Synopsis

Join us around the fireside and listen to stories from those who have been on MovementWise Journeys and discover how you can overcome pain, injury and disease to do things in your life you may currently believe impossible.

Nicole

From not being able to walk more than 15’ on the flat, Nicole has gone on to climb mountains in winter conditions with skins on her skis – climbing the Briethorn (4164m) and skiing over challenging off-piste glaciated terrain to the valley floor in Zermatt (1600m) – a descent of over 2550m! Nicole and her dog Laya now enjoy exploring the mountains together.

Nicole Schwab understands that our health and the health of our planet are inextricably linked. She is the founding director of the forum of young global leaders which she now chairs as part of her continued engagement to re-establish our balance with nature. You can listen to her LifeWise podcast episode here.

Vanessa

Experiencing new symmetry and balance in her body is transforming Vanessa’s life. Armed with a new understanding of her own body, Vanessa has become passionate about enabling others to reconnect with their bodies, with themselves and to preventing pain and optimize their performance at work and in life.

Head of Learning and Development at the Human Resources Division of a leading world organization, Vanessa Bocquet has organised MovementWise presentations and a webinar for employees who now have access to foundational RISE AND SHINE online movement sessions that expose people to the fundamentals of good posture and movement.

Eric

Eric Boquet is an athlete in sport and in his professional corporate life. With his newfound form Eric regularly runs with his daughter, Millie, also an athlete and an avid animal lover! His MovementWise experience prompted him to get specialist advice on his shoulders. He has now regained full range of movement in both shoulders after years of pain and limitation. He wants everyone to know that knowledge is power, but knowing is not doing, and when you have the courage to do things differently you can feel 10 years younger!

Mairi

Mairi has lost 2 stone since beginning her MovementWise Journey and was able to ski confidently with her family the first winter after her final operation. This year Mairi completed the Tour du Mont Blanc, a unique long-distance hike around the Mont Blanc Massif, with an old school friend. Together they walked 170km ascending and descending Swiss, French and Italian mountains, staying in high altitude mountain refuge huts and carrying everything they needed in rucksacks on their backs.

Pain-free and feeling stronger each day, Mairi Watson has founded Les Jolis Dames – walking and yoga experiences for women. You can get personal insight to Mairi’s MovementWise Journey from her Blog.

Nine months ago I was in grave danger of never leading an active life again. Although only 54, I was beginning to feel old. My body often creaked and ached. Some days I could leap out of bed whilst others I crawled, clutching on the bedside table for support as I swung my feet to the floor. I was in a dark hole of despair. Then I met Tania Cotton, a movement analyst and physiotherapist who together with her team at Movementwise, has me 9 months later back to living my life to the full.

So what is my story and where am I from? I am married to Peter and together we have three adult children. Peter has been absent for a lot of our marriage with his career in the Navy. As a submariner he would be away for between 3 and 6 months with no means of communication. To try and optimise our time together, we as a family would move to wherever he was posted. We moved house 15 times in 25 years. Our children changed school several times with our daughter topping out with 9 schools. Today she is a secondary school English teacher so it hasn’t done her any harm. However living like this has made the children and me very independent and mentally tough. It has also meant that I like a lot of women have put myself last when it comes to most things in family life – career, sports, hobbies, sleep, and most importantly self-care.

With such a nomadic life it is often tricky for military partners to work, but luckily for me I was able to continue my work as a freelance features writer which kept me semi sane. It did mean, however, that I was often cramming my work into any free moment I had. I would sit crouched over my computer sitting on a kitchen chair, my back hunched and awkward. My days were spent like most mothers carrying the shopping, cooking, even hoovering with one hand whilst the other hand held a small child on my jutting out hip. I suffered excruciating migraines during these years which I suspect now was due to my appalling posture.

Embarking On A New Adventure

Fast forward twenty years and my husband has left the navy and works away. His routine is three weeks away and three weeks at home and to be honest after so much time apart, this works well for us as a couple. Peter’s last posting in the Navy was in a beautiful coastal village on the west of Scotland. We loved living there and if there was one place we felt was home, this was it, however after so many years of moving around playing second fiddle, I wanted an adventure where my needs were put first. So I suggested a sabbatical year abroad. I would write and Peter would commute. The children were all at university by now so they would be with us in their holidays. We discussed several places and the one we all, as a family, agreed on was the French Alps. There we could ski in the winter and walk in the summer. So we rented out our house, packed the car to overflowing and moved to a small village near Saint Gervais in the alps. For a year.

My New Home in France

We arrived on the 1st May when the snow was melting and the wild flowers were beginning to appear. The cows were being put out to pasture and the village was asleep post ski season. Peter and our youngest son helped me unpack the car, settled me in and then were off back to work and university. Our two spaniels and I were on our own. We knew no one and the mountains were beckoning so every day I would get up with the sun, sit at the kitchen table and write until lunch time and then we would go for a walk for the rest of the day often returning at dusk. The dogs had never been so fit and nor had I.

Falling In Love With the Mountains

I loved the summer. It was a season I hadn’t associated with the alps but it was heaven. The days were long and sunny, there were walks and paths where I could walk for a day and meet only a few goats, ibex or marmottes. I discovered I loved being on my own and rarely felt lonely. When Peter or the children came home I rejoiced in sharing my new life. I knew the cafes with the best coffee, the restaurants with the best raclette, the walks with the best views. I was beginning to meet people who just by the mere fact they too were living in the same place, had things in common with us. I was happy like I had never been before. Our rented three bedroom apartment on the top floor was enough for me. But it also expanded to fit in family and friends as they came to visit and witness our change of lifestyle.

Before the year was up, we were so in love with the weather, the sports, the lack of politics, the alpine summers, the alpine winters, in fact all of it, that we decided to commit. We sold our house in Scotland, bought a chalet and moved out here permanently.

Our Natural Playground

Our first year was spent renovating our tired 1960s chalet. We did a lot of the work ourselves and employed local tradesmen for the trickier work or for the time when Peter was away. I am big and strong so I thought nothing of helping out carrying timbers for flooring, one half of a washing machine or bath, kitchen units or radiators.

Falling Out of Love With Life

I still walked the dogs but not for such long stretches. Then bit by bit my day-long walks became half a day and then an hour and then half an hour. I didn’t want to admit to anyone, but I was in pain. I carried on renovating the chalet. I was on a mission to complete the work so I could get back to my daily routine of writing and walking. But the pain in my hip intensified. I was stiff and irritable. I couldn’t walk properly. I was taking back-to-back pain killers and hell of hells, I couldn’t sleep. No position was comfortable. In the morning it took me ten minutes to uncurl off my bed before I could stand up. Eventually I had to admit to myself and my family that I needed to see a doctor.

This blog is the story of how I, an average middle-aged women with entirely preventable injuries, went from physically broken and mentally depressed after three years of pain and several operations, and thanks to Tania Cotton and the team at Movementwise, to getting my health, fitness and happiness back. We as women put ourselves last and I have learnt through my Movementwise journey how important it is to invest in our health and recognise our worth. It is essential to look after ourselves through our younger years but it is CRUCIAL to look after ourselves in middle age. As we live longer, it is imperative that we prepare our bodies for the next stage of life. In this blog, I will aim to inspire you with my story so that we can work together to be strong, robust and mentally well into our golden years and beyond.

