How I've eliminated stress from my life

Pretty much. And ways to reduce stress in your life, too

As a child, I developed psoriasis. My mum and dad tried topical creams and then took me to Chinatown to see a herbalist.

He didn’t prescribe me any medicine concluding, instead, that I simply needed to reduce the stress in my life.

I went home and said to my brother and sister: You have to only be nice to me from now on, because the doctor said if you’re not, I’ll get more psoriasis.

My skin was actually nothing to do with my brother and sister and more linked to something happening at school. But I quite liked the extra attention.

Over the years, it would come and go but didn’t bother me much. Until the pandemic, when I developed an angry rash on my elbows, palms and wrists.

By then, I knew that no creams would work and that instead, I needed to look at both the source of my anxiety and my general (internal) health - and treat that instead.

I had a few sessions with an amazing Chinese herbalist based in Brighton, who prescribed me some very muddy teas to drink twice a day.

And after about six months, the rash was fading but I also realised those teas had ‘cured’ my sweet tooth. A happy - and not coincidental - side effect.

The gut doesn’t want too much sugar. If it’s overloaded, this causes inflammation which can manifest as a rash.

But the remainder of the rash was circumstantial and mindset.

I looked at what was causing me anxiety:

• Concern about my children becoming very ill with covid, as they had respiratory issues already.

• Relying on my fairly new online course business to bring in all our income during the first lockdown, as we had no furlough.

• Balancing motherhood and work - my kids needed me; the business needed me.

So: health, money and work-life balance.

None of these challenges could be instantly solved but all of them could be examined, to see what improvements could be made.

Here’s what I did first…