookery books; they have been embraced as a really practical easy way to lower stress and anxiety.  If you feel the need to relax and escape for a few minutes every day and you aren’t lucky enough to have a reflexologist or hypnotherapist on call then I would recommend taking a look. A book and some felt tips could be one answer to you stress management needs.

Bio

Joanne Marie is a reflexologist who loves to see the fantastic relaxation benefits experienced by her clients. Breathe Holistic Therapy was established in Kidderminster in 2008. Joanne is also trained to work with pregnant clients.  She has a son who loves reflexology almost as much as she does!

A fear of water is something that many people suffer from. It may surprise you to hear that Dame Kelly Holmes was one person who found it caused her to worry so much she would not go swimming, especially when you consider that as an Olympic Sportswoman she has achieved so much based on physical activity.

Nevertheless after an incident as a child she had a terrible fear of water. She explained it all to Marcus Brigstocke on the BBC Radio 4 programme "I've never seen Star Wars" where guests try a variety of things that they have never done before. For the show Dame Kelly had hypnotherapy to see if it would help her overcome that irrational fear, but very much real in her own mind.

Before she had the hypnotherapy she rated how scared she was of water on a scale of one to ten. She said that in fact she would be a twenty out of ten, so clearly it really affected her badly.

She explained that she was a bit sceptical and thought that perhaps the hypnotist would just click his fingers and she would drop into a trance. It's a typical reaction based on media images of hypnosis that bear not similarity to what actually happens.

She described what happened when she went for her hypnotherapy. When she found out that hypnosis is often just about talking about the problem and then finding a way to overcome it, she was already able to be set more at ease.

Her fear was quite extreme and it meant that there was no way that she would even want to get into a swimming pool. This can be typical of the level of anxiety that anyone with a fear experiences.

There are many ways you can learn to relax and let go of phobias. So many people feel that they must live with a phobia or fear. It is important to remember that we are only born with two fears.. the fear of falling and loud noises. This means we must have learnt any fear we have...so if you can learn it you can unlearn it too!

After the session she went to a swimming pool and not only did she enter the pool, but she even dived off a diving board into the water. She then did a twenty five metre swim after being taught the front crawl, then she did four more lengths!

It's lovely to hear stories like this in the media about how you can make a really great change to your life.

As Dame Kelly said..."I got in the pool and that was the objective. I would give the experience of trying Hypnotherapy ten out of ten."

If you have a fear or phobia you can read more about how to overcome it here:  End fears and phobias with hypnotherapy

If you would like to end your phobia you can contact me on 07980 233160 or email me on i[email protected] I work from my practice in the Midlands and also via Skype across the world.

Update on 20th February.  Tonight on ITV Dame Kelly Holmes joins Bear Grylls in a new programme called Mission Survive where we will really get to see how well her fear of water has been tackled!  Good luck Dame Kelly !