I’m always looking to find ways in which to enable more people to experience the benefits of life coaching and to experience the wonderful impact nature and green space has on our well being.

Over the next few months, I will be offering a number of different events, all of which have one thing in common:  they offer you the opportunity to spend quality time in green space to ground yourselves, to create inner space for self-reflection and to step back a bit from daily life to take a bigger picture view of where you are now and where you’d like to go.

Upcoming Green Space Coaching Events

Drop in Life Coaching Women’s group every first Thursday of the month at the Healthy Living Centre in Islington

Share your stories, worries and successes with other women in a safe, relaxing and enjoyable environment where you can talk, be heard, find support and new ways forward.

First Thursday of every month: 7-9pm

Healthy Living Centre, Islington N1 2LH, Highbury &Islington tube. Places limited to 8. £15/£10 concessions

Singing in Harmony with Nature Saturday 31 March in London’s Victoria Park. Nearest Tube Mile End.

Experience the joy of singing outdoors in nature. Learn and share some fantastic songs from around the world in a 90 minute group workshop in Victoria Park. All welcome, and no singing experience needed. The workshop will include some relaxation exercises to help us tune into the beautiful green space of Victoria Park, leaving us share some easy, uplifting songs to celebrate each other and nature.

£10/8 concessions. To book a place email me.

Spring Nature Connection Walk

Following a wonderful Winter Season Walk in Boxhill, the Spring Season Walk will take place in Haslemere, Surrey on Sunday 1 April. Please email me for more information and to book your place.

Nature Connection Workshop

Sunday 13 May, in Chingford near Epping Forest.

If you’d like to find out more about these events or would like to take up a free 30-mins 1:1 outdoor taster coaching session in Victoria Park (East London) or via phone or Skype, please email me or give me a call 07815 591 279

And so it was for me…

I turned to a life coach because I was very unhappy in my job and on the verge of a burn-out. My job wasn’t making any sense any more.

At first I wasn’t sure who to turn to – a coach, a therapist or a counsellor – but as I looked into coaching further, I decided to try out life coaching.

I’ve since discovered this analogy – which sums up why I turned to a coach:

Coaching can be compared to architecture. You are in the place in your life where you are ready to move forward. A coach will draw from your wisdom and insight to begin drafting the “blueprints” for your future. With your coach you process issues, tap into dreams and passions, set goals, gain momentum where you feel stuck and create the framework for the design of your life.

Counselling can be compared to archaeology. A counsellor is helping you look back, “digging” to see how you got here and where you are wounded. The counsellor works with you to bring understanding and healing from your past as you grasp and deal with your present.

I love how practical life coaching is and how success is measured by results.

As your coach I will help you set goals and actions towards your goals. And I will support and encourage you to go after them in a structured and realistic way.

As your coach I deal with your life in all its dimensions, personal and professional life, health and relationships.

This can be around for example, finding better work-life balance – this often involves getting clear about your priorities and what really matters to you; how you want to spend your time and with who. Dealing with stress and feeling unsettled, career change and bringing meaning into your work and life, overcoming procrastination and making the first step towards doing what you really want to do. The list is endless.

Here are some key benefits of coaching:

• Quality 1:1 support and guidance
• A safe, confidential and unbiased space to think and talk, grow and develop
• A neutral space to work through challenging and difficult issues
• The opportunity to make long-term sustainable change in your life to achieve your goals
• Quality and enjoyable me-time
• Professional expertise and skills from your coach
• Uninterrupted listening
• Questions that can help you unlock your potential, ignite your best thinking
• Practical exercises to support you in seeing multiple perspectives and generating new ideas
• Help to draw up an action plan at the end of each session that is manageable and at the same time stretches you to do new and different things

Clients who take up between 4-6 sessions generally get the best results and long-lasting change. Often clients feel much better after the first session, then change can be slower while working through some of the more difficult issues – it can feel as though nothing much is happening but after one or two more sessions the shift and change often happens.

After this turning point, it’s a matter of consolidating the change you’ve made, creating all the right conditions to make the change long-lasting and sustainable, as change never happens in isolation but in relation to our environment and the people in our life.

It is a bit like going to the gym. We only get fit after sustained exercise over a few regular sessions. Although nothing much seems to be happening in the beginning, our bodies are adapting without us noticing. Change takes time but it can happen and does happen.

All it takes is commitment to yourself, a healthy belief that change is possible and patience.

