This week Big Love Movement turned 3. Three years since we were about to go into lockdown, I decided it would be a fantastic time to get Big Love Movement off the ground. I saw it as a nudge from the Universe and it worked, we’re still here and growing.

This week marks the Spring Equinox, a time of new beginnings and a New Moon. I love this time of year but until recently I had no idea how significant it was to me…

There’s no denying the deep healing that happens when we sleep but did you know that SLEEP and REST are two different things? But how can you get more rest when you have no time?

Restoration is a conscious act of self-care and self-preservation, it allows our body to repair, rebalance and restore order to anything that is feeling out of whack.

If you want to change how you are feeling; your emotions or the stress cycle you are experiencing whether in trying to fall asleep at night or at any other time of the day you need to change your physiology. The best and simplest way you can do this is by altering how you are breathing because your breath has a direct impact on your nervous system, they are linked.

We unintentionally hold tension in our bodies for a few reasons… For the most part, protecting and guarding happens around the delicate parts that we want to keep safe or away from harm. Think about your heart, lungs, and sexual and reproductive organs; often, this will be apparent in your shoulders and hips (surrounding areas) causing tightness or stiffness.

Creating tension in our body is something we unintentionally, or unconsciously do all the time.

Where you place your awareness is where you place your energy. If you are in pain where are you placing your attention? On your pain.

When you focus on the pain you are feeling, the feeling of pain gets amplified.

This can be exhausting and suddenly your pain is not only physical, it’s emotional too.

On any given day a stressful experience can knock you off balance and that can be internal or external, it won’t always be obvious to everyone else to see.

This is why mental health is not as simple as good or bad.

Awareness, empathy, compassion and resources are what we need so we can help ourselves and each other move through the inevitable challenges we face and rise when we stumble.

Two of the most important things you can do to help yourself create and stick to your intentions and new habits are to reduce your stress levels and get good quality sleep. For some of you, me included this is going to pose a problem because getting a good night’s sleep consistently and feeling less stressed day to day are two of the biggest challenges you might be faced with right now.

If finding time to look after yourself is your biggest challenge let me suggest you create pockets of time just for you because the last thing you need is self-care to be another thing to add to your to-do list! How can you use one of these snippets of time to do something that will improve your mood or help you to feel present so you are able to be more of how you want to feel?

How do you want to feel in your body and mind? What ONE change do you want to see or feel in yourself this month? Whatever word you chose to capture how you want to feel or the change you want to see, think about what it will be like to feel or be that way… How would you walk, talk and interact with people? What would you do differently?

Getting crystal clear on what it is you want to feel/be more of this month and why it will benefit you and impact your life creates an empowered intention and something you can connect to more easily, every day.

Are you feeling festive or frazzled? When you are so busy it can be hard to wind down and de-stress because your body is fired up and not able to fully rest and recover. This is where mindfulness can be helpful and has been proven to reduce stress. Mindfulness gives you time to reset and rebalance and helps shift your perspective. Here are three simple ways you can practice mindfulness over the festive period to help you feel calmer and more centred.

Imagine, if you could ease your anxiety and relieve physical tension with a series of taps. Imagine, if you could catch a negative thought in motion, focus on it and release it, effortlessly. All this is possible and that is why tapping is so powerful in supporting your well-being…

Journaling for me is a release; my thoughts become words on a page that are no longer swirling around in my head. Our thoughts cross the bridge into our bodies, reminding us that body-mind is one and the same. If you can learn to change your thoughts you can change how we are feeling, but first, you need to recognise how your thoughts are impacting your well-being.

Are there days when your mind simply won’t shut up?
Do you get stuck in your head and start to doubt yourself?
Are your thoughts often racing so much it’s hard to keep up?
The thoughts you have, especially self-critical ones, play havoc with your well-being changing how you breathe, and the way you behave and impacting your mood. Your breath gets faster, your chest feels tight and your stomach ends up in knots. These physical changes in your body are reactions to your thoughts…

Creating space for change can sound like an unrealistic concept in our modern world yet change is constant. You only need to look around you, at nature to see the signs that everything shifts and nothing stay the same, except perhaps for us. If change is constant it’s no wonder we feel so stuck when we keep doing things the same old things.

Making time for yourself isn't easy, even though you know you need to. Let’s be honest, knowing what you need and when you need it can be a challenge. It’s easy to keep pushing on when things need to get done and get swept up in the fear of not having enough time. With all that you are doing, where are you giving yourself space to be restored, feel energised, uplifted and reconnected?

Self-awareness happens in the slowing down.

Understanding your personal seasons gives you more appreciation for your emotional well-being. This gives you more creative and intuitive control over your life and inner landscape allowing you to rebalance and reconnect with less effort, more often.

It’s the Autumn Equinox, (in the Northern Hemisphere) the time of year when we sense the shift in the seasons, our moods and our lifestyles… It’s when plants and trees are slowing down as sunlight decreases to get ready for the colder season ahead. We too are being called to slow down and turn inward but how we choose to do that nowadays is somewhat confusing in today’s hectic modern world.

"Why is it so difficult to make time for myself?" Does this sound familiar to you? I know it does for me! This sentence has been said to me in many ways, many times over the past few weeks, it's something we all seem to struggle with. I know this feeling all too well, and although nowadays some would call me selfish with my time, my well-being is patting me on the way!

September is when I start to reflect on what I wanted from and for myself this year, it's a time when I renew my intentions and have a deep desire to make these next few weeks and months really count! If you feel the same it’s easy to see how easily you can get caught up in the hustling energy and become impatient. It’s when we allow ourselves to get swept up in the doing that we lose a sense of why we’re doing it in the first place.

When we say, “don't get your hopes up”, it’s almost like we are limiting our own belief in things being better, in things improving or something changing for us. Let's all agree that getting our hopes up is a rising of our vibrational energy. The energy within us is what influences our mood and the way we are in the world. When our vibration is high, we feel more switched on, we feel alive, and I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to dull that down.