At the same time , I was  finding that  the workplace and the people I met daily, were  impacting on my emotional happiness. I was working as a Teacher (Special Needs Coordinator.) Due to a whole range of reasons, (after about 6 years )I reached the point, where I felt totally undervalued and worthless. I started to spend too much time worrying about what other people thought about me.  I was focusing on all the negative things in life and lost touch with the many positives.

 

At home I was comfort eating, increasing the amount of alcohol I drank, sleeping badly and my husband was at the blunt end of my temper and moods. I gradually slipped into a state of clinical depression, ending up on a course of anti-depressants. It’s an understatement to say I was very unhappy and sad.

 

I used massages to try and release the physical pain I was experiencing in my neck and shoulders and to feel relaxed. Although I did achieve some relief, generally I still felt very uncomfortable and often came away rather tearful because the massage hurt!

 

In the summer of 2015 on holiday in Majorca at a salon I attended every year the therapist suggested I tried an alternative Holistic complimentary therapy to work at the “cause” of the problem not just the symptoms. Apart from one Reiki treatment, I had never had any complementary therapy and didn’t know anything about reflexology. The therapist in Majorca had been on a training course in England and for just 5 minutes started to work on some of the key reflexes on my feet for the neck, shoulder.

 

The effect was phenomenal!

 

The first feeling was sharp pain in the shoulder and neck reflexes of my feet. At the same time the feeling of release was incredible and I immediately felt so much calmer. In that 5-minute trial session I knew I had found the solution for me.

 

This was my first light bulb moment.

 

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On my return to Dorchester I booked in for my first reflexology session. After the first treatment, the overwhelming sense of relaxation and liberation was incredible. I left my treatment walking on a cloud having allowed myself for the first time ever to fall into a deep meditative state and start the process of rebalancing myself. I immediately booked myself in for a block of 7 treatments.

I loved every reflexology session and looked forward to this point of release each week. I had finally learnt what “relaxed” felt like. I began reflecting on my control of this process and recognised  that healing starts from within and it was all about rebalancing and focusing on what my own body needed.

In other words, I acknowledged  I was working to restore my bodies equilibrium through reflexology and lifestyle changes. I was getting back to being “in charge of me.”

I started reflecting on my home/work balance and realised that in the world of work it is very easy to forget why you go to work in the first place.  My daily mantra started to become “I work to live,’ and not “I live to work”. I recognised  how many acquaintances and friends (especially women) had also not worked this out and were on a treadmill of stress and life was passing us all by rather than living for the moment and “savouring” living.

 

With all this soul searching and reflecting I started moving into a much better place emotionally and continued to be amazed by the impact of reflexology, I was sleeping better, my irritable bowel symptoms had gone and I felt much more energised. My neck and shoulder pain went. Reflexology made a huge difference for me.

 

I then had my second light bulb moment.

 

I decided I wanted to help people in the same way through reflexology. I decided to study to become a reflexologist myself. I enrolled with Sarah Holt, an award-winning reflexology tutor in Exeter, at the Devon School of reflexology.

 

After completing the Level 3   Association of Reflexology Diploma course   I am now working professionally as a reflexologist in Dorchester the county town of Dorset.

I know I have found a very rewarding career.

Giving a reflexology treatment is nearly as relaxing as receiving one!

 

I am happy once more and I am really enjoying life. I feel much healthier and fitter. I am no longer depressed. My confidence and sense of humour have returned. I still eat too much chocolate and drink too much alcohol but now it is sociable not desperate and sad! My family and close friends all comment on the change in me and how relaxed and calm I now am. My husband is relieved he no longer must be my verbal punch bag!