MovementWise Journey Insights

Founder of MovementWise

When I first met Mairi, she came across as an extremely capable, competent, confident women who had a curiosity for what life had to offer. She was fascinated by what I did, and in particular how I could help people live a healthy, happy life at any age and into their old age.  There was this inner fire that spoke of dreams she wanted to fulfil and not wanting to settle for second best. This was before I realised that under that stoic exterior there was an inner struggle and fear – that her body was breaking down and she was getting old before her time.

She spoke of her husband and her grown up children with a deep love and sense of service. Together they could overcome anything…. as long as she could remain fit and healthy she was infinitely resourceful.  As someone who had had to move with her 3 children to follow her husband’s career, whilst maintaining her own as a professional journalist, Mairi was clearly very adaptable. Adaptability is key to our survival both as individuals and as a society.

Mairi had always felt strong, physically and mentally, yet as her body started to fail her and cause her pain, so the emotional pain and self-doubt set in.  Mairi had a condition that I saw too often ‘ALIVE BUT NOT LIVING’.  Yet ironically this condition had begun just as she had had the courage to embark on her own journey of freedom and self-expression living in the mountains.  Being surrounded by fit, active people only served to amplify the dilemma she found herself – finding herself in pain, unable to embrace the lifestyle she had worked so hard to create.  This was supposed to be her adventure!

The first way many of us cope with any pain that threatens to stop us being able to do what we want to do is DENIAL.  And so the downward spiral begins as we try to carry on as we always have, hoping that this pain will just ‘go away’.

Too many people are tired of being in pain, confused by recurrent injuries and frustrated by not being able to perform at their best.  To many people are not able to do the things they really want to do in their lives in the way that will enable them to thrive, not just survive.  I want to show all of you out there in the world who may be feeling like this, just what is possible and how you can overcome pain and performance challenges to do things in your life you may currently believe impossible.

The first step is to find health and performance professionals who want to understand you, really understand you, not as ‘an injury’ or ‘a disease’ but as a whole person in the context of YOUR life.

I should say that the start of my journey was when I went to see the consultant about my sore hip, but that wasn’t the case. The start was actually three years later after a hip arthroscopy, a failed meniscus repair on my knee and then a second meniscus operation on the same knee.  By then I had gained a lot of weight. I couldn’t walk up a mountain, walk up or down stairs, carry the shopping in from the car, walk the dogs, lift my suitcase into an overhead locker on the plane and I certainly couldn’t ski. I was bent over looking at my feet, my shoulders ached, my neck ached, my migraines had returned, and I wore baggy dark clothes to hide my body. I had hit rock bottom.

Shattered Dreams

After three years and two operations, of being the model patient for my consultants and an even better patient for my physios, I felt I was on a treadmill – moving forward but going nowhere. I did and didn’t do exactly what I was told. I bought the equipment I was told to buy and I spent hours doing the stretches, the lunges, the foam rolling, the balancing, everything as advised. But I was still in pain. Every time I walked further than the car my knee would swell up. I tried to ski but within half an hour I had to be almost carried off the piste with crippling pain and swelling. I couldn’t imagine that I would ever be able to walk up to Lac Jovet and dip my toe into its glacier waters again and nor did I believe that I would be able to ski white powdery snow on a blue bird day with my husband and children. My wishes and hopes had shrunk. I was in a dark hole unable to see daylight. Why was I still living here in the beautiful French alps if I couldn’t enjoy any of it? The chalet was almost finished and I contemplated us selling it and moving back to Scotland.

I felt compelled to leave our mountain paradise

A Guiding Light

But then one day, quite by chance, I met Tania Cotton from Movementwise.  She must have seen the depth of my despair because she called me the day after my second knee operation in Glasgow, when I was sitting in my hospital bed in incredible pain and feeling like the world had ended. “I know how you feel, I have been there, but you will get better and you will be able to walk up those mountains again and by Christmas you will be able to ski. But you need the courage to do things differently.” Said Tania.

And so my Movementwise journey began.

MOVEMENTWISE JOURNEY INSIGHTS

Founder of MovementWise

There is nothing worse than seeing someone lose hope that they will ever feel good inside their bodies again.  And there is nothing more tragic than seeing someone make every effort to dig themselves out of this metaphorical ‘big black hole’ of pain and despair, only to fall deeper into it.

When we talk about ‘the body’ we cannot separate our physical body from our mind – both are inextricably linked.  Physical pain is an emotional experience and has behavioural consequences just as emotional pain has physical manifestations.

We are all the embodiment of our thoughts, feelings and emotions and how we feel and what we believe about our self and others affects our posture and movement habits.  How do you feel when life has let you down, when you are afraid, when you feel rock bottom?  Does your body feel diminished and small? Do you feel like curling up into a ball? What do you do to try and feel better? Do you have any ‘quick fixes’? Or ‘magic pills’? Comfort food, alcohol and drugs can be an easy go-to and often it starts small – beginning by simply taking a sleeping tablet or drinking a couple of glasses of wine?

In a spontaneous interview you can watch above, Mairi powerfully describes how she felt she felt shrivelled and invisible. In the pictures here you will see how when Mairi was rock bottom she could not bear for me to take photos of her. She did not want to be seen.  She did not feel her ‘self’.  I did not show Mairi these photos until 9 months later. They moved her to tears when she realised how far she had come and the reality of the slippery slope she had been down.  She had become old before her time and now she knew she looked and felt 10 years younger.

My body and my life collapsing

My bison’s bump at the base of my neck

When you feel rock bottom and you lose hope that life can be fun and fulfilling again, you need someone to believe in you, who can give you support and guide you forwards in the right direction.  Not someone to be nice to you, telling you ‘everything is going to be ok’ based on a wish and a whim.

I want you to benefit from my 25 years of professional experience, and to offer you 45 years of my personal experience. One of my core values is not just to ‘talk the talk’ but to ‘walk the walk’ and to practice what I preach.  Having had several injuries and a life changing accident, I know what it feels like to be in pain, to feel excluded from doing the things I love, and isolated from the people I want to engage with.  I have experienced what it feels like to move from taking the first painful steps with my crutches, to finding it challenging to climb the stairs or get onto a bus – to building up the physical and mental strength to climb mountains.  Whatever ‘mountain’ you want to climb, I want to show you not just how it’s possible to reach the top, but also how you can have fun along the way! Perhaps you want to build a house or build a business? Play a musical instrument or play with your children?

Our MovementWise definition of Performance is ‘how you do whatever you need to do or want to do in your life in a way that will enable you to thrive not just survive’.

For me to help you on your MovementWise Journey, there are 3 important questions I need to ask you:

1. Are you Ready? Are you ready to take ownership and responsibility for your life and for me to act as your guide, to help you how I can and to build a team of experts around you?
2. Do you have the courage to do things differently? Are you prepared to look at the big picture of your life and to explore what is preventing you from moving forwards in the direction you want to go? To try new things and new ways of doing things?
3. Do we have the ability to work together towards meaningful, purposeful goals? Being a guide on someone’s journey is a big commitment.  For both of us. The most important ability is AVAILABILITY and this does not mean simply showing up, it means being truly present.

Mairi was ready, very ready! Are you?

25 years of working with people of all ages and activity levels has highlighted that most pain and disability is completely avoidable. I can show you how.

