Alina Gregory Holistic Counsellor

20/07/2026

Stress does not always feel like “stress”.

The surprising thing is that it can show up in ways you may never realise when being under pressure.

Here are some of the less obvious signs that your stress levels may be getting too high:

03/07/2026

The 8 Pillars of Wellbeing offer a gentle way to look at your life as a whole.

The 8 Pillars of Wellbeing are important because they help us look at life as a whole, not just one area.

Research on wellbeing, such as Seligman’s PERMA model, shows that meaning, relationships, positive emotions, and personal growth all play an important part in how well we feel and function. Other research by Diener also shows that wellbeing is connected to life satisfaction, emotions, and how we experience our own life.

These pillars are worth thinking about because when one area is out of balance, it can affect the others too. But even small changes in one pillar can create more energy, confidence, calm, connection, and direction.

1. Self-Awareness

Understanding your thoughts, emotions, patterns, needs, triggers, and desires. This is the foundation because we cannot transform what we are not willing to see.

2. Purpose

Living with meaning, direction, and inner alignment. Purpose does not always have to be grand; sometimes it begins with knowing what matters to you and choosing more of it.

3. Self-Love

Building a kinder relationship with yourself. This includes self-worth, boundaries, compassion, forgiveness, confidence, and learning to stop abandoning yourself for approval.

4. Physical Health

Caring for the body as the home of your energy, emotions, and nervous system. Movement, rest, sleep, breath, hormones, posture, and daily habits all shape how we feel.

5. Nourishment / Food

Eating in a way that supports energy, mood, hormones, clarity, and vitality. Not restriction, but nourishment — learning what helps your body feel safe, strong, and alive.

6. Playfulness

Reconnecting with joy, creativity, curiosity, sensuality, humour, pleasure, and lightness. Healing is not only deep work; it is also remembering how to feel alive.

7. Connection

Healthy relationships, community, love, belonging, communication, support, and meaningful human connection. We heal in relationship with ourselves, others, nature, and life.

8. Emotional Balance

Learning to understand, process, and regulate your emotions instead of being controlled by them. This includes calming the nervous system, managing stress, creating inner safety, responding rather than reacting, and building the resilience to move through life with more steadiness, clarity, and self-trust.

The 8 Pillars of Wellbeing offer a gentle way to look at your life as a whole, not just how you feel on the surface, but what effectively supports your mind, body, emotions, relationships, and sense of meaning.

When one area is neglected, it can affect the others; but when we begin to strengthen even one pillar, we often create positive changes across many parts of our lives. It's all connected, holistically.

These pillars also remind us that wellbeing is not about perfection. It is about awareness, care, balance, and small intentional choices that help us feel more grounded, and aligned.
Take a moment to reflect: which pillar could be improved, and how? How would it impact your life in a long term?

If you like to work with me based on this model, feel free to connect

31/05/2026

The Powerful Practice of Creative Visualisation

Did you know your mind does not always clearly separate what you remember from what you vividly imagine?

This is why creative visualisation can be so powerful.

Creative visualisation is the practice of using your imagination with intention. You picture a desired outcome, connect it with positive emotion, and allow your mind, body and actions to move towards it.

In sport psychology, athletes are often encouraged by coaches to imagine winning, breaking records, or performing at their absolute best.

Research using EMG, which measures electrical activity in the muscles, has shown that when people vividly imagine a movement, their muscles can show tiny signs of activation, even when the body appears still.

In other words, the body is listening.

There is also fascinating research with students. Studies found that students who imagined the process of studying, preparing, focusing and managing their time performed better than those who only imagined receiving a good grade.

Creative visualisation is not only about picturing the final result.

It is also about mentally rehearsing the version of yourself who can create that result.

When you visualise, you are priming the nervous system.

You are training focus.

You are teaching the body a new possibility just before it becomes real.

The mind listens to images.

The body listens to feelings.

What you repeatedly practise believing will eventually become your relationship therefore your future.

Visualise it.

Feel it.

Align to it.

Move towards it.

See the results.