Warm wishes, Karen

Keeping active, mentally and physically is absolutely essential for good health. But a prolonged states of stress can leave us feel drained and little alive.

So, what is stress? We talk more about stress than we talk about happiness and we feel stressed more often than happy, calm and relaxed. So what’s going on?!

As primitive beings, we lived outdoors, in nature. We needed to protect ourselves from all sorts of dangers, in particular wild animals. Our bodies are built to deal with heightened states when there is real danger, risk or crisis. That’s when adrenaline is pumped around our body, helping us to react fast to whatever is happening to us. But we’re built to deal with this only occasionally.

When we spend most of our life in a state of heightened alertness or stress however, with adrenaline pumping around our bodies all the time, our hormone balance becomes disrupted and cannot return to its normal state even when, for example, at the weekend our stress level drops. We then find it hard to wind down and to ground ourselves. We enter a vicious circle that is very difficult to break.

To find relief and to make matters worse we lean towards a cup of coffee, a glass of wine in the evening, chocolate and comfort food which increases our blood sugar and as a result we’re left feeling permanently tired, bad tempered, depressed, jumpy, restless, we may suffer from insomnia too.

Stress First Aid kit:

There are many things we can do to help us relax and to calm down; to live a more balanced life. Here are some that I have found useful and that work:

• Notice when something is causing you stress
  The fact you recognise when something is causing stress is the beginning of changing it. Look for symptoms in your body, such as tensing in your belly and shoulders, frustration, irritability, compulsive thinking.
• Catch it early
  Stress reactions can speed up and fire off very quickly. The longer they go on, the more difficult they are to work with.
• Do something!
  This may mean you need to stop what you are doing and do something else – stop shouting, stop working on your computer, stop getting up at night when you lie in bed feeling anxious. Bring your mind into your body, notice your feet, legs and belly and take a few deeper breaths. This is an immediate antidote for anxiety and tension.
• Doing less and allowing more me-time/time at home
  I have an intention for this year to have more weeks with two or more evenings at home to rest and relax, to potter around the house, to eat well, to connect and catch up with friends and family… I’ve already managed the first two weeks this year to spend three evenings at home which has felt restorative, grounding and energising.

• Getting enough sleep and taking naps when possible
  Contrary to our conditioning that says that the more we work the better, it’s absolutely okay to take a nap or rest even if it’s only for half an hour. The body can recover and recharge its batteries quicker than we think. Often the result is we are much more productive and focused.
• Fresh air and moments in natural green spaces
  Take regular walks in your local park or countryside or go on a cycle ride. Half an hour daily or a few times a week can make all the difference. You could try to incorporate a short walk into your lunch break or start walking all or part of your way to work.
• Healthy eating and drinking

• All fruits, particularly berries
• All vegetables, particularly celery, asparagus, cucumber, cabbage and garlic, brown rice and corn or rice pasta
• If you eat meat and fish: white meat and fish
• Pulses
• Two big helpings of sprouts a day – this is my new discovery which makes me very energized and happy
  Sprouts are a wonderful source of energy and so deliciously fresh on their own or in salads and other food. You can buy sprouts in health food shops or grow them yourself which is very easy and rewarding. Here is the book that I read and that got me into delightful sprouting mania. Sprouting by Deborah Fowler.
• Lots of water and herbal teas – I always have a water bottle on my desk to remind me
• Moderate caffeine and alcohol consumption

Let me know how you get on. Did you find this blog useful? I’d love to have your feedback. Write a message on my Facebook wall or write a comment below.

Warm wishes, Karen

Tips for staying on track with your intentions for 2012

January, the month of starting anew, the month that fills us with hope that we will do all the things we really want to do, that we have been postponing until the New Year, that we have been procrastinating over.

January, the month that – we believe – will make us act upon our resolutions. The hope to stop smoking, to lose weight, to finally start looking for a new job, take up a course, find a partner, take up meditation, do exercise… The list is endless and my hunch is, some of this will resonate with you. It certainly does with me.

The thing though is that it never quite works like that. It works for the first two weeks – that’s when we see pretty full yoga classes, more people in parks exercising, more people coming to meditation classes – and then we fall back into our old patterns.

It is true though that January, the beginning of the New Year, has an inspiring and fresh energy about it – a sense of opening up a new chapter, a clean sheet of paper, new beginnings. And there is certainly nothing wrong with tapping into that.

But why is it that our New Year resolutions are so short lived, that all the things we want to do so wholeheartedly, drop off our agenda so quickly?