As you know I live in the mountains. My view from my living room window is of the Mont Blanc Massif. I can read the weather by the clouds that sit upon the top of the glacier opposite my house. The seasons change before my eyes with the trees shedding their summer coats going from green to brown to bare in a matter of weeks. When the snow falls it covers the nooks and crannies of the rocks and boulders above the treeline and clings to the trees below. When it melts the rivers fill up and the pounding sound of the water in the river rushing through the village interrupts our sleep. For months I had been virtually stuck inside the four walls of my house venturing out to walk the dogs around the park. Over the winter, between my knee operations, the paths were slippy with ice, so I walked the minimum distance creeping along like a crab terrified of falling.

My back garden, Mont Blanc Massif

After my op, I returned from Scotland on crutches, my knee still sore and bandaged, and I sat in the garden looking out at the mountains feeling the spring sunshine on my face. The snow was melting and I was, as the season, ready for change.

My Stairway to Heaven

Little by little I got up and moving. Soon I was walking around the park. The path is rough and stony, so I had to walk strong and tall to avoid tripping. Up through the woods for the first time, I picked my way upstairs formed by the roots of the trees. Boulders became steps for me to develop my thigh muscles. Small streams had to be jumped without me soaking my climbing boots. The lake at the top was my freezing cold hydrotherapy pool.

Walking downhill was even more of a challenge. The slippy, rocky paths were nerve-wracking, but I learned to walk “like a sumo wrestler in a nappy” – my legs apart, knees bent, centre of gravity over my feet, looking forward not down.

I learned that if I walked looking forward my peripheral vision did a lot of my route planning as my brain could process which path to take before my feet got there.

A Natural Playground

I had no need for a gym. Of treadmills, step machines, weights or balance boards. I had nature with rocks and rivers, tree roots and boulders, slippy moss and slimy stones. I had to learn to balance on my feet as I walked down steep paths and gained confidence as I did so. I remember calling Tania after a really challenging walk up a twisty, woody path and down a steep, stony one on the other side. I was so pleased with myself for achieving it. On my own.

Taking a pause to appreciate how far I’ve come

I have learned that rehab is literally everywhere. No-one is ever far from a river or sea to swim in, a hill to climb, or a wood to explore. But rehab is also gardening, walking our dogs, raking the leaves, clearing the snow. It is climbing the ladder to fix the trellis, bending to weed a flower bed, squatting to chat to a child or pat a dog. It is quite literally, everywhere. Mine just happens to be the mountains.

MovementWise Journey Insights

Founder of MovementWise

When Mairi made the commitment to embark on her MovementWise Journey, she was very clear right from the word GO that she did not want to go to the gym, she wanted the mountains to be her ‘rehab’.

A gym can provide a familiar space within which to develop new movement skills, habits and training routines. A safe place with reassuring sounds and supervision where you can use equipment to build strength, endurance and flexibility. But what about adaptability? And what about joy? It’s not just if you move, it’s also how you move and why that is important. And the WHY is what will keep you doing it for years to come. For Mairi, she wanted to be able to ski with her family,  go hiking in the mountains walks with her dogs and to do yoga again in the outdoors!

If you want to become more physically robust, mentally resilient and resistant to pain injury and disease, the more you get out and move in different environments, the more durable and adaptable you are likely to become.

Nature offers interesting movement opportunities in abundance, not to mention great photo opportunities! Whether getting outside into your local park or into a national park to enjoy the rain or sunshine, listen to the birds, walk amongst the trees and interact with natural obstacles; being outside in the REAL world. It can challenge you to move beyond your comfort zone and experience how ‘perfectly rehearsed’ and predictable movement patterns you have learnt in the gym, can be transformed into a broader set of skills that enable you to problem solve ‘on our feet’.

Tania, my MovementWise guide, hiking with me and my dogs

The challenge is to move beyond your ‘analytical mind’ into your ‘feeling mind’, and to allow your body to respond to natures unpredictable challenges without over thinking it. When you feel how your body can instinctively adapt to different terrain and conditions, you will begin to trust the wisdom within your body again.

Are there movement challenges that cause you to become fearful of falling or afraid to move? Different environments challenge us in different ways – walking on ice or down a slope covered in loose gravel or up an uneven flight of steep steps.  With a little guided mastery, you can be surprised to discover just how much you are capable of. When Mairi learnt to use her bottom muscles to walk confidently down steep slippery slopes – walking ‘like a sumo wrestler with a nappy on’ – she transformed her fear of falling into feeling strong, balanced and invincible!

I have worked with people all over the world, from those who live in remote rural communities in Africa to those who live in big European cities; and we have had enormous fun creatively using inside and outside spaces to turn harmful habits into healthy ones. You too can become fitter, stronger and more confident to move meaningfully and purposefully through life – because ‘rehab’ is everywhere!

Watch our Films and Be Inspired to be Movementwise!

When Tania mentioned that I needed the courage to do things differently, I had no concept of how differently things had to be done.

What I wasn’t aware of until the start of my Movementwise journey is that all my injuries were self-inflicted. Unwittingly, but self-inflicted nonetheless.

I am tall and was a very tall teenager so I stooped my long body shrinking down to the height of my petite school friends and shorter boys whom I longed to like me. The habit never left me and as I have got older I have started to develop what is called a bison’s bump at the base of my neck. This is a round hump is caused by my head hanging forwards after years of failing to lengthen through my spine or broaden my shoulders.

As a young adult working for a fashion magazine, I imitated the long, willowy models we featured and stood with one hip ‘swayed’ out to the side. Without holding myself tall and strong, or engaging my stomach and bum muscles, I have put unnecessary stress and strain on my hip joints.

For 54 years I have walked with long, stretched-out strides using my limbs to pull myself forward instead of using my bum and thigh muscles to propel me along. This way of walking has also put huge pressure on my joints. Tania and I have had many hours of “Bottom Banter” as we discuss how this was definitely a forgotten muscle for me.

I had no idea that every step I took I was swaying into my right hip rather than using my bottom muscles to stand up tall.

Carrying small children around on one hip, jutting it out to the side for balance, was terrible for my back and hips. As was carrying heavy objects without bending my knees. And as for my huge, over-sized handbag, which contained everything but the kitchen sink, slung over my right shoulder. To keep it in place, I walked everywhere at an angle with one shoulder up around my ears.

Embarking on my Movementwise journey, I discovered very quickly that it was not just my knee that needed ‘fixed’, it was all of me. Everything. From the way I walked to the way I stood, sat, balanced, where I held my hands, where I put my feet, all needed to change. However, after three operations and two tricky years of rehabilitation, I knew I had to do things differently. I was ready to embark on my Movementwise Journey.

MovementWise Journey Insights

Founder of MovementWise

The first day I saw Mairi, 2 weeks after her knee operation, she was in her kitchen stooped over her crutches as if her life depended upon them. When I look at Mairi today, she is so much taller than me, and full of life. On that first day home after her operation she looked so small and afraid, as if she had had all the stuffing knocked out of her and there was nothing left to hold her up.

When we are ‘down in the dumps’, feel ‘low’ and we can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel, we can become small and diminished both physically and mentally. How we feel inside affects how we express ourselves on the outside. The good news is that there is an extraordinary force that we can all tap into that can enable us to stand tall, face our fears, and do things that we previously believed impossible. It can help us lift our body and our spirits!  This incredibly underutilised and freely available force is called gravity.

Gravity can be ‘our friend or foe’ – and it’s basically up to us to decide.  When we use it wisely, and resist it to become tall, open and connected, rather than collapsing into it to become small, shrivelled and disconnected, it can give us the courage and confidence to stand physically and mentally on our own 2 feet and move forwards in the direction we want to go.

