Health & Wellbeing

Vicki comes clean on secrets behind

By Lorraine Gibson

newsdesk@ stourandavon.net For Vicki Cannings of Blandford, the sweet smell of success came purely by chance. Finding herself working from home during the first lockdown, she decided to do something useful with the extra time that she had from not having to travel every day. Vicki had been working at Blandford Hospital and she wanted to make something practical for her colleagues. “We have lots of beeswax from our hives and I decided to make some soothing balms for the hospital staff for the sores on their hands and faces from PPE,” says 35-year-old Vicki. She began experimenting and what started off as a hobby became an obsession that’s now a thriving business, producing planetfriendly soaps and toiletries from beeswax. “We love honey. It’s where The Dorset Soap Co began,” she says. “My journey into handmade and natural products started when my partner Carl, who is a beekeeper, gave me a pot of beeswax which he had harvested for the first time from one of our hives. “He got his bees in 2020 and is the main beekeeper in our house. He’s really passionate about the beekeeping process and the honey and I love the resulting beeswax and wax cappings.” So, just how easy is it to harvest beeswax? “It’s a fine art! Carl is the master of honey and wax extraction and always brings me back lots of delightful produce whenever he visits the hives,” she explains. “It’s amazing how much they produce in a short space of time.” “We didn’t want anything to go to waste created a soothing and healing hand balm, inspired by sore hands from all the washing and scrubbing during the pandemic. “I combined the beeswax with cocoa butter and oil we had extracted from our spearmint in the garden and created a Spearmint Body Balm.” “And so, my first ever product (and secretly my favourite) was born,” she adds. On discovering that as well as being good to eat, honey, nature’s sweetener was also the ultimate skin food, she was hooked. “I didn’t want to stop there,” says Vicki, who now works as a medical secretary at the Blandford Group Practice, “I combined the beeswax and rosemary from the garden with our incredibly tasty honey and made our Honey, Beeswax and Rosemary Soap Bar,” says Vicki” I ask her whether the product varies according to the flowers of the season, just as the taste of honey does. “Completely,” she replies,

SWEET SUCCESS: Vicki Cannings of the Dorset Soap Co

Honey, you need to bee informed just how good this is

Honey and beeswax smell and feel amazing but their healing properties and health benefits make them just as good for you on the outside as well as the inside Honey has both anti-bacterial and anti-septic properties, which not only deep cleanse skin but make it perfect for preventing and treating acne. It’s packed with antioxidants, so fights toxin build-ups; it also naturally opens pores a combination that can reduce blackheads and leave skin super clean. It has anti-microbial properties to help fight off skin infections and has been successfully trialled to treat eczema and psoriasis. Honey boosts collagen production, which can help reduce signs of aging and slow the formation of wrinkles. It’s incredibly moisturising and hydrates dry, sore skin. Honey is naturally soothing and has been known to fade scars. Enzymes in honey work as a gentle exfoliator, sloughing dead-skin cells and boosting circulation. So, if I only had one life-saving product, what should it be? The all-purpose balm. It’s made from pure beeswax, cocoa butter and grape seed oil in a range of eight scents and fixes everything from sunburn to chapped lips and eczema.

her soap opera

“at the moment we have a limitededition range of lime honey from bees living in a lime orchard and you can taste the lime in the honey.” Handmade in her home ‘soap factory’, the bars start life as a base of beeswax which are then beautified by the addition of more of Vicki’s home-grown natural ingredients - think rosemary, clementine, jasmine, peppercorns, and basil - all sourced from garden to fruit tree. After a bit of planetfriendly alchemy, the mix is transformed into solid hunks (or ‘loaves’) of soap that smell and feel as good as they look. No doubt part of the appeal of the beeswax bars is that there is just something deeply comforting about the smell of honey. It evokes the scent of summer ambles through golden bursts of Dorset’s gorse, an olfactory delight of sunwarmed honey tinged with heather. Or maybe that’s just me! Perhaps it’s just because it smells of what it does so well –soothing – but in the wake of news of the rate of climate-change speeding up, environmentally-friendly products are more important than ever. Having now developed a range of soaps, balms and four new products releasing next month, that are free from SLS/SLEC, parabens and palm oil, Vicki has ensured her packaging is equally sound. “Our products and packaging are all plastic free and everything is recyclable, even down to our postal bags which can be used twice, then used as a compostable food waste bag,” she says. “In a world where there is still so much plastic waste and cosmetics still contain excess chemicals, I made it my mission to produce everything as naturally as possible including switching to an eco-friendly energy provider.” She adds: “The products are made by me in my workshop at home and are not tested on animals (just the family). And the best-seller? “Our Honey, Rosemary and

