My life is definitely not how I had it all planned out when I was a child. Okay, I have a lovely husband, a gorgeous son, we live in South Wales and have a pretty decent home, and that’s as close as its gets to the dream I had when I was growing up. That’s because I didn’t account for Autism.

Now I’m not saying my life is not as good as the one I had dreamed of, nor any better. It’s just different. In fact the more I think about the things I wanted to be, have and do, it really did need something like Autism to come along and make me into the person I needed to be to get there.  Yep, I guess I am going to have to say ‘Thank you Autism’ for making me the person I am today and for helping me grow into the person I will need to be in the future too.

Let me explain. I just wanted to help people. I followed the usual pattern for someone who did pretty well at school (I was just lucky to be the person ‘type’ that does ok in the ‘sausage machine’ approach of an education system we have – more of that later!), and followed that by a few years getting my degree. I went to work in London for a big corporate and life did seem to be going to plan; good job and having fun.  It wasn’t long though before I got quite disheartened by the fact that all the long hours, hard work and stress I put myself under as an employee was all in the interests of ‘shareholders’.  Yes the ultimate purpose for doing what I did was so that the shareholders could get more cash at the end of the year when dividends were handed out. Ok the company I worked for did provide a service to people, but the big aim was to make a profit.  Now I know that’s how business works… but I didn’t like it one bit.

I just wanted to help people. I had big dreams of making a difference in this world, doing good and being known for having done something that helped many people and countless lives. We all have a need for significance and I wanted to be ‘famous’ for helping others.

After leaving corporate employment, and via other business ventures, I moved back home to Wales to have my son Tommy in 2004. All those dreams I had to really make a difference I thought were packed away, and that I’d had my chance to help others before having a family.  Then Autism came along.  Funny how life creates opportunities for you that you really didn’t expect to show up in the way they do.

In the early years after Tommy’s diagnosis at 2, I really didn’t connect the old dreams with my new life. It was just too raw back then trying to deal with what life had thrown at us. The dark days felt like I was living a nightmare and in the better days I was only just able to come up for air so to speak. However, all through that time I knew that life wasn’t chucking stuff at me without also giving me a helping hand to cope too, and with my background in personal development I knew I was growing stronger, becoming more resilient and being prepared to help others on the same journey too one day.

Tommy is now 8 so we’ve had a few years in this autism world already, and there is a longer journey ahead. In the past couple of years I’ve dived back into my coaching and NLP training to find the tools to help me and my family live with it every day. I’ve battled with depression on the journey and been to what I felt was the lowest and darkest places in my mind. I have also felt the incredible highs too when Tommy just gives us back everything with just a smile.

Autism has given me that chance to help people and make a difference. The trainee years were tough, and some days still are. Yet knowing that some days will be better than others, some will stink and some will be great, still allows me to absolutely live and love my life the way it is right now.

I don’t buy into the false idea that life’s only working for us when we’re happy and positive. It’s about learning to dance in the rain and be ok with every day and whatever weather it brings.

This blog starts today on 1^st April 2013 and will continue every day throughout Autism Awareness Month. I will share all I know about how to live and love your life with Autism in your family, in the hope that I can reach out and help you do the same.

With love and gratitude,

Nadine.

Autism Awareness Day and my Facebook feed is full already with posts from individuals with autism, parents and organisations that want to use this day to raise awareness of autism with the world. I am doing my bit too with this blog and a busy day planned off the internet too.

What are we hoping for? What do we really want and expect to happen as we blast out our thoughts, feelings and demands for autism awareness across society? Is anyone listening?

Over the last few years there has been a shift in mainstream media getting involved. The Independent newspaper has a 16-page Autism Special and we (that is The Autism Directory.com that I am Founder and CEO of) have a column in there. At lunch time we will be at The Senedd (the home of the Welsh Assembly Government) as sponsors of the launch of the Autism Heroes Awards, and then later I am being interviewed on BBC Radio Wales afternoon show. So it seems the platforms to be heard are growing, so what is our message?

Awareness I believe is the starting point, not the goal. A milestone along the way to a more compassionate society that accepts everyone for who they are and cares enough to understand people’s needs and goes some way to accommodate them.  This isn’t a new concept. In the news recently has been the acceptance in law of same gender marriage which in the beginning was beyond the wildest dreams of people who just wanted to be accepted for who they are and have the same rights and privileges as anyone else. It started with awareness.

