Health & Wellbeing
Your toolkit to tackle daily anxiety As a life coach I work with people on many different issues and not all my work is associated with anxiety or stress management. However, these issues are affecting everyone at a greater level than normal right now. So I am continuing to focus on anxiety and stress management. I hope it’s helping. Here are some simple tools for you to ‘keep in your pocket’ to provide support when needed. 1. Test of Time – if something is causing you anxiety, ask yourself, how much will this matter tomorrow, next month, next year? By measuring an issue in this way it can help us keep things in perspective and not use up valuable energy and emotional
resilience on stuff that is distracting but not all that important. 2. FEAR – False Expectations Appearing Real. Or, putting it another way, anticipation being worse than the event. Very often, our anxiety about something in the immediate future is greater than the event itself. Once we start it, our focus shifts from worrying about the maybes
to thinking about the project or event itself. So… 3. Take those big, scary tasks, break them down into smaller, related tasks and Just Start. One step at a time and you will be surprised how your anxiety drops and you realise you can do it, whatever ‘it’ is. 4. Looking for the positives. Challenge yourself, your family, your team at work,
whoever, to find a few good things that have happened each day. It could be a big thing – such as an unexpected new contract at work – or a small thing, such as a phone call from a cousin overseas. Similarly, at the end of each day, try to think of a few things you are grateful for. By practising this as you go to sleep, you can help reduce your stress levels and calm your mind. They don’t have to be big or unusual things – a walk in the park on a frosty morning, enjoying a really good film or being made to laugh about something over supper with your family. Alice Johnsen is a life coach based just outside Sherborne. 07961 080513 alicejohnsen.co.uk
Meditations in Nature: Under the beech tree By Dr Susie Curtin Nature writer and qualitative researcher rewildingjourneys.com Now the autumn breeze is blowing the leaves like confetti and the Vale is airbrushed with amber and crimson hues, the trees take centre stage, and rightly so. I cannot decide which ones I love the most this time of year. Is it the wispy delicateness of the swaying birches or the bold carnelian canopies of the beeches? Or perhaps the quiet, neat field maples who slip my attention until their autumn leaves turn a bright gold yellow? It is impossible to choose; they all have a part in this seasonal show. I write this while perched on the protruding roots of a 50
beech tree that I hold very dear. Under the shadow of its strong boughs, I have spent many an hour in contemplation, picnicked with close friends and playfully swung on the rope swing that fellow tree-lovers have attached. It is ‘my’ tree, and it is so old that its long arms have bent almost low enough to caress the ground. Imagine the world events that this tree has played a silent witness to, perched high over the Blackmore Vale, and imagine all the people who have taken shelter in its lofty shade. Trees play a fundamental role in our well-being; from the architectural giant oaks and aspen to the smaller hedgerow favourites of hawthorn and elder; they are familiar friends in a changing world. Being in their presence makes me feel
good. They provide interest, shelter, fuel and habitats, and some are so grand that they, like this beech, are destinations in their own right. The real magic of this tree, however, is going on underground right beneath my feet. Trees are connected to each other through mycorrhizal
networks; fungi that grows at the tips of fine roots which connect the tree to other trees. It is through these intricate networks that nutrients are exchanged to support adjacent plants and the tree’s very own saplings. In this way, the trees and the soil fungi work together for the greater good of the woodland. The language of trees also exists in the air. Unbeknown to us, they ‘speak’ to each other using scent signals known as pheromones. These chemical releases relay threats or changes in the environment to neighbouring trees so that they can put up their defences. Trees are, therefore, not lone individuals but valued members of an intelligent community. What a wonderful thought that is.
