Loving what you do

One of my clients said to me recently that it was a very special thing to love what you do.  In all sincerity I can truly say that I love the job that I’ve created over the last eight years.  I love teaching  yoga and helping people feel much better with massage.  I love the rich conversations that develop during positive psychology coaching sessions.  I cherish the team of therapists that work at Breathe London and the wonderful support we get from staff at the Colombo centre.  And I love to see our clients, many of whom have become good friends.

Eight years ago when we set up this business we were looking for a fresh challenge. I also wanted to experience what the Buddhists call Right Livelihood ie that my job not only supports me financially and enables me to grow as a person but also enable me to give back to society. I left the world of corporate finance at KPMG eight years ago.  Prior to that I had spent some very happy years in Australia.  It was in Australia that I first became interested in massage, yoga and psychology and over the last twelve years I’ve explored these areas in order to better understand myself and enable me to become a better therapist.

Three years after we started the business we came across the Colombo centre, a not for profit sports and community centre which uses its surplus to fund community programs in South London.  I thought it was a good idea to build a business in a place that promoted wellbeing to those in society that could least afford it. It also enabled me to feel that I contributed to my local community.  Having the Breathe business at Colombo means that we bring affluent people into a community centre .  Many of our clients value us because we offer a great personal service and because we have this strong ethical element.  Some of my city hedge fund managers now practice yoga with people who have lived in the local community all their lives.  I like this mixing.

Breathe has developed as an integrated mind body practice.  We recognise that physical and emotional issues often go hand in hand and we therefore have nutrition therapy, life coaching and hypnotherapy to compliment our physical therapies.  The idea was to create a business that provided our clients with empowering tools to help our clients help themselves.

My challenge for 2012 is to get more people interested in Breathe London and understand more about our ethics and values, where we came from and how we are building an integrated wellbeing practice

Have a wonderful Christmas break and fabulous 2012

Lots of love

Andy