Frodsham Nub News recently spoke to Wellbeing Wave's Karen Blundell-Severn, about her popular Gong meditation classes.

Karen also works as a mindset coach, and she had some advice for those who are struggling with the mental and emotional strain of lockdown.

So, if you're finding the prospect of three more weeks in lockdown to be overwhelming, here are Karen's ideas for making it less of a daunting prospect.

1. Add the word 'yet' to the end of a sentence.

When thinking of all the activities that have been made impossible by the government restrictions, it's easy to say that we are 'no longer' allowed to do some of our favourite things.

Karen suggests that by changing this 'no longer' to 'not yet', we can inject optimism into our thoughts.

"Saying 'yet' creates possibility: it's an option for the future," she says.

2. Avoid using the word 'lockdown'

"You might think 'lockdown' is just a word, but one word can have such an impact on people," Karen says. "It sounds constricted and downtrodden."

Meanwhile, seeing this period as more of a 'short pause' might make it seem like a more neutral prospect.

3. Concentrate on what you can do during this period.

With lockdown shrinking our lives to the inside of our houses, there are many things that we all miss.

However, according to Karen, dwelling on these impossibilities will only make this period more difficult.

Concentrating instead on the things that we can still do, like reading, singing, dancing, watching films, going for walks, baking sweet treats and taking the time to catch up with friends over the phone, might help brighten the situation a little.

4. Look for support if you need it

Karen encourages people to seek out both professional and non-professional support if they feel they need it.

Through Wellbeing Wave, she has always offered free meditation sessions over Zoom, on the third Monday of every month at 8pm. These half-hour long classes are open to anyone, and you can join by visiting the Wellbeing Wave website.

The other side of Karen's business is dedicated to mindset coaching, through which she aims to "help people work out who they are, what makes them happy and what they want to do with this life that they have been given."

If people are struggling through the lockdown period, and feeling a bit lost, they might want to sign up for a free introductory coaching session with Karen, where they can chat through their worries or troubles and receive guidance on a possible next step.

What is mindset coaching?

Someone might choose to continue with Karen's mindset coaching sessions if they feel that there is something wrong or missing in their life, or something they wish to achieve but which continues to elude them.

"I help these people work out what has been holding them back, and then to come up with a plan and create goals so that they can start to live the life they want," Karen says.

The coaching consists of a combination of hypnosis, Time Line Therapy™ and Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP).

Neuro-linguistic Programming

NLP is an approach which studies the way in which our internal thought processes and language influence our behaviour.

By analysing the meaning we assign to different aspects of the world around us, it tries to uncover the psychological origins of our decisions and reactions.

"Our thoughts determine how we feel, how we feel determines how we behave, and our behaviour gives us our experiences," Karen adds.

Once you have uncovered this mental domino effect, you can start to rework the chains of meaning and action that you live by.

Time Line Therapy™

Karen's mindset coaching also involves Time Line Therapy™, which works at an unconscious level to help source the root of negative emotions and enable the recipient to let them go.

"We all have five core emotions: anger, sadness, fear, hurt and guilt. Time Line Therapy™ works on the basis that excessive amounts of these core emotions hold us back in our lives," Karen says.

"We all cling onto these emotions but we're not aware of it. Time Line Therapy™ suggests that, from the very first time in your life you experienced anger, sadness, fear, hurt or guilt, that feeling sits in the back of your mind and hinders you without you knowing it."

"With counselling, you could spend many years going back and dealing with every time you have experienced those emotions in the past."

However, "if you imagine a necklace with a string of beads on it, Time Line Therapy™ targets the very first bead, or the very first time you experienced those emotions, and frees you of it.

"The release of that bead then allows all the other beads to fall off the necklace," and all the subsequent experiences to release their grip on you.

"It takes two to three hours to do, but you only need to have it once. Timeline Therapy™ is very popular because it often gets to the root cause of the issues that you have in your life and creates an intense freeing experience."

Coaching

Once Karen has helped someone unearth the limiting beliefs or experiences that hamper their progress, she can formulate a coaching plan for them.

"My job as a coach is to listen to what's not being said: the way people talk about themselves and the words being used. I want to get to the root cause of the problem, and work on that before the presenting issues, like work, career, relationships or family."

People often come to Karen as they reach a significant juncture in their lives – like a career change, the end of a relationship or the beginning of retirement – and are searching for a way of making a positive change.

"What makes you happy?" Karen asks. "If you had 24 hours to fill in whatever way you wanted, what would you do?

"Once we've worked that out, you can start to fill your life with those things."

While Karen's gong meditation classes have been paused for lockdown, her coaching and meditations sessions continue over Zoom. For more details, you can visit her Wellbeing Wave website

Coaching should not be construed as a prescription, a promise of benefits, claims of cure or a guarantee of results to be achieved and is not offered as a substitute for professional mental health care or medical care.