Every MovementWise journey begins with ‘self-awareness’ and Mairi became aware of how some of her ‘harmful habits’ were not just as a result of having had surgery, they had been developed over a lifetime of trying to ‘fit in’ and ‘make out’.  Like most people, she had no idea throughout that time that many of her posture and movement habits had been breaking her body down and making her old before her time.

My aim was to help Mairi get to where she wanted to go.  To get her back on her feet doing things how she’d always done them was simply ‘a road to nowhere’: back in pain, back in hospital and unable to enjoy life. Not an option!  Instead Mairi had to learn how do things differently, in a way that would enable her to become physically competent, self-confident and excited about taking on new challenges.

In every step we take in life we need to be aware that we can either become more physically robust or break our bodies down and become old before our time.

We are creatures of habit and our habits become hard-wired and resistant to change.  Moving differently can feel really ‘odd’ so we slip back in to our familiar comfort zone.  Mairi learnt that if it feels different – that’s great, we celebrate! If you continue to do the same thing you will get the same result and practice makes permanent.  Transforming harmful habits into healthy ones is like upgrading the software on your computer – everything works so much better.  Physical and emotional pain is like having a virus in our software, causing us to move awkwardly. Fortunately, we can overcome this by learning how to move in a way that minimises stress and strain on our body.  When we focus on what we want to do and move forwards in spite of our fears and life’s challenges – it’s a game changer!

Are you ready to take ownership of your life and to embark on a MovementWise Journey of guided mastery?  Do you have the courage to do things differently, to move beyond your comfort zone to discover a ‘New Normal’?

Begin by trying to do ‘just one thing’ differently.  I want you to feel the incredible influence that gravity can have over your body and your health and performance destiny.

1. Imagine your head is full of helium, floating up above your shoulders.
2. Broaden your shoulders as if you are trying to fill a doorway.
3. Gently push down through your feet, in standing; or your pelvis in sitting, and feel how gravity pushes your body back up and allows you to grow tall.

Does this feel odd? Do you feel a little self-conscious?  Great – let’s celebrate!

Try this with a friend and take a before and after photo – seeing is believing.

So much of what I have achieved on my Movementwise Journey has been as a result of 2 key factors:

• That I felt understood, not as an injury, but as a whole person in the context of my life.
• That I was supported by a team of professionals who helped put me back on the right track.

In this day and age with so much choice on the internet, it can feel overwhelming, and impossible to know who to turn to. And the danger is that we end up doing nothing. MovementWise helped me pull together my all-important rehab team. It is made up of health and training professionals, friends and family and looks like this:

MY HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONALS

Professor Gordon MacKay

The Best Surgeon: After surgery on a torn meniscus in my knee left me virtually unable to do the simplest of tasks such as walk, climb the stairs or drive my car; I knew I needed a second opinion. Yet, it was only after the opinions of two more consultants that I realised how serious the problem was. Without hesitation, Tania recommended Professor MacKay, a Scottish-based, world-renowned orthopaedic surgeon who specialises in complicated knee problems. Used to working with rugby players, skiers and elite athletes, Professor Mackay listened as I, a 50 year old woman and no athlete, explained my issues and, although still unwilling to promise me a full recovery at that stage, undertook to operate on me. A year later I can confidently say that the operation was a complete success – meaning that I am back on skis, walking up mountains and fitter than I have been for years. Professor Mackay’s skill, knowledge and experience made him undeniably the right man for the job.

My Physio, Tania Cotton

My Life-changing Physio: Tania Cotton, the founder of MovementWise took on the challenge of getting me back on my feet and skis. Tania has not just worked on my knee but on the whole of me. She has made me aware of how I walk, stand, sit, and move through life so that I feel more competent and confident in everything I do. Over the past 9 months Tania has helped me discover a new normal. I am now stronger, fitter, straighter, taller, healthier than I have been on years. Nine months ago, I could hardly walk to the car now I can walk for 8 hours with my dogs, nonstop, and ski with my family. I am enjoying new physical challenges daily. I am so grateful to Tania for giving me hope, getting me back on track and for all the advice I have received along the way.

My Nutritionist, Rebecca Dent

A Practical Nutritionist: During the three years I was in pain with a sore hip and then a painful knee, I over-ate. I have struggled to keep my weight down all my adult life and have often turned to food in times of boredom and low morale. So when the pain was too great for me to be able to take any exercise, once again, I turned to food for comfort. After my operation, to give my knee the best chance of a full recovery, and for me to feel I was in control of my life again, I was recommended Rebecca Dent, a dietician and nutrionist. Although based in the UK, Rebecca often works near Chamonix, here in the French Alps. She specialises in nutrition for high-performance athletes, but she has many years of clinical experience with the NHS. Her no-nonsense, practical advice about food was so embarrassingly obvious that it made utter sense to follow it.

An Orthotist: I have flat feet which makes my ankles roll in, so my legs and knees follow suit. I genuinely had no idea that this could be corrected, especially at my age. I was advised to see Robbie Rooney in Glasgow who made me a pair of custom-made insoles that I put in my shoes, skis and walking boots. These insoles give my feet support from the ground up, helping my bottom muscles wake up and do their work to align my legs from my pelvis down. This enables my shins, knees and hips to be in a position that minimises stress and strain, which in turn allows me to walk without pain. It took a couple of weeks to get used to wearing them, but now, I cannot imagine not.

TRAINING PROFESSIONALS

My Swimming Teacher: I grew up miles away from a public pool and although the beach was not far, it was the north west of Scotland, so we never swam. Tania convinced me that I would benefit from beginning my rehab down at the public swimming pool, so I needed to learn how to swim. For several months I walked in deep water with a buoyancy belt so that I could work on my posture, move my hips and knees freely against the gentle resistance of the water whilst getting stronger, more flexible, fitter and reducing the swelling in my knee. This gave me the confidence and conviction to learn how to swim. Stephanie Sirop taught me how to perfect my appalling breast stroke and she is now teaching me how to do the front crawl. Learning a new skill at my age is hard but learning how to co-ordinate my arms, my body, my legs, my head and breathe whilst under water is, frankly, an enormous challenge. Stephanie has a straight-talking manner and the patience of a saint and although I am no Rebecca Adlington (yet), I am getting there.

My Ski Instructor, Anne Bosvieux

My Skiing Instructor: I hadn’t skied for two years due to my knee injuries so getting back on skis was very exciting but a little bit nerve wracking. I am not someone who grew up on skis so I needed to be sure that I was moving in a way that was healthy not harmful for my body. I had a day up on the ski slopes with Anne Bosvieux from Chamonix. Tania’s recommendation was based on the fact that not only is Anne an excellent ski instructor and guide, and a very lovely person, but she has also experienced years of knee problems, operations and rehabilitation herself so if anyone would understand my knee needs, it would be Anne. Other than the tips Anne gave me for skiing, she also gave me some wonderfully practical advice to minimise my risk of feeling pain whilst putting on and taking off my skis, walking in ski boots and tips on how to protect myself whilst on the slope.

My Friends & Family

Friends and Family: My family and friends are key players in my support team. No one supports me like they do. Not used to me being broken and afraid, my children and husband have been keen to get me back on my feet and joining in our family activities such as skiing, walking and sailing. Likewise, my friends. Together they have supported and encouraged me along the road to recovery. Little walks have become longer walks, two-hour skiing sessions have turned into day-long ones and my quiet little yoga practice in my own living room has become a group activity with friends again. I thank the patience, kindness and understanding of everyone and the determination and stubbornness of those few who would not let me rest, stop, quit when the going got tough.

