Awesome Hugs Beauty and Wellness Therapy

The Nerdy Bit: what’s actually happening when you “finally switch your brain off”

So many of my clients sit up at the end of their treatment, a bit dazed, and say “I don’t know where I went.” Some say they’ve never had their mind go so quiet. So let me tell you where you went.

Your brain has a setting that runs in the background.

Scientists call it the default mode network.

I call it the narrator.

It replays the argument from Tuesday, plans the tea, and reminds you of the thing you said in 2011. Even in the bath. Especially in bed.

The narrator’s job is keeping you safe by predicting what’s coming next.
So it only quietens down when your body is properly convinced that nothing’s coming.

That’s what a treatment does. Warm room. Warm hands. Slow, steady touch that never surprises you. Each one is a message of safety, and after enough of them the narrator gets bored and goes quiet. Your brainwaves slow into the dreamy kind you get just before sleep. That’s why you lose track of time, and why people say “that’s the quickest two hours of my life”. You weren’t gone. You were resting in a way you probably haven’t in weeks.

You didn’t switch your brain off. You switched it to the setting it was always meant to have.

And you didn’t have to try. No app, no “clearing your mind” (which never works). Your body did it the moment it felt safe.
God built that in.
A whole rest mode, ready and waiting, that switches on with kindness.

If your brain hasn’t had a proper switch-off in a while, DM me HUGS.

Big hugs, Tina x 💚

So many women lie down on my therapy bed and tell me, “I didn’t even know what to book… I just knew I needed something.” And honestly? Knowing you need something is reason enough.

That’s exactly why I created the Tailored Wellness Retreat. You don’t have to choose a thing. You come in, we have a wee chat, and I work with whatever your body’s asking for on the day. Massage, facial, Energy healing, Tapping, a bit of quiet, a lot of quiet… I’ll take it from there.

So let’s make space for you.

You don’t have to wait until the washing’s done, the emails are answered and everyone else is sorted. You matter more than any chore on that never-ending list.

I’ve got a space with your name on it.

DM me HUGS or click Direct booking in my bio

Find me here 📍
Awesome Hugs Beauty & Wellness
3rd Floor, St George’s Buildings
5 St Vincent Place
Glasgow G1 2DH

Big hugs, Tina x

Quick… where are your shoulders right now?

If they’re somewhere up round your ears and it’s only Monday, you’re not alone. Our bodies brace when they sense pressure coming, long before our minds catch up. Shoulders rise. Jaw tightens. Breath gets shallow. It’s your body trying to protect you.

Try this with me, right now:
• Let your shoulders drop, even a centimetre
• Take one slow breath out, longer than the breath in
• Place a hand on your chest and say quietly, “I’m safe right now”

That’s it. Thirty seconds. Your body is always listening, and sometimes it just needs to be told it can stand down.

Save this for Wednesday afternoon… you’ll need it.

Big hugs, Tina x 💚

You’ve been running on empty so long that “tired” just feels normal now. You keep going for everyone else, and there’s never really a moment to stop.

Then you lie on my therapy bed, and before you’ve even got off it, you say, “I feel so tired.” So many of my clients say it, and I always tell them… that’s your body kicking into rest and restoration, and that’s a good thing.

Here’s the nerdy bit…
When life’s busy and fast-paced, stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol keep you going. They’re brilliant at getting you through the day, but they also cover up how tired you really are. Stay in that mode long enough and you forget what rest even feels like. During a treatment, your nervous system gets the signal that you’re safe. Those stress hormones drop, and your body can finally hear itself and send a signal to all the places that need restoring… body, mind and soul.

So stay in that bubble for as long as you can. Don’t rush off and undo everything we’ve done. Your body already knows how to heal. It just needed the space to do it.

If you’re so tired and don’t even know why any more, come and feel rested with me. DM me or direct book👇🏽

https://www.fresha.com/book-now/awesome-hugs-beauty-wellness-v1auvdpq/all-offer

Big hugs, Tina x 💚

Find me here 📍
Awesome Hugs Beauty & Wellness
3rd Floor, St George’s Buildings
5 St Vincent Place
Glasgow G1 2DH

In 18 years of working with clients and patients, I’ve noticed skin usually flares after the stress has finished, not during it. That’s why so many people tell me, “But I don’t have any stress.” Your body held it all together, and now it’s finally letting go.

