Refresh Integrative Wellbeing

10/09/2025

Yesterday was my first day off (ish) since the start of the Summer Holidays....
...not exactly practicing what I preach hey 😬

I wanted to share because I want to apologise for the lack of content....I know it's not fashionable to apologise but I am so thankful to you all for being here & getting involved whether through liking, commenting or even sharing my work....

It is my passion & when you spend sometimes hours creating content & giving your professional knowledge out to the ether pro bono, it really is nice to know it makes even a little difference, so sorry and thank you 💖

Also, I wanted to be accountable to myself....Ironically I am hosting a day Retreat on Friday with a theme of nurturing the carer within, following the Summer madness

Being a single parent it's only natural that you sometimes have to make difficult choices, & at times and end up at the bottom of the pile so to speak....

and being self employed during the holidays means to having to cram client sessions in to the couple of days a week that the children spend with their father....

but its all because I choose things to be this way

I maybe could get childcare, I maybe could lessen the sense of responsibility I take for my clients, helping others & possibly even let the kids take their own plates away after tea....

but the time passes by in the blink of an eye and before you know it your wishes to publish your book, commit to your weekly hike, test the waters of dating (with boundaries not walls 😬) and let life in a little, have been relegated

So yesterday, I chose me, for a huge change

Parked the parent / therapist / writer / friend / creator guilt and had a beautiful walk, lunch & me time

I hope you create the chance to do the same for yourself....possibly at Friday's retreat if you feel called (still a couple of places up for grabs)

Thank you for being here 💖

'5 Ways to use Wellbeing tools to stretch your Window of Tolerance' is coming soon....

07/09/2025

Great course starting this Monday....Learn a new stress & anxiety busting tool each week. DM me or Anything Goes to book your spot 💖

Week 2 tomorrow,, ping us to book

🖌️ Art for Anxiety: 8-Week Therapeutic Art Course 🧘‍♀️
Transform stress into creativity—no art skills needed.

Feeling overwhelmed, anxious, or emotionally stuck?
Discover the healing power of creativity in our 8-week “Art for Anxiety” course. Designed for adults who want to explore self-expression, calm the nervous system, and reconnect with their inner peace through guided art practices.

🎨 What You'll Experience:

Weekly 1 hour sessions.

Mindful drawing, painting, and mixed media techniques

Tools to manage anxiety through creative expression

A supportive, judgment-free space

🗓️ Course Dates:

Starts Monday 8th September 1pm -2pm
£10 per session

03/08/2025

Did you know that

22/07/2025

Your body is an amazing machine doing its thing....

🌬Increasing your breathing & heart rates to get oxygen to your muscles when you exercise

💪Sending 'repair' cells to your muscles to help them repair & grow after a workout

🍕Sending messages brain to gut, triggering the release of appetite hormones when you're low on fuel

💖🔥Triggering various mood hormones to help you know what helps you feel good....and what needs attention

But it needs a little help....

The cells in our body will do their thing but they need the right ingredients....

Our Window of Tolerance shrinks under the weight of stress and trauma, but not all of that stress and trauma is what we experience

If our cells can't repair due to lack of nutrients, it causes Inflammation, just like when we bump & bruise ourselves....Inflammation is a stress on our system

When our gut does not have the right balance of bacteria, it cannot eliminate waste & toxins from our body, causing Inflammation & blocking the absorption of all the nutrients we need to repair the damage....AND for every day, balanced function

Chemicals absorbed into our body, such as artificial sweeteners, are treated as a 'threat' by immune cells, causing Inflammation, while the low calorie content marked by sweet taste tricks our body into thinking it has more energy than is present, causing blood sugar imbalances & mood disturbances....hello hangry!

Nutrition has a powerful impact on our Mind, Body & Soul wellbeing, so why not try using one of these 5 tools to give your body some support & love 💖

Next week, we're looking at 5 ways to use movement to help stretch our Window of Tolerance 💪💪

21/07/2025

4 posts, 20 strategies to improve your life....

Why?

Because we all deserve to have the best experience of life that we can....

For ourselves and for those around us who care, and who are also watching and learning from how we treat ourselves when things get tough

The start of the Summer holidays has landed in our household, and while some of the time & logistics pressures have been removed, life will always present new challenges in their place....

We can't always choose or control our environment, but our power lies in learning how our Mind, Body & Soul system works, and how we can use it for collective benefit to:

🌋Reduce stress & reactivity
🔥Process big feelings
🥊Successful resolve conflicts
⚠️Navigate unexpected changes
💖Soothe emotional discord
✨️Increase energy & motivation
⏰️Get the most out of your precious time

The most crucial element of our Mind, Body, Soul system is our Central Nervous System....

It's the pathway where all of our thoughts, feelings, emotions & behaviours are created and learning how to balance it is our greatest asset

So over the coming weeks we'll be looking at some of the CNS balancing tools I use successfully both in my personal life and that I teach clients in my private practice, so you can begin to thrive in the summer season....and beyond💪

We'll keep it simple, 5 practical ways you can use Nutrition; Movement; Wellbeing practices; & Trauma Focused Therapy approaches to stretch your Window of Tolerance & stay in Central Nervous System balance

It starts with 'Nutrition' tomorrow....subscribe to notifications so you don't miss it 💖

09/07/2025

Emergency Responders work changes neurobiology, but it can be retrained....

