We work with some AMAZING partner organisations who help support the work that we do across Birmingham. We would like to introduce you to Hayley who runs Relax Kids Sutton Coldfield. We believe massively in the importance of helping children to regulate their emotions effectively and calm their bodies. Relax Kids sessions which Hayley run do just that!

The sessions focus on 7 key elements 

-Move – Play – Stretch- Feel- Breathe- Believe- Relax

Take a read about the amazing work she does, and how she started her journey of making a difference in our community!

Only dead fish go with the flow…..

We live in an amazing & wonderful world BUT there is still so much wrong with it at the moment too … we must be able to do better!?! How have we got here? Where are we headed if we change nothing? How can we change this course?

In the last few years … since having my son, I have felt compelled to do something more about all the things that are wrong in the world … There’s something about having a child of your own that makes you want to make the world a better place even more than before.

All my life I’ve struggled with the terrible happenings in the world & sometimes found it hard to understand the people around me. How is it that we cannot bring peace to all & why can we not agree to disagree without a battle.

Without realising it, this has been my life’s biggest search. As a young person I set about studying communication, languages, psychology, i now realise in an attempt to build a greater understanding of & with others …As an adult I moved into sales, I realise now because of my fascination for communicating new ideas & improvements for others.

I was also drawn to working with or in areas around children & I now realise this was because children, most often, don’t yet have fixed ideas about life or other people & still have the ability to save themselves from the negativity, anguish & misunderstanding the generations before them have suffered. If we learn from an early age how to bring more peace into our lives each generation can be happier! No?

Last year my highly pressured sales job was made redundant …..I knew this was my chance to make the change I had been searching for for years. I had been searching for an inner peace, a happier more fulfilled life, a chance to help others and make a difference… and this was my chance, for me, my family & for as many others as I possibly could. 

I know I can’t change the world, or what happens to people in their lives. But if we all were armed with greater skills to manage the curve balls that life inevitably throws at us then we would be able to navigate this complex journey in this crazy world so much better.  If all children were given skills to manage themselves better and to be more resilient from a young age it would have a hugely positive impact on the lives of many.

Amazingly, just a couple of years ago, because of my own August born son I was involved in the “Summer born” Campaign which was to ensure all children get the right to start school at compulsory school age and not to be forced in underage at 4 unless their parents wished them to do so. Thankfully, after a battle, the Birmingham authorities responded by listening to the government guidance as well as recognising that compulsory school age is 5 and putting the power back into parents hands.

Through campaigning I learnt how important it is to make a stand when things are not right. To make a stand when the “computer says no” for no good reason & not to just “go with the flow” ..when the flow can often be wrong. I learnt how much wellbeing is forgotten in our culture.  If we’re not healthy & not happy then haven’t we lost sight of the goal? Who will it serve to have a nation of unhappy people? A nation of unhappy workers. What is the cost?

I met some incredibly resilient people through this campaigning, some of the strongest women I have ever met and one of them was channeling her passion for improving the world into teaching children about maintaining their own good mental health, supporting their own wellbeing & giving them the tools and strategies to handle what ever life throws at them even when by themselves.  This is how I just knew … the second I heard about my redundancy … I just knew what I had to do..no more going with the flow, it was time to turn my tide……. & that’s how Relax Kids Sutton Coldfield came to be!

By Hayley Beards, Relax Kids Sutton Coldfield