Holistic Health and Wellbeing
Aromatherapy
Aromatherapy is a holistic healing treatment that uses essential oils to promote health and well-being. Aromatherapy uses aromatic essential oils medicinally to improve the health of the body, mind, and spirit. It enhances both physical and emotional health. Benefits include; reduced stress & anxiety, improves sleep quality, helps manage pain, treats headaches, eases discomfort of labour, boosts immunity
Reiki
Reiki is a Japanese energy healing technique that is administered by ‘laying on hands’ or distance healing. It is based on the idea that when unseen life force energy flows through us and is what causes us to feel alive. A treatment is like a wonderful glowing radiance that flows through and around you. Reiki treats the whole person including body, mind and spirit. Benefits include; reduced stress and anxiety, alleviates depression, feel more grounded and connected to the world, helps you feel relaxed with a better sense of balance
Reflexology
Reflexology is aimed at promoting health in body organs and releasing stress from the body. In this therapy, the feet and hand are mapped to spot particular points which correspond to body parts and systems. By stroking, massaging, and applying pressure to such points, therapy can unblock energy flow and release tension. Benefits include; reduced pain, depression and anxiety, eliminates build-up of toxins in the body, encourages flow of blood to the organs, activates endocrine system, decongests the energy pathways for optimum nervous system function, induces relaxation states. Reflexology also encourages the release of endorphins; the natural feel-good hormones in the body that can minimize the body’s stress response.
Mindfulness
Mindfulness is bringing awareness to what you are doing at this present moment. By pausing or slowing down and paying attention to your breath and five senses – what do I feel? what do I see? what can I smell? What do I hear? What can I touch? There are a number of mindfulness techniques that help a person be mindful e.g. body scan meditation, mindful movement, mindful eating, feelings & emotions meditation, practicing gratitude. Benefits include; induces relaxation states, reduced anxiety and depression, strengthens the immune system, is effective for managing chronic pain, facilitates recovery. Mindfulness also encourages the release of endorphins; the natural feel-good hormones in the body that can minimize the body’s stress response. In addition, it can help people manage diabetes, heart disease, blood pressure and gastrointestinal problems.
Yoga
Yoga is a physical exercise that involves different body poses, breathing techniques, and meditation. The therapy may help with depression and your symptoms, such as difficulty concentrating or loss of energy. Many people use yoga therapy to manage: mental and emotional problems, such as stress, anxiety, or depression. The benefits include; it functions like other self-soothing techniques, such as meditation, relaxation, exercise, or even socializing with friends. Yoga practice modulates stress response systems. This, in turn, decreases physiological arousal — for example, reducing the heart rate, lowering blood pressure, easing respiration. There is evidence that yoga practices help increase heart rate variability, an indicator of the body's ability to respond to stress more flexibly.
Healthy Eating
Eating a healthy, balanced diet is an important part of maintaining good health and can help you feel your best. This means eating a wide variety of foods in the right proportions, and consuming the right amount of food and drink to achieve and maintain a healthy body weight. The Benefits of healthy eating are; can help individuals achieve and maintain a healthy body weight, Helps the person consume important nutrients, Reduces the risk of developing health conditions such as high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, cancer, osteoporosis, iron deficiency
Indian Head Massage
Part of the Hindu health care practice of Ayurveda, Indian head massage focuses on your head, neck and shoulders. It is a deep massage, which uses a variety of pressure and techniques that tap into your seven "'chakras" or paths of energy and encourage healing and balance in your whole body. It will relieve aches, pains and tension in your neck, back and shoulders, improve the texture of your hair and encourage it to grow. An Indian head massage stimulates the flow of blood, lymph and oxygen in your upper body which will clear your sinuses, relieve stress and help you sleep better. Indian Head Massage helps increase mobility and flexibility in the neck and shoulders. It improves blood circulation, lymphatic flow and aids elimination of toxins and is particularly good for reducing the effects of stress and tension. The massage increases nourishment and oxygen to the scalp and hair follicle which in turns stimulates hair growth. The head neck and shoulders are very important energy centres within your body.
Perinatal mental health
A 'perinatal' mental health problem is one that you experience any time from becoming pregnant up to a year after you give birth. Having a baby is a big life event. It's natural to experience a range of emotions during pregnancy and after giving birth .If your suffering from post-natal depression or perinatal mental health please seek help from your GP or midwife.
Goal setting & Health habits
Setting goals can provide you with valuable learning experiences that will benefit not only your mental health but your life in general. The practice can teach you important lessons on many things from independence, resilience, and competition to forgiveness and kindness. Most of us fall into the trap of setting goals based on outcomes rather than focusing on the habits that help us achieve outcomes, particularly when it comes to our health. We usually focus on the results rather than the processes. Benefits of goal setting include; helps trigger new behaviours, improved focus and helps you sustain that momentum in life. With improved motivation it can lead to greater success and performance. Goal setting can also improve our mental health and our level of personal and professional success.
Five ways to wellbeing
The Five Ways to Wellbeing are simple and proven actions that we can introduce to help find balance, build resilience and boost mental health and wellbeing. Connect. Connect with the people around you: family, friends, colleagues and neighbours at home, work, school or community. Be active. Go for a walk or run, cycle, play a game, garden or dance. Exercising makes you feel good. Take notice. Be observant, look for something beautiful or remark on something unusual. Savour the moment, whether you. Keep learning. Don’t be afraid to try something new, rediscover an old hobby or sign up for a course. Give. Do something nice for a friend or stranger, thank someone, smile, volunteer your time or consider joining a community group.
Positive Self Talk
Self-talk is your internal voice. It is influenced by your subconscious mind and thinking. Our internal voice can be both negative and positive. It can be encouraging, and it can be distressing. Positive self-talk can enhance your performance and general wellbeing. The words we use can define our personality and mindset. By choosing positive words for our internal voice, we can improve our health and wellbeing. Benefits of positive self-talk include; greater life satisfaction, increased vitality, improved immune function, reduced pain, better cardiovascular health, better physical well-being, reduced risk for death, less stress and distress, reduced anxiety and depression. Research also suggests people with positive self-talk may have mental skills that allow them to solve problems, think differently, and be more efficient at coping with hardships or challenges. This can reduce the harmful effects of stress and anxiety.
Heartmath Resilience Programme
As well as running a Holistic Mums programme, we were lucky to receive funding from the National Lottery Community Fund to train some of our members to facilitate a HeartMath Resilience programme and become certified HeartMath coaches.
HeartMath is an innovative approach to improving wellbeing and performance. It involves using Biofeedback technology to monitor your heart rhythms and learning simple and powerful techniques for self-regulation of thoughts, feelings and physiology.
These techniques are easy to learn and designed to be used “in the moment” whatever the situation, meaning that you can bring your best self to your personal, social and professional lives.
This approach helps you create an optimal state in which the heart, mind and emotions are operating in-sync and balanced, helping you transform stress into resilience and achieve higher levels of performance.