Do you know about your Window of Tolerance?
...& how to regulate it?

The Window of Tolerance shows zones where we have less & optimum Tolerance to life, triggers & stress

When we operate from the middle part, the window of tolerance, we are open, flexible, adaptable & in control, but in under or over activation zones, we have less control of our thoughts, feelings, emotions & actions & instead, act with greater influence of our automatic survival modes

Following on from our chat about our Central Nervous System 'Baseline'....the point where we NOTICE we are over or under activated, this little diagram shows a few of the signs of being over-activated or under activated, along with a few tools to shift us back into a state of balance

Two key things to note about the Window of Tolerance....

1. Your Tolerance Window will be different for different 'types' of event / experience / circumstance....although different circumstances, etc can have a key theme, such as feeling 'not good enough', alone, rejected, betrayed, etc

2. Your Window of Tolerance will shrink the more you encounter the same event / experience / circumstance, causing you to enter over or under activation modes (Huper or Hypo activation) quicker & with greater force.

If you've been following previous posts, we looked at Hot and Cold response modes of our Central Nervous System, Hot is Hyper activated, Cold is Hypo activated, the middle area is tge sweet spot of warmth & gentle activation

Thinking of your Nervous system as a pan of water can help you visualise the effect....not enough heat on the pan & the water remains stuck, stagnant & cold.
Add a little heat energy & we get warmth & some gentle movement....but too much & the water boils over or evaporates quicker.
Staying in the warm zone allows greater comfort & adaptability without moving into extremes at either end of the temperature scale

You can use up & down regulating tools to bring your system back into the window of Tolerance, or as I usually refer to it, balance

The more you practice returning to balance, the more automatically you'll do it in response to life's twists & turns

Want to learn more? We're Live tomorrow at 6pm 💖

09/07/2025

We've looked at the Hot and Cold modes of our Central Nervous system, now for the middle bit.

The quicker we can return to this mode after being in the hot or cold modes of our system, and the more time we can intentionally make time to be in this mode, the better our physical, social, mental and emotional wellbeing becomes.

Even short bursts of getting into this mode throughout the day (Through grounding, breathwork and other CNS regulation tools), the less that stress, adrenaline, cortisol and norepinephrine build up in our system and create mental, physical and emotional tension, declined immune function and increased impulsivity.

Any questions, please ask away below or via DM

08/07/2025

Emergency Service Work changes the neurobiology-The way our brain, body and behaviour responds to our environment.

Following on from the posts about common Mental, Emotional, Physical and Behavioural changes common behaviour changes in response to emergency service response work, I though it would be good to run through one of the changes from start to end so you can see real life examples of how it can play out.

Here's how neurobiological changes affect our level of REACTIVITY, showing:

*Possible Life Situations which trigger Reactivity

*Our Impulse reactions that either happen and are expressed or squashed down

*Why our impulse reactions change as a result of Emergency Service Response work (Layperson explanation)

* Why our impulse reactions change as a result of Emergency Service Response work (The Science)

*Common Behaviour Responses (How we've adapted to respond to the situation)

* Outcomes of the event - Our responses and
some consequences

* Alternate pathways you could try in order to
rewire the automatic response pathways

I'll post another behaviour change example but REACTIVITY is one of the two biggest changes because, as the name suggests, Emergency Response Work is all about responding quickly to situations using pre-programmed ways of doing things, often using unemotional 'Stereotype' information, i.e. house + fire =attack fire or as our brain can see it in its basic sense 'Threat + Known remedy action = Threat resolved'

Any questions, please feel free to DM or comment and please do share with anyone who may benefit.

07/07/2025

What's your day-to-day 'normal'?
...Stressed? Worried? Stacked?
Always on the go? or maybe Exhausted? Drained? Blah?

We could go on all day with the many ways we experience life, but no doubt the two explanations for however you generally 'feel' would be 'It's just life' or 'It's just the way I am'

When we go through similar events that leave us feeling a certain way, we become desensitised to it....

It just becomes the 'norm'

But the challenge with this is that although we won't necessarily experience significant mental distress, our Central Nervous System still responds to stress in the same way

Creating greater potential for blow-up or shut-down, more reliance on coping mechanisms, a greater sense of unease and sometimes doom or apprehension, and changes to our physical health
...bur the biggest challenge with Desensitisation is that it keeps us stuck

We can't be empowered to solve a problem we don't know exists!

So, if you're curious to learn what your own Central Nervous System 'Baseline' is (that is, the everyday state you consider 'normal'), I'm going to run through it with you & show you how!

We're going 'Live' this Thursday at 6pm for a Q&A on CNS Baselines and go through a Body Scan exercise to locate the root of feelings that sustain our Baseline, in our body
...I can't wait to share!

Make sure you subscribe for updates & notification of Thursday's 'Live' so you don't miss it! 💖