My Approach to Wellbeing
I love books. I’ve been reading about health, spirituality, nutrition, psychology, breathing and personal development for years, and so much of the way I teach today has been influenced by things I’ve discovered through reading. I don’t necessarily agree with every single idea in every book I read, but I love being curious, exploring different approaches and then taking the things that genuinely resonate with me into my own life and work.
One of my favourite books about breathing is Just Breathe by Dan Brulé. Breathwork has become an important part of what I teach, alongside yoga and my Oxygen Advantage training, and this book helped deepen my fascination with something we do every minute of our lives without usually thinking about it. Brulé explores breathwork from physical, emotional and spiritual perspectives, and it reinforced for me just how interesting and powerful the simple act of becoming conscious of our breathing can be. (Simon & Schuster UK)
Then there’s Louise Hay, whose work I’ve returned to again and again. You Can Heal Your Life is probably the book most people associate with her. I particularly love her work around affirmations, self-love and becoming aware of the way we speak to ourselves. (PenguinRandomhouse.com) I don’t take claims about thoughts curing physical illness literally, but the broader idea that our internal dialogue matters has had a huge influence on me. It’s something I bring into my mindset work too. How different would our lives feel if the voice inside our head encouraged us rather than constantly criticised us?
Jessie Inchauspé, the Glucose Goddess, has really interested me from a nutritional point of view. Her first book, Glucose Revolution, explores blood glucose and offers practical strategies around the way we combine and eat food. (Glucose Goddess) What I particularly like is being encouraged to understand what’s happening inside our bodies rather than simply being told to eat less. Nutrition fascinates me, and her work has added another dimension to the things I’ve already studied through Nutritional Healing, Ayurveda and my own interest in gut health.
I also love the Tao Te Ching, the ancient Chinese philosophical text traditionally attributed to Lao Tzu. It’s a completely different sort of book. I love its ideas around simplicity, balance, letting go of excessive striving and learning to move with life rather than constantly fighting against it. The Stephen Mitchell version describes it as essentially a guide to the art of living, centred on balance and living in accordance with the Tao. (Stephen Mitchell Books) Perhaps that’s partly why the idea of being “in flow” means so much to me.
Another book that has influenced my spiritual thinking is Ask and It Is Given by Esther and Jerry Hicks, based on the teachings they attribute to Abraham. I enjoy the emphasis on focusing attention, becoming aware of how we feel and thinking deliberately about what we want to create in our lives. I see books like this as spiritual and personal-development reading rather than scientific texts, but they’ve certainly influenced the way I think about intention, gratitude and possibility.
And then there is Marianne Williamson. I love so much of her writing. Her books explore love, fear, forgiveness, spirituality and the possibility of changing the way we experience ourselves and other people. What I particularly connect with is the idea that personal transformation isn’t only about improving ourselves; it’s also about how we show up in the world and how we relate to other people.
When I look at these books together, they might initially seem completely unrelated. One is about breathing, another nutrition, another ancient philosophy, another affirmations and others spirituality and personal growth.
But to me they’re all exploring different parts of the same question:
How can we live well?
How do we look after our bodies? How do we work with our minds? How do we breathe? How do we nourish ourselves? How do we become more conscious of our thoughts? How do we find meaning, peace, strength and joy?
Those questions have fascinated me for most of my adult life.
They’re also why my approach to wellbeing has never fitted neatly into one box. I’m interested in strength and muscles, but I’m also interested in breathing. I’m interested in nutrition and gut health, but also meditation and mindset. I love science, but I’m also interested in ancient traditions, spirituality and the things human beings have been exploring for thousands of years.
I think we can remain curious about all of it without having to believe everything we read.
And perhaps that’s what these books have taught me most of all.
Keep learning. Keep questioning. Keep exploring. And keep discovering what helps you live your own life well.
Selena
Personal Trainer, Yoga Teacher & Wellbeing Coach
In Flow Wellbeing Studio, Cheltenham
