​I had a long time off exercise, especially during my twenty's; I had better things to do (or so I thought). So after very little exercise and two children later, you can imagine I had put on a few inches, which made me feel terrible about myself. Rather than doing anything about it I found myself complaining about how I looked instead and my general mood during this time was also quite low.

Most people believe they are fully responsible for the thoughts they create, that every thought they have is something they should believe or even more scary; that every thought is totally true, obviously to some extent this can be correct, but the key to success and a happy life, is to understand what thoughts are and how they can help or hinder you.

Everyday our thoughts guide our life (if you let them that is) you wake up and the thinking starts, it can be so powerful that this then runs your day, no matter what the script is; be it negative or positive. It can be hard to believe there is any other way, other than what our thoughts allow us to believe.

As a screen acting teacher I love exploring new techniques to aid my class members into becoming better Actors and it was through this passion to help actors; that I stumbled across one of the most beneficial life tools yet!

After presenting my 'breathing technique' class to several classes including children from 7 years to adults, I received significant feedback about how the exercises had such a positive effect on people's lives.

"I knew I needed to start consciously making an effort to use the techniques myself".

I was already blown away by the breathing techniques when I first discovered and developed my "breathing techniques class session", so I decided to start trying the techniques myself during situations were I felt particularly emotional. I wondered if I could use the techniques to change my emotion using the methods I taught in class, in the heat of the moment. Not just to create an emotion, I also wanted to know how quick and effective they were in everyday life.

Being a very busy mummy of two toddlers (aged 2 and 3 years) and running 3 companies, as you can imagine life can be a rollercoaster of emotion and I'm often looking for ways to help me deal with life more effectively. Like most people sometimes my emotions get the better of me and I've found that these exercises and 'understanding my breathing' has really helped me take back control of my emotions.

Something happens, it could be personal it could be work related, but it happens, it's bad (or immediately that's what it appears to be). Life's ups and downs WILL happen regardless of what we do to prevent them, the most important thing to do is learn how to deal with life so you can get the most out of it.

My old self didn't have the best coping strategies, to tell you the truth they were none existent. I'd picked up many negative habits as most people do and I'm so grateful they are behind me now, and I'm hopeful my learning can now help others.