Welcome to Nurture, Flow and Rise with Diane!

Hello and welcome to Nurture, Flow and Rise with Diane.  It is always interesting to find out about the person behind the business.  So this is me in a nutshell - I am an avid reader, I love the cosiness of drinking hot chocolate even in the summer, I can't keep my feet still when music starts to play and I have always loved to dance.  'Miss Saigon' is my absolutely favourite musical despite how much it makes me cry but I enjoy going to the theatre to see most musicals.  Meeting up with friends in coffee shops for a good chat brings me such joy and I love how my dog snuggles up to me the moment I sit down.  Spring is my favourite season as it brings a new, fresh energy and blooms of daffodils and tulips make me smile.  Travelling to the Canary Islands is something I cherish and I particularly adore Lanzarote, which I regard as my spiritual home.

However, the real question is what led me to setting up my own holistic business?  A simple and broad answer is that I think my whole life led me to this point.  

One of my favourite quotes is by Erin Hanson:

What if I fall?

Oh, my darling, what if you fly?

This quote is a good reflection of my whole life.

Ever since I was a little girl, I was described as a 'worrier', probably because in the 1980s the word, 'anxiety' had not yet become a well-used term to describe our emotional, mental state.  As a child, I worried about most things and this would manifest in disturbed sleep, tears and tummy aches. As I grew up, anxiety was my shadow and I just became so used to it that feeling anxious became my normal.  I think I even thought that everyone felt the same and I was often surprised when friends did things that I thought were risky.

I never even had to ask the question, 'what if I fall?' because my anxiety was over-protective and forecast that I would always fall, so it was better not to even try.  There were so many experiences that I would have loved to have attempted, but my anxiety in its full-on over-protective mode would convince me it did not feel safe and so I would turn down opportunities, make accuses and pretend it did not matter.  Of course, it did.

Life events always affect us no matter how much we want to believe we are strong and walk away unscathed. Health issues have been of particular significance in my own life when I was diagnosed with a prolactinoma in 2010, which is (thankfully) a benign brain tumour on my pituitary gland.  In 2017, my mum was diagnosed with myeloma, a type of blood cancer and not long after having a stem cell transplant in 2018, my 8 year old niece suffered and survived an unexpected, life changing stroke. Later that year, I developed angioedema and urticaria, which would seem to happen spontaneously.  Unsurprisingly, health became a huge trigger of anxiety for me and even led to depression.

It was at the beginning of 2019 when I decided that I really needed to address what I now understood to be anxiety.  I began a daily meditation practice and journaling which gave me comfort and helped me to address my deeper emotional feelings and thoughts.  Life started to feel lighter and I realised the value of holistic practices.

However, life can be noisy, over-stimulating. non-stop, chaotic, fast paced and relentless.  New challenges concerning health within my family and other pressures of balancing a job, a home and family with three children of my own, started to take their toll.  Anxiety manifested as regular panic attacks and at times I could hardly get out of bed.  My appetite was completely suppressed by nausea and then the tears flowed continuously even through the night when depression was also triggered.  Feeling despair, hopelessness and consumed by negative thoughts was my daily life for several months.  After a few months of talk therapy, I began to confront the roots of my anxiety and this helped me to feel calmer and safer in my own body.  It helped me to self-regulate my nervous system.  But I still had some way to go.

I was looking through social media one morning and saw a Reiki Level 1 training course advertised and there was only one space left.  My intuition had taken a back seat and had developed a whispering voice because my anxiety had always been in charge, however in that moment my inner knowing told me to book the last remaining place.  Anxiety said: But what if I fall? My reply: No, not this time!  For me, it did feel scary booking on to this course, but I knew that I had to move through the anxiety so that doing the training felt familiar and safe.  I had experienced Reiki at holistic retreats and had a basic understanding of what it was, but my lack of knowledge did not matter, I just knew I was meant to do it.

Training in Reiki was unexpected but it quite literally changed my life.  It has given me a sense of peace, balance and inner calm.  My experiences during the training courses were so beautiful that I knew that I had to offer Reiki to others, who would also benefit from its energetic healing.  This is when I started to travel a path that I had never thought about before and began building my own business.  So here I am.

For my whole professional life, I have been a primary school teacher, supporting children with their learning for over 20 years, which by now has encompassed over 600 students.  I have taught children aged between 4 and 10 with varying needs whilst also liaising with parents, carers, as well as other professionals, such as speech and language therapists, social workers etc.  Teaching is not just delivering a lesson, it is so much more.  It is about serving others and believing in them and giving them the tools to feel safe and happy so that they can learn.  Anxiety told me that I could never do anything else - I was not good enough, I would fail, failure would be embarrassing and it was safe to stay in my comfort zone.  However, Reiki taught me that doing something new is bound to feel uncomfortable at first because it is not familiar, but actually stepping out of my comfort zone, which ironically was not always that comfortable, is where the magic happens.  At last, I believed that flying was possible and that falling was not the definitive outcome.  Being able to support people with practices, such as Reiki, seemed like an extension of my teaching role.

At first I practised Reiki with family members and friends; they all reported that it was so relaxing and gave them a deep sense of peace.  Once I had completed my training, I branched out and offered friends sound mediation sessions so I could gain more experience and also receive their feedback.

Soon, Nurture, Flow and Rise with Diane was created and it filled me with excitement that I would be able to support people who also suffer with anxiety.  However, talking to friends, parents, teachers and fellow mums, it became obvious that everyone is dealing with their own struggles, stress and overwhelm.  My holistic practices benefit everyone and not just individuals with diagnosed anxiety.  My holistic treatments can be for self-care.  We are not very good at giving ourselves permission to take a break from our busy routines and to give our bodies time to relax and recalibrate.  I'm a huge advocate for self-care and this is why I recommend my practices for everyone.

I developed  'Magic' and 'Nurture at the Roots Reiki for Children' because over the years, I have seen more and more children in school suffering with anxiety and stress.  I truly believe that if we can teach children how to self-regulate their nervous system to feel safe and happier, they can use these tools as adults too.

I really love these holistic practices and I would love to support you with your healing or self-care.  Healing and self-care matters.  So do you.

With love and magic,

Diane x