I am ready to celebrate! But it’s not what you think.

When I started my Remedial Massage practice, in 1993, a ‘business mentor’ said that it wouldn’t work in Swindon; I should go to Totnes or Glastonbury!

My thought was: relocating is not an option and people deserved pain relief in other towns too! 

 As Sean Stevenson put it: “don’t believe a prediction that doesn’t serve you!”

So despite the prediction and the difficulties life threw at me along the way, I followed my passion. Now I can celebrate 30 years in business  for the whole of 2023!

 

I want to celebrate with you as I truly enjoy what I do.  Helping people get better never feels like work and it now includes a lot more than massage. So I have devised 30 special mini retreats, available till 30th Dec 2023. 

Maybe you are ready for a reset or a reboot like with old computers to get them functioning better.

Just like I was told my business wouldn’t work, have you been told that:

 

If you work hard you will succeed, Computers will make your life easier, Doctors will make you better!  

This is what I heard as a child from parents, teachers, the media... However these didn't fit my experience of life. Trying harder just made me exhausted and frustrated at not making progress.

Computers haven’t really made my life easier.

My experience as a nurse helped me realise conventional medicine was ill equipped to deal with chronic problems.

I believed these, until I realised they were just stories.

We have been conditioned to believe that someone else’s way is the right way and often only way.  

How about in your life, are you lead by false beliefs?

We have been taught that in order to be liked we have to be good and behave. That generally means to listen and please others, rather than honour ourselves, our needs and values.

How often have you had a gut feeling and not followed through, then regretted it? This is because you were listening to someone else's path, not your own and staying true to yourself.

Ignoring such feelings and persistently sacrificing yourself can lead to frustration, anger, and overwhelm. Effectively what most people accept as normal stress. It arises because everyone else's wants and needs are getting on top of you. It might be the norm but that doesn’t make it normal!

Have a spa and relax!

Do you deal with it by ignoring it hoping it will magically vanish one day? Or maybe you go away for a spa day, or have a massage now and again. You might even think that going on holiday will make it better.

However, have you noticed that you relax there, but when you get home the same things still wind you up? Nothing has changed!

To me these are temporary avoidance. It's OK, they help recharge your battery but doesn't resolve anything.

You see, most spas and massages are designed as a generic product. They are not there to help you address specific issues and a holiday is a distraction and can be sometimes be just as draining.

Have the things you are doing to improve your situation stopped working or not working as well?

Doing more of the same and expecting a different outcome, is insanity, 

according to Einstein. 

Do you really want things to change?

Maybe you are ready for a completely different kind of retreat. One that can help you feel better for more than a few hours. One that can make a difference to your life. You might not need to do more but feel comfortable doing less.

YES, you can stop people-pleasing without your world falling apart!

Are you ready to put yourself first? (Yes you’ll probably feel guilty but this retreat can tackle that too.)

Remember, you can't take care of others if you don't look after yourself first. This is why you must put your own oxygen mask on, before helping anyone else (including your children!)

Do you want the courage and confidence to live YOUR life, rather than the one you have been told or believe you should live?

Because as the quote often wrongly attributed to Oscar Wild says 

“Be yourself, everyone else is already taken”.

 

Changing your relationship with yourself, will affect the one you have with food, money, work and ultimately your relationship with others. You can't change others but you can change yourself!

It is easier than you imagine because you already have all the tools you need. How do I know?  You are still alive! So whatever life has thrown at you so far, you have survived it!

Now you can choose to do more than survive and it starts with being able to love yourself. You can then love your life and others more, if you wish. The lack of alignment with our deepest self is the greatest cause of stress.

Ready to celebrate who you really are? Want to trust yourself, so you can have more of the life you want?   

The Body~Mind relax and regenerate mini-retreat is for you.

You will have a completely unique blend of physical treatments, as well practical approaches that will help you ease tension, find peace of mind and deeply relax. Like a complete physical, mental and emotional makeover!

 At the end, you will be able to think more clearly. Rather than simply patching symptoms that resurface over and over again, you will understand and be able to tackle the causes of your discomfort. Because only in a truly relaxed state are we most creative and best able to make good choices.

You will begin to feel yourself again, ready to own your life, in the knowledge that you are comfortable being who you are. A human being, not a human doing.

Not only are these 30 sessions unique to my birthday celebration, I am also giving the first 9 people who book a discount on the £300 price.

If this is not for you, but you would like to find out about other offers and events, I will be running over my celebration year, subscribe to my UPdates. 

You can also find some self help videos on my Youtube channel.

 

In order to get the most benefit you will need to commit to a 2 day, one to one, experience.

 Day 1:

Morning: You will be focussing on a reflective practice setting your intention and planning what you want from the retreat.

Prepare your lunch and evening meals. Ensure your home will be a nice place to relax in the evening and next day.

Afternoon: At 1.30pm you will join me, at my practice, for a 4hours treatment tailored to your needs.

It will include:

 -Clarifying your morning preparation about you intention for the session. Explain what you would like to achieve at the end of day 2.

- A physical assessment (Eg. gait, posture, mobility, blood pressure)

- An optional foot spa, a 90 min full body massage and/or other body work to release physical tension.

-Address, release and give you tools and techniques to deal with your most pressing cause of stress.

Evening: You will return home and continue to relax, eat the food you prepared that morning and sleep in the comfort of your own bed.

 

Day 2:

Morning  you will have time to reflect on what is really holding you back and what you are ready to change. 

Afternoon: a zoom call will answer any question that may have arisen and addressed the issues you have uncovered.

