Health, Beauty and Fitness

Health Matters

by Sue Lennon

Ilove the outdoors, being in nature, filling my lungs with fresh air, cycling far and swimming wild – and summer is the time when doing all of those things comes easily. I still do them in spring and autumn and winter too and I know that there are lots of people who have taken to year-round wild dips, all enthusiastically reporting the benefits they feel, especially to their mental health.

Gill Castle, Stoma Chameleon, has a story to tell, having suffered significant trauma when her son was born, leaving her with PTSD and a permanent colostomy. I interviewed her for a podcast last year when she told me that after a number of years clawing her way back to life, she decided that she was going to reframe her experience and start raising awareness (and money) for the Birth Trauma Association , which supports other mums who have not had the delivery that they had expected. As a result, she has done all kinds of crazy stuff from skydiving (she’s scared of heights) to a half iron man, to swimming in the North Sea near her home in Northumberland three times a week throughout last winter, wearing only a bikini and her stoma bag. Her next dose of craziness is to swim the English Channel, and if successful she will be the first person with a stoma to have done so. She works, is a mum a lot and oh, she just started a charity in her spare time too, Chameleon Buddies .

Pierre Janneret on Unsplash

Her story led me to wonder what support there is for women going through the perinatal period here in France and so I hooked up with Nadège Fuzeau who is an ‘accompagnante perinatale ’ and asked her to explain her role. She told me that an AP is similar to a doula, i.e. a person, usually a woman, who supports another woman through pregnancy and childbirth, except here in France there is a BIG difference. Here, AP’s have 2 years training by professionals in all the aspects of emotional support required to accompany women from conception and throughout pregnancy and delivery, until the child is 1 year old.

She was keen to point out that this is rather like osteopathy in that it is not a ‘medical service’ that is adopted by the state, nor does it replace GP or midwife involvement, but is nonetheless extremely valuable to those who need the continuity of the same trained individual’s hand to hold, explain and support. We talked about Gill and her experience and Nadège tells me that she would have been beside Gill through all the challenges and choices that had to be made, to stand with her when all was not well but no one was listening, to advocate, liaise and help to find the right professional and attend appointments. I have to say, I’m impressed and know that if I was young enough to be pregnant here, I’d want a Nadège by my side! This one comes with an additional advantage…which is that she speaks great English and is qualified to accompany and support others to hospital and social care appointments, not just parents-to-be!

If anyone wants to learn more, you can make contact by email at - mylaccompagnement@gmail.com or on facebook - nadege.myl.accompagnement. She is based in Chiché and I plan to drag her out wild swimming. She doesn’t know it yet.

Maybe you have heard of the Bluetits ? The Bluetits Chill Swimmers Ltd is a UK based social enterprise committed to empowering outdoor dippers. They have informal groups of mixed-gender people who just like to swim (or dip) together - some carrying on throughout the winter months too. They have groups around the world, but I happened to notice that there are none on their map of mainland France! I was wondering if there is any appetite for a Bluetits here in the Deux-Sèvres? Maybe it will give us superpower, like Gill? Sue x

Your Ground Yoga

Taking a Step Back helps to Move Forward

We often hear the teachers speak about ‘the Witness’ or sometimes ‘Witness consciousness’. This is, as it implies, a state or perspective whereby we develop a view our self with a small ‘s’ from a wider perspective. When we learn to become more familiar with the Witness, we are more able to step outside of the situation and see it in a more neutral way, without judgement. We are able to reduce, what psychologists term ‘egocentric bias’, the tendency to over-emphasize one’s own personal view and experience at the expensive of a broader perspective that can take in other factors. Scientists are discovering that techniques that encourage, what they term, ‘self-distancing’ reduce egocentric bias and thus reduce the tendency to over-analyze and ruminate on one’s emotions and reactions, hopes and fears that keeps us stuck in repetitive patterns. These techniques also improve our ability to self-regulate our fundamental stress response; in other words, to manage our levels of anxiety. Like the witness consciousness, self-distancing involves developing an observer part of our awareness. This means getting out of our story - stepping outside the loop of predictions and fantasies about the future, the ‘if I do this then this might happen’. It also means stepping outside our ruminations about the past which too often focuses on regrets or hurts, or obsessive nostalgia. According to research, when people adopt a self-distanced perspective while discussing a past difficult event such as a divorce or imagining a difficult future event, they make better sense of their reactions, experience less emotional distress, and display fewer physiological signs of stress.

by Rebecca Novick

Techniques for self-distancing:

1. TAKE THE PERSPECTIVE OF AN OBSERVER: Try to imagine an event that you find yourself ruminating about, either future or past, like a fly on the wall. A number of studies have shown that people feel less anxious when they imagine a future stressful event – like public speaking or an upcoming interview – as an outside observer. Developing this observer self also brings in element of selffriendship since we all know how much easier it is to be objective when talking to a friend about their problems!

2. USING THE THIRD PERSON WHEN SELF-REFERENCING:

These studies have also found that saying your own name in encouraging and friendly ways helps to develop this self-distanced perspective. ‘Don’t worry, John, you got this.’ When we talk to ourselves like we would talk to a friend, it actually helps our nervous system to relax. 3. NARRATIVE EXPRESSIVE JOURNALING: There is an impressive body of research now that shows that even just 20 minutes of what’s called “narrative expressive writing” over a three day period can trigger a physiological chain reaction that directly improves cardiovascular health and reduces stress. Narrative expressive writing means creating a coherent and organized narrative about the stressful event, with a beginning, a middle and an end, rather than engaging in a heart on your sleeve style that lays all the emotions bare. Interestingly, the researchers found that people who had the best results focused on what happened to them rather than getting caught up in the ‘why’ which tended to encourage the kind of fantasizing that raised stress levels. So taking a step back can really help us to move forward in a more positive and healthier way. Happy self-distancing! As always, respect yourself, explore yourself. Rebecca For information on yoga and breathe better courses contact

rebecca@yourgroundyoga.com