{"id":110927,"date":"2017-12-12T14:08:39","date_gmt":"2017-12-12T14:08:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/?p=110927"},"modified":"2019-09-10T15:27:56","modified_gmt":"2019-09-10T14:27:56","slug":"blogger-spotlight-helen-gilbert-relax-ya-self-to-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/blog\/blogger-spotlight-helen-gilbert-relax-ya-self-to-health\/","title":{"rendered":"Blogger Spotlight: Helen Gilbert, Relax Ya Self to Health"},"content":{"rendered":"

Written by freelance health journalist, Helen Gilbert<\/a>, Relax Ya Self To Health<\/a> was launched in May and recently appeared in the Top 10 UK Mental Health Blogs<\/a>. It was inspired after Helen\u2019s health took an unexpected turn for the worse, which left doctors baffled. The blog is charting Helen\u2019s journey to get to the bottom of her health issues as well as her quest to relax and calm her mind and body. We spoke to Helen about inspiring health stories from celebrities, her advice for new bloggers and the hidden side of influence.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Why did you decide to start blogging?\u00a0<\/span>
\n<\/strong>To try and find an answer to my baffling health problems. I have always been fit and healthy but in\u00a0December 2015 my health took an unexpected turn for the worse when I ended up in A&E with suspected anaphylaxsis<\/a>. I’d never suffered with allergies before and assumed the episode was a one off.\u00a0But then the reactions started happening every day. Each one would affect my airway. Either my tongue would swell enormously or my throat would close up. Doctors didn’t know why. To top it all off, I developed severe foot drop. It was a frightening time and both mentally and physically tough.<\/p>\n

\"HelenHow did you find your niche?<\/span>
\n<\/strong>This summer I decided to launch my blog, with the goal of helping myself and others who are also experiencing difficult times. I wrote a first-person article for the Daily Mail on histamine intolerance, something I discovered I had through lots of research, and my blog was mentioned in the piece. So many people contacted me afterwards and thanked me for writing the article and ‘giving them hope’.<\/p>\n

As I wanted to make the blog fun, I\u00a0set myself a challenge of learning how to relax. I\u2019ve been a freelance health journalist for 18 years; I\u2019m always rushing around and find it hard to switch off and unwind. Alongside, ‘How to’ articles, expert tips, reviews of wellbeing destinations, the blog also features interviews with well-known celebrities who share their inspiring health stories and talk about how they’ve overcome adversity. The aim is for the blog to be informative and helpful as well as entertaining.<\/p>\n

What advice would you give someone who wants to start a blog?<\/span>
\n<\/strong>Just do it. Write out your goals, and get your ideas down. It\u2019s easy to procrastinate and feel overwhelmed but once you start putting pen to paper, it\u2019ll flow. I came up with the name for my blog last Christmas while sitting around the dinner table. I\u2019m a huge fan of Barbados and my friends out there always used to say to me \u2018Relax Ya Self\u2019. It made perfect sense.<\/p>\n

Your blog features celebrity interviews, who has been your favourite interviewee and why?<\/span>
\n<\/strong>You cannot ask me that! I couldn\u2019t possibly single one out. Each one has been kind enough to share their story with me and for that I\u2019m very grateful. Their stories<\/a> are so interesting and will hopefully help and inspire other people going through difficult times. So far, I\u2019ve featured Jonny Wilkinson<\/a>, Katie Piper, Gail Porter and James Duigan. I’m always on the lookout for celebrities with strong health stories.<\/p>\n

What would be your dream company to work with?<\/strong><\/span>
\nThat\u2019s a tough one but Virgin Atlantic would be up there. I\u2019m in awe of Richard Branson and everything he\u2019s achieved.<\/p>\n\t

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\nWant to work with influencers?\u00a0<\/strong>Try the Vuelio Media Database and get access to 11,000 UK Bloggers in health, mental health, lifestyle\u00a0& more.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>

Get in touch<\/span><\/a><\/div>\t<\/div>\n

What kinds of campaigns and projects do you prefer to work on?<\/strong><\/span>
\nI\u2019m looking to work on health and travel projects, and campaigns that really make a difference. Stress and anxiety affects so many of us; it\u2019s an old clich\u00e9 but your health really is your wealth. I\u2019d always looked after mine with healthy eating and exercise but I\u2019d been super stressed for a long time when everything fell apart in 2015, plus I never relaxed or stopped. I rarely gave my body a chance to repair or heal and never paid attention to the thoughts racing around my mind. I\u2019m interested in featuring holistic health, digital detox, stress busting and mental health campaigns, wellbeing destinations and wellness breaks (both in the UK and abroad), first person reviews, celebrity interviews, and selected competitions.<\/p>\n

Do you have a favourite place that you go to relax and regroup?<\/span>
\n<\/strong>Yes, Barbados<\/a>! It\u2019s the inspiration for my blog. It\u2019s the one place I can go and switch off entirely. My friends joke that I even move at the pace of a snail when I\u2019m over there instead of my usual 100 miles per hour!<\/p>\n

How do you think that PRs can improve their blogger outreach or influencer marketing? Have you noticed any major differences in this compared to how PRs reach out to freelance journalists?<\/strong><\/span>
\nAs a freelance journalist I get between 300 and 500 emails a day but in terms of the blog I only hear from a handful of PRs a week so it’s entirely different! Maybe it\u2019s because it\u2019s so new. I think there’s definitely been a shift towards micro-influencers. If you identify a blogger who’d be a perfect fit for your brand, I wouldn’t necessarily be deterred by a lower DA or because they do not have a certain number of followers. Look at the comments on their blog posts or social media to identify how people are engaging with them.<\/p>\n

I ran a competition recently which attracted almost 150 comments on one post \u2013 readers were opening up their hearts about the stressful times they were experiencing. Also, not everything is visible. I had numerous private messages after posting about my histamine intolerance \u2013 one man even sent me pictures of his wife experiencing an allergic reaction.\u00a0Another thing to consider is whether the blogger is respected in their field: are they reliable, professional, accurate, and authentic? Don’t always be swayed by huge stats.<\/p>\n

What will be big in your blogosphere in the coming months?<\/strong><\/span>
\nThat\u2019s an interesting one but I think the brilliant media-wide focus around raising mental health awareness will continue apace. I’ve got a feeling we’ll also see more journalists setting up blogs in light of the changing media landscape. Maybe they\u2019ll be called \u2018j-oggers\u2019!<\/p>\n

Aside from health, wellness and travel, what other topics take your interest?<\/strong><\/span>
\nI\u2019m a huge tennis fan and worked at Wimbledon for almost 20 years in various roles. As a student, I worked as a court attendant, covering the grass courts when it rained before working for\u00a0www.wimbledon.com\u00a0as a journalist, covering matches and interviewing players. It\u2019s a fabulous event. I’ve missed playing regularly \u2013 exercise and heat seem to trigger reactions but I returned to the court on Saturday for the first time in ages. It was freezing cold and my tongue didn’t swell. Yay!<\/p>\n

Helen Gilbert and Relax Ya Self to Health are both listed\u00a0on the\u00a0Vuelio Influencer Database<\/a>, which is the UK\u2019s leading influencer database available to the PR and communications industries.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Relax Ya Self to Health is written by Helen Gilbert who started the blog to chart her unexpected allergy condition and track her mental health. We spoke to her about blogging, PR and inspiring celebrities. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":400,"featured_media":110931,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7365,7272,4038,6980],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110927"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/400"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110927"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110927\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":124306,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110927\/revisions\/124306"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}