I'm Sam and I live in the beautiful Shropshire countryside with my partner, daughter and my beloved 2 Alaskan Malamutes.  My journey started about 10 years ago when I fell ill at work from stress.  My life was pretty much consumed by my job in the finance world, spending all my time working even when I got home... sound familiar?!  I didn't listen to the signs to start with and then my body decided to give one big jolt, that I HAD to listen to! 

You see I used to play a lot of sport and this was my stress reliever, but the older I got, the more I worked, the less I did and the stress started building.  After my illness I found the smallest thing would get me so stressed and anxious that it was ruining my life. On top of which I now suffered terribly with IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome) as a result of my illness. To cut a long story short, I had read about Tai Chi and how the Chinese use this for their own spiritual and everyday well-being so I decided to take it up.  My tutor was great and my first experience of calming the mind in meditation was about 1 minute long!  As he called it I had 'monkey brain', over the weeks and months, he taught me techniques in breath work, movement and meditation that helped hugely with my own well-being, IBS and to better deal with stress.

My life then expanded into meeting up with old friends I hadn't seen in decades and being introduced to new ones.  Funny how you meet the right people at the right time, eh?!  This journey lead me to experiencing Reiki, a wonderful relaxing energy healing, which I spent several years practising on myself before moving onto qualifying as a Master Teacher.  I added to my portfolio with Indian head massage, then spent the next while using Tai Chi and Reiki to help aid me daily. From there, I had read and heard a lot about mindfulness and how it was being used to aid the reduction of anxiety, stress and depression, whilst boosting physical and mental well-being. So I decided to do my research and embarked upon an eight-week programme, which was truly an eye opener and a great experience. It made such a huge difference for me, that I decided to take this further and train to become a teacher, so as to be able to offer a recognised and affiliated mindfulness programme.  I had already done a lot of self-exploring but more was to come, and boy! I must say I felt like I was floating when I had finished my course.  It was amazing! 

I practise mindfulness meditation and yoga every day.  It is now an ingrained part of my daily life and I love that I am able to teach and help people in this way. We all have the ability, and I can honestly say this has helped me in so many ways, mentally as well as my pysical well-being. It just may take a bit more practice in the beginning for some us (me included!) but we will all get there! 

I am now training in Mindfulness-Based Clinical Hypnosis (MBCH) – integrated and accredited hypno-psychotherapy qualification, which I am loving and really looking forward to being able to offer as part of my portfolio.