In fact ‘difference’ is rather commonplace in our society, yet we are all fed the belief that being different is not good and that we should all comply to the ‘model’ of what’s considered normal. This is just bizarre yet we see it everywhere in the media messages about our body size, hair colour, gadgets we must have and the list goes on. Who on earth decides what’s normal? Oh yes, our own created consumerism society. Ok I’m at risk of going off topic here so back to Autism.

Autism Awareness is a starting point to create an understanding in the wider society we live that those with Autism do have additional needs in order to be accepted for who they are, and to access the same level of care and support that others do.

As a mother of a child with autism, I have found that many organisations I have to deal with in my daily life that do not have a basic understanding of autism, make the things I have to do that little bit harder (and a lot harder in some cases), which in turn makes family life difficult, and puts my son in a position where he doesn’t receive the same respect as other children in society.

This impact can be experienced across many areas of life. For example, when I am dealing with health professionals, they simply do not ‘get’ the extreme level that my son can go to with his self harming. At the Doctors the other day I mentioned his meltdowns and the Dr respond with “his tantrums”.  Most health professionals don’t understand this difference and cannot relate to the reality of a child harming themselves without conscious thought. So my concerns just get dismissed and I get put in the ‘paranoid mother’ box.

Other areas such as education, emergency services, social services to name a few that autism families deal with on a regular basis do not have the basic level of knowledge about autism to support the families they are there to help. This puts parents like myself on a constant education mission, improving the understanding of those we meet one by one. However we are not often listened to as we are not ‘professionals’ (when in the parent role at least).

Daily life activities like shopping, recreation activity, eating at a restaurant also involves some level of ‘explanation’ to others about why we need things to be a certain way, or why we cannot conform to a particular rule they have.  Some may think we are just being difficult, or ‘playing on the autism label’ to get things our way.  Believe me, at times I would love to be able to conform just so I didn’t have to go through the constant explanations that keep reminding us that we are in the ‘different’ box whenever we leave our front door.

Autism Awareness is something I do every day, not just in April. However, I do understand and appreciate the opportunity of such a day  to raise the level of understanding across society maybe just that little bit more.

With love and gratitude,

Nadine.

I had a great time yesterday being interviewed live on BBC Radio Wales about life with Tommy (my son with autism) and re-telling the story of his diagnosis 6 years ago to where we are today.  What really struck me as I was talking about our life was that it didn’t faze me in any way.  Others seem naturally shocked, concerned and empathetic, yet to me it’s just how life is.

When we go on any journey and stop to look back on where we’ve come from, it’s always astonishing to see how far we’ve travelled.  What was considered a normal life before has been completely redefined, and we have a new ‘normal’ now.

Tommy was an IVF baby born in December 2004. He developed ‘to plan’ hitting all his developmental milestones, and was crawling, walking and starting to talk. Then at 15 months it all stopped and he regressed. He stopped saying the words he had learnt and went into a world of his own.  We began to have difficulty communicating with him and understanding his wants and needs.

Being very concerned we went to the Drs and we were referred to CAMHS (child and adolescent mental health service). At this appointment, just 15 minutes in we had the diagnosis of autism. Knowing now how long it can take to get a diagnosis for a child, it must have been so obvious and Tommy has remained at the more ‘severe’ end of the spectrum since.

As any parent would we then asked the question why? What caused it and more importantly what do we do now to cure it. Shocked by the response of “don’t know” to both, we were sent home with an appointment in 6 months-time to see how we were doing. And that was all the support, help and advice we received.

The days, weeks and months that followed were pretty hazy. Looking back now if I had understood what was to come I think I might have just given up. Not knowing what lies ahead was definitely a good thing in this situation. As it was I thought we were up against something we could research, find a way through and make Tommy better very soon. Then we could get on with our life as usual, as it was meant to be, life as other families can live.

We aren’t given anything we can’t handle. I do believe that. Whatever is thrown at us, we are also given a way to find the resources we need to help us too.

One of my life mentors is Tony Robbins ( a guru in personal development) and a quote of his really spoke to me; “You never know how far you can go from the point where you thought it was the end”  I wrote this on a post-it note and it’s been up on my wall for a few years now. It still inspires me.

It really isn’t about what happens to you in life. We all experience pretty bad situations and some extreme stuff that really challenges us. It’s how we approach those times and situations, and how we deal with what has been thrown at us that will define the outcome and how we grow as a result of that experience.

