10 Holistic Healing Practices That changed My Life

Fourteen years ago I was sitting at a desk in a busy corporate office, working as a Learning & Development Executive for Virgin Holidays. From the outside, my life looked successful. A good job. A career I'd worked hard for. A woman who had it together.

 But on the inside, I was falling apart.

 I was burned out and chronically stressed. I was suffering from anorexia. I had painful fibroids and anaemia that left me exhausted in ways I couldn't fully explain to anyone. I was running on empty — not just tired, but depleted at a level that went far deeper than sleep could fix. 

 I had completely lost touch with myself.

I didn't know then that my body was sending me the most important messages of my life. I didn't know that everything I was experiencing — the pain, the exhaustion, the control, the stress — was my soul asking me, loudly and urgently, to stop. To listen. To find another way.

And then one day, a colleague changed everything. She was a Reiki Master. We got talking — the way you do, over a coffee, in the ordinary moments between meetings — and something she said stayed with me. I went for a Reiki session. And nothing was ever the same again.

What happened in that session is hard to put into words. I felt deeply relaxed — more relaxed than I could ever remember feeling. But it was more than that. It was as if something shifted, deep inside me, during that hour. A knowing settled in my body that I had never felt before. A quiet, certain voice that said: this is your path. There is another way to live.

Around the same time, my colleague gave me a book — Stairway to Heaven by Lorna Byrne. I began to ask the angels for help. And slowly, gently, my life began to change.

That was fourteen years ago. This July marks fourteen years since I left Virgin Holidays and stepped into the life I was always meant to live.

Today I am a Holistic Healing Coach, a Human Design Reader, a yoga teacher and the founder of Louisa B. Apothecary — creating healing spaces for soul awakening. And every single thing I offer to my clients, I have lived myself.

 These are the ten holistic practices that changed my life. I share them with you not as a list of things to try, but as an invitation — to listen to your body, to trust the quiet voice inside you, and to know that another way of living is always possible. 

 1. REGULATE YOUR NERVOUS SYSTEM FIRST 

 I didn't have the language for it back then, but what I know now is that my nervous system was in a chronic state of stress. Fight or flight had become my default. My body was braced, tight and permanently waiting for something to go wrong. Everything else on this list became possible only when I began to address this first. Because when the nervous system is dysregulated, nothing else can fully land. The mind can't absorb. The body can't heal. The soul can't be heard. Begin here. Breathwork, warm baths, gentle movement, time in nature, massage — anything that sends a signal of safety to your body. This is not indulgence. This is the foundation of everything. 

 

2. WORK WITH AFFIRMATIONS

Every morning before my working day began — before the emails, before the meetings, before the noise — I would write out my affirmations. By hand. Slowly and with intention.  I was rewriting the stories I had been telling myself for years. Stories about not being enough. About having to push and strive and control to be worthy. About what I deserved and what was possible for me. Affirmations work not because they are magic words, but because repetition rewires the brain. Over time, the new story becomes the louder one. And the new story, for me, was this: I am enough. I am worthy. I am capable of creating the life I desire. Start with one affirmation that feels both true and stretching. Write it every morning. Say it out loud. Mean it, even when you don't quite believe it yet. 

 3. BUILD A MEDITATION PRACTICE

I learned to meditate whilst I was still in my corporate job. Five minutes at first — just sitting, just breathing, just noticing. It felt uncomfortable and pointless in the beginning, the way all the most important things do. But slowly, meditation gave me something I hadn't had in years: space. Space between the thoughts. Space between the stress and my response to it. Space to hear myself again. You don't need to be good at meditation. You don't need to empty your mind. You simply need to show up, sit down and breathe. Everything else follows from there. 

 4. USE CRYSTAL HEALING

Crystals entered my life as part of my spiritual awakening and they have never left. There is something deeply grounding and intentional about holding a stone in your hands, setting an intention and becoming still. Whether you hold a deep belief in the energetic properties of crystals or simply find them beautiful — the act of choosing one, holding it and breathing is itself a practice of presence and intention. I work with crystals in my workshops, my healing sessions and my daily rituals. They are tools — gentle, ancient and powerful — for those who are ready to receive what they offer. I am a crystal healer certified with the British Academy of Crystal Healing 

 5. TRY YOGA NIDRA 

Yoga Nidra is sometimes called yogic sleep — a guided practice that brings you to the threshold between waking and sleeping, where the body rests completely whilst the mind remains gently aware. It is one of the most deeply restorative practices I have ever encountered. In a single session of Yoga Nidra, the body receives the equivalent of several hours of sleep. The nervous system resets. The mind quietens. And in that profound stillness, healing happens in ways that are difficult to explain and impossible to ignore. If you have never tried Yoga Nidra, I invite you to begin. It may just be the most important thing you do for yourself this year. 

