Bee's Holistics

Sometimes support looks very ordinary. 🤎
Yesterday, I carried a little piece of my sister with me.

A while ago, she brought me a beautiful hand-painted tenugui from Japan. Yesterday, I wrapped my Bee’s Holistics business cards in it and, for the first time, found the courage to walk around, introduce myself and hand my cards to people at the Socially Shared Online Community networking event in Harborne.

She was with me in a small way....and I was with her too🌿

Then last night, she messaged me with some wonderful news.

She has been going through something big in her own life, and over this period she let me be there for her listening, talking things through, and supporting her emotionally when she needed it.

She asked for help.

And I’m so grateful that she did.

This morning, I made myself a drink with the matcha she also brought me from Japan, and I found myself thinking about these little threads of care that run between us.

A message. A conversation. A piece of cloth brought home from a journey. A cup of matcha. Someone saying, “I’m struggling with this.” Someone else saying, “I’m here.”

As World Wellness weekend begins is a core part of it for me, perhaps this is the thing I most want to say:

Please don’t be ashamed to ask for help 🤎

Your worries are not silly because someone else might not understand them.

Your thoughts are not something you have to hide because you fear being judged....and struggling with something does not mean you have to struggle with it alone.

Sometimes looking after our includes professional support.
.and sometimes it begins much more quietly:

with having one person we can tell the truth to.

Someone we know we can .

I’m deeply grateful that my sister and I can be that for each other. Allowing ourselves to need one another has strengthened our too.

We are not meant to carry everything alone.

And if something feels heavy at the moment, perhaps your first step doesn’t need to be having all the answers.

Perhaps it can simply be telling someone

“I could use a little support.” 👐🏻

Because sometimes begins with letting one person know that you need them.

This World Wellness Weekend, I’ve been thinking about how easily wellbeing itself can become another thing to keep up with.
Move more. Sleep better. Meditate. Journal. Eat well. Get outside.
All things that can support us.
But when you're already the woman organising, working, caring, responding and thinking ahead, even “look after yourself” can sometimes sound suspiciously like...
another job😅 Do you agree?
As a complementary therapist, I have plenty of tools available to me 👐🏻 massage, reflexology, EFT, HeartMath, breath, movement.
I value them deeply🙏🏻..and I still have days when I don't want another technique to practise.
I need to receive.
That's something my work continues to teach me.
Looking after our mental and emotional wellbeing doesn't always have to mean fixing how we feel or trying to become calmer, happier or more productive.
Sometimes we need conversation.
Sometimes professional mental-health support.
Sometimes medication or healthcare.
Sometimes movement, prayer, friendship or time outside.
And sometimes it can simply feel good to lie somewhere warm while another human being cares for you for a while.
Massage and reflexology aren't replacements for mental-health care, and I don't believe they should be presented as such.
They're simply two of the ways I offer women space to stop doing for a little while.
No need to clear your mind.
No need to be good at relaxing.
No need to arrive feeling particularly “well.”
Woman first. Tool second. 🌿
So perhaps my question this isn't “What else should I be doing for my wellbeing?”
It's...
what would it feel like to receive some care?
And if your answer is “I'd quite like someone else to look after me for an hour,” my Body • Mind • Spirit Massage and reflexology treatments (it's World Reflexology Week next week 👣) in Harborne, Birmingham are one place where you can do just that 🐝

S
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P
T
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M -Make space for what matters
B
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If I am one of the things that matters, where do I appear in my own week?

s
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p
T: Trust your guidance
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m
b
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If I stopped asking what I “should” do for a moment, what is my heart really asking for?

This morning I was back to Barefoot Carers Spa Morning, offering massage alongside the lovely treats and yoga the carers enjoy at these events
And then came the loveliest surprise.
The woman leading yoga was Felicity. That Felicity. 🥹🫶🏻
We knew each other years ago through the school gates. Her youngest was starting primary school while my eldest was making her way through those early school years, and for a while our paths became part of each other’s.
I remember thinking Felicity was an absolute pro at the school run 😅 events, children, somehow appearing to have everything together.
But that isn’t really what stayed with me.
I remembered how she made me feel.
There was something so loving and caring about her presence. At that stage of my life, I don’t think I had the words or perhaps the confidence.. to tell her how comforting that had been for me.
Then this morning, there she was.
Years later.
Felicity teaching yoga.
Me offering massage to carers.
We hugged, both bursting into the same delighted surprise, and for a moment I could see two women who had known each other in one season of life meeting again in another. ❤️
And this time, I told her.
I told her what her presence had meant to me. I told her how wonderful it was to see her doing this work, with that same heart I remembered all those years ago.
There was something unexpectedly healing about finally saying it.
And it made me think about today’s Softly Strong September prompt:
T (in SepTember)• Trust your guidance.
When I don’t know what to do, I can ask everyone except myself. Ask what makes sense. Ask what I should do.
Yet some of the things that have mattered most haven’t arrived as big, certain answers.
Sometimes it’s recognising someone.
Following the impulse to hug her because it’s mutual.
Finally saying something that has quietly lived in your heart for years.
For me, trusting my guidance doesn’t mean treating every thought or feeling as an instruction.
I’m practising the listening part.
And today, I’m rather glad I listened, stayed… and told her. 🙏🏻❤️
🌿🐝

🍂
Resilience without hardening.

After you get it wrong..
what would repair look like here.. instead of replaying what I wish I had done differently?


MindSpirit