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Years back when I was ill in my 20s with M.E (myalgic encephalomyelitis), I was not able to do any physical exercise. Any form of exertion just sent me into more deeper fatigue, with muscle pain, brain fog and flu like symptoms - it was the most debilitating time of my life and lasted for 6 years, then took a further 3 years to fully leave me. The story is a long one of self healing and exploration/discovery of different health modalities, but I will share snippets as it all is tied up in to my healing back to wellness. Since getting better from about the age of 29, I never really fully engaged in aerobic exercise, I was so scared - if I am truly honest - there was some underlying message within my psyche that said "if you exercise, it will come back". Forget Field of Dreams, this was Field of Nightmares. So I never really did anything that would really puff me out. I walked my dog Lucy every day, but I wasn't a speed walker. I swam a bit, here and there. I belly danced. I joined gyms, paid memberships and then never went. I joined slimming world, weight watchers and once I was a member of the Rosemary Conley Fitness Club's where we did salsa for 40 mins after class. I did it for a while, but still, nothing was ever consistent. Since November I have been working on releasing and surrendering to this. To stop fighting. Through a programme run by the beautiful soul Hannah Marcotti and her online Surrender programme, I have really looked at this very closely. Coupled with having hypnosis and kinesiology sessions (muscle testing) I then stumbled upon a video from Amanda Oaks, from Hooptacular; Women Heal. I was hooked. I found myself watching video after video of hoopers, feeling my hips move as I was sitting on the couch. So I jumped in - literally and bought "Pink", she's my 40" hoop and we love each other. Hooping is so incredibly aerobic, more than I ever realised. It is allowing me to fall in love with myself again and to not be so hard on my hips and thighs which have had such a hard time over the last 30 years. I have been pretty cruel to them really. In devouring Amanda Oak's site Hooptacular on that very first night I came across Brecken Rivara. I was so taken with her style - it was flowing and not staged. Magical to watch. So of course, it didn't take me long to start a sketch of Brecken - one of my 'Dollystrations'. I sent it to her and I was deeelighted to hear back from her, she wrote: This is completely amazing. What a surreal life I have. |
