I was recently invited by Whole Foods Market in Glasgow to talk to their customers about juicing, retreats and everything in between. I was so delighted to have been asked as I’ve been a huge fan of theirs ever since my first trip to London and I realised that Whole Foods was my favourite tourist attraction. As excited as I was about speaking there, nothing could have prepared me for a magical, chance encounter with one customer.
On the Saturday afternoon, I met a lovely young girl and her Mum, who started chatting away to me about the retreats and juicing. Fairly quickly, it transpired that this girl was in her final year of high school, but had been plagued with anxiety and stress for the last couple of years and it was affecting not only her school life, but also her wellbeing. Just listening to her, reminded me so much of the issues I’d had with anxiety myself, and a stammer in particular - which is essentially just an anxiety about speaking.
I was so pleased that she’d mentioned all of this because at least I could give her some suggestions of things that had helped me, for her to try and hopefully make a difference. Here’s what I suggested:
1. Be careful with sugar – the first time I purposefully decided to cut out sugar, after one week I remember being amazed at how much more calm and relaxed I felt.
2. Magnesium – I’m a big believer in this wonderful mineral, which sadly is so lacking in our soil because we don’t do crop rotation anymore, therefore most of us aren’t getting enough. Magnesium is a muscle relaxant, so if you’re stressed or anxious, you could probably benefit from some magnesium because your muscles will be tense. I use Magnesium Oil from ‘Better You’ which you apply onto the skin, which means it gets absorbed into the bloodstream really quickly. Any sore, tense muscles or even period cramps – after applying the oil I notice a difference within 20 minutes.
3. Mindfulness or meditation – if you’re stressed or anxious you’re letting your mind run away with you... but at the end of the day, you’re only dealing with thoughts and you’re the script-writer of those thoughts! So, practising things like meditation, even guided meditations, is a wonderful way to slow things down, create some space and allow yourself to deal with whatever you’re facing, calmly.
1. EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) – I also told her to go home that evening and look up EFT. It’s the most incredible tool and it takes just minutes to master. EFT is a simple technique that can help you release any emotional stress or anxiety within minutes, just by tapping a handful of acupressure points on the head, face and body. Any time you’re stressed, worried, annoyed, upset or anxious – find somewhere quiet or lock yourself in the loo, and tap! EFT is now being used by the USA Military with soldiers suffering from PTSD, so it's a serious tool and is widely recognised, despite it being so simple. Here's an example video - watch it here.
The magical part of this story happened when they both returned to Whole Foods the next day to speak to me... and to my surprise, the young girl was beaming from ear-to-ear. She informed me with absolute glee that she’d done exactly what I’d said and had tried tapping that evening and again in the morning - and she said that she had instantly felt so much better.
She also mentioned that because of the stress and anxiety, it had been affecting her monthly cycle to the point where she hadn’t had a period for months. But she was over the moon because her period had come that morning after the tapping! I’ll be honest, I found myself a bit teary-eyed because not only was she telling me how drastically different she felt after just 24 hours... but I could actually see the change in her. She looked like a different girl, like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders. It was just incredible.
I’m sharing this with you in the hope it might inspire someone else – these suggestions and techniques are so easy and yet so powerful. Please do share this with anyone you think might benefit from this information, I just want to show people that there’s hope out there and you can do something about how you’re feeling.
The Body Toolkit award-winning retreat programmes share simple, yet powerful things we can all do to nourish the body, reduce stress and help ourselves to thrive. For dates, availability and prices for upcoming retreats: www.thebodytoolkit.com/book-a-retreat