Being interviewed about the 6 years since Tommy was diagnosed we touched on the fact that he is at the moment still non-verbal. He can say a few words if he needs to like ‘chocolate’ and ‘bath’ (things he likes) yet he is unable to communicate any pain he is feeling, or even point to a part of his body that hurts. With no prior warning he can meltdown to the point of head-banging the walls, floor or windows with such a force that is bound to hurt. He hits himself in the face and if I am in the vicinity he will hit, bite and head-bang me too.  All we can do is attempt to keep him safe while this is happening. Any mother will go towards their child who is suffering without concern for their own safety at times, and when I do I usually come off worse.

This makes life very hard and unbearable at times, yet I do not seek any sympathy. I would just appreciate those that support us to understand. Tommy is slowly making progress in that these meltdowns are becoming less frequent since we changed his diet a few months ago to take out gluten and dairy. We are hopeful that this progress will continue.

Would I change anything? Yes I would like to be able to help Tommy with whatever is preventing him communicate verbally, and to stop these meltdowns completely. Saying that, there is always something in life we would like to change, and that’s just part of the journey we are all on.  Given all this, I still live and love my life.

With love and gratitude,

Nadine.

How we do something is how we do everything.  By that I mean how we are when we approach the same kind of situations in our life is generally governed by a subconscious pattern we repeat. For me when I hit an emergency situation I automatically step into “Ok I’m in charge” mode and get fired up to organise people, resources and plan what needs to happen. Often that’s a good thing. We all handle these situations differently and I feel I am at my best in that role. Other times it’s not so good and I have to learn when to back off and let others more accustomed to the particular situation be in charge. No judgement here as to what the right response is for anyone, we all react differently and all roles we take on are based on how we feel best to participate, or not.

We all have a way that we are, in response to all kinds of things that happen in life.

When autism came into our lives I took it upon myself to be in charge and took an approach to “let’s get this sorted out and resolved”. My thoughts were absolutely rooted in good intentions and with my 18 years in a management consultancy career my triggers got fired and this was my next big project. The big difference was that I really didn’t know what I was dealing with.

Autism was a word I had heard, but had no idea what it was. But that’s Ok I thought, it should be easy enough to find out what it is, what to do and find the people to help. First step was the internet.

First thing I found was a website that offered a solution to autism. Well that wasn’t too hard I thought, why wasn’t I told of this at the hospital. It was a supplement in liquid form that needed to be prepared in a specific way so the good stuff could get to the root of the problem in the brain. The website was American and as much as I tried I couldn’t find the same thing in the UK. Health shops couldn’t help, so I just ordered it in from overseas. We gave this to Tommy and waited to see the improvements. And waited.

Family were asking me what it was and I was trying my best to explain the science behind it that I had read on that website. It seemed logical if hard to describe. Anyway we persevered for at least a year if not more.

Trouble was I didn’t know what to really expect. We were doing this blind with no real understanding of the whole picture of autism. It may have helped, however my expectations for a reversal of his autism didn’t materialise.

I believe many parents like me (that respond in the way I do to such situations) go through a similar stage when they first get the diagnosis. The fact that the diagnosis tends to be received in a hospital or clinic type environment automatically ‘tags’ autism in our conscious mind as a health problem that requires treatment to cure.  Now I’m not saying that is or isn’t the case either, just pointing out that we often subconsciously go straight down that path to ‘fix’ something that we understand to be ‘not right’.

Whether you see autism as a health problem to cure or a personality trait to accept (and I will talk more about this in a blog soon) it still remains that most parents start off on this path alone, in the beginning at least, at a time when they are very susceptible to what they read, hear and watch with regards to autism.

We are all different, and as I said at the start of this blog, we can all approach the same situation presented to us in many different ways. There is no right or wrong.  Whatever stage you are at with autism in your family right now, know that the experience you have had and the lessons you are learning are all part of the journey for you, your child(ren), family and friends too. We are doing our best.

Just remember to look back now and then on the progress you have made so far. We are often so busy focussed on the road ahead that we forget to look in the rear view mirror to see what’s already behind us and how far we’ve already come.

With love and gratitude,

Nadine.

It was one of those nights when you have a child with autism. There are a number of different types of nights including those when your child just won’t get to sleep until 1am; those when you are woken at 1.30am and that’s it, sleeping is over; those when you wake yourself at 3am with worried thoughts that just keep repeating themselves; and others that give you an amount of decent sleep, well six hours anyway.