I think we often have too many New Year resolutions on our list. I also think that our New Year resolutions are often unmanageable, that they are too big and hence overwhelming.

When we write them down, they always sound – of course – great and with all the enthusiasm, fresh wind and inspiration that come with the turning of the year, we truly believe that we will do it all. But then we often don’t – and that’s disappointing.

So what can we do differently in order to do the things we so want to do?

This is what has worked well for me over the past years:

Instead of New Year resolutions, I’m getting clear about my intentions for the next year.

For me having intentions feels lighter, more manageable, less like one-off actions and possible to come back to at any time. By that I mean that intentions have a sense of stretching over the year, of swinging with me throughout the year. Something I can remind myself of.  What’s more, I know that I can make intentions at any time of the year.

So here is what you can do right now, at the beginning of this coming year:

1: Go for a walk in your local park or create some comfortable and enjoyable me-time at home and reflect on your intentions for the year. What is it that you’d like to commit to this year? Check whether you can see yourself doing it, what it might be like when you are doing it.

2. Take your journal or a piece of paper and write them down. Make sure they come out as actions that feel manageable and that you can do and achieve over a period of time (ie not one-offs that will make it hard for you to come back to).

3. Rather than writing a list, make a mind map ie put My Intentions 2012 in the middle of an A4 or A3 sheet of paper and dot your intentions around it – use a different colour pen for each intention. You can add some bullet points to each intention, the things that you need to do, do differently or reminders to help you fulfill your intention(s).

4. Keep your intentions top of mind. Have your mind map of your 2012 intentions somewhere visible to remind you of them, ie on your desk, on your fridge, in your diary/i-phone or in the bathroom etc.

Here are some of my intentions for the next year are:

• Going on two meditation retreats and perhaps one or two weekend retreats
• Spending a holiday or some quality time with my close friend Barbara
• Doing a Biodanza workshop at least every other month
• Having my focusing practitioner training top of mind for practice group and written work
• Making more time for my close friends and work less

Let’s keep in touch – I’ll let you know how I’m getting on, and I’d love to hear how you’re getting on too.

Warm wishes

Karen

A short while ago I was interviewed by a women’s wellbeing website about my thoughts on some typical issues that women encounter daily and why I think that is.

It lead me to come up with this blog of tips and insights which I hope you will find useful, as we move into what can be one of the most stressful and busiest times of the year.

Why do women struggle to say no to invitations or requests? Why is this a problem for us?

It lies in the very nature of women and our sense of care for others. We often put others first because we want to help, support, be there for others. When we start to give relentlessly without listening to our own wishes and needs for support and care it can become a problem. Caring and responding to requests from others can then feel exhausting, draining and not enjoyable anymore. It becomes too one-way.

Tip 1: To keep a balance we need to give and allow ourselves to receive from others at the same time. So be aware of how much you give. Before you say ‘yes’ to something, step back, pause for a moment, and ask yourself whether or not you have the time, energy and head space to make a commitment.

Is it best to make up an excuse when saying ‘no’?

I’m a great believer in honesty. We often underestimate others in that we think they wouldn’t understand why we say ‘no’ to an invitation. But more often than not people do understand our reasons as they resonate with their own feelings and needs.

Tip 2: A good technique for saying ‘no’ is to say honestly what is going on for you, eg: ‘Thank you very much for inviting me to your party’, or Thank you very much for asking me to help you with this. That’s really nice.’ Then you say what you feel and what you need eg: ‘I have two very busy weeks behind me with very little time to myself. I feel exhausted and need the weekend to catch up with things at home and take a rest.’

Taking responsibility for  and ownership of your feelings and needs allows others to understand you and it helps them not take it personally when you say ‘no’.

How can we tell when our social and work life has gone out of balance? What is too much for most of us?

The balance goes when work has taken over, when there is hardly any space for ‘me-time’ or friends and family in our life. As women, we have a natural tendency to care and give a lot, we need some time to ourselves to recharge our batteries.

Tip 3: Make sure you work within your hours. If you tend to do overtime, ask yourself why that is? Could you manage your time and priorities better? Could you say ‘no’ more often to your boss and/or colleagues? Do you need to review your overall workload? Ensure that you make time for some social life like spending quality time with friends and family, and some ‘me-time’ at home for rest and reflection.

I have a habit of saying ‘yes’ too soon, what should I do?