Beeswax soap. I use raw beeswax and honey and you can even see the pollen and wax cappings in the soap. “It smells divine and I don’t have to use any other face products since I started using it.” n Follow @thedorset soapco to find out more. ‘The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago; the second best time is now’. This Chinese proverb reminds of us of the ‘power of now’, over the futility of regret for what we may not have done in the past. Instead of waiting for the ‘right time’ to get fit and risk letting days, weeks and even years pass us by; start the process now. There is always something we can do to benefit ourselves, often quite simple things. Our health and fitness isn’t a project, it’s built up and supported through our daily habits and small behaviours over our whole lifetime. If you’re new to exercise, you’ve actually the most to gain, even by doing just a little. I’m not a fan of this ‘all or nothing’ mentality in fitness as it can be intimidating and it even puts people off getting started. Going too hard at the start also means you’re more likely to drop out as the pace is too great (remember the tale of the tortoise and the hare!). Fitness is for everyone; it should feel great to move our bodies in a way that’s right for us and enjoy ourselves doing it. Exercise should energise us, improve our quality of life and leave us wanting to come back for more. Don’t load all your expectation on one thing, particularly if it’s something you might struggle with and make sure it’s broken down into stages as one thing leads to another. It’s not all or nothing ... it’s little things every day and bigger things some days. The biggest thing most people struggle with is adherence over time, whether this is a fitness regime or a diet change. Starting small and building up not only increases your chance of sticking to it (creating a habit rather than going through a phase) but also allows for natural and inevitable ebb and flow of life. I personally use a checklist of small behaviours that I try and stick to, most days, when I can. These include for me; going for a walk; drinking water with my meals; eating five portions of fruit and vegetables; meditating or reading for ten minutes and getting to bed on time. Yours may be different and should be individual to you. When life, injury or lack of motivation prevents me from working out, I find focusing on all or some of these smaller habits helps me look after myself physically and mentally so it’s easier to build up from. These are for me, foundational behaviours that I then build my goals of gym workouts and my sport onto. I always remember a 90-yearold gentleman, at a local Prama memory group who said his regret in life was that he hadn’t started learning the piano when he was 60 years old as he thought he was too old. He reflected that if he had, he’d have had thirty years playing under his belt. If you didn’t plant your ‘tree’ twenty years ago; please don’t use it as an excuse not to do little, important things now. It’s small things done repeatedly that give us progress and satisfaction. Enjoy the process, start today and your future self will thank you for it.

New Stour & Avon, August 13, 2021 Health & Wellbeing No time like the present to start getting yourself fitter

n Katrina Keeling is a Wimborne-based personal training and fitness instructor. kkeelingfitness@gmail.com kkfitness.co.uk

New Stour & Avon, August 13, 2021 Health & Wellbeing Let art and lovely surroundings heal your soul at country park

Searching for an event to boost your mental and physical health? Come and be inspired to paint or draw at Art Pro Loco in Upton Country Park during the August Bank Holiday weekend.

Come join the ROCKOUT WORKOUT

COME AND FEEL THE NOISE!

Channel your inner rock star with this full body cardio-jam session inspired by the infectious, energizing, and sweat-dripping fun of playing the drums Classes at Pamphill, Wimborne Contact HAYLEY SANDELL, POUND PRO

07786 553889

Hayley.sandell@outlook.com

Poole and East Dorset Art Society invite all ages and abilities to come and make a piece of art in a day. The resulting artwork will then be displayed in an evolving exhibition in The Gallery Upstairs The society, which is a charity promoting art in the community, chose the name as Pro Loco means ‘of the place’ and the idea is to visit a place and make a piece of art based on the location. Upton Country Park has 160 acres of parkland, woodland, shoreline, and gardens. Art lovers can go any day from Friday 27th to Sunday 29th August. Register at the gallery between 10.30am and 4pm, work on your painting or drawing out in the park and bring it back to the gallery when it’s ready. The gallery will be open to display your work as soon as the first piece comes in. There will be an entry fee of £2 per work, (£1 for children under 5). You will receive a date stamp and an entry number. No matter whether you are an aspiring artist, child or professional, all the work that has been submitted will be exhibited in the

Fair Ground Gallery Upstairs at Upton Country Park. Wimborne’s Fair Trade Shop Beautiful gifts from around the world On Sunday come and visit the Food, chocolate, coffee exhibition and vote for & household supplies Toiletries, soft furnishings & bags your favourite! There are 3 categories

T-shirts, baby & children’s clothes, scarves & socks of winners and prizes will be awarded

