“No one can listen to your body for you… to grow & heal, you have to take responsibility for listening to it yourself” Jon Kabat Zinn
Dear you,
Welcome to The Lavender Room blog and website by myself Karen. For whatever reason you have come to visit you are very welcome. In this first blog I’ll share a little about my background and my motivation behind The Lavender Room.
I started this small business 16 years ago as a nurse with an interest in alternative health. I was very young, green but enthusiastic with nothing but a plinth, oils and towels in the side room of my house which I’d painted Lavender!
What was motivating me? It was becoming more and more evident that at the root of many an illness was stress & I really was curious about what we could do for ourselves to prevent ill health and maintain wellbeing. I originally offered treatments such as reflexology & aromatherapy & then evolved into workshops, parent & baby classes and aromatherapy sessions to empower others to use the techniques themselves. As my children became a little older, I returned to work part time in the area of nursing and although I always had a curiosity about mindfulness it wasn’t until I participated in an 8 week course run by my workplace that I realised the benefits. Rediscovering a sense of inner calm which had I had forgotten existed in the business of life. It brought me back to who I really was again. This motivated me to do further training to become a qualified mindfulness facilitator and now I have my own toolbox of mindfulness techniques I use in my own life and am blessed to have the skills to share this with others.
So you must have a very calm household!?! Let me set the scene in what you may think is an idyllic mindful world…. It is Saturday in my house as I type and I am surrounded by loud music played by one teenager, someone else is dancing & the ceiling feels like it’s about to cave in, another is looking for a revolut card to be topped up & there is an electric guitar screeching from the corner along with the endless load of washing to be tended to.. the list goes on, the house is busy, noisy, full of life and I wouldn’t have it any other way!
You may ask where do you or does anybody with a busy life find the time, space or energy to practice mindfulness in a house of teenagers, a busy work life & that washing load?
The answer is because I like how I FEEL during & after I drop into a mindfulness exercise. It helps me to be the best version of myself that I can be…. my authentic self again. I reckon we all deserve to be the best version of ourselves, if we can honour ourselves that permission. However, I’m aware for many it’s a case of waiting until one is ill or overwhelmed with stress to engage in the value of mindfulness & self care.
So what’s involved, I don’t have time you might be thinking?
I don’t get much time to sit with my legs crossed in the yogi pose practising mindfulness, I really don’t and as much as I’d love to I certainly haven’t had the luxury of heading off to exotic places to a retreat to find myself. But as I have qualified as a mindfulness facilitator I am required to maintain a daily practice, how do I do this? I have found it right here in the mess of real, busy, family life. I have learned to integrate it into my daily life as simply as possible & I believe if we keep it simple it is more effective & easier to integrate into our daily life. Most of the time we humans re running around stuck in the plans in our heads. Mindfulness techniques can help us to drop out of our heads & into our bodies. I’ve found this tool very helpful and a way of stepping off the stress cycle for even a few moments to reset again. Once you learn how to do this you become more in touch with your own natural rhythms, it’s like coming back to your authentic self, feeling a little more at home again before moving on to the next task rather than getting stuck in the cycle of stress.
I love the phrase by Jon Kabat Zinn, one of the masters of mindfulness –
“No one can listen to your body for you….to grow and heal, you have to take responsibility for listening to it yourself”. Ultimately, we are responsible for our own health & this is something we can learn to do for ourselves. We can be resourceful in caring for our own wellbeing. When we do it for ourselves we often find it is like a domino effect and can benefit those around us too.
I have been lucky enough to have facilitated other people in mindfulness techniques during the recent pandemic and facilitated in -person workshops in healthcare facilities & at fun events. Those who have experienced the sessions have shared testimonials on the website & I’m very grateful to each & every one of them. It’s a very privileged role and I don’t take it for granted.
The only way to experience mindfulness is to experience it, it’s like finding another part of yourself that has been there all along but been neglected or forgotten about. It’s also discovering parts of ourselves we would rather not know about! But in knowing ourselves fully, our real raw version of ourselves we can be fully AUTHENTIC. When one receives a treatment such as reflexology or aromatherapy in a spa or with a therapist it is so beneficial & a sense of calm can be achieved however it can be expensive, time consuming & for some it’s a luxury which is unsustainable. It is a great way to look after yourself and prevent ill health if you can, however I do believe the skills of mindfulness can be used in day to day life, rather than just once a week.
I believe once armed with the tools ourselves & supported with a community we can take back the power to look after ourselves in a simple and inexpensive way. Practical tools for everyone.
I look forward to share more about how this can be done in a simple & enjoyable way with you, whether you would like to join the community, come to an event or just pick up tips from the blog you are very welcome.
Warmly
Karen
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