Look at your calendar before saying ‘yes’ and sleep over it one or two nights if you can. That’s my strategy and it works very well. It’s often easy to say ‘yes’ when the event is still miles away but when our weeks fill up with business as usual or other commitments, it can start to get tricky to fit everything in.

Tip 4: Think about what a typical week in your life looks like and whether it is realistic to fit something else in.

Depending on when the event takes place, you can sometimes even leave the decision for a week and come back to it. I would suggest you pencil the event into your diary and make a note on the day when you want to decide whether or not you want to go. This is a good way of gaining some time to make a more informed decision about how you want to spend your time.

During busy periods, what could we include in each day to help us stay relaxed?

Tip 5: Enough sleep, healthy diet and plenty of water are crucial to staying resourceful and alert. Make sure you eat regularly and have a balanced diet which includes fresh fruit, vegetables, nuts and seeds and plenty of water.

Tip 6: Taking some exercise is important too, e.g. some yoga, Pilates, a run in the morning or walking part of your journey to work can also be beneficial or getting some fresh air or a change in scenery at lunch time.

Tip 7: Spending time in green space is hugely beneficial. Perhaps there are some green spaces on your way to work or around work where you can spend some time relaxing and processing all the things that are going on.

Tip 8: Introducing a 3-minute ‘breathing space’ can be very powerful and helpful too. It’s simple but highly effective for your health and well-being. Here’s how:

Ideally, sit in a chair with your feet flat on the ground and close your eyes. If that’s not possible don’t worry, you can do this in lots of ways- while waiting for the kettle to boil, on the commute to work etc.

First check in with yourself and ask yourself: How am I doing right now? Then follow your breath for a few cycles. Simply notice the physical movements and sensations.

When you are ready you can re-engage with the day feeling refreshed. You can do this exercise several times a day.

What are some strategies for ensuring we enjoy the busy party season…

For me the motto ‘everything in moderation’ really works.

Tip 9: Be clear about how many parties and events you’d like to go to and how much time you need at home or with close friends, your partner, husband or family. Partying and spending quality time with ourselves, loved ones and friends have different benefits for us. So make sure you get a good balance of all of them.

Tip 10: It’s also worth making a commitment to yourself around how much you sleep and drink. How late do you want to get home? How many drinks do you want to have? How much enjoyment while still feeling fit and healthy do you want to have? Those are some of the questions you can ask yourself.

Enjoy the pre Christmas season!

We make choices all day long, consciously and unconsciously. We start the day and make choices about what to do first, second, third etc. It starts in the morning with choosing what to wear or what to have for breakfast. The evening approaches and we make choices about going home, going out for dinner with a friend or doing some exercise.

I call the very moment where we make a choice the choice point. It’s the point where we stop and make a decision, big or small, about what to do or say next.

There are many choice points in a day and we are only conscious of some of them. Most of them are part of our daily routine and so we are not aware of every choice point. This is good news as we wouldn’t move on with things very fast otherwise!

However, as creatures of habit we easily go into autopilot when going about our daily business. A good amount of important or crucial choice or decision points where we could change course and as a result make a difference in what we do, achieve or say, pass us by.

In my own experience, becoming more aware of important choice points in my daily life has allowed me to do more of the things I really want to do rather than feeling swept away by life.

Crucial choice points for me are the moments when I make a decision about how I spend my evening or weekend. When a colleague or friend asks me to come out for a drink or dinner after work, I take a few seconds before I make a choice rather than saying ‘yes’ immediately and then regretting spending the evening in the pub. Before I reply I quickly check in on my needs. By needs I mean for example my need for rest, my need for ‘me-time’ or my need for social time.

By taking a moment to check in with ourselves about what we really want and how we want to spend our time allows us to make more informed choices; choices that are informed and driven by our needs rather than by what other people want us to do or what we think life demands of us.

Making informed choices allows us to feel more in control of our life and helps us feel more satisfied and happy altogether.

How to become more aware of choice points:

Practice every day and start small.

Become more aware of choice points in your day. When for example, you have finished a task and have to decide what to do next; or when a colleague or friend asks you out in the evening or weekend; or when you could go home or to the gym; or whether to eat a biscuit or a healthy snack. These are typical choice points.

Pause, take a few seconds and ask yourself: what do I need right now and what do I really want to do?

As always, I’m curious about how you are getting on. Get in touch.

See my blog ‘Always too much to do’ for more tips on managing your time better.