 6. EXPLORE YOUR HUMAN DESIGN 

Human Design is a system that combines ancient wisdom — astrology, the I Ching, the Kabbalah and the chakra system — with modern science to create a unique energetic blueprint for each person. Your Human Design chart shows you how your energy works, how you are designed to make decisions, where you are most vulnerable to conditioning and where your greatest gifts lie. When I discovered my own Human Design it was like being handed a map of myself — finally understanding why certain ways of living and working depleted me, and what it actually meant to live in alignment with my own energy. A Human Design reading can be genuinely life changing. It is one of the most profound tools I offer to my clients. 

 7. USE FLOWER ESSENCES 

Flower essences are one of the gentlest and most underrated tools in holistic healing. Made from the energetic imprint of flowers in water, they work on an emotional and energetic level — supporting the healing of deep patterns, fears and emotional blocks that other modalities can't always reach. They are subtle. They are safe. And in my experience, they work in the most quiet and profound ways — shifting something that has been stuck for years, almost without you noticing, until one day you realise you simply feel different. I use flower essences in my holistic coaching sessions and recommend them often to clients who are navigating big emotional shifts or life transitions. 

 8. CLEANSE YOUR SPACE & YOUR ENERGY 

Energy is not just something we carry in our bodies — it lives in our spaces too. In the rooms where we work, rest, argue, grieve, celebrate and heal. And just as we cleanse our bodies, our spaces benefit from regular energetic clearing.  Opening windows. Using an energy cleansing spray with essential oils chosen for their clearing properties. Setting an intention for the space. These are simple, powerful acts of energetic hygiene that shift the atmosphere of a room and — over time — the atmosphere of a life. I created the Louisa B. Apothecary Energy Cleansing Spray for exactly this — a simple, beautiful daily ritual that takes thirty seconds and changes everything. 

9. INVEST IN ENERGY WORK & HOLISTIC THERAPIES

The first holistic therapy I ever tried was Reiki — and it changed my life. That one session with a Reiki Master colleague opened a door that I have never closed. In the years that followed I invested regularly in massage to calm my body and mind, in energy healing to shift what talking alone couldn't reach, and in the full spectrum of holistic therapies that support healing at every level — physical, emotional, energetic and spiritual. We live in a culture that undervalues this kind of investment. That sees holistic therapies as a luxury rather than a necessity. But I know, from the deepest place in myself, that investing in my own healing was the most important and most transformative decision I ever made. You are worth investing in. Your healing is worth the time, the money and the courage it takes to begin. I trained as a massage theories, reflexologist and in many other holistic therapies helping people in my practice for many years.

10. WORK WITH A HOLISTIC COACH

Healing is not a straight line. And it is not something we were designed to do alone. Having the right support — someone who can see you clearly, hold space for your process and guide you with both wisdom and compassion — changes everything. It changes how quickly you move through things. It changes how deeply you understand yourself. And it changes what becomes possible for you on the other side. I have worked with many coaches and mentors along the way. This is why I became a Holistic Healing Coach. Because I know what it feels like to be lost in your own life. I know what it feels like to be holding everything together on the outside whilst quietly falling apart within. And I know — from my own lived experience — that healing is possible. That another way of living is always available. That it is never too late to come back to yourself. 

 A LETTER TO MY YOUNGER SELF 

Sometimes I think about the woman I was fourteen years ago. Forty years old. Sitting at her desk. Exhausted, unwell and completely disconnected from herself. Holding it all together with sheer willpower and not knowing that everything was about to change.  If I could go back and sit with her — I would give her the biggest hug. And I would tell her: Everything is going to be fine. You are amazing and beautiful and capable of creating the life that you desire. I'm telling you the same thing now. 💛 

READY TO BEGIN YOUR OWN HEALING JOURNEY?

If this blog has resonated with you — if you recognise yourself in any part of this story — I would love to support you.  A holistic healing coaching session with me is a bespoke, one to one experience tailored completely to you and what you need right now. A session may include: 🌿 Energy & healing work 🌸 Guided meditation 💧 Flower essence recommendations 💛 Holistic coaching

You don't have to figure this out alone. And you don't have to stay where you are.

👉 CLICK HERE to get your free holistic healing workbook 

👉 CLICK HERE to Book your session Or send me a message — I'd love to hear from you.

 With love, Lou x

 ✦ Louisa B. Apothecary — Healing Spaces & Soul Awakening ✦ @louisabapothecary ✦ Visit website