The importance of ‘de-fragging’ your brain

‘I love paddleboarding, it’s like it defrags my brain’

I was talking with someone the other day and they said this to me, which lead to a discussion about how essentially paddleboarding is like meditation/mindfulness - you’re completely present, focusing only on the here and now, what you’re doing in this moment, and using all of your senses (especially if like me, you fall in!).

This is how I used to feel about surfing, back in the day before I knew anything about health and wellbeing, how the brain and body works.

It just made my 🧠 STOP. It challenged my body. And it felt incredible.

I didn’t know it at the time but an overload of chronic stress, mixed with undiagnosed physical stress, hormonal issues and a (large) pinch of neurospiceyness thrown into the pot, was literally about to destroy my life as I knew it.

Thankfully this made space for me to rebuild an incredible new life and now I wouldn’t actually change a thing because the good and the bad of life got me here today, and sparked my thirst for learning and helping people, for which I’m actually very grateful and now see that time as a gift.

Fast forward many years, and a lot of education later, and I talk a lot about the profound impact stress has on our physical, mental and emotional wellbeing; as well as the symptoms we can experience such increased pain, exhaustion, burnout, brain fog, headaches, flare ups.

I support people to identify their stressors and figure out a way they can empty their stress bucket and fill their cups so they can feel good, lower pain levels and enjoy their lives.

This starts through having an incredible massage to reset (because it’s the main reason you’ve come to see me!!), and then we look at things you can do daily inbetween your massages to de-stress, so that your next massage is even better.

These things are always tailored to you and designed to fit in with your schedule so that it’s not just another thing you’ve got to do that feels overwhelming - we’ll build you up for success!

Which gets me back to paddleboarding…

Finding ways to calm our minds can have a profound effect on the body - especially when it comes to managing pain levels.

NO it’s not ‘all in your head’ - run away from anyone who tells you that!

It’s a tool we can use as part of your self-care, stress and pain management.

In Torbay we’re so lucky to have this incredible coastline where we see people enjoying sea swimming, paddleboarding, surfing, bodyboarding, walking the coastpath or even just driving down to Paignton seafront to sit in your car and enjoy watching the world go by.

We are so lucky! We have these free ‘meditation’ type activities on our doorstep and in the fresh air.

There really is something for everyone, every body, every physical ability.

Some days you might have the time and energy to be on that paddleboard, and some days you might simply be sat in your car on the seafront being grateful to live in such a beautiful part of the world.

It all counts.

It all helps empty your stress bucket.

It all helps to fill your cup.

And this is the stuff that really makes a difference to how you feel long term and can have a profound impact on your pain levels.

So let’s go defrag our brains a little bit more regularly, eh?!