Little Peaces blog

Uplifting Film: The Secret Garden

This is not a review, it's more of a response. Views are my own. Please note this post may contain spoilers. Watching the film in order to read and respond to this post is encouraged. Watching the film for intended enjoyment is strongly encouraged!

The Secret Garden (1993)

I saw this film as a child and absolutely loved it, unfortunately then forgot about it for many years and put the DVD away in a cupboard. Recently I came across it and popped it on to see whether it was worth keeping. DEFINITELY! What a magical film with some lovely imagery, themes and metaphors scattered throughout. These are the reasons I find this film so uplifting:

Loneliness vs Connection

Mary, Collin and Lord Archibald are all lonely in their own way at the start. Mary’s parents aren’t attentive of her in India. Although Collin is surrounded by servants, he desperately wants his father’s company and Archibald goes away for long periods of time to wallow. When they all come together, they fully embrace their connection. Rejection and acceptance goes hand in hand with this.

The garden was unwanted before Mary came to the estate. She brought it and them ‘back to life’ as Archibald wonderfully points out to her.

Friendship, of course

Mary and Dickon encourage Collin out of his room and to use his legs. Martha doesn’t take any of Mary’s nonsense at the beginning and teaches her kindness.

Which leads me onto the limiting belief that Collin is ill. They all try so hard to protect him from the ‘dangers of fresh air’ when that is exactly what he needs to thrive.

Curiosity

That lovely childish trait - Mary goes in search of the entrance to the garden she can’t get to. Colin wonders what life will be like outside of his bedroom.

Magic

The power of nature. The way Dickon has learnt to communicate with the birds and animals and knows so much about the garden.

The garden is seen and shot as this absolutely beautiful, dream-like place - perfect in every way.

I love this exchange between the children. Collin: Are you making this magic? Mary: No, you are.

It shows us the joy they are getting by just spending time together.

Visualisation and Manifestation

Collin closes his eyes to imagine the garden before Mary shows it to him. In some ways he dreams it into being.

The chant that speaks to Collin’s father/Mary’s Uncle, Archibald, and brings him back to be reunited with them.

A change of perspective

Mary and Dickon find a way to pull off the shutters on the window to let the light into Collin’s room. He is upset at first but soon starts to see the benefit, and what’s beyond his room more clearly.

And this fab quote from Mary below, how lovely!

“If you look the right way, you can see that the whole world is a garden.”

Radio Gaga

I had the privilege of being invited on the radio (Marlow FM) earlier this week to talk about my work as a Solution Focused Hypnotherapist. It was such a surreal experience but wonderful in every way. I was really nervous but was able to use the many tools in my box to keep myself feeling calm and comfortable.

Fab host Pat Capp made me feel at ease and it was much like having a cup of tea with her. It makes me happy to get my word out there so people can seek help having some prior information and facts about the processes. (Although the word processes makes it sound a bit boring and it's not!) It's also great for everyone to see that I'm a human being, just trying to navigate life too.

Check it out www.marlowfm.co.uk/listen-again (Good Morning Marlow, Tue May 03 10:00)

10 Things I Love About Spring

I’ve used a Writing for Wellbeing invitation as a basis for this piece.

You will probably notice that there aren’t 10 items on this list. I feel this wonderfully demonstrates that we don’t have to stick to the rules. It’s just a diving board to get our minds exploring possibilities. The prompts are a bit magical like that. You somehow get where you need to go.

I’ve repeated several words and missed punctuation, amongst other things. Because this is not creative writing, it’s about the process, it’s liberating to not edit it. I wrote down whatever came out of my brain and simply rearranged it a little bit here for this post. I mean a little bit! I hope to write here in this way on a regular basis. Feel free to explore the prompt in your own way and let me know how you get on!

The bursting of colour,

green and yellow,

the grass is greener on your side

Growth and rebirth of old and new

A cleansing process

Changing over clothes in my wardrobe

Decluttering, letting go, a sigh of relief

Revitalising shift

We are somehow OK with change at this time of year even though we don’t like it in general.

