By Director of New Forest Spa, SenSpa - Lina Lotto.

Recently I came to terms with the fact that each year for the last decade or so I’ve gained a little more weight, exhausted my list of relatively enjoyable exercise, felt a bit stiff here and there and cleverly avoided facing up to the facts.

How has this manifested in my life?  Well, it took just a little more effort climbing the stairs, there was less available energy to tap into, and just a bit less pleasure and interest in the things I enjoy – a sense of feeling a bit stuck. A slow, inexorable slide in the wrong direction!

I’m sure many can relate to what I’m saying. This couldn’t go on for another decade especially as these days it takes more maintenance to slow the decline.

I decided to do something about it. I enrolled on a 12 week Space for Healing reset programme with Dr Indika Gunaratne aka 'The Joyful Dancing Doctor'. Indika is a GP who decided to opt out of orthodox medicine in favour of bringing the fundamentals of Functional Medicine to as many people as possible through great nutrition and lifestyle coaching. What makes this programme so special is that it isn’t a singular journey you do all by yourself – I was part of a group of fabulous women doing the same thing for different reasons. Meeting online each week for 1½ hours with excellent facilitation and 1:1 meetings with Dr Indika in between. This type of support made it so much easier than striking out alone.

Before signing up for the 12 weeks I had a half hour complimentary consultation with Dr Indika to discuss the programme and what I wanted out of it. She explained what it involved and we discussed my level of commitment. She wants every participant to bring their goals to life and achieve what they set out to do.

The programme is entirely holistic in that it addresses the physical, emotional and spiritual aspects of health through nutrition, gentle movement, discussion, relaxation, energy work and meditation. It provides a practical toolkit to mitigate life’s stresses.  In the early weeks you receive short, digestible daily video guidance and encouragement which is hugely helpful and it is astonishing how timely each video is. There were some unexpected but lovely surprises in terms of support along the way.

The first two weeks weren’t easy as I acclimatised to the programme but once I’d found my feet and got organised it was enjoyable and the food I prepared was vibrant, delicious, nutritious and satisfying. I’ve found that 12 weeks is enough time to change self-defeating habits – and yes of course there are still the occasional cravings but they pose no problem. The stiffness I felt in my body has mostly gone, I feel energised and vibrant and I start each day with 30 minutes of dancing which is the form of movement I most enjoy – admittedly my music choices are stuck in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s but what’s not to like? It’s an absolute joy and ticks so many wellbeing boxes. Others choose different forms of exercise.

It’s now 3 weeks since the programme ended and I’m feeling so much better than I did before starting despite having had Covid. I am now back to clothes I wore in the last decade – I know, I know – sure sign of a hoarder – but hey, extra points for recycling.

12 weeks in a what is hopefully a long life, is a drop in the ocean and well worth the effort. 

Dr Indika will be giving a FREE virtual workshop on 12th January. 

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