I was lucky enough to be invited onto Wycombe Sound FM this week with my friend and life coach Tracy James from Big Yellow Coaching. We were invited to talk about New Years resolutions and how to stay on track and why many wellness related resolutions have often gone out the window by now.
It was a great opportunity for me to talk about why I founded a wellness business that’s about more than just weight loss. I wanted to get across that with so many people suffering from stressful jobs and busy lives it’s so important that everyone finds time to check in with themselves to recognise how they are feeling and if they are feeling out of balance or stressed they need to have a tried and trusted way to be able to rebalance and restore energy, calmness and relaxation.
I was able to explain how I’d found the breathing and mindful movement involved with Pilates based exercise totally life changing when I felt overwhelmed and stressed a lot of the time in my marketing career. I’d started my journey to find a way to cope with my job through the physical symptoms of stress – I was fed up of wearing my tension in my muscles particularly around my neck, shoulders and back. I hadn’t realised that those were physical symptoms that could be eased through relaxing my mind as much as relaxing my body and that’s what Pilates based exercise did for me – helping me manage and rebalance the mind and body.
I know Pilates based exercise isn’t for everyone and not everyone needs stress relief, Pilates based exercise is also brilliant for simply wanting to move better, feel stronger and more agile for day to day life as well as getting a competitive edge in your other sports. Pilates based exercise keeps your joints strong and supple, stretches and strengthens the smaller supporting muscles as well as the larger muscle groups of your core and leaves you feeling strong, long and toned.
If you’re feeing stressed or wondering if you’re are stressed, I found this article really clear and concise about spotting the signs of stress to and some advice on how to handle it. I encourage you to find a quite space and just breathe gently and scan through your body and let your mind settle and see if any of these resonate. If they do, I really encourage you to find an outlet whether that be simply walking in nature, going for a jog, trying a yoga or pilates class or a creative pursuit but find something that brings you joy and keep doing it even when you feel at your most stressed – in fact especially when you feel at your most stressed!
Article: How to recognise and deal with stress
If you’d like to have a listen you can hear the interview at 2.16 here:
To get in touch with Tracy about her life coaching expertise, you’ll find her at: www.brightyellowcoaching.com