I am Katie McGreal, the founder of Solas Relaxation. I am passionate about helping parents, teachers and children to feel calm and happy so they can have a joyful and fun life. I love seeing children have fun while they learn mindful tips and techniques that help calm their busy minds. I feel so joyful when I see parents getting down to the level of their children and learning with them and I am so blessed to be able to help people create calm, happy households so that we can feel safe and enjoy life more.
Growing up I spent a lot of time inside my own head and it wasn’t a very nice place to be. It was very negative because my thoughts were very negative. I however, wasn’t aware that my thoughts were negative because I didn’t realise they were thoughts, I thought they were the truth and I believed that the whole world was negative.
I worked as a journalist in my 20s and I saw more and more of this negativity everywhere. Negative news stories and the rush to get the story out before everyone else, the competition and the pushing but it was my dream job. I had wanted to work as a journalist as a child and here I was. I should be happy, right??
Everything looked really good on the outside - I had my dream job, I had a really good social life, I had plenty of friends, spent time with family but on the inside I wasn’t happy.
I didn’t know what was going on. I couldn’t understand why I wasn’t happy. It didn’t make any sense but I knew it was the truth.
My friend suggested I try meditation and those hour and a half classes soon became the best part of my week. I can’t describe the relief and happiness I felt as a result of the peace, calm and quiet I got from those classes. I hadn’t even realised that my mind was so busy but once I felt that calm I knew I would never go back and I want to help other people feel this peace and calm too.
I want the children of today to experience this calm and peace and understanding of themselves and their thoughts before they reach their 20s. I want families and parents to know that they don’t have to feel stressed and anxious all the time and I want teachers to learn techniques that they can use in their classrooms so more and more young people become used to a feeling of peace and calm and so less of us just accept stress, anxiety and worry as the normal way we should live life.
I believe that we can build a world around fun, joy and happiness instead of creating it and our lives around stress, anxiety and worry and I know that mindfulness is the first step in that direction.