MovementWise Journey Insights

Founder of MovementWise

Mairi knew she needed help but didn’t know where to find it. Having already experienced one failed knee surgery, Mairi didn’t know which way to turn. She came to us at MovementWise to find a team she could trust.

In Life No One Person Will Fix All Your Problems or Meet All Your Needs.

It is essential to get help from the right person for the right problem. It sounds so simple, yet many people will seek nutritional advice from a GP who may have had less than 2 hours training on nutrition in their whole medical career if any at all. Or expect a surgeon to be an expert on human movement. As health and performance professionals we all need to work together and the more we understand each other, the more we are able to help you.

Finding the right health or performance professional can be a huge challenge. Our advice is:

1. Ask for a recommendation from a health or performance professional who knows YOU, how you live and what sports and activities you like to do.
2. Ask yourself, “Is this person looking at me as ‘an injury’ or ‘a disease’ or as a whole person in the context of MY life?”
3. Does this person claim to be the answer to all your problems or are they clear about how they can help you?
4. Can they connect you to other professionals with different expertise and experience from whom you can benefit – a dietician, a sports coach, a councellor?

Remember a good health care professional is someone who:

• Knows their strengths but also acknowledges their limitations.
• Believes in collaboration above competition.
• Recognises that their patients are their greatest teachers.
• Listens.

Life is a physical, mental and emotional dance we have to keep practicing in order to maintain our balance. Our main aim as health and performance professionals is to help you to be an active participant in life for the whole of your life, in the way that enables you to thrive and feel truly alive.

When you take the time to build a trusted team around you, your eyes will be opened to a new world of possibility. Dare to discover just how much you are capable of!

‘You don’t stop dancing because you get old, you get old because you stop dancing’.

Unbelievable

The day I came out of hospital on crutches for the third time in two years, I sat on my bed and cried. The frustration of not being able to get dressed on my own, not being able to get in the shower on my own, or even carry a cup of tea across the room was too much. As I sat there feeling sorry for myself, Tania ‘phoned me and told me that I would be up and about in no time at all, walking up mountains by the summer and skiing by Christmas. “That is absolutely impossible” I thought. Kind of Tania to say such words but I didn’t dare to dream.

Baby Steps

Over the first few weeks all I could do was to take baby steps towards my recovery.

I set myself little targets. By the end of the first week, I set out to dress myself. Underpants, socks and tights were tricky but soon I had conquered them.

Being non-weight bearing on my leg for six weeks was a challenge. Yet within two weeks I was able to walk down the stairs on my crutches and on to the end of the road and back. Just being outside, seeing blue sky above me and hearing the birds chirping in the trees was pure heaven. To celebrate my new-found freedom, I hopped across the road to a café and had a coffee outside in the spring sunshine.

As time went on my targets got bigger and more challenging. A hop on my crutches around the park. After 6 weeks of non-load bearing on my crutches, I started to walk further and even attempted little hills. If I pushed it too far my knee swelled up and was hot and sore, then I had to backtrack and slow down, let the swelling subside for a day or two, ice it, compress it and then start again. It was hard and if truth be told if I hadn’t had Tania telling me all the while that it would get better and I would be walking up mountains by the end of the summer, I may not have carried on pushing or more importantly, how to pace myself.

Sometimes connecting with nature is simply being

Reconnecting with nature

Living in the alps I had a veritable playground in my back garden. In the summer the gondola operates to take walkers up the mountains so Tania and I would walk up to the lake, swim in the freezing cold waters which was fantastic for my knee, and then I would take the gondola down whilst Tania walked with the dogs.  Soon I was walking up on my own, swimming and walking down.

Rather than walk with friends or family, I often walked alone with the dogs as I wanted to concentrate on how I walked. Tania had taught me to pay attention to where I put my feet, to look ahead rather than down, to keep my legs apart and engage my bum and thigh muscles to support me especially on the downhill slopes.

As the weeks went on and the challenges increased and so did my confidence. By mid-July, when my youngest son was home from university, he and I and his girlfriend walked up to the Miage Glacier and had lunch before walking back down. We walked for about three hours up a relatively steep path and then three hours down a different, but equally steep, route. This was so much more than I had been able to do for the previous two summers and I was thrilled. So too were the dogs. We were back on track.

But still I kept on setting targets. Weight targets. Swimming targets. Biking targets. I took up yoga again which I love but I find is quite stressful on my knee and hip, so I set targets at yoga. Happy Baby pose fine, next step the Half Pigeon pose. During the ski season I skied, at first tentatively, and then over the weeks harder and faster as I regained the confidence in my knee, my hip and my not-so-young body. I was doing so much better than I ever dared to imagine. For the first time in three years I was feeling strong, able, confident and brave.

Mindful movements surrounded by the mountains

Hope-full not hopeless

When I look back to those black days when I was fresh out of hospital, my knee tightly bandaged, swollen and sore, I genuinely didn’t think I would ever be able to achieve what I have achieved in a year. I am so grateful to Tania for showing me how to become MovementWise, for giving me direction, instruction and most of all hope.

This year I want to walk the Tour du Mont Blanc. Next winter I want to ski off piste with my children.  And what seemed an impossible dream three years ago, I plan to ride my bike up Mont Joly and picnic at the top. NOW I’M DARING TO DREAM!

Exploration and adventure with my favorite companions

MovementWise Journey Insights

Founder of MovementWise

If there was only 1 thing that you could do today that would have the biggest positive impact on your life over time, what would that be?  In terms of your posture and movement habits?

The hardest part of any journey is often the first step especially if you have experienced repeated setbacks.  Too many people get told that they have to ‘give up’ doing the things they love to do which often isolates them from the people they love to do those things with.

The most common causes of failure to move forward from pain, injury, and disease towards living a life that is rich and rewarding are:

• Not being able to set realistic and achievable goals when you have lost confidence in your body and in yourself.
• Not knowing how to get started and then how to keep moving forwards.
• Doing ‘exercises’ that have no relatable context – they are not attached to any meaningful purposeful direction that is motivating for YOU.

Well, I have great good news for you! The body loves to move, and when you move in an efficient way, a healthy way, with your mindset, motivation and movements, the body is unbelievably adaptable.  It is hard to believe what is possible when you have persistent pain, recurrent injuries and chronic disease.  This is when you really need a guide, someone who knows what is possible and can use that experience to give you the golden keys that will unlock YOUR performance potential.

When we don’t have our own positive experiences to learn from, it is important to be able to learn from the experiences of others. Storytelling is one of the most powerful way in which we can learn about things that are critically important to our health and wellbeing. This is the reason we began making the MovementWise films to show you how YOU can overcome health and performance challenges to do things in YOUR life that you may currently believe impossible.

Every journey begins with AWARENESS of what is possible, where you are now, where you want to go – meaning the things you want to do in YOUR life. The secret to success is taking small sustainable steps towards meaningful, purposeful goals.

