​Before I launch in just thought I’d do a little recap. Back in 2016 I was in a high-pressure job working in children’s critical care as a fairly new physio. Essentially, I burnt out and ‘quit’ life. Literally quit my job and four weeks later I was on a plane overseas with no plan and very little saved. I found my way onto the sailing yacht, Indigo, ‘piggy backing’ off someone else’s qualifications and signing up to cross an ocean. I hadn’t been on a boat for longer than 4hours at a time let alone know how to sail. So, there I was on the other side of the world in an industry where I was a complete novice. How do you think my anxiety was? Well here I am sharing some incidentals I learnt about anxiety so you don’t have to do something crazy, like living out at sea for 25 days to learn!

 1. Identity plays a large role in keeping anxiety at bay:

• Before I left if anyone had asked me, “Tell me about yourself?” or “Who are you?” I would say…I’m a physiotherapist. I do aerials. I live on the Gold Coast etc. Now put yourself in the middle of the ocean. I’m no longer a physio, I can’t do aerials and I don’t live on the GC. I am the least experienced person on this boat. I have no career. I have no address etc.
• It made me realise I defined myself by things I did not who I am. My self worth was based on achievement not being a human.
• So ask yourself what are your defining qualities? No matter whether you lose your job, change your address or get an illness/injury you still know who you are and the anxious voice in your head is kept at bay.

 
2. Technology is both a help and a hindrance when it comes to anxiety:

• How does it help? Well it’s a perfect distraction from those pesky thoughts in your head. The voices get quieter when you can mindlessly scroll on Instagram or watch Netflix. Don’t get me wrong we had hard drives full of tv shows and movies but that only lasts so long…
• So now you’ve watched all the movies on offer and those thoughts become louder. Not having access to news and current events was calming but personally, my anxiety got much worse the more I was left with my thoughts. However, truly hearing the state of my mind was a gift hard to receive still on the hamster wheel of full-time work.
• Because of all this time/space I was able to journal a lot to get a clear picture, a starting point for how to improve it and read some great books about mind space.
• Try writing down all your thoughts when you are in a think, feel, spiral or replace one episode of your latest Netflix binge for a self-help podcast or book.

Memories are one of the most fascinating and important functions of the brain when you really think about it. Memory is more than just recalling facts and events it’s also a large component of learning of skills, habits and individual conditioning. Understand that what we do, how we react and who we think we are, is a sum total of experiences in a specific order that evoked specific emotions.
 
They say there is my side, your side and the truth, meaning we filter and store memories through our own lenses. Lenses include gender, sexual preference, values, beliefs, interests, past experiences etc. It is the lenses that create the emotional experience and create variance in how an event is re-told.

The more intense an emotional experience the better long-term memory is able to solidify and store it. It's important to mention that memories are stored as sensory information and is why a specific scent can call to mind a certain person or place.

Long term memory is a function that lives in the subconscious mind and is why some people are often unable to recall childhood memories in a conscious state but can remember various things in a trance state. We can't change the actual event. However, utilising hypnotherapy to explore the feelings associated with a memory can be efficient and effective. 

By changing the way it appears in your mind you can influence the emotion associated with it. For example, if you have a particular experience that brings forwards a lot of anger by changing the way the memory appears in your mind you can alter the amount of anger it evokes in your body. Furthermore, if the anger associated with this event shows up as a less than helpful dynamic in your present relationships,  processing and releasing the emotion in hypnotic trance is profound. ​

For more information or to delve into how this can help you transform your emotional health book now.

“Last time I saw you, you had your legs wrapped around a pole.”
 
One sentence you never want to hear from your uncle and yet this is my life. I thought I’d write about why it is worth braving the stigma to be part of the incredible pole community and how it relates to my health being a physio/hypno/human.
 
I read a book called Dear Lover by David Deida. In it contained mystical wisdom and insight into me defining and understanding what being a woman means to me. This along with Brene Brown’s wisdom; the worst insult for a woman is she is less than beautiful and unable to attract, led me to one realisation.
 
Women yearn to be seen. I yearn to be seen. “So why do I hide my beauty and my talents?”
 
With the rise in the ‘me too’ movement I think most women can relate to being seen when they wished they weren’t and in my experience,  this leads to women associating being seen with danger.
 
In the pole studio, the more skin you bare the safer you will be as you can grip the pole more easily. In the pole studio, women of all shapes, sizes, colours and cultural backgrounds are all running around in the equivalent of undies and bras doing the same epic things. In this environment, we are seen lumps, bumps, hairs and all. In this community, we are celebrated for the incredible things our bodies can do and supported in revealing as much or as little as we like. We are seen safely and celebrated!!
 
Not only are we seen by others safely, we learn to see ourselves with more love and compassion. How can you hate the incredible body that allows you to literally hang from the skin of your elbow/knee/inner thigh/hand etc? We are finally able to see ourselves beyond skin deep.
 
Strength becomes far more important than cellulite. Feelings of accomplishment and freedom of expression become far more important than tummy rolls (that every-body has!!). As much as our instructors’ yell, “point your toes!” it is understood the bigger goal is admiring your body for how you can feel in it not necessarily doing a move perfectly.
 
How on earth can you possibly not gain self-confidence when you get a dose of that every time you go to class?
 
If that weren’t enough, growing up we hear stories of superheros who become alter egos and, in a way, ‘perform’ their super powers on the world’s stage. Well, hello showcase! Hello stage name! Hello self-expression and authentic self we think society won’t embrace. Whilst I still haven’t competed or performed pole at a showcase (my time is coming), social media has provided a platform where I can celebrate this facet of my authentic self and connect to so many of my pole sisters worldwide.

Breathing, as long as we are living we will be doing it all day, erry day, one way or another! 

As a physiotherapist you need a wide range of knowledge on different body systems. Thankfully uni break it down for us into regions. So I learnt about the physiology of the lungs and circulatory systems. I learnt the anatomy of the trunk muscles and biomechanics on getting air/mucus in and out but it wasn't until practicing physio, my interest in breath became a whole lot more holistic.
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Basically our nervous system drives breath at the most organic source. Lots of things can change the speed at which we breath, the size of the breaths and the muscles we use to do it including dis-ease, pain, activity, input from the senses, skeletal structure or even emotions.