Last night I woke myself with worried thoughts. I am not a typical worrier as I put an awful lot of trust in the Universe and faith that all will work out just fine. I have no religion that I follow, I just believe in the power of positive conscious thought, love and compassion. That doesn’t make me immune from less than positive thoughts especially when it comes to the future and what it holds for us and Tommy.

This morning however I feel more than my usual gratitude for the day. Being thankful for whatever we have and focussing on the ‘now’ is a gift that Tommy has given me. I don’t feel he has any concept of yesterday or tomorrow. At least not right now. All that is important to him is today and this moment.  He knows how to do this so well too and I admire this about him.

I have lived a lot of my life in the past or in the future. Either thinking of things that have happened in the past and still letting them influence me, or thinking about the future and the different scenarios that could occur. Neither of these places are a great place to live for too long. It can have a negative effect on your feelings, which in turn get you into those spiralling negative thoughts, and before you know it you are feeling pretty low and useless.  But more importantly, it robs you of the very moment you are living now.

My thoughts last night were as a result of some news I had yesterday and this woke me and my thoughts were creating all kinds of possible outcomes for the future. I know from past experience that this isn’t helpful so I was able to let them go and replace them with a knowing trust that whatever the situation, it will be ok.  On waking properly this morning I was just thankful to have been able to get back to sleep and those thoughts were gone.

As I spend more time being consciously aware of the present day and moment, all fearful and worrying thoughts are put aside. It allows me to fully concentrate on living today with Tommy and whoever else I am with and be thankful for what we have. At any moment you can stop and just realise that this moment isn’t all that bad. In fact it’s ok.  Actually if I smile right now this moment could feel quite good.

We get so caught up in our thoughts that we live in our heads most of the time, and our mind takes us on a merry dance creating all kinds of ideas and situations about what could be. It leads us to think about what isn’t quite the way we want it to be and how it would be better if something were different.  Focussing on what we haven’t got or what we want that’s different  just places you back in the future again and robbing you of your life right now at this very moment.

Stop.  Be Still.  Think about now.  Smile.

I love the quote “Today is a gift, that’s why it is called the present”

With love and gratitude,

Nadine.

It’s a Saturday and the usual decisions about what to do on the weekend or any day really when Tommy is not in school.

We have been through various phases on what he will tolerate when out and about. Initially we had to avoid anywhere with other people or at least not many others being around. This was a challenge as whenever there is no school there are always other families in the places that we would like to go. During these years we ended up finding favourite spots that were just quiet spaces to run around. At the time we were living on a modern marina development with a postage stamp for a back yard so very little opportunity to just let him go out and run in safety. There was an open park close however with no sense of danger he would, given the chance, just run away.  So quiet places with secure boundaries and few people were our requirements. On a sunny day, not a chance!

As he has grown older he has become more tolerant of others and will go to a ‘soft play’ place or similar with other children but does still get very anxious at loud noise and busy-ness so we choose our times wisely.  He wears ear defenders (great OT advice) which really help so noise is dulled for him.

A few years ago we found a trampolining club for disabilities in Cardiff called ‘Rebounders’ and we have been going there on a Saturday morning for a few years now. He loves his bouncing and has grown to tolerate the others that attend his class too. The question has always then been on a Saturday what to do in the afternoon.

Up until recently we used to go out and have lunch. Usually at a local cafe which had his favourite tuna sandwiches or a supermarket cafe for sausages. That has all had to stop as he is now on a strict gluten and casein free diet which has helped enormously with his behaviour.  There really isn’t enough places that cater for this, so we end up back at home. Luckily though at tea time we go to our local Beefeater restaurant in Wenvoe, near Cardiff,  that we’ve been going to for a year or more now. They reserve our same table at the window every time, and as soon as we get there Tommy runs past any queue to his place. Within minutes they know his starter and it’s on the table for him. Even with the change to our dietary requirements they have been more than helpful and accommodating.

Last year we moved home. Actually now I think about it, it was on this very day last year we had the keys to our new place. Our main requirement was a big garden so that Tommy could have the space to play. So now when the weather is a little warmer than freezing, Saturdays are a lot less fretful. He loves our garden now which has his own trampoline, swing, slide and more importantly lots of trees and bushes to pull off leaves and ‘flap’ with. As soon as we moved in we made the boundaries secure so at least we can relax when he is out playing.