MovementWise consultation

‘It’s not just if you move, it’s how you move and why that is important.’
Our MovementWise Mantra

Many people fail at the outset by trying to do too much too soon which drives them into a cycle of dis-ability and despair.  They overdo it, so the next day they feel incapable of doing anything, and so frustrated by this setback, they try to do all the things they couldn’t do when they were having a ‘bad day’ on this ‘good day’.  Gradually the bad days become more common than the good days.  This is the painfully common pattern of how many people tumble into a downward spiral of chronic disease and disability which is TOTALLY AVOIDABLE.  Here are some top tips:

• Set realistic and achievable short and long-term goals.
• Pace don’t race – and give your body time to adapt.
• Learn about movement strategies that harm and those that heal.
• Focus on quality before quantity so that your body becomes enabled rather than disabled, and adaptable rather than adapted.
• GET A GOOD GUIDE – it’s hard to do this on your own.

Tania leading MovementWise workshops in nature

‘Until you commit your goals to paper your intentions are like seeds without soil’
Brian Tracy

Find your meaning, purpose and direction:

1. Write down what you need to do and want to do in your life?
2. Write down the top 10 things on your bucket list and put a date by the first one.
3. Short-term Goals: set yourself realistic and achievable goals each week, and month.

Long-term Goals: set yourself realistic and achievable goals for each year, in 5 years.

It’s normal to have ups and downs – progress is never linear.  The key consistency.  Tiny steps on a daily basis will lead to significant success over time.  Remember: ‘Less is More’ and your success mantra should be ‘Pace Don’t Race’! It’s better to under-do and build up gradually, than to overdo-it and bail out!

A year ago, Mairi would never have believed that she would be walking up mountains, skiing down them, and now she is learning how to ride a mountain bike and loving every minute of it! A few weeks ago, what felt like a big effort physically and mentally, now feels comfortable. In just one month she can go twice as far and feels confident in more challenging terrain.

A year ago, Mairi believed that the best years of her life were over.  Little did she realise that the best years of her life were about to begin.  I hope that Mairi’s Story and all of the real transformative Journeys you can watch in our MovementWise films will give you the courage and conviction to DARE TO DREAM!

Watch our films and be inspired, to be MovementWise.

All Before Your Time?

It is understood that as we get older, we age. We start to need glasses for reading the newspaper; we ask people to repeat themselves as our hearing starts to fade; we eventually expect to walk with a cane; to get arthritis in our joints and become bent over and hunched. We are however limiting ourselves with these beliefs.

We do not need to accept these changes to our bodies. Our brains can learn new skills, including movement ones, at any age. It is about exposing ourselves to the right information which will keep us curious and interested and build our confidence as we learn. It is essential that we challenge ourselves and our brains as we get older. Just as we are encouraged to learn new languages, do Suduko or read thought-provoking books to keep our brain active as we get older, so we should be encouraged to take up new exercise, sports, physical challenges to keep our bodies active.

My 89-year-old Godmother (left) walking the talk

Activate Your Life

Recently I had my 86 year old Godmother from New York to stay. She was as tall and spritely as a 50-year-old and in sharp contrast to my mother who is three years younger than her. My Godmother doesn’t have a car in New York, she walks everywhere, and twice a week she goes to an exercise class organised by the physios in the hospital around the corner. There she focuses on her posture and strength. Together with that my Godmother, who lives alone, is used to carrying her shopping from the supermarket to her apartment three stories up and taking out the rubbish.  When she visited me in France she flew with a small suitcase on wheels which she put in the overhead locker and carried off the plane herself.  She took the bus across Milan asking directions as she went. When she got here she didn’t stop. We sightsaw, we visited friends, we walked the dogs. She never rested. She never paused. My mother, on the other hand, has never carried her own suitcase, has her shopping delivered into her kitchen, goes to an aerobics class for geriatrics once a week and has decided that because she was diagnosed with arthritis in her knee, and is afraid of falling and hurting herself, that she should now slow down her walking. It worries me that my mother is not physically strong and robust.

Age is a funny thing. It’s not the number of years!

Tania has explained that most of my mother’s physical restrictions can be reversed. My mother, like many others, is limiting herself with her beliefs. She believes that her body is slowing down with old age, that it will one day soon, fail her. If she doesn’t change her behaviour soon, she will be right.

My Godmother, however, is still enjoying daily physical challenges which will keep her well and strong into her 90s and beyond.

MovementWise Journey Insights

Founder of MovementWise

First and foremost – we are what we repeatedly do. And our beliefs drive our actions, that drive our destiny.

‘We are what we repeatedly do
Excellence then, is not an act but a habit’
~ Aristotle

Many people who sit in a chair all day become chair shaped and then when they stand up, they pull themselves forwards with each step in a stooped position rather than striding through with a confident upright stance. We have all heard the phrase ‘if you don’t use it you lose it’ – well it’s true!

Age is a funny topic – how old are you? How old do you feel inside?  How old do you feel when you move? How old do you look?  We cannot change our chronological age – the number of actual years we have lived, yet we can hugely influence our physiological age – how our body looks, feels and performs as the years go by.  Age is not just something you see on the outside it’s something you sense from the inside.  When you see someone who is truly alive you can see it in their eyes and in their body language. They are YouthFULL!  I have seen 20-year-olds who are old before their time, and 80-year-olds who still have a spring in their step and a lightness in their spirit.

Autonomy, meaning and purpose are fundamental human needs, and fully engaging with and participating in life requires action and interaction.  The perception of who we are and what we are capable of needs to be regularly challenged because many of us do not have, or lose insight into our performance and life potential because we have not found the courage, support or opportunities to step out of our comfort zone and discover what lies beyond.

The inconvenient truth about many of our life ‘conveniences’ is that having things done for us by a machine or by another person can mean that we miss out on valuable opportunities to flex our movement muscles and stimulate our minds.  You cannot separate one from the other. There is good science to support that movement is good for the mind – so mindful movement can help us stay strong both physically and mentally, keeping us ‘on our toes’!

Mairi looks and feels 10 years younger than she did a year ago.  She is doing things in her life now that she previously believed impossible. Becoming MovementWise, learning how to move in a way that can enable you to become competent, self-confident and feel truly alive, is something we want everyone to be able to tap into.

Our MovementWise Workshops will help you identify what you really want to do in your life, what is holding you back and if how you are moving is breaking your body down and making you old before your time?   We will show you in simple, sustainable steps how your thoughts and actions can enable you to be the youngest and most vibrant version of yourself at every milestone of your life.

Discover how YOU can feel truly alive!

Tania Cotton: MovementWise Milestones – Mairi’s Adventure to the Nid D’Aigle

Mairi wanted to walk the Tour du Mont Blanc (TMB) and I wanted her to be ready physically, mentally, and emotionally for this next MovementWise Milestone!  Where could I take her that would give her the opportunity to explore her strengths and also to highlight abilities that still needed to be worked on and developed so that she could prepare to embrace this new challenge with conviction and confidence?  The Nid D’Aigle means ‘The Eagle’s Nest’ and as it the name suggests it is a place high up in the mountains where the eagles fly and where you can touch the glacier. This stunningly beautiful walk of over 1000 metres ascent, involves varied terrain, ladders, exposed uneven rock and flowing rivers and snow banks to cross.  Preparation was key, and this involved not only choosing the right kit – shoes, rucksack, walking poles and layers of clothing; but also the right sustenance in terms of food for energy, and also sustenance in terms of the energy that comes from maintaining your morale when you may feel cold, tired and emotionally stretched to the edge of your comfort zone!

