“Distraction is an essential tool to sideline stress”
Childhood trauma can take a lifetime to overcome but understanding and accepting even just some small part of it can be converted into a superpower of drive and determination to never let a single second slip by without wringing every last drop of opportunity from it.
That’s the message Georgie Spurling, founder and CEO of wellness company ARVRA, wants to share.
Born with an extremely rare heart condition, Georgie spent the majority of her childhood in and out of hospital. At just four years old she was told by doctors that her heart would never recover and warned her off all the fun physical activities kids crave. She was even told she’d never be able to exercise, even once she was fully grown.
So Georgie was forced to sit on the sidelines, wrapped in cotton wool, watching her friends and family run, play and jump with the profound sense of longing and sadness that can only come when you’re the sole person excluded from something everyone else is enjoying.
But then came the point she refused to sit still any longer. As a tenacious teenager acutely aware of the myriad physical and mental health benefits she was missing out on – and desperate to break the cycle of depression and “very dark moments” she was stuck in – she decided to act.
Against the advice of her team of doctors and other medical specialists, Georgie took up dance and performance – on the one condition she regularly attended Kings College London to monitor the health of her heart.
Defying her doctors and disproving the medical advice given to patients like her at the time, Georgie’s heart became stronger.
Not satisfied with simply helping herself improve her mental health and physical fitness, she turned her laser-like focus towards how she could help others. Switching her love of the stage for a passion of understanding how the human body works, and the strong connection between the body and mind, she qualified as a personal trainer and prioritised working with people suffering from stress, trauma and chronic illnesses.
To expedite their progress she established a low-impact training techniques that clients loved, so she made her methods available to the masses, and ARVRA was born.
In our exclusive Unfiltered conversation, Georgie reveals how she overcame the odds to build a growing health and fitness business, and reveals the tactics and techniques she successfully deployed to come to terms with, accept, and then move on from her trauma.
