Great News! 
We have been shortlisted for Tesco Bags of Help Scheme which will enable us to transform the Centre's garden in to a sensory delight.
To vote, you will need to make a purchase within Axminster or Lyme Regis Tesco store of any value.
You will receive one token per transaction.  Voting takes place from July 1st 2017
Please encourage friends and family to vote for our project.

Staff and Volunteers from the Axminster Health and Wellbeing Centre were pleased to join volunteers from HALFF, HospiceCare Axminster, Axminster Care Service and Silverleigh Care Home for a fantastic afternoon tea provided by River Cottage HQ.  The event was held to welcome walkers on 'The Great Big Charity Walk' to this area. Walkers from Batley in West Yorkshire are walking five different routes in the UK over three weeks in memory of Jo Cox, MP for Batley and Spen who was tragically killed on 16th June last year.

Small picnics and community events will be held across the UK a year on from the day the married mother of two was shot and stabbed in her Batley and Spen Constituency to commemorate the life of Mrs Cox who said that "in Britain we have far more in common than that which divides us".

Many thanks to River Cottage HQ for a splendid afternoon tea which allowed local voluntary community groups to meet and socialise together, as well as meeting the inspiring Big Charity Walkers and hearing their uplifting stories of the amazing people they had met on their journey.

Mindful Eating and Hypnotherapy week 3

Week 3

After being on the ‘F’ it plan for so many years, I will let you into a little secret. There has been a breakthrough, not an Earth shattering movement, but for the first time in many years (while not being on a diet) I have genuinely refused pudding. I didn’t do this to be ‘good’, reward myself, guilt or for punishment, it was because I had recognised ‘full’. What a lot of old rubbish I hear you splutter about now. What I really meant to say was I did not eat my way past full and into uncomfortable, I just…stopped and it felt kind of nice.

I was really excited to tell the group and was even more excited with this week’s topic, the power of the pause. How many of us really stop to think about what we are eating? Many people now are eating on the go, let alone allowing time in between forkfuls. So we pause. I am going to listen to those pauses from now on in the hope they have a little code waiting for me to crack.

Favourite foods were up next and why we love them so much. On some mindful eating courses they encourage people to eat as much of this food as possible to try to ascertain why we continue to over eat. I’m not sure they have enough crisps in East Devon for this challenge but it’s a challenge my husband thought would be fun. If I am brave enough, and I usually am, I will let you in on what a marathon crisp binge feels like. I will point out this was not part of this course and I have realised I didn’t buy any crisps on this week’s shop! So something is definitely working.

This week’s homework was to pause wherever possible and practice the art of enjoying our food. It was no longer a vessel fed by our hunger but something we just did and took pleasure in. This was most important because I see food as one of my best friends, sad I know, but I get so much pleasure from it that I realise now why diets can’t work for me. So like any invested relationship I am going to help ‘my friend’ be the best they can be and that means looking at all my food choices.

If you would like to know more I will be posting this blog for the next six weeks. Please like and share. For interest in doing a course please phone Katherine Locke on 07791182023 or email katherine@followyourfreedom.co.uk and for similar courses please phone the Axminster Health & Wellbeing Centre on 01297 32331

Mindful Eating with Hypnotherapy Week 2

Week 2

Frustration is in the air harked the group when we met up. Our minds had been so consumed by the way normal ‘diet’ plans work that we weren’t totally sure if we were doing things right. The simple answer was there is no such thing as right or wrong, just what’s right for each individual. This was a scary concept in the thought that we could be left to our own devices. We all agreed on being more aware about what we were putting into our bodies and were looking for little triggers: smells, tastes, touch, sadness, anger, loneliness and boredom.

Can you remember the last time you were hungry? I bet you CAN remember the last time you were full. Were you feeding physical or emotional hunger? It was safe to say in our room we weren’t feeding physical hunger. So what were we feeding if it wasn’t physical hunger? This part of the session was trickier, and we would be exploring this all through the course. It did highlight very different reasons for eating from person to person. Individuality was key to this session and being aware of how we related to our food. We finished with a group hypnotherapy session which took us a little deeper than the week before and left us relaxed ready to take on the next emotional challenge.

This week’s homework was to document how we felt about the food we were eating and how we behaved around it. Here’s hoping my emotional journey isn’t too deep this week - just some breakthroughs. It has started off well and I definitely want to eat healthier food but I’m still giving myself some rewards. But rewards for what? 

If you would like to know more I will be posting this blog for the next six weeks. Please like and share. For interest in doing a course please phone Katherine Locke on 07791182023 or email katherine@followyourfreedom.co.uk and for similar courses please phone the Axminster Health & Wellbeing Centre on 01297 32331

Mindful Eating with Hypnotherapy

Week 1

After an already hectic week I wasn’t sure how I was feeling about my new course. I knew relatively little about Mindful Eating, but what I did know was I needed to explore my relationship with eating. Over the years I have tried a lot of different ‘diets’ and needless to say I have a liberal sprinkling of scepticism about the course. This was totally my own fears and self-sabotage rearing its ugly head.

The best part about the introduction was finding like-minded people who were also exploring food relationships and a facilitator who understood frustration. It became quite apparent that this course was NOT about weight management, goal setting, unrealistic expectations or guilt. This was a welcomed start to our journey.

The introduction to the Mindful Eating Hypnotherapy was clear and targeted for the group, which made us all feel at ease. We all left with a feeling of calm and relaxation. In the days since the course we have been asked to be aware of how we felt about eating and ourselves when we are around food. There have been some interesting discoveries, at certain points I have decided to say ‘no’, I have wanted to eat a lot of childhood foods and generally felt food as something happy. I’m not sure what other developments, if any, will happen over the course but I will keep you posted. Aynsley

If you would like to know more I will be posting this blog for the next six weeks. Please like and share. For interest in doing a course please phone Katherine Locke on 07791182023 or email katherine@followyourfreedom.co.uk and for similar courses please phone the Axminster Health & Wellbeing Centre on 01297 32331