The F**k It philosophy of fixing your life

Lifestyle – Judy Murphy talks to Gaia Pollini who is bringing her unique holistic therapy to Galway next month

It’s February. It’s been a long, miserable winter. The chances are that any New Year resolutions people made on January 1 have long been abandoned and normal service has been resumed.

So it may seem like a perfect time to look at the F**k It way of living, a light-hearted approach which offers you the promise of changing your life by saying F**k It to anything that makes you miserable or stressed.

It’s about self-development and self-help, but in a way that’s “joyful and fun” rather than serious, staid or full of psycho-babble, according to Gaia Pollini, who will be in Glenlo Abbey Hotel on March 1 and 2, giving a holistic retreat, teaching people how to live the F**k It life.

“The F**k It philosophy is not about being dismissive or not caring– it’s about saying things can be fixed and made better. It’s about rediscovering yourself. It’s about accepting your uniqueness and living your own life, rather than following other people’s notion of you,” she explains by Skype from her home in rural Italy.

The idea is that, over the weekend, participants will say F**k It for long enough to find out – and follow – what they want from life. This will be done by using the breath, visualisation, a type of Chinese yoga known as Qui Gong and lots of music, energy techniques and movement. 

Italian-born Gaia points out that there is “a great lack of ease in the world at the moment and people are looking to have different experiences of life, but not everyone is into following the traditional self-help way”.

She and English husband John Parkin regularly run F**k It retreats in Italy and London, where they combine traditional Eastern teachings with modern Western approaches to help people change their lives. 

They have also written a series of best-selling books on these topics.

This is Gaia’s first time holding a retreat in Galway and she is looking forward to new surroundings.

“Italy’s energy fits the work we do, because it’s beautiful, sunny and soft, but the work can be done anywhere,” she says, adding that the West of Ireland has its own attractions.

“It will be lovely. There is great scenery and even if it rains we will have a fabulous time dancing and playing,” she says.

Gaia Pollini and John Parkin began to develop their own self-help philosophy after meeting during the 1990s when they worked for the same London advertising agency. They soon realised they shared an interest in spiritual therapies such as mindfulness, breathwork, yoga and its Chinese equivalent, Qui Gong. By the late 1990s they had started running groups in their home and in 2002, after their twins were born, they upped sticks and moved to Italy.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.