Hello, I hope you have had a good August despite it feeling like September! 

Fingers X’d for an Indian Summer.

By the way; a good way of counteracting anxiety is to develop curiosity; when we are involved in being curious it is almost impossible to be anxious. So I was curious about what is the origin of the phrase an Indian Summer? When it is warm on the plains of America in the autumn it tends to be misty first thing in the morning. This was useful for Indians hunting, so warmth in the Autumn got labelled an Indian Summer! 

Another mystery solved.
So here is the news!

I am really excited to share with you all that I have signed up for a nine month (fairly intensive) coaching training. It is run by the amazing Martha Beck, whose Art of Calm course (all about anxiety) I have just completed.
One of the consequences of doing the Art of Calm course is I am much more aware when people are anxious, noticing their posture/expression/tone of voice. We often are not aware of how anxiety can play a big part in pain generation and maintenance.
Now I am not saying that pain is assumed or made up because it isn’t, but anxiety does add fuel to the fire of pain. Also, a big part of Osteopathic training is to know when to refer a client onwards if we have any concerns about the symptoms they are presenting. So we always make sure nothing sinister is happening before considering something like anxiety being a cause or maintaining factor in a person’s problems.
I have always been interested in what makes people tick and I do see people struggling with situations that make life very difficult for them. I have always observed that the patients in the most pain are often the most stressed (not just by the pain!).
I want to be able to help people in a deeper way; helping them to move towards a more comfortable way of living. Osteopathy is brilliant in that it looks at the whole person but we are not trained to support people when they are trying to manage difficult situations.
I see coaching as a brilliant adjunct to what I do already and it will massively add to my skill set. There are so many ways I can take this forward and I will probably start with pain and anxiety. The good thing about this course is that I will be able to use my newly acquired skills when I am ready.
I am so excited about this, I realise now that it is something I have wanted to do for a long time. Martha talks about our Essential Self which knows what we really want and how our social self compromises. Maybe to please family or society, but it causes us problems which are sometimes manifested physically. I do see this a lot and I would like to help people feel a bit freer both mentally and physically.

Predictably I have doubts as well, but I am learning how to manage them and I have some great coaching help with this too. Thank you Joanna!
So watch this space, the teaching starts in October (I do love a course) and I cannot wait to begin.