Angela Hardy on floating, brilliance and falling in love
A personal transformation specialist who has undergone a metamorphosis herself; this is what it means to walk your talk. Angela Hardy answers 8 questions on her work, her beloved, and a rather special kind of tank.
1 You’re a personal transformation specialist. How did you come to do this for a living?
When I was a child I was super sensitive, really defensive, easily angered, and pretty moody. I had a real fear of failure and judgement and was constantly trying to prove myself enough. In my early 20's I did a personal development course and it opened my eyes to the possibility that it didn't have to be that way. For the next 20 years I read and worked and studied everything I could, trying to find the way to get out of these symptoms that I was struggling with and get the good feeling about myself that we are all searching for. Then I discovered an understanding (called the 3 principles) and as that sunk in, my version of reality completely shifted. I finally realized that I had been looking in the wrong direction all along, and that the good feeling I was looking for had been available to me all along.
The passion for my own transformation led me to share this work with others who have struggled and suffered as I had to feel free and joyful and good about themselves.
2 What gives you the greatest lift when working with clients?
I love to see them get those aha insights that immediately and irrevocably change their perception of themselves and their worlds, and to hear them feed back week by week how their experience of themselves and their lives has shifted to something happier, more confident and more loving.
I also get to really enjoy them as people, we spend a lot of time laughing and exploring together, so we really build connection.
Image: Unsplash, model used
3 You offer float therapy … do tell us a little more.
Flotation or sensory isolation therapy works by the extraordinarily deep relaxation of the body and mind and is a result of the removal of external sensations of light, sound, touch, gravity and temperature in the flotation tank. The tanks looks a bit like a giant jelly bean, with 30 cm of water, heated to skin temperature, containing over 500kg of Epsom salts. As you lie back in the water, you pop to the surface like a cork, and float completely supported.
This astonishingly nurturing environment, free of external influence, causes wonderful physiological and mental changes to take place. It is especially good for those who suffer from stress, anxiety, sleeplessness and chronic pain.
The beauty of the float tank is that it is a place totally free from anything to do, say, or be. There’s a reason you get so many good ideas in the shower or right after meditation. Your mind needs space to process thoughts and formulate them into brilliance. If you focus on trivial pleasures, you’ll only get trivial thoughts in return, and the surface level distractions keep you blind to what’s bubbling beneath. That is what makes flotation so valuable in the modern era. It gives you the chance to dive deeper into yourself than you ever thought possible. In those murky depths are tangled emotions, hidden programs, buried and forgotten traumas, all of them waiting to be found, for they also contain the treasures of your soul.
4 What did you absolutely love doing as a child?
The same thing I love doing now, playing. Back then I spent all my spare time playing sports and games, nowadays I play badminton, squash and tennis weekly. I basically love running around, excitedly whacking stuff with a bunch of other people, whatever form that takes.
Image: Unsplash
5 What is the most magical place you’ve ever visited?
New Zealand, what a gloriously beautiful country. We travelled it in a camper van. Every time we thought we could not see anything more stunning we would go around another corner and another glorious sight emerged!
6 What are your thoughts on falling in love?
I've been with my husband since I was 17, that's 33 years of relationship bliss, and we just seem to get more and more happy with each other. Can't say I remember falling in love, but what I do know is that being in love and in a loving relationship is right on the top of my list of the greatest blessings I could ever wish for.
7 Tell us about your husband and what you share.
Brett is awesome. Firstly, he is super easy on the eye, lucky me, he is super smart in his area of interest and he and I love to learn new stuff, so our curiosity means we always have fabulously interesting conversations.
Image: Pexels
He and I are actually very different in just about every way, but we have a great respect and appreciation for those differences - despite the fact that we can't agree on the best dessert to share, or which route to take or that all games are fun, even board games, we still manage to love each other's company.
Angela shows us the way to unconditional self-love - which is, in fact, a real possibility!
Can we actually learn to be happy? The answer is “yes!” Angela explains how our minds creates our feelings and how to apply this understanding to our lives.
8 Any dreams for the future – for your future and that of the world?
For me, I want to keep growing my capacity to come to life more and more joyfully, compassionately and lovingly, more able to appreciate what is without preference, more connected to others and myself, openly and unconditionally.
I wish the same for the world, I think humanity would completely change the way we go about living if we were all more secure in ourselves and respectful of others.
About Angela
Angela Hardy is a personal transformation specialist from Johannesburg who uses NLP, kinesiology and other tools in her transformational work with clients.
Website: www.cloud-nine.co.za
Youtube channel: Angela Hardy
Thumbnail image: Unsplash.
Personal photographs: supplied.