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. 

If you have ever suffered from whiplash, you know how debilitating and painful it can be. It's not just the stiffness and the soreness (which is bad enough!), but it's also the pain you get when you lie down and sit up and generally try to move normally. You may have been a bit more fortunate in that your symptoms cleared up in a few days or possibly weeks, but for some people, the pain from the whiplash goes on and on. Many people start to get to the end of their tether and wonder if they will ever go back to living a normal life particularly if they are not getting any relief from physio or other conventional methods.

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...

If you have been in pain for a while, chances are you have tried a few different things. After seeking help from your doctor you may have started looking elsewhere to complementary therapies, yoga or Pilates. But what do you do if you don't see results quickly? You can start feeling frustrated, depressed..and it is costing you a lot of money.  
Philippa is an education consultant who came to see me in September 2014 suffering from severe hip pain. This is her story..

Most of us have had one or more moments in our lives when something just changed. We might have fallen in love, experienced something or realised something, and in that second a momentous shift occurred in our lives. It might have been a very obvious change for all the world to see or it might have been an internal thing that meant that you would never see the world in exactly the same way again. 
This happened to me when I discovered Amatsu and as this is one of the things I am asked about most often, I'd like to share                                                                   that story with you today. 

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.

If you are like many of my clients, you may be in pain but don't know why. You haven't done anything to yourself and yet all of a sudden, you find yourself living with a pain that is affecting your life. Josephine Charlton is freelance PR consultant. She lives a busy and active life with her partner, two young children and a dog. A couple of years ago, she started experiencing pain in her knee. As far as she was aware she hadn't strained or sprained it. She hoped it would get better by itself but it was getting worse.
I'd like to share Josephine's story with you..