Tommy is definitely an ‘outdoors’ child. However he was born to parents who are less than ‘outdoorsy’ so I guess that’s going to have to change if we are to make the most of his new  found interests in horse riding and surfing.

You never know, you might find me get on a horse yet! Well more change of that than getting me on a surfboard!

With love and gratitude

Nadine.

In the early years of living with Tommy and his autism it really felt like we were on our own. We were given the diagnosis at the local children’s hospital and at the end of this appointment we were given another appointment in 6-months time to see how we were doing. That was it.  We went in with the hope of finding an answer and came out with a diagnosis of autism, no explanation as to what caused it, being told there was nothing we could do to fix it, and just an offer of a follow up to see how we were doing.

No-one we knew had any experience of autism although we found many that were happy to give us advice. So we were on our own, and as mentioned in the blog ‘Don’t Panic I’m In Charge’, we resorted to the internet.

After a year or so I began to connect with others in the local area in South Wales UK, joined in with some National Autistic Society events and met some lovely mums who are now life-long friends. I began to learn so much that I would never have stumbled across on the internet. I learnt that we could get some free nappies as Tommy was over 3 years old, I found out about the ‘Rebounders’ club from yesterday’s post, I discovered resources to learn more about autism and I began to connect with the huge community of autism families on Facebook, where even more information was being shared by families who are travelling the same journey.

I learnt that there is in fact a lot of help and support out there and no parent should need to feel alone. But it was all a bit hit and miss as to whether or not I would come across this information if I didn’t access Facebook regularly or meet up with friends that often.

It was while having a cup of tea at our local Ikea that an idea for a directory of resources and information for autism families came into my head. The Autism Directory was born.

Yes there are other websites with loads of information and resources on them, however they tended to be quite specialised in a certain topic or area of interest, and nothing I found really pulled these together. The idea for The Autism Directory was never to repeat or duplicate all this fabulous resource out there, but simply to allow a parent like me to have a place where I could find something easily by being directed to all that’s available whatever my interest was at that time.

I began with simply adding things like websites and documents I found to a spread-sheet. This grew quickly and more ‘categories’ of information were being added daily. Very soon it became too complicated to manage as a spread-sheet so I decided to create a website to access it all.  Not having ever created a website I found an easy to use software package where I could load up pages with little technical knowledge.  This was to become the first version of the directory website we have today.

The Autism Directory was launched in November 2010 at Tommy’s specialist autism school, Ashgrove, in the Vale of Glamorgan in Wales.  It was launched by a Welsh Assembly member Janet Ryder who also chaired the Cross Party Group on Autism for the Welsh Government, and supported by Ashgrove’s Head, Chris Britten.

The website quickly grew and I had help from local students on placement from ‘Go Wales’, and within a year we had our registered charity status from the Charities Commission.

Since then the website has had a few face-lifts and been completely re-engineered to provide more functionality and interaction. We have a team on people working on it each week, Trustees and businesses that support us and recently we have partnered with another great autism organisation; Living Autism. It’s become quite an operation and has a life of its own now.

The focus of The Autism Directory remains the same today – to help autism families get the help they need by signposting them to all the amazing resources there are out there. However, we can’t possibly know all that there is, and rely on others to add what they know too for the benefit of other families, just as they would if they were chatting at a coffee morning or while out with the children.

The message is simple. You are not alone.

With love and gratitude

Nadine.

Back to school today in Wales after the Easter holidays. Tommy loves going to school and I love him going to school too. It’s a joy to have him home during the holidays, however he really misses the activities and the fun he has at school and we’re just no match for that here. After two weeks he is more than ready to return.

Tommy goes to a specialist autism school in the Vale of Glamorgan (in Wales, UK) which I can’t praise enough. They see Tommy and the others there as children first, their capabilities second and some way down the line they see the autism. That’s not to say they don’t cater for or understand the autism, they do, they just choose to focus on what’s great about each child and to bring out the best in each one. The school is ‘Ashgrove’ in Penarth.

From my viewpoint as a parent this is the education system at its best. Individual attention to understand each child’s learning style, small classrooms and  committed staff all make for a fabulous experience for Tommy and others there. They have realised that Tommy is at his best when outdoors and he has the opportunity to go horse riding each week and will start surfing this week too.