My skincare started on the cancer wards at the Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre, where fragile skin needed something far kinder than aqueous cream. Even though I needed a solution for my own skin, my patients led me to look deeper, because there’s nothing more motivating than wanting to help another human ease their suffering. And the worst ones were actually products made for sensitive skin.

So everything I make now uses only plant-based ingredients and real essential oils, never synthetic fragrance or colours. And just because it’s plant-based doesn’t mean it’s not effective… our ancestors have been using plant remedies for centuries, and I pair that wisdom with evidence.

“You put it on for the first time and think, oh, this is proper stuff.” Annemarie W ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Read more reviews at https://www.awesomehugs.com/ or DM me if you need more help 💖

Big hugs, Tina x 🤗

GlasgowSmallBusiness

We somehow forget our anniversary every year 😂❤️

This morning my husband looked at me and said, “We’ve done it again… we’ve forgotten. Happy anniversary!”

And honestly, that’s just us.

Not because our wedding day wasn’t special, because we had the BEST day. But after 28 years together and 21 years married, I think we’ve realised it’s the everyday stuff that matters most.

The hugs. The kisses. Telling each other we love each other. Reminding each other how much of a blessing we are in each other’s lives.

Has it always been perfect? Absolutely not 😂

I think the secret is just to keep trying. Keep making the effort. And remember to treat the person you love at least as kindly as you’d treat a stranger, because sometimes the people closest to us end up getting the leftovers.

Someone said something to me years ago that really stuck…

“He doesn’t have to be wrong for you to be right… and you don’t have to be wrong for him to be right.”

That one really helped me over the years.

We don’t always agree. Sometimes we see things completely differently. But we can both have our own view without one of us having to be wrong.

And through all of it, we have God 🙏🏽❤️

We’ve been through so many versions of ourselves over these 28 years, but we’ve kept choosing each other.

Happy 21st wedding anniversary to my wonderful husband.

Thank you for sharing this life with me.

28 years later… I’d still choose you ❤️ # # #

What I wish I’d learned earlier…

I wish I’d learned sooner that I don’t have to do everything on my own.

Truthfully, I still struggle with this.

When you’ve had to fend for yourself from a young age and there wasn’t really anyone there to support you when you needed it most, you get very good at sorting things yourself.

You stop expecting help.
You stop asking.
And after a while, doing it all yourself feels safer than needing someone.

Even now, when life gets busy, I can slip straight back into:

“No, it’s fine. I’ll do it.”

Hence me building cabinets and moving furniture on my own 😂

And I think “no, it’s fine” is probably one of the most common answers women give.

When sometimes what we really mean is:

“I’ll just do it myself.”
“I don’t want to be a burden.”
“It’s easier than explaining.”
“I’m used to coping.”

My husband knows this about me better than anyone. After 28 years, he still asks if I need help, even when I’ve already said no.

Because the truth is, I usually can do it myself.

That’s not really the point.

Just because we can carry everything doesn’t mean we should have to.

I’ve learned that doing everything alone might feel familiar, but it can also feel lonely.

A bit soulless, actually.

Life is so much richer when we let people in.

When we let someone help.
When we laugh together.
When we share the load.
When we stop feeling like we have to be the one holding everything up.

And probably the biggest lesson for me…

when we actually allow ourselves to receive.

That part can still feel uncomfortable.

Because receiving asks us to soften a little.

To trust.

To let someone show up for us.

And yes, doing it alone can still feel more comfortable to me.

But comfortable isn’t always the same as connected.

I’m still learning that strength isn’t proving I can do everything myself.

Sometimes strength is simply saying:

“Can you help me with this?”

And then actually letting them. 🌻

If you’re good at giving but not so good at receiving, maybe this is your reminder.