The Nid D’Aigle

Walking up metal ladders and over exposed areas of uneven rock were physical skills well within Mairi’s ability within a ‘gym environment’ yet when confronted with the exposure of a drop to one side, Mairi’s primal instinct was to crouch and crawl instead of standing tall.  This experience of being ‘on the edge’ of her comfort zone, caused her to make a deliberate decision to go back via a longer but less steep path, adding on a couple of hours to the walk. It highlighted how the unfamiliar and unknown can cause us to move differently and how a diversity of movement challenges enable us to become both more durable and adaptable – key to our survival.  The TMB was going to be a big challenge and Mairi needed to feel that she could thrive and really enjoy the experience, not just survive it!

After this huge achievement, I put together some questions aimed at helping Mairi learn from her experiences and to build her competence and self-confidence in the run-up to the TMB (see her answers below):

Mairi’s Self-Assessment Questions:

Mairi Watson:  Rising to the Challenge

Over the past 18 months I have set myself Movementwise Milestones. These are challenges, some big and some small, for me to aim for along my recovery road. One huge milestone that I wanted to do was to walk the Tour du Mont Blanc – a 10 day, 170 kilometre walk around the Mont Blanc massif passing through parts of Switzerland, Italy and France, carrying my backpack and staying in refuges along the way. If the weather permitted and the refuges were open, I wanted to do it when the snow had melted and the alpine flowers were in full bloom.  To prepare me for the TMB, and to show me what was in store, Tania suggested we walk up to the Bionassay Glacier and the Refuge Nid D’Aigle over 2,412m, on the Mont Blanc Massif.

Uneven rocky terrain

A breathtakingly beautiful waterfall beneath a swing bridge

It was a couple of days after my 55^th birthday at the end of May, 14 months after my second knee operation, when Tania and I set off early from her chalet nestled in the mountains at  1250m. It was a lovely day and I felt, despite the restrictions the coronavirus lockdown had imposed on us, fit and strong. I had complete faith in Tania and knew that she would not ‘break’ me or allow me to be ‘broken’ in anyway.  I was carrying in my backpack my waterproof jacket and trousers, my lightweight crampons (metal spikes for my shoes), a woolen hat, a puffa jacket, water, and half of Tania’s and my picnic. I was probably carrying about 4kg in total but the majority of the weight of the pack was sitting squarely on my hips. As it was relatively cool when I left home, I was wearing leggings, (Tania was wearing shorts), a vest t-shirt and a fleece and on my feet my old walking boots.

The glacier melting into a lake

Admiring the view over a glacier lake

We walked relatively quickly out of Tania’s hamlet and up towards the first of many breathtaking waterfalls. We climbed up rocky paths, over fallen trees, crossed over a notoriously long and high swing bridge with the spring river roaring beneath us and out into a clearing. There, above us, hung the Bionnassay Glacier, like a roughly torn piece of dirty white bread. The refuge, perched on a rock alongside, was glinting in the morning sunshine. Both looked miles away and very high up. The path wove along the side of the hill, climbing as it went. Wild flowers bloomed wherever they could get purchase in the rocky terrain.  Up past the moraine of the glacier we went, down below we could see the glacier’s milky blue water flowing into a lake. We crossed a snow field over a river, stepping quickly so we didn’t sink in and began climbing steeply. The path turned into steps with a metal wire clipped along the rockface for balance. As I climbed I looked down between my feet and froze. There was absolutely nothing to stop me if I fell. I would fall literally 100s of feet before hitting the bottom of the valley. I could feel myself panicking and my breath becoming shallow. I felt sick and faint. I had stopped moving and Tania, mid-sentence, turned to look back to see where I was. She climbed back down to me and talked to me telling me to trust myself, trust my feet, to breathe slow, deep breaths and to walk one foot in front of the other not looking down but looking straight ahead instead. In my fear I had started literally to crawl up the mountainside. We got to a less steep part of the path and stopped to recalibrate. Tania reminded me to create a solid base with my two feet apart and my knees over my feet so that should I slip, I would be able to balance on the foot that was still on the ground. I shook myself down, gave myself a talking to and we continued. The rest of the path was less steep and we zig zagged up the towards the glacier. Up close, the tears and slips in the ice as the glacier moves slowly down the mountain do indeed resemble stretch marks. The raw beauty of it was breathtaking.

A magnificent, hanging glacier

We crossed over a small snow field, tinged with pink from algae, to the refuge. It wasn’t yet open, either because it was too early in the season or because of Covid-19, we weren’t sure which. Still, its decking made a good picnic spot. The minute we stopped moving and sat out of the sun, a chill set in. I was glad I had brought my puffa jacket and hat. Tania had brought some trousers too which she put on over her shorts. It was cold. The view however was spectacular. We really could see for miles. As we warmed up, we ate our magnificent picnic. I had BBQed some marinated pork a couple of evenings before so I sliced it up and had brought it for us to share plus a couple of buttered slices of fresh, nutty brown bread. Tania had made a delicious roast cherry tomato and fresh garlic salad with sweat balsamic dressing. For pudding we had homemade banana bread with walnuts. Sticky and fresh. The combination of the view, the exertion and the healthy, tasty food and hot tea made our picnic taste incredible.

Our stunning picnic spot at the Nid D’Aigle Refuge

Descending through the railway tunnel, walking on ice and snow

Although I had survived the way up, I was not sure I could go down the same way, so we decided to take a longer but more gentle route down, walking part of the way down the TMB railway track to where it met the path up from Les Houches and the Chamonix Valley. The first part of the track was covered in thick snow so we strapped on our crampons until we could walk freely along the edge without fear of slipping. As we came out of the shadow of Mont Blanc, the sun once again warmed us up and we shed our layers. We walked down to Bellevue and on down to Bionnassay. By then we had been walking for 8 hrs, it was baking hot and I was beginning to tire.

Soldanelle Flowers

Globe Flowers

Pasque Flowers

Tania had planned for us to cross the little swing bridge between Bionnassay and Champel but when we got there, we realised it hadn’t yet been rehung following the winter, so we had to walk twenty minutes back up the road and detour round through the woods for an hour. The walk was in fact beautiful and on the relative flat, but I was running out of steam. By the time we reached Tania’s house, I had just enough energy to say goodbye and drive home.

Walking through alpine meadows on the way home

I felt like I had climbed Everest. I was exhausted yet elated at what I had just achieved.

After dinner and a good night’s sleep I was ready to relive our adventures. The photos we took along the way were incredible and showed just how steep and tricky the path was. I recounted the day to anyone who would listen with the path getting steeper and trickier at every telling. But in truth I did feel a huge sense of achievement. This walk was something that would have challenged me hugely thirty years ago even before I had one hip and two knee surgeries and here I was  pushing my body and myself out of my comfort zone and loving it. But more importantly, a day like this made me realise that we need to set challenges all the time to keep us moving forward.  I am looking forward to my next challenge.  I think I am ready for the Tour du Mont Blanc.

What questions do you ask yourself when you take on new challenges? Do you use new movement experiences as opportunities to learn and to grow?  Would you also like to benefit from ‘guided mastery’ to have the opportunity to get out into nature and try things that perhaps you would not have the confidence to do alone.

At MovementWise we want to help you connect with your body, with yourself and to nature and to discover how wonderful this feeling can be.

Life is a long journey and for one reason or another, at some time or other, we may find ourselves heading down the wrong path of physical recovery. It may be a path of quick fixes and promised instant results, or self-neglect and resignation. It takes courage to retrace our steps and take a new direction. In my case I was heading down the path of resignation. It took the help of MovementWise to give me the courage, determination and hope to head off down a different route. A route that would enable me to achieve things I had only dreamt of before.