Last week I went for a walk in the park with a close friend. We were walking and chatting and all of a sudden she looked around, took a deep breath, released a big sigh and then stopped and said:

“Green is doing me so much good! When I get out of London, and I am surrounded by green, or even when I just go to a park like now, I am always taken back by the incredible calm that my brain suddenly feels. It’s like something has been lifted away from it. My eyes open wider and there isn’t so much ‘noise’ in my head. It’s a really lovely feeling.” Jo Finburgh, Fundraising Manager

What Jo said made me very happy, for she was speaking my heart and mind. It is this realisation which I hope I will share with my clients through offering life coaching in green space and through my work on how to connect and bring nature into our daily lives. Indeed, when I work with clients outdoors they often have a similar reaction to Jo. At the beginning or during a session they might stop and release a big sigh of relief, rest and feel calmer.

I also found that what my friend said had begun to make me curious about the colour green and it’s healing and soothing effect on us. So I did a bit of research around the colour green which I thought I’d share it with you.

The Colour Green

- Green occupies more space in the spectrum visible to the human eye than most colours, and is second only to blue as a favourite colour.

- The natural greens, from forest to lime, are seen as tranquil and refreshing, with a natural balance of cool and warm (blue and yellow) undertones.

- Green is considered the colour of life, nature, peace, health and growth.

- The colour green affects us physically and psychologically. It soothes and relaxes us mentally, as well as physically, helping alleviate depression, nervousness, stress and anxiety and offering a sense of renewal, self-control and harmony.

- Green is also the colour of the Heart Chakra, one of our energy centres. This Chakra is located at the centre of the chest area and is linked to the heart, lungs, circulatory system, cardiac plexus, and the complete chest area. The Heart Chakra bridges the gap between the physical and spiritual worlds. Opening the Heart Chakra allows a person to love more, empathize, and feel compassion.

All of this confirms the experience I’ve had all my life with green. That spending time in nature, surrounded by green space, increases my well-being, my degree of happiness and my outlook on life. When I’m out and about I have a wonderful sense of: ‘Yes, all is well and all will be well!’

What is your experience? Share a comment or email me…..

Source: www.about.com Psychology: The ABC’s of Chakra Therapy by Deedre Dieme

Often it’s a matter of too much work and not enough time at home, with friends, a partner or family.

But our lives are complex and are made up of more areas than work and family life.

Often there is an imbalance or conflict between two or more areas in our life which then causes us to feel out of balance, unhappy, stressed or challenged.

The Wheel of Life (see picture below) is not only a great tool to help us identify the imbalances but it’s also great for helping us to see the areas in are life which are going well.

The wheel enables us to take a snapshot of our life and to break it down into eight key areas. By drawing our wheel we can get a “helicopter view” and gain clarity and insight in several ways:

We can identify all important areas that concern us

We can see all the area(s) where we have been doing well

We can identify imbalances and conflicts/competition between different life areas

The Wheel of Life pictured, pretty much reflects the main areas the majority of people chose as being most important in their lives. However, the wheel is different for each one of us, so do feel free to choose life areas that I haven’t listed. Download and personalise your own wheel of life here.

Here is how it works:

1. Draw a wheel and divide it into sections using the diagram as a guide, noting in the different areas of your life which are important to you – usually people create 8 sections.

2. Next ‘rate’ how you think you are doing in each different area of your life. How satisfied are you with each area. Give each a score between 1-10 where 10 means ‘couldn’t be better’ and 0 means ‘ couldn’t be worse’. Colour in these sections so that you can see at a glance how you are doing. 0 is at the circle’s centre and 10 is the outer edge of the circle.

3. Once you’ve filled out each area, take a moment to look at all the areas of your life, at the wheel as a whole, and reflect on the following questions:

• What insights can you get, ie what strikes you about your wheel? Is your work life great but your family life suffering? Do you have no time to see your friends?
• On a scale of 1-10 how balanced do you think your life is (1 being not very balanced at all and 10 being very balanced)?
• What conflicts might there be between different areas of your life?

For example, in my life, the area of career is about 70% filled while the area of romance is not filled out at all. I’m single and wish for a partner but because work, personal growth, health/fitness and close friendships take up almost all of my time and headspace at the moment, I’m not paying enough attention to my wish to being in a relationship. So there is clearly something out of balance here!

4. Look at your wheel again, where do you think is your leverage point, ie the area where change would have the biggest impact to the whole of your life?