References: Schacter & Addis, 2007; Addis, Wong & Schacter, 2007; Jeannerod, 2001; Guillot et al., 2007; Pham & Taylor, 1999.

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09/05/2026

For those who know me (in person or online), you know how passionate I am about helping people, sharing the right information, and making supportive wellbeing content accessible for free.
I’m planning some new articles and content, and my audience is very important to me, and that’s why I’d really appreciate a bit of your time.
I would love to know what you genuinely enjoy reading, engaging with, or sharing, so I can co-create content with you, not just for you.
This survey is anonymous and should only takes around 2 minutes, and super easy to navigate around!
Thank you so much for helping me shape content that is useful, honest and meaningful.
Alina 🤍
Please click this link to begin: https://tally.so/r/Zjv6dy

06/04/2026

There is a lot happening in the world right now.

Conflict.
Division.
Uncertainty.

And people feel it.

Some more deeply than others.

Sensitive people don’t just see it;
they carry the weight of it in their body, in their mind, in their nervous system.

And maybe that’s why there is less tolerance now
for what feels false, forced, or not right.

But what’s important to remember is this:

There is a psychological principle often called the power of the minority.

It only takes a small number of people
who are clear, grounded, and consistent in what they know to be true
to influence the wider direction of things.

Connection creates strength.
Separation allows division.

And many of the systems that keep people stuck
rely on disconnection:
from self, and from each other.

But when people begin to trust what they feel,
and stand together instead of apart,

that’s where real strength is.

16/02/2026

I’ve noticed in my work with clients, the core limiting belief underneath so much is:

“I’m not good enough.”

And it usually begins with a caregiver, a teacher, or other children.

Over time, that external voice becomes internal.
It becomes your inner critic.

Children who felt unseen often grow into adults who are always striving, fixing, proving, pleasing.

The first step is simply this:
Notice the inner judge.

Because once it becomes conscious, it becomes changeable.
Healing starts right there.

And then, you have to learn to believe in yourself again.
I can show you how 🤍

Book a consultation or a session with me. The biggest investment you can ever make is in yourself.

08/12/2025

𝐅𝐞𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐜𝐤? 𝐓𝐨𝐨 𝐝𝐞𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐝? 𝐀𝐥𝐰𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐱𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐬?

This isn’t your natural state of being.

Life isn’t supposed to feel like constant survival.

We make ourselves ill without realising it.

And how could you find the way out, if no one ever showed you how? No school, no family, no system truly teaches us to listen to our bodies, calm the mind, or self-heal.

Yet pressure and unprocessed pain condition us into states that feel permanent.

If I asked you not to think of Father Christmas all day, he would still appear in your mind several times, not because something is wrong with you, but because he is everywhere in December. The environment is saturated with him: shop displays, advertisements, jingles, social media, packaging, everyday conversations.

This is the core issue with modern stress, and stress related illnesses. Roughly 1 in 3 people (globally, or in many modern societies) show signs of serious mental or emotional distress at any given time; which often contributes to what we call “stress-related illness.” Our environment is no longer natural, but our nervous system still is.

We are naturally and biologically wired for:

--> rhythms instead of overload
--> safety instead of constant alert
--> seasons instead of notifications
--> village-scale relating instead of global noise

Yet we are surrounded by relentless input: news cycles, alerts, expectations, sales, deadlines, stimulation; so our system reacts exactly as it should when overwhelmed.

Stress does not persist because you are weak. It persists because your body is trying to stay human in a non-human environment.

I have spent nearly two decades working with clients and groups, developing a deeply effective holistic method called AYLA (Adjust/Assert Your Life Again) which is a trauma-informed, science-based approach to healing the mind and body together.

If you are ready to feel safe within yourself, regulated, lighter and alive again, get in touch.
Your healing has always been there.

You just have not been taught how to recognise it.

PM to book your first session or if you have any questions.

06/08/2025

Since Monday, I’ve received these beautiful messages from clients — and I’m honestly so, so thankful. Every single word means the world to me 💛

❤️

23/07/2025