I’ve got an abundance of care to give when you’re ready to let some in. 🤍

And yes… I’ll probably still be the woman halfway through moving a chest of drawers saying,
“No, honestly, I’ve got it.” 😂

Find me here 📍
Awesome Hugs Beauty & Wellness
3rd Floor, St George’s Buildings
5 St Vincent Place
Glasgow G1 2DH

Direct booking 👇🏼
https://www.fresha.com/book-now/awesome-hugs-beauty-wellness-v1auvdpq/all-offer

Some of my favourite things I never get fed up of hearing at the end of a treatment are…

“Just leave me here, I’ve melted into the bed.” 😂

“I forgot where I was until I opened my eyes.”

Or the one that always makes me chuckle: “That was the shortest two hours of my life.”

But honestly? The bit I love most happens before that… during the session.

It’s the big sigh.

The little snort.

The snoring.

That moment your whole body seems to finally give in and say: “Right… I’m safe enough to switch off now.”

And nearly every time, you wake up and apologise. “I’m so sorry, I fell asleep!”

Or “sorry, I got a bit emotional.”

Then comes… “I didn’t realise I needed that.”

And my favourite of all… “my head feels empty.”

And I always say no sorry here… you honour me with all of it 🫶🏽🥺

When you fall asleep on my table, your body has switched off fight or flight and dropped into rest and restore. That’s not you being rude, that’s you being healed. Your body can’t repair itself while it’s braced for danger. It needs to feel safe first.

And when it does, you’re in a completely different frequency. The one where you feel good, where things flow, where good things have room to come in.

Some of the women who come to me haven’t properly rested in years.

So when someone starts snoring in my company… that’s just gold dust that I wish I could bottle 😂

It tells me you’ve let go enough to rest, and that’s honestly one of the joys of what I do. Not just giving a treatment, but holding a space where someone can finally exhale in that relief I’m home way that you’ve probably not done for a while.

If you’ve been on my table, you’ll know exactly what I mean.

And if you haven’t… when was the last time your body got to feel that? 🌻

Want to book👇🏽
https://www.fresha.com/book-now/awesome-hugs-beauty-wellness-v1auvdpq/services

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My WHY…

I think my reason for doing what I do started long before I became a therapist.

Growing up, I was passed around. Labelled the “problem child.” I felt alone… broken… I didn’t really have someone who was genuinely interested in how I was feeling, or who would simply hold me and make things feel a little better in that moment.

That kind of care you imagine a mother giving her child.

So I decided I’d be that person for somebody else instead. That’s always been my motto… if I can’t find it, I’ll create it!

Before becoming a therapist, I considered going into nursing because I thought, maybe that’s how I can care for people. Instead, I found my way into complementary therapy and was given the opportunity to work at the wellbeing centre at the Beatson Cancer Hospital.

There, I learned what caring for someone really means.

The treatments might have been facials, massage, complementary therapies or energy healing. But more than anything, I got to be with them. Not fixing them, just being with them. I could hug them, listen to them, laugh with them, cry with them, hold their hand or simply sit quietly beside them.

We had something incredibly precious there:

Time.

Time to give a treatment, but also time to see the person beneath everything they were going through.

I looked after people at all different stages of cancer, including those approaching the end of their lives. Being trusted with people’s hardest moments is still the privilege of my life.

And sometimes, all I could give them was a hug.

That kind of hug where, for those few seconds, nothing else exists. No illness, no fear, no roles and no fixing. Just two human beings holding each other with love.

That’s where Awesome Hugs came from.

My hugs became well known because they were never just polite hugs. They meant something to me.

And I think that’s still at the heart of everything I do today.

Life can make us forget how wonderful, beautiful and incredible we are. We get caught up in illness, stress, responsibilities, grief and looking after everyone else.

So many come to me, needing that space to come back to themselves. To soften, breathe and feel safe enough to stop for a while.

So somewhere along the way, my why became something bigger. Now, when someone sits in front of me, I don’t just see what they’re carrying. I see who they are underneath it… MAGNIFICENT, BEAUTIFUL, WHOLE … often before they can see it themselves. And I get to reflect that back to them until they believe it too. …To remember that they are worthy of care, worthy of love, even on the days when they don’t feel it.

I feel incredibly honoured to care for the people who trust me with that.

I think, in truth, that has always been my why: to give somebody the kind of care I know can mean everything when you need it most, and to help them reconnect with the incredible person they already are. 🌻