Many people that as though life is speeding up. There is always something pressing. Every minute needs to be utilised to clear off the list of tasks. Waiting for a bus can give the chance to check emails. A text can be sent while waiting for the kettle to boil. Life gets more full and we feel we have less time. Recently, I had the opportunity to feel this really clearly.

Maybe you've had an accident, an injury, an illness or an operation. You are inside this body that you no longer really know. The things you could do easily are now more of a challenge or impossible. You are having to adapt your life around what you are now capable of. You have possibly been given an estimated recovery time, but it still can feel scary and demoralising not to be able to function as you once did. You may feel emotionally fragile and vulnerable as you navigate this temporary new you. 
I have always empathised with my clients on their healing journeys, but                                                    now I actually know how they feel.

I know that stress can be caused by a lot of things. Your job, finances, family situation, commute or a combination of all of these things. You may feel that you never have time to do the things you need or want to, that there aren't enough hours in the day.
Although I don't have the answers  as to how you can resolve all the areas in your life that put you under pressure, there is something that I have learnt (and am still learning!) that makes a difference to how stressed I feel, and it's very simple indeed. 
It involves resolving to ban two words from thoughts and my actions. They are..
'I'll just...'
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So many of the people I meet have learnt to live with something. It might be pain, lack of movement, poor sleep or being unable to do the things they once loved. They have reduced their expectations of what is possible, normal or OK for them. That's not to say that they are happy about it, usually quite the opposite in fact, but it has just become a fact of life and they believe that there is very little that can be done to change that.
But how many of us, even if we don't have anything hugely wrong with us, accept a slightly poorer standard of wellbeing? What happens when we put up with a little niggle thinking that is just part of being human? What happens when we accept 'kind of lousy' as our benchmark for 'normal'? 

It's getting to that wonderful time of year when the Christmas lights are going up on our streets and our thoughts are turning to festive things. Our diaries might be starting to fill up with lovely get-togethers, parties and dinners with friends. As a result, we will probably be eating more and differently than we normally do.
Sadly, we also often end up feeling bloated and getting nasty bouts of indigestion and heartburn. This post, inspired by a chat with a client last week, is to give you some tips so that you can make the most of this wonderful time of year and possibly avoid some of the side effects!

If you wake up in the morning with an aching face, tight jaw or a headache, you are certainly not on your own! It is estimated that around one in 3 people suffer from bruxism or teeth grinding or clenching. You might not do it all the time, only noticing that feeling occasionally, or it might be something you notice you do quite a lot, even during the day.
Quite often it is your dentist that points it out to you when you go in for your twice yearly check-up as they can see that you are actually wearing down or damaging your teeth as a result. They might offer you a mouth guard to help to prevent the damage but that doesn't help you to stop doing it.

Many of us are really bad at asking for help for so many reasons. We want to shield our loved ones from extra burdens. We want to be (or at least appear) strong, in control and capable of anything. We don't want to seem weak. We think we can do it better.  We may know intellectually that we can't help others if we don't help ourselves, but how many of us actually practice that? How many of us keep going, taking on more, maybe ending up resenting family, loved ones or colleagues instead of asking, (nicely!) for help?
The thing is, the only way to carve out some time for ourselves and our health is by accepting we can't do it all. Really we can't. 

Perhaps you, like many people I treat, feel anxious. It might not be bad enough to send you to the doctor, but you know you rarely feel calm and peaceful. Things to be done, people to contact, trying to balance work with play, a busy diary, worries about loved ones and the future. All of these things set our thoughts racing. Our mind becomes a space full of internal chatter and we start to feel completely fried.
I know there are lots of things we can do to calm ourselves; walks in nature, long baths, yoga and meditation.. but today I am going to talk about our biggest friend and also what I think might also be something less positive than that. Our smartphone...

You don't feel great. You don't even feel good. 
Maybe you don't sleep well. Maybe you have aches and pains. Maybe your digestion isn't brillliant. Maybe you have energy slumps, mood swings and just feel generally rubbish. You know you should feel better but you simply don't have the time to address all these issues. 

Like many of my clients, your life is pretty demanding. 

A job that takes up a lot of your time and thoughts.
People who rely on you.
A home to look after.

Maybe you feel like you don't have a spare minute to yourself and when you do, you are often too frazzled or anxious to enjoy it.
So do you give up all hope of feeling happier, more energised and healthier?
What I know is that feeling better is possible no matter how demanding your life is. The answer is simple.
Start small.

It might be your husband or your mum. It could be your brother, friend, daughter or partner. You love them so much and it pains you to see them not looking after themselves. They might be in pain, eating unhealthily, abusing their body with substances or putting themselves under so much stress. They might have a job they hate, or relationships that are unhealthy. They might be pushing themselves to breaking point at work or in a sport. You want to help them, protect them, teach them or save them. You can't bear to see them suffer unnecessarily. If you have faced your own challenges and come through them, you might have so much wisdom you want to offer. But they just don't want to hear it.