Sitting in the sunny silence of the new.

Positivity

All the things I’m going to achieve this season

Warmth in the air, not just the temperature

People seem warmer

I feel like a weight has lifted

Laughter echoes

I’m more integrated and open

Possibility

Clearer paths

Adventures planned

Lazier days of Easter and Bank Holidays

Outside becomes a more inviting place.

The weather improves

Lighter mornings and evenings

More sunshine, less cold

Long sunny days

Visions of running through a meadow

Passages of time

I don’t mind losing an hour for the light

Memories flooding

Nourished by the echoes of my youth

The sound of the lawn mower signified Dad’s day off

Preparing for family get togethers and friends over for lunch

Cosy and comforting drift back.

New Maidenhead venue

I'm so excited to announce that I have a space in Maidenhead (Furze Platt) to work out of one day a week. Seeing clients face to face is wonderful. Online therapy can be equally effective but I think people have really missed that 'in person' connection due to all the lockdowns. Some of us are fed up with staring at screens all day and I completely understand. It's great to be able to offer both options so my clients can feel as comfortable as possible.

The room is an Osteopathy clinic, Body BackUp (pictured below.) I'm taking the blue sky as a sign that brighter days are coming, not just weather wise.

Sometimes the starting point isn't at the beginning

and it’s not a race anyway.

Welcome to my first ‘Unwind & Uplift’ blog post. I had a blog in a previous life as a writer but that was mainly just for my eyes and for me to quote the bits I liked occasionally that made me proud. Being proud of something is actually a great place to start. I’m proud I started that blog, proud I wrote some great words, proud I started my own business and proud to be sharing content with you again in my different role.

Another place to start is with purpose. I love what I do, each day reaching out to people or actually helping them. It’s something I always wanted to do, just for a long time I didn’t know how to make it happen.

I know I’m not the only one who has struggled with a starting point. If you are deep in the throes of anxiety, stress or depression, the smallest of tasks can feel like attempting to run a marathon. It all takes too much energy or you spiral into overwhelm before the whistle has been blown. As I’m often saying to my clients, it’s really hard to take that first step when you’re looking at the whole race (or staircase.) It’s really not a race anyway. I know there’s a lot out there that makes you feel like it is.

If the pandemic has taught me anything, it’s to slow down and appreciate more. It’s OK to fall over sometimes. It’s about your choice in how and when you pick yourself up.

Let me throw this out there…your starting point might not be obvious until you’re already on your journey. It’s that moment where you look back and realise how far you’ve come just by trying.

You might have decided or know in your gut that you need to make a change, but what that change is might not be clear. Staring out at the long track ahead of you, unable to move isn’t going to make that change. But I want you to know that you can do it. I’d like to offer you some ideas on how to start.

• Decide what you want to do (if you haven’t already.)
• Gently gather information on and around it. Make notes, brainstorm.
• Know what the purpose is, the end goal for you. But you don’t have to think about it yet.
• Is it worth it? How much do you want to achieve the end goal?
• Try doing something tiny and pointless where it doesn’t matter what the outcome is. How does that feel?
• Move any relevant items to a more accessible place. You'll be making it easier for your future self, so when you feel like starting, you won’t have to go through a long process.
• (My personal favourite) Start first, think later. You could simply put pen to paper, press down some keys, click a few buttons, sprint, leap. Well done, you’ve tricked your brain into action and out of over analysing. More on this in a future post.

If you can’t decide what you want to do….

• Identify time in the day/week that is just for you, even if 5 minutes. This is your space to do something important to you.
• What else do you want from your life?
• What would you do in an ideal world?

Starting can be the first and worst hurdle. Once we’re over it, we can forget it seemed impossible.

Continuing to Start

I may not have covered everything I wanted to by the end of this post, and it certainly went in directions I wasn’t anticipating, but it doesn’t exist to be perfect. It can be edited, changed as we constantly change. I started it, as will you and if you don’t continue then at least you tried. So well done!