An abundance of alpine flowers

Two years ago, almost to this day, I came out of hospital having had what we thought was a routine operation to trim a torn meniscus in my left knee. Three months after the operation, my knee was still hot and swollen and I was unable to walk the length of the garden without considerable pain. I was told that I needed a second operation to repair the damage the first surgeon had inadvertently done.

Luckily it did and 4 months after the first operation on my knee, I started down my long, but determined, road to recovery.

Looking back now, time passed in a flash. Thanks to MovementWise and Tania, I went back to basics and learnt how stand, walk, sit and go up and down steps with new physical competence and self-confidence. I was given a series of exercises that I did every second day that made me feel stronger and more able to meet new movement challenges. In small sustainable steps I was guided through the motions that enabled me to walk up hills again, to learn to swim and I even got on a bike a few times. Little by little I regained confidence in my body and in myself.

Taking a rest and admiring the view

By the summer I was walking good, long walks of two or three hours and by that winter I was back on skis. I felt so much stronger. And then Covid arrived. Lockdown was a mixed blessing. We may not have been able to travel, see friends, celebrate important events, and in our case, work, but we were able to exercise and because of all of the above, we had time. I spent the two months of lockdown upping my fitness game. When lockdown was over, I decided there would never be a better time to walk the Tour du Mont Blanc. This famous walk covers a distance of 170km, traditionally takes about 10 days, and passes through Switzerland, Italy and France, with ascents and descents of 10km. This year, with limited foreign travel, there were few tourists which meant predominantly empty refuge huts. This summer was definitely the time to do it.

I put out an SOS to a few girlfriends and one great friend, Suzanna, whom I had known since childhood, took up the challenge. Operation TMB was on. We had precisely 5 weeks to get organised and squeeze in a few 8-hour practice walks with Tania. As I was on a teaching course full time during the week, Suzanna planned the route from her home in Cambridge.

My priorities for the walk were to carry a backpack weighing less than 6kg (Tania’s advice and remarkably hard!), to have extremely comfortable, worn in shoes or boots, to be prepared for all weathers and eventualities and to enjoy every single step of the way.

Setting off on our big adventures

We walked out of our village of Les Contamines Montjoie on the 6th July 2020 with podcasts loaded, snacks packed, backpacks charged and bright sunshine and clear skies overhead. Tania walked with us for the first day setting us up for success with her invaluable advice and infectious enthusiasm.

Tania, my MovementWise mentor, setting me up for success: “Mairi, lift your head!” 🙂

One of the most incredible luxuries of doing a long walk like the TMB is the headspace it affords us. It is the pure joy of putting one foot in front of the other. No work, no diary, no timetable. Just walking. All day every day.

Suzanna and I walked for 9 days, completed 155km, with the highest point the Col de Ferret at 2,532m. We walked up never-ending mountains, crossed snow fields and glacial rivers, ate our picnics lying in the juniper bushes and wild thyme. We watched tiny blue butterflies flutter in the rocks by streams and saw marmottes, ibex and chamois in their wild, natural habitat. At night we stayed in refuges. Some were lovely, others extremely basic. Sometimes we slept in dorms, sometimes in rooms to ourselves. In all of them we wore our masks and everywhere we stayed, the food was delicious. On the last day, Tania met up with us again and we walked up to Lac Blanc above Chamonix together. It was the perfect drumroll to our TMB adventure.

Suzanna and I by Lac de Cheserey

Two years ago I was worried I was never going to walk up hills again and, thanks to Tania and MovementWise, here I was walking 8-10 hours a day for 9 consecutive days with a pack on my back. It felt good and I felt strong. And most importantly for the whole length of this arduous walk, I had no pain, which two years ago seemed impossible.

Although my Movementwise Journey has been a steady one, it has at times felt hopelessly hard and challenging but thanks to the encouragement and positivity of Tania, I have not given up. I have met every challenge head on and each one has made me bigger and bolder. And now I am ready for bigger and bolder challenges.

Anyone up for climbing Mont Blanc?

MovementWise Journey Insights

Founder of MovementWise

As we set off on the first day of the TMB together, I was excited for Mairi, yet at the same time I felt a deep sense of responsibility to be certain that we had left no stone unturned. That I had set Mairi up for success. Success to me meant that, for Mairi, this challenge would prove to be just the beginning. By practicing her new healthy posture and movement habits over the many kilometres of varied terrain, she would become stronger and more confident with every step. I wanted her to feel and believe how much she was capable of and that there was a whole world of beautiful opportunities waiting for her.

A whole world of beautiful opportunities

I had challenged Mairi at the beginning of our journey together to ‘dare to dream’ and here we were embarking on the 10-day Classic TMB high mountain walk – a goal that at the beginning had seemed unattainable. I was conscious of the challenges that lay ahead. The TMB is a challenge for anyone – steep climbs on uneven terrain, unpredictable weather conditions, ice and snow on the ground, and high altitude refuge huts trying to do their best to make everyone safe during COVID. Sleeping in dorms is not easy at the best of times – one person snoring, or hanging a stinking pair of socks from the window, strangers falling over half open rucksacks when they get up in the middle of the night to find the loo, can turn a dream into a nightmare. Good sleep is so essential for good health, physical performance and mental wellbeing.

The month before Mairi set off on the TMB she had undertaken to become a student again now that her ‘Les Joly Dames’ walking and yoga retreats were on hold due to social distancing. As a journalist and an avid reader, she was reskilling herself to teach English as a foreign language. Totally committed, she sat all day at her desk in her ‘shed’ and wrote her assignments, finishing the training and exam just before her ‘big walk’; squeezing in shorter walks and less physical training than she had hoped.

Imagine the sound of cowbells serenading us up the mountain

As we set off on the first day, I could see how the hours of sustained sitting and concentration had coaxed her head and shoulders to drop forwards and how she was walking looking down at the ground. So, during that first day, my priority was to enable Mairi to tap back into the quality movement software she had selectively saved into the cerebellum of her brain and with a few verbal and visual cues she was able to access her muscle memory and retrieve the tall confident person again who had evolved from the ‘shrivelled and invisible’ woman she had become over a year ago, hunched over her crutches as if the best years of her life were over.

Everything is connected to everything and what excited me just as much as Mairi walking the walk, was her talking the talk. Mairi’s walking companion, Suzanna, was an old childhood friend, whom she had not seen much of over the past few years. It was wonderful that they were going to have this chance to share this active adventure together.

Mairi’s newfound fitness enabled her to connect with an old school friend

Suzanna, who is very tall and slender, had never done a multi-day walk before, and both she and Mairi set off determined to help each othere get the most out of the experience physically and mentally. Our first day together taught them to pace not race, to walk looking ahead (and not at the ground) with their shoulders broad and heart open. When I left them after lunch on that first day, I felt confident that they were going to have a real adventure together and enjoy every step of the way.

Nine days later, when I met up with them to walk the final day up to Lac Blanc in Chamonix, I saw two beautiful, tall women walking towards me in the car park. These capable and resourceful women were deep in conversation planning their next adventure. They were strong, upright, fit and healthy and had been on the most wonderful journey together.

When you hike with me, it’s ALL about the picnic!

Mairi began her MovementWise Journey as if the best years of her life were over, and now I could see that she really believed that the best years of her life were just beginning!

Your MovementWise Journey

• Where are you now and where do you want to go?
• What is holding you back from doing the things you really want to do?
• Who are the people you would most like to share a MovementWise adventure with?

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