This process will:

Help you see the wood for the trees, by getting some clarity on the things that are truly getting in your way. Often not the things you think are the problem.

You will be able to put into practice easy techniques to help you get a better night’s sleep and improve your life.

Help you feel contented and more yourself. Feel more confident that you can own your life in the knowledge you are comfortable being who you are: a human being rather than a human doing!

Commitment:

You will need to have cleared your diary of commitments for the day of the treatment and the following day so you have time to process all the changes.

  

As I mentioned, there are only 30 retreat sessions available between now and 30 Dec 2023.

The first 3 to book will get over 30 % discount at £210

 The next 3 will pay £230

And 3 more get £30 off at £270. 

 

To book or for any further information, get in touch.

Until next time, be well, be you. 

Julie Nicholls Body~Mind Coach

No Need To Suffer

Evening Advertiser 1st August 2006

Do you put up with pain because you think it’s just part of life? There is an alternative, reports Graham Carter.

Have you heard the one about the 90 year old woman who went to the doctor’s complaining of a sore knee.

The doctor told her that it was only expected that such an old lady should have aches and pains. “Well, that can’t be right,” said the old lady. “because I’ve had my other knee 90 years as well - and that’s perfectly all right.”

Julie Nicholls doesn’t tell her clients this story to get a laugh. She tells them to make a point about the alternative treatments she offers which go under the umbrella of ‘Natural Therapy.’  And the message is that you don’t have to suffer.

Julie says that many of the problems people have are a result of stress, or something that has occurred in their past - what you call a hang-up. And this can manifest itself in may different ways, from seemingly unconnected niggly ailments to major emotional and psychological problems.

But Natural Therapy is all about treating causes, not symptoms. Take neck and shoulders. “People think it’s only natural that the stress they have ends up in their neck and shoulders,” said Julie. “If you look at people, you can often see them walking about, all hunched up as if they are carrying burden of their problems on their shoulders.

 “But if you relax your shoulders and raise your head, it’s possible to make the stress slip away and disappear. “It’s wrong to think that it has to end up somewhere in your body.”  Julie’s therapy is based on the technique she trained in originally, called Trager, although she has now added various other strings to her bow by applying what she has learned from treating people with more complex problems, such as post traumatic stress disorder.

 Listening skills, a common sense approach and a gift for ‘reading’ her clients’ situations are just as important. Other techniques she can use include Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR), in which clients follow the movement of her fingers with their eyes. This is believed to help by alternatively engaging the left and right sides of the brain.

All these approaches are straightforward and stress-free but the main thing they have in common is they turn the idea of ‘no pain, no gain’ completely on its head. They tackle problems not by meeting them head-on in an unpleasant way but by extracting positives and building on them.

 Expect an ultimately enjoyable experience. Whether you are trying to address a physical or emotional problem, the treatment often involves gentle manipulation of joints and muscles.

 Julie holds a limb, tells the patient to let her take the weight, and encourages them to relax. This seems easy. but Julie is extremely adept at ’reading’ your level of  relaxation-and just when you think you’ve “let go” she shows you that you haven’t. Eventually, by making you more and more relaxed, you reach a feeling of much greater calm.

After this the trick is to “capture” this feeling Julie trains her clients to reproduce it at will, although it may take some practice and might require a few sessions. The technique can even be used for people who are faced with specific problems, such as job interviews or having to make a speech.

In the end, Julie’s approach succeeds because it addresses situations, sympathetically, practically and logically. without requiring that leap of faith that is necessary in other ‘alternative’ therapies. Natural Therapy can take the weight off your shoulders - and in more ways than one.

To find out more phone Julie Nicholls on 01793 495551 or visit body-mind-coaching.co.uk

Shape Up Without The Strain

 

Evening Advertiser August 2002

While many of us risk strains or even pulled muscles with punishing sessions in the gym, there is a therapy in Swindon that offers increased physical and mental well-being without the burn.

Trager and Mentastics are innovative therapies, originally from America, which combine gentle relaxing manipulation of the body-Trager, with self-care mental gymnastics-Mentastics.

Key benefits of Trager and Mentastics include reduced stress and anxiety, increased suppleness, deep relaxation, increased energy levels and recovery from injury.

Students of the therapies and people just wishing to find out more about them gathered at Lainsmead Primary School in Eastern Avenue for a day-long workshop, organised by local Swindon therapist Julie Nicholls, 34.

The workshop was led by the Austrian Trager and Mentastics instructor Hadi Stieg-Breuss, who helped the students explore movements of their arms, hands, back and heads. Ms. Nicholls, who practises as a therapist in the Bentley Centre in Stratton Road, said the workshop was a success.

“I’ve run several of these workshops since 1997. They’re a lot of fun, very relaxing and people who have not done Trager or Mentatics before, say that the day really puts them in contact with their bodies.

“Trager and Mentastics look at the individual’s body,” she continues, “If the person is suffering any pain, it seeks to help them change the ways in which their bodies work for them. It’s about moving so you feel effortless.

“The principles of Trager study weight, space, breathing, pauses and movement. It’s about how to get into positions without having to force them. If a person has pain, they hold on to that muscle, tense it, stress about it, even get depressed and that pain can rule their lives.

“We help them to look at what’s happening in their bodies and ways in which moving differently may help - if you move more freely, life can feel wonderful.

Julie plans to hold another workshop in November and would like to hear from anyone who would like to take part. The session will be open to everyone, children included, although they must be old enough to follow movement directions.

To find out more phone Julie Nicholls on 01793 495551 or visit body-mind-coaching.co.uk