'I FINALLY FOUND CALMNESS AND CONNECTION'

After struggling with extreme restlessness, anxiety and terrible sleep for years, multi-talented presenter and performer Ashley Roberts turned to breathwork to transform her mental, emotional and physical wellbeing

- Joanna Ebsworth

I think the human experience is tough. Nobody gets out unscathed, and we've all got to go through some form of unfortunate loss, whether that's the breakup of a relationship, losing a job or actually losing someone physically from the world. So, thank God I had dancing growing up. It was my best friend, my passion and my outlet to express myself. And then it became my career.

It certainly isn't the case that I've always been super confident. A lot of the time, I have this ongoing anxious layer that's always bubbling under the surface, and dancing helps so much with releasing tension and the storage of trauma in the body. Unfortunately, when I got out of [The Pussycat] Dolls, I wasn't dancing five days a week, and I found that all the confidence, connection, identity and joy I got from dancing slipped away. I got to the point where I was like, 'Well, now what do I do with all this restlessness and anxiousness?'

I was feeling all of this pain and hurt and sadness within my body. To the outside world, I probably looked like I was functioning and moving from A to B. But internally when I was home or by myself and I could take a moment - I was walking around like a jack in the box, all coiled up and ready to spring. My stress and anxiety levels were so high, it was taking over my whole body, and I almost felt like I couldn't move. But dancing was so wrapped up in a chapter that I was ready to put behind me, I knew there had to be a major change in my life. That's when I decided to go on a search of discovery and find what else could light me up and make me feel good without being in the form of a prescription or pill.