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TODAY'S OTHER NEWS

Purplebricks’ big new idea - meditation for movers

Purplebricks is the first estate agency in the country to launch a meditation service to easethe emotional rollercoaster felt by sellers and buyers.”

The agency - which will shortly reveal a new pricing structure - says the new meditation service will “ease some of the most challenging stages of a move.” 

It has teamed up with a “breath coach” called Rebecca Dennis to create three guided meditations for clients, under the title Moving Meditations.

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“Moving house is one of the biggest life decisions you’ll make – there are many worries at different stages of the process. At times, it can feel like a rollercoaster. From the excitement of finding your dream home to the wait as you make an offer, there are plenty of ups and downs along the way” says Dennis.

“While the journey is not always the smoothest, there are certainly ways to find calm amongst the chaos. The way we breathe has a powerful effect on how stressed we feel and meditation can help to relieve that stress” she adds.

“By asking the body to relax each time we inhale, we unwind stored tension. By connecting with your own breath, you can reset the mind and body when stress or anxiety start to creep in.”  

The initiative follows a poll of 2,000 people conducted for the agency. They identified finalising the sale of a current property, waiting on a completion date and packing as the most stressful point in the house moving process.

More than one in five apparently considered pulling out of a house purchase altogether because they've found it such a stressful experience.

Some 62 per cent of those polled said the main contributor to their overwhelming feeling of strain involved factors beyond their control.

A third named how they attempted to keep positive, including exercise, ‘me time’, meditation and opening a bottle of wine.

“You don’t move very often in a lifetime, so try to be in the moment and enjoy making these life changing decisions. If there are areas of the journey that feel a bit of a challenge hopefully Moving Meditations can offer something unique to help buyers and sellers through” states Angela Wallace, divisional sales director at Purplebricks.

The study also found half of those polled believe the process of buying and selling a home can feel overly complicated, and almost as many dislike not knowing what's going on and having to constantly chase for updates.

As a result, 71 per cent would love live updates to see exactly how far along their house sale is to ease their stresses.

The study, conducted by OnePoll, also revealed that while 84 per cent believe they are organised during a house move, almost a third admitted they don’t use a checklist at all and simply don’t know where to start.  

You can see one of the agency’s meditation videos below….

  • Samantha Sullivan

    It takes post sales a week to acknowledge an email with a simple question never mind answer the question unless you email a 3rd or 4th time or copy in their client to also see how unresponsive they are. This is what causes stress to a chain, call centre staff trained how to fob people off.

    Daniel Hamilton-Charlton

    Your comment does bring to life the true issue with agents needing information. IF they are not provided with an answer within the timeframe that they believe is reasonable, they email again and then again. IF you can imagine what that volume looks like when you times your emails by the amount of transactions they are handling surely you can see that you are exacerbating an already problematic situation, which is going to get worse by your actions.
    This is how Conveyancers are invariably treated and then everyone screams at them asking why they take so long.....is because they are dealing with high volumes of transactions and even higher volumes of people hounding them for information to see if they are doing their job.....which of course they are.
    Just imagine how stressful the situation would be on the receiving end of those emails when all you want to do it your job. It must be like being micromanaged by everyone, every minute of the day and it must be hell. If anyone needs meditation it is a conveyancer, but they are not afforded the time to do it as they are too busy doing their job, explaining to people that they are doing their job and still getting beaten up for it.
    Everyone needs to get involved with getting buyers and sellers better prepared for a move so that all parties are better informed and more aware of what is happening. There is much of a conveyance that can be self help.
    Change needs to happen and, in time, will happen, and the stress levels will be reduced significantly.
    I am in favour of looking after mental health, but would rather see more action in alleviating the causes of stress for anyone involved in the house moving process, rather than working out how to fix it once it manifests itself.

     
  • icon

    The way we breathe has a powerful effect on how stressed we feel and meditation can help to relieve that stress”
    My great grandfathers were on destroyers for 5 years during WW2 - my grandmothers were in London during the blitz - moving house is not a big deal

    Algarve  Investor

    But that's not comparing like for like. You're taking a very extreme situation to minimise the stress involved with a house sale or purchase, which can be very high thanks to the sums of money involved, the delays, the amount of paperwork that is still required.

    No-one's saying it's as stressful as being in a war, or suffering through the Blitz, or even dealing with a deadly pandemic which is affecting both health and wealth, but that doesn't mean it's not still stressful. Just like losing a job, a divorce or some other traumatic life event.

    I'm sorry, but moving house is a big deal - and should be treated as such. If it's not taken seriously, that causes all sorts of problems for all parties. We shouldn't minimise the stress involved just because it's not as stressful as being on the frontline of a war or global health pandemic. It's like saying none of us can be worried about Covid if we don't have it or aren't facing it head-on as a frontline worker. It doesn't add up.

    I'm far from PB's biggest fan, but I think this is actually a good initiative.

     
  • Lenny White

    How much are they going to charge for it?

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    "But that's not comparing like for like. You're taking a very extreme situation to minimise the stress involved with a house sale or purchase, which can be very high thanks to the sums of money involved, the delays, the amount of paperwork that is still required."

    Sorry I have bought and sold houses. It is not a big deal. This is pandering to the snowflake mentality where everyone wants what they want and they want it now and are entitled to it and life has to be easy. When I have stress of any sort I deal with it. I do not need to have my hand held by anyone or told to mediate. I think about solutions and get on with it.
    deal

    Algarve  Investor

    Bully for you, but for others that might not be the case. Also strikes me that the biggest snowflakes are often the ones who are calling other people snowflakes. The sort of people who actively refuse to wear a mask to help prevent the spread of a deadly virus because it's a bit uncomfortable, or those who rail against millennials for daring to want the same quality of life as their parents.

    Let's look at an example quickly. A seller pulls out at the last minute before exchange, leaving the buyer without a home to purchase and a load of already paid costs that they can't recover - are you telling me they don't deserve to be a tiny bit stressed?

    It's nothing to do with life being easy - people know it isn't - but equally anything that can be done to improve the mental health of people, particularly at a time of a pandemic, should be fully welcomed in my view.

    Mindfulness might have been viewed as hippy dippy nonsense a few years ago, but its benefits are now widely known. People who suffered shellshock (or what we now know as PTSD) in the war you talk about could have done with a bit of mindfulness and far better awareness of mental issues in the aftermath. It might have helped to prevent a host of social issues in the decades after as people clammed up or turned to drink to cope with the horrors they'd seen.

     
  • icon

    "Bully for you, but for others that might not be the case. Also strikes me that the biggest snowflakes are often the ones who are calling other people snowflakes."

    Whoooooooooo you can be rude to me ion a screen man. LOL

    Yiou know nothing whatsoever about me so I cannot understand why you presume to so do.

    I wear mask when I am in shops pubs etc. Does the virus stress me or worry me ? No. I follow advice and respect others feeling with something that is serious and which some people are concerned very about, far more than I am.
    I am 32 I do not rail against my life and I am not envious of my parents.
    As for your example of a buyer withdrawing - that happened me me once. Was I stressed? No