Giving the gift of ‘me time’ this Christmas

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Christmas, although lovely, can be a very stressful time: emotional memories, reflecting on the year gone by, running around after others, striving for the ‘perfect day’… And then there’s  always the pressure to find that ideal present.

A Sophie Fagan Holistic Massage gift voucher is a great way to avoid the hectic Christmas shopping crowds and to give a loved one the thoughtful gift of ‘me time’ – an hour of time and space where the world stands still and, for a little while, it’s all about them.

Printer friendly gift vouchers addressed to your loved one can be emailed directly to you. I accept payment by bank transfer and will email your voucher to you within 2 days of receiving funds.

Not long to go now until the festive finale, so why not take some pressure off yourself and make a stress-free purchase for that special person in your life?

Contact me for more information.

Goodbye stress, hello holistic massage

BCMB_SOPH-14Hello there! This is my first blog post and I must say, I’m pretty excited about it. It’s great to have a space where I can share some of my passions and interests with you. Over the coming weeks and months I will post up ideas on how to keep your mind, body and spirit happy. I’ll also let you know about special offers and upcoming events. First of all though, I’d like to tell you a little story about myself and why I became a massage therapist.

Long before I even knew the Holistic Massage Diploma at BCMB (Bristol College of Massage and Bodywork) existed, I was managing a team of people for a small Bristol business. I was under a lot of pressure and had been suffering from stress-related anxiety as a result. I kept thinking that I just had to cope with it and that not being able to cope was a sign of failure, an admission of defeat. Eventually my health began to suffer and so I went to see my GP, who signed me off with stress for 6 weeks. At first I tried to resist it, “I can’t take all that time off! Who’s going to x, y and z?” I said to myself. I felt like I was no longer able to cope and it was a very uncomfortable feeling. Some of you may have even experienced that feeling yourself.

Now when I look back at that time I realise that it was actually the ‘not coping’ that ultimately enabled me to rid my life of that kind of stress. I had a lightbulb moment: I don’t have to be stressed to be successful and not coping isn’t failing at all, it’s my body’s way of saying “enough is enough.” Around the same time a friend of mine recommended a course she had just completed at BCMB. She said she thought I would get a lot out of it, and how right she was!

I completed my Diploma in 2010 and set up Sophie Fagan Holistic Massage shortly afterwards. It’s no exaggeration to say that becoming a qualified massage therapist turned my life around completely. I used to go to work and get stressed out. Now I go to work and relax.

I know that not everyone suffering from stress can just switch up and change their career, but I do believe that lots of people tell themselves that they need to cope, that they need to keep all their plates in the air or they’re failing. That is something I passionately disbelieve.

Modern life makes so many demands of us and can pull us in several different directions at once. Amid all the noise and the haste it can be hard to find time and space for ourselves, to simply be and experience a sense of inner peace and connection. One of the things I love most about what I do now is providing my clients with exactly that space, allowing them the time to ground themselves and take a well deserved break.

We are all only human after all. I hope what I do goes some way towards reminding people of that.