Business Growth and Transformation

I feel like Butterfly Minds has been growing and expanding this year.

When I set up my Butterfly Minds Instagram account, in 2020, I had in mind I would mostly be sharing and developing services for children. It is during this time that I began my Creative Mindfulness for Kids Training. 

When I began my 200hr yoga teacher training, in 2021, I decided I wanted to teach more and offer public yoga classes for adults. I studied 60hr Yin and Restorative Yoga Teacher Training, in 2020, and was teaching family and friends online for experience and to build my confidence. I loved sharing Yin Yoga with them and being able to hold space to slow down during challenging times.

I officially set up Butterfly Minds’ website and became a sole trader after completing my 200hr Yoga Teacher Training. My focus mainly shifted to offerings for adults. Which felt a more straightforward route to continue teaching online and teach in a yoga studio.

I hadn't worked with children independently outside of an organisation before and at the time I thought it would be too challenging to set up. Plus, I was kept busy in my day job working with children supporting their social-emotional skills and development.

Fast forward to now.

Developing Children's Offers

Adding Children's Author to my list of titles and roles last month has been a highlight of my year.

Having a successful book launch and a lot of interest from various individuals, schools, libraries, and more has given me confidence to develop my children's offerings.

Over the next few weeks, I have three author school visits to read Slow Down Amaya to children. I'm excited to introduce them to mindfulness and share my book with them. If you are a teacher or educator and you would be interested in a school visit I would love to hear from you! You can find out more and enquire about sessions here. I am open for bookings for after the summer holidays.

In addition to school visits, I will be offering mindfulness workshops, with an author read-aloud of my book, for children's birthday parties starting next month. I'm excited to share this unique new offer with children and families across Edinburgh. I haven't seen this offered before in the city, if you or someone you know are looking for birthday celebration ideas, you can discover more here.

Supporting Mental Health and Wellbeing

Last week was Mental Health Awareness Week in the UK.

I was delighted to be included in the National Museum of Scotland’s activity programme for the week. Last Sunday, I shared two Slow Down Sunday workshops for families to help them spend time in the moment. It was wonderful to see the children and their parents connect with each other by practicing mindfulness, yoga and doing mindful art together.

Before delivering these sessions, I helped the Community Learning and Engagement Team develop their Wellbeing Wander for taking groups around the museum incorporating mindfulness. I had a great time sharing my Introduction to Mindfulness training with them.

Across all my work I am passionate about promoting ways to support positive mental health and wellbeing.

Everyone's emotions are in constant flux.

Having tools to recognise and regulate your emotions, such as mindfulness, makes a powerful difference.

Creating a More Inclusive World

Recently I have been reflecting on the work that I have been doing and how it is all underpinned by diversity and inclusion. This is an area that I have had an interest in for a long time, however I hadn't developed a specific offering to explore and share this.

In my discussion with Jen, on her podcast Umbrella Therapy, I spoke about diversity within the wellness space and how, in my experience, I hadn't found it to be very diverse.

Which relates to my recent chat with Chris about diversity and inclusion in picture books, on his Picture Book Podcast. We spoke about mindfulness for children and underrepresented groups within children's books. Another area that I am actively making a difference in.

I have experience in different roles within the voluntary sector which includes increasing the diversity within services and ensuring the practices were inclusive.

Taking this into consideration, I felt that this year is the right time to offer my support to other businesses to develop their diversity and inclusion practices.

I have experience in different roles within the voluntary sector which includes increasing the diversity within services and ensuring the practices were inclusive.

Taking this into consideration, I felt that this year is the right time to offer my support to other businesses to develop their diversity and inclusion practices.

Therefore, I now bring you ‘Creating a Racially Inclusive Workplace’.

A six hour training course which brings my personal and professional experience and knowledge to support your workplace.

In my previous blog posts I shared my thoughts on leaving my comfort zone. Actively telling people about this course is another aspect of stepping out of my comfort zone. This is the first time I have developed my own course on diversity and inclusion.

This is a new branch in my business and an expansive way to reach new people in a different format…not on a yoga mat!

My mission to increase representation and support others to feel included within different spheres of their life was the driving motivation for me to share this new course.

I invite you to take a moment to pause and think about 'How diverse is your workplace and ‘How could it feel more inclusive to diverse groups of people?’

If your thoughts were ‘it could be better’, I would love to hear from you and work with you to develop your organisation’s practices. You can get in touch with me at hello@butterfly-minds.co.uk

A Gentle Transformation

Over the last few months I have felt shifts in my mindset and outlook to life which has led to my business growth and transformation. As well as personal growth, they are both connected.

Using my pockets of free time to reflect, pause, study, write and simply be have helped within this process.

Much like a caterpillar transforming into a butterfly, a lot of small changes happen over time before the not so final result.

Everything is a cycle of continuous growth.