For example, if I decided to reduce my working hours, I would not only have more time to put my attention on a potential relationship but it would very likely also have a positive impact on my health as well as on the quality of my friendships – they would probably see me more often and in a more relaxed and rested frame of mind!

5. Think about three actions you can take to move towards greater balance between the different areas in your life. When will you take the first action? Make a commitment to yourself. And how will you know that your life is starting to feel more balanced? What will you be doing differently? How will you feel?

Enjoy the exercise and let me know how you get on.

Karen

A few months ago I was approached to give a life coaching session to TV and radio comedy writer Alex Worrall,  on his journey of self improvement in mind, body and spirit for The Guardian. Read his blog here, or watch a film of our session.

I’ve been practising the exercises she taught me and I feel as though she has armed me with a totally new set of tools to put me at ease.

Alex Worrall

I must admit, I was quite daunted by the idea – not the fact that Alex would blog about his experience, but that our encouter would be filmed. Would I be able to coach in a natural, un-staged way or would I loose my way in something that has become so second nature to me.

It turns out Alex was more nervous than me in terms of what to expect.

“I’m a little worried that I may not be able to take it seriously, especially if there’s tree hugging and rolling around in leaves involved. My natural reaction would be to make a joke, so I’ll have to concentrate on committing to the process.

…It really would mean a lot to me to have more confidence in these situations and I’m hoping life coaching could be the answer.”

He choose to meet in Battersea Park – a beautiful park which I was unfamiliar with before our encounter.

By the time I finally found my life coach, Karen, I was anxious, sweaty and on edge – living out before her eyes the very problems I came to see her about.

I think it was equal part nerves and immaturity, but for the first 10 minutes I couldn’t stop laughing…. In the spotlight, I felt a need to play the fool, but I wanted to take it seriously.

As we strolled through the park, Karen asked me to visualise and remember times and feelings when I felt relaxed….. After that, we talked about my anxiety, when it happens and why it might happen. .. essentially she taught me how to centre myself in a situation where I might ordinarily be escalating the problems mentally.

His blog is now live on The Guardian website. And the film they made – well, it turned out to be not so bad!

Let me know what you think? I always appreciate your feedback.

If you know of anyone that might benefit from Life Coaching –  please do put them in touch. I offer a free 30-minute taster session by phone or Skype, or in a park local to where I’m based.

Warm wishes

Karen

I hope you’ve had a chance to make the most of this mild weather and step out into your nearest green space to experience autumn.

I’ve uploaded some photos from my Nature Connection Workshop at Organiclea, near Epping and the first of our Nature Connection Seasonal Walks which took place in Kent in October.

My intention for the nature connection walk was to offer participants an enjoyable, quiet and reflective day out in nature to explore and experience the positive effect nature has on our physical and emotional well-being. At the end of the day I felt very content and truly happy as I could sense that participants had benefited very positively from the day.

Here’s what some of the participants had to say about the workshops. Enjoy the gallery images!

Our  7-mile Nature Connection Walk will be on the theme of winter and will take place on the last Sunday in January or first Sunday in February 2012. Date and location TBC.

Please email me to find out more from the beginning of January 2012 karen@greenspacecoaching.com.

It was a lovely varied walk with simple but effective exercises to tune into the season. After the walk, I felt tired but very relaxed and more tuned in. I feel happier about autumn now and feel I can embrace the seasonal change. John Hutchin

The walk was brilliant. I enjoyed it all. It was so good to spend time at a slowed down pace and with people sensitive to each other. The whole walk felt so comfortable and nourishing. There was a terrific variety of terrain. The walk felt very cohesive as an experience. Excellent. Participant

After the walk I felt tired, rejuvenated, energised with clarity of thought. I enjoyed being away from the usual and normal environment to get away from stress and chatter. The location and length of the walk was just right, a very therapeutic experience. A fantastic way to spend Sunday enjoying ‘me-time’ in beautiful surroundings and lovely company. An easy and accessible way to de-stress and to feel good. Adeline O’Keffe

Thank you Karen and Adrian. The workshop was just wonderful. Such a tonic, I got home in a state of total relaxation and happiness at being outside and appreciating the wonders of nature. Look forward to doing it again soon. Louise, workshop participant, Sept 2011

My time spent with Karen and Adrian was a warm enriching experience enabling me to continue working on my connection to nature. Karen and Adrian held the group wonderfully and were trustworthy, professional and real. Thank you. Bonnie Rosengarten, workshop participant, Sept 2011