Open Mon-Sat 10am-4pm at 3pm on Monday 30th August. 1 Cornmarket Court, Wimborne fairground21@gmail.com Details at thegalleryupstairs.co.uk www.wimbornefairtradeshop.co.uk shopappy.com/wimborne/fair-ground

01202 849898

Please bring this advert into the shop, by 1st September, to be entered into a prize draw! MOBILE HAIRDRESSER & BARBER covering the Stour & Avon area, good rates. 07795 263840

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New Stour & Avon, August 13, 2021 Health & Wellbeing Procrastinating? Time to reclaim your motivation

By Susie Carver, consulting hypnotist with Sea Change Hypnotherapy in Wimborne

It’s been fantastic to watch the Olympic Games this summer and witness all the competitors enjoying the fruits of their dedicated, hard work. But how do they stay so motivated? If you’ve ever fallen victim to procrastination you will know that at times it can be easy to find your flow, while at others it’s frustratingly hard to find the drive to achieve anything meaningful. What if you had the tools to keep you moving in the right direction every day? It’s easier than you might think, but it does take consistent effort and practice. This wonderful selfhypnosis visualisation will get you back on track. Set aside time each day where you can focus your mind inwards. Breathe deeply and allow your thoughts to drift in and out of your mind. As you do this, imagine releasing tension from each muscle in turn. As you release tension from your body, your mind will relax, too, until you reach a place of perfect calm. Now bring to mind your ‘why’ –what it is that drives you, what it is above all else that you want to achieve. Because our mind and body are connected, when we tap into our imaginations to connect deeply to this driving force, we begin to feel the energy in our bodies. Notice any changes or emotions that occur in your body when you do this. Get a sense of yourself standing at a crossroads. Down one pathway you can see everything continuing as usual, and you can see where you will end up. On the other side the pathway leads to a future you, living out your dreams. Imagine walking down this pathway and watch the scene playing out – notice how you move, how you act. What is different about this future you? How did you make the changes that got you here? Step into this future you so that they become a part of you. Feel what they feel, see what they see and hear what they hear. And allow those feelings and that energy to intensify, until you are fully living that version of the future. Hold onto this feeling for a while, then gradually let yourself drift back along the pathway, bringing all that energy back with you to the here and now. This simple process of allowing yourself to fully experience your dreams with all your senses is incredibly powerful. Practice it every day and notice how quickly you reclaim your motivation.

Susie Carver is a hypnotherapist and wellbeing coach with Sea Change Hypnotherapy in Wimborne. seachangehypno.com hello@seachangehypno.com

Did I tell you about déjà vu? Oh, I did...

Have you ever found yourself wondering what your purpose is? Do you have dreams and ambitions that you haven’t yet acted upon? Have you got a desire to get what you want out of life but just don’t know how to approach it? Do you have déjà vu dreams and goals that keep rolling around from one year to the next not getting done? If so, coaching can help… Coaching is the art of supporting a client to achieve their full potential, enabling clients to transition from where they are now, to where they really want to be, much more quickly and effectively than if they were to do it on their own. Often coaching is described as being for the ‘worried well,’ namely those individuals that are NOT experiencing significant levels of distress in their life but are feeling that they want or could do more, perhaps with their life in general, maybe their career, personal development, health or relationships etc. Coaching is very much present and future focused in its approach, unlike other therapies such as counselling, which focuses on events that have taken place in the past. Coaching is non-directive and non-advice given, which is different to a consulting or mentoring service which is directive and advice driven. Coaching will bring about the realisation within a client, that their goals, dreams and ambitions are within their own grasp and control. The client will find themselves empowered to recognise their priorities, set and work towards defined goals and dreams that are both inspiring yet challenging, and be enabled to explore and assess the reality of their situation. Coaching facilitates a client to identify options and potential solutions and assists them in finding ways forward with actions and timescales for completion. Coaching inspires and encourages clients to take ownership, responsibility and accountability for their direction, so that success is ensured. Coaching is always provided in a professional, nonjudgemental, confidential and empathic way with a high level of rapport and trust. A coach listens deeply, focusing solely on the client, asking clear, concise, open and effective questions enabling the client to think differently. A coach recognises the uniqueness of each client and allows them the time to think, process and reflect and the coach will acknowledge and handle a client’s beliefs with sensitivity and respect. A coach will always believe in a client even when a client might not believe in themselves. Through coaching a client will achieve their goals and dreams with a high degree of motivation, satisfaction and positivity. They will learn new skills, find their selfawareness raised, and they will gain increased confidence and self-belief. Ultimately, they will achieve a greater sense of self, direction and purpose.

n Victoria Arnold is a life coach from Wimborne Victoriaarnold.co.uk