The Ilkley woman who is making a business out of happiness (From Wharfedale Observer)

The Ilkley woman who is making a business out of happiness

1:39pm Friday 1st May 2009

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When asked what they want out of life, most people will give the same old mantra – ‘I just want to be happy.’ But what is it that constitutes true happiness?

Many will argue that money equals happiness, perpetuating the age-old myth that material wealth is all that is needed to wash away the woes.

“If something is wrong with you physically, it is still possible to be happy. But if something is wrong emotionally, it will affect you physically and will continue to do so until you pay attention.

Kimm Fearnley

But according to businesswoman and healer Kimm Fearnley, true happiness has nothing to do with money. She believes that true happiness is achieved from within which is why she has recently opened a Happiness Centre in Ilkley to offer a clearer insight into how to achieve an inner balance of peace.

She said: “It amazes me that we have been through so many disasters – a tsunami, earthquakes, Aids, etc – but what seems to unite people most has been the recession. True happiness doesn’t come from material wealth – there are lots of people with loads of money who don’t know how to be happy.

“I wanted to open the centre to offer something really different and to help people on their journey. If, at the end of my life I can say I’ve helped just one person on their way, then I would feel I had achieved something with my life.”

Looking at Kimm, one might think it is easy for her to be so confident regarding happiness. She owns commercial properties in the town and, in her own words, has a ‘lovely home’ in Middleton.

She has a loving relationship with her husband and childhood sweetheart, Andrew, her daughter, India, 19 and stepchildren, Joe, 19, and Alice, 15. But life for the 46-year-old healer has not always been rosy.

Kimm suffered a traumatic personal experience during her childhood which later led her on a self-destructive path of alcoholism, homelessness, eating disorders and general chaos.

She has, by her own admission, been selfish, greedy, mean-spirited, bullying, envious and destructive over the years. But since meeting a healer four years ago, her life has dramatically turned around.

She said: “I’ve been incredibly lucky. Before I came back to Ilkley and met my childhood sweetheart I had been every bad thing you could think of. I had suffered from eating disorders, I was addicted to alcohol, I’d been homeless. I travelled the world with nothing and arrived back in Britain, homeless, pregnant and without any prospect of work.”

Kimm settled on Bournemouth where she begged a woman to let her stay in a bedsit, finding bar work to pay her rent. She then set her sights on a career in journalism, ‘blagging’ her way into the Daily Echo, which covers Southampton and Hampshire, and then became assistant editor of the South Wales Argus.

She said: “I enjoyed it but there was a certain chaotic lifestyle that almost went with the job. A few years down the line I came back to Ilkley and met up with Andrew who was, by then, divorced. I had treated him very badly in the past but this was my second chance. I decided there and then to move back, even though I had a lot of difficult family issues to deal with and no idea what I was going to do.”

Kimm moved back to Ilkley with her daughter and settled back into her relationship with Andrew and his children. Even though, financially, she had everything she could ever want in life, internally, she remained unsettled.

But all that changed when she met healer Caitlin Walsh who is based in Harrogate. She said: “India had been suffering from pains in her legs for a while and no one could tell us what was wrong. One of her friends had been to see Caitlin and had been cured.

“When she first mentioned the prospect of going to see a healer I was totally against it. But she is very persistent. I went along with her and told Caitlin I didn’t believe in what she did and had only come to humour India. But when India came out she said she felt fantastic and from that day onwards was fine.”

Kimm was so impressed with India’s progress she decided to ask Caitlin for help with digestion problems she had been suffering from for years. The treatment took her on a journey of exploration from which she realised there was no going back.

She said: “Caitlin encouraged me to help heal others. Then one day when I was trying to help a friend of mine unblock her chakras (energy points in the body) I felt energy all around me and knew things about her I couldn’t have possibly known.

“We were friends but there were certain things she had kept hidden from me and when I suggested she might have a problem with them she just looked at me in amazement.

“From then on I started offering chakra healing for free and more and more people came to see me with great results. I never charge for it. All I ask is that they do something kind for someone else in return and write and tell me about it.”

Over the years Kimm has helped scores of people with various disorders to transform their lives for the better. She said: “If something is wrong with you physically, it is still possible to be happy. But if something is wrong emotionally, it will affect you physically and will continue to do so until you pay attention.

“Look at the actor Christopher Reeves. He says he has never been happier since he ended up in a wheelchair. He has found the true meaning of his life even though physically he is unable to do what he used to.

“I know I am lucky financially but if I lost it all tomorrow I also know I would be okay and there’s a great freedom in that.”

It is exactly that kind of personal contentment that Kimm hopes will flourish with the various treatments on offer at The Happiness Centre above the Veggie Café on Leeds Road.

Reflexology, Indian head massage, Shiatsu and aromatherapy are just some of the treatments available and there are other more unconventional treatments in store.

Kimm said: “One of the treatments will offer clients the chance to make Shifa prayer beads. These are beautiful beads which clients will learn to make and which can then be used in meditation. It is very different and very exciting and I think it will go down very well.”

Visitors to the centre can also take the opportunity to be healed by the energy of sound in a singing bowl workshop, enjoy Indian singing and chanting with the south Indian classical dance known as Kuchipudi, take advantage of the effects of Hopi ear candles and homeopathy.

They will also be offered the chance to take part in an ancient Islamic meditation, known as Sufi and Kundalini Yoga, a type of spiritual yoga which still involves postures but is also used to release energy.

Kimm said: “I want the treatments to be different to the usual type of thing on offer. We will have a workshop on how to find the goddess within, Qigoing – which is Chinese self-healing exercises teaching how to enhance the flow of your own energy – and a series of kindness classes for children, focusing on simple acts of kindness children can make to enhance their own feelings of self-worth and happiness.

“I am also hoping to have meditations in the park at sunset and sunrise with some traditional music from the South Asian Arts group throughout the summer followed by a picnic breakfast!

“People are beginning to realise that if they stopped and thought about their lives, there is little that they have done that they would want to be remembered for. Who wants to be remembered for having the best car in town?

“Hopefully through the Happiness Centre we will be able to add something to their lives to help them on their journey.”

• For more details on the treatments available at the centre telephone 01943 601517.

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