Jody Shield’s tips for relieving stress and anxiety

Jody Shield is a lady who wears many hats – she’s an author, a success coach and a motivational speaker, with numerous celebrity clients eager to rave about her life-changing skills.

Her new book, Self-Care for the Soul, is all about reaching people at the beginning of their self-improvement journey, and is based around her work with thousands of clients. While it contains many spiritual elements, it’s also very practical and you don’t need to be a crystal-collector to get something out of it!

‘It’s an entry level self-improvement book, with lots of intermediate tools and tips,’ says Jody. ‘It’s simple and relatable, and there’s no complex terminology. I’m about seven or eight years into this journey. I’ve always understood the need to focus on the self – on your mindset and energy levels, and how they can make an impact in the outside world.

While many self-help books focus on changing your outer behavior, Jody’s is more about digging deep into your emotional mindset.

‘Meditation and yoga are of course good for you but you end up repeating the same patterns. You need to look internally and focus on yourself first to create long-term behavioural shifts. We are the ultimate creators – when you change your inside, you find the world outside changes too.’

This type of East-meets-West approach to health is definitely more popular than ever before, with numerous medical doctors (such as our own Dr Chatterjee) suggesting more holistic methods (meditation, affirmations, etc) alongside traditional medical guidelines.

‘We go through phases in the way we think about things throughout history,’ says Jody. ‘We’re coming out of a phase of rational, science-based though, where we’ve been very disconnected from our more spiritual side.’

‘More people in the public arena are talking about spirituality now. While it’s often been put in the same category as religion – where many people haven’t had a positive experience – it’s now being seen as more open. Everybody has a spiritual aspect, just like we have a mind and a physical body. You can be spiritual and do everything you normally do, but it makes everything a richer and deeper experience, with a greater sense of purpose.’

Jody admits that the term ‘soul’, just like ‘spirituality’, can be off-putting for many people, but she believes that learning to tap into this side of yourself allows you to live more intuitively.

‘Think of your soul as a stately home with an amazing library packed with information books that are all about you,’ says Jody. ‘What if your soul contained all the insights to all the questions you want to ask. Why am I here? What am I meant to be doing?’

One chapter of the book has practical tips for anxiety-sufferers, such as tapping and meditations. Anxiety, according to Jody, is nothing new: ‘My grandfather had it, but then it was just called worrying. I remember his digestive system being affected by it. Behind the scenes lie the same common, old, human problems – feeling inadequate, or like we’re not enough.

‘I believe things like stress, chronic fatigue and deep-seated illnesses can stem from childhood trauma, genetic patterns and learned behaviours that have become evidence for self-limiting beliefs.’

As for the idea that life is easier for celebrities – think again. ‘For anyone idolizing celebrities, know that everybody has the same problems and issues. My old business coach used to say: ‘new levels, new devils.’

Do this first thing in the morning

• Using your writing hand, bunch into a fist and start tapping or knocking your collarbone

• Take deep breaths and continue for 30 seconds

• This helps oxygen reach your blood fasters

• It opens your airways, clears your head and is brilliant for stress