The opposite experience is the sausage machine approach of an education system where children get ‘processed’ through the system and need to fit into the one ‘type’ of learning style that the system caters for. Large classrooms are required to ensure that the ‘cost benefit’ is maximised. I do not have the experience of a child in that setting so I am not in a position to say that any school is still like this these days, however I do believe that in mainstream education at least, there are schools all along the continuum from the ‘sausage machine’ to the ‘individual’ approach that vary in their ability to nurture and educate our children.

I hear it often from other parents that mainstream schools also offer varying degrees of support for children on the autistic spectrum. With large number ratios of children to staff it’s only too common for children with additional needs to be seen as a burden as they take far too much time to deal with in proportion to others. A cynical view perhaps but very real for families I know. Bullying is rife not just for children with autism, but all special needs and differences too. Again, this is very individual to the school and for those that have an unpleasant school experience there are those that have adequate and appropriate support too. Sadly, it’s the former instances that I hear about far too often.

There was a book I read many years ago that really stood out for me about education, learning and different intelligences, called “In their own way”.  I didn’t appreciate what significance that book would have for me many years later however it was a book that really captured my attention back then. It went out of print for a while but a new edition is back in circulation. We all have a different intelligence and will learn most effectively in different environments. A true individualist approach to education that requires us to believe that intelligence is a ‘capacity for learning’ in their own way.

Albert Einstein’s quote resonates with me here: “Everybody is a genius. But if we judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid”.

I have no pretence that Tommy will achieve great things in his education in the traditional sense, but this is where I am also grateful. The ‘traditional’ way I am referring to worked for me when I was at school and university. I was the ‘type’ that thrived in the education system of the 70’s and early 80’s by being challenged and pushed to learn, rewarded with ‘significance’ (praise and rewards) and was expected to go into higher education to the point I believed it was non-negotiable. Even then the system only worked this way for some, but failed many others (in both senses).

I am grateful that education is one area in which we have few concerns for Tommy. Whether he will actually achieve anything academically or not I don’t know, but I am sure that if he is capable then he will have the best chance possible where he is.  The point is he is getting an education that is entirely suited to his type of intelligence, learning style and is being given the opportunity to do it in his own way.

With love and gratitude

Nadine.

You know those days when you wake with good intentions, then before you know it, the day has flown by and not one thing on your to-do list has been done.

Today is one of those days.

I have done a few things not on my to-do list. You know the ones that crop up and demand your attention RIGHT NOW or life as we know it will not continue to exist.

Yes I guess I have felt a little stress today. Ironically my post for today was about stress, however technology has had other ideas too and won’t play ball with me today to bring you my offerings about how to reduce stress. I guess I needed to really check it out for real and be challenged to take my own advice.

So, I can say I am chilling right now and being OK with the fact that I haven’t got a full blog for you today.

I’m being perfectly imperfect, and that’s good in my book.

With love and gratitude,

Nadine.

As a parent of a child with autism I have felt stress in recent years more than I have ever felt it in the past. Stress means something different to each one of us, and we deal with it in such a variety of ways. I often find it challenging to relate to some of the things that trigger stress in another person, and I’m sure others feel the same about what gets me going too. But there aren’t any rules as to what should or shouldn’t be stressful, we just relate to situations very differently, and what we can do to reduce that stress is different for each of us too.

I wrote a short e-book on this a couple of years ago called “Reduce Stress in 7 Easy Steps”.

Here is a short excerpt.

We are all stressed by different things and what this tells us is that stress is our internal representation of the external environment, or in other words what is happening at any particular time which can either be for real or even imagined.

Did you know that our subconscious mind cannot tell the difference between something that is real and something that is vividly imagined? That is why sports people spend a lot of time visioning their success, playing through in their mind the moment when they come first in their race or event. The mind then starts to believe it is reality and when the time comes to compete they already believe they have won, and this plays a hugely important role in actually winning.

In order to reduce your stress levels you need to be aware of when the stress you are experiencing changes. How does it feel to be at the stress level you are now and how differently would it feel to be at the reduced level you want to be in say, a months time?

Learn to recognise how stress manifests itself in your body and you can begin to imagine how it would feel when it has reduced or is no longer there. The more you practise imagining this the easier it will be for you to achieve it.

If you would like a copy of the full e-book just go here and get it for free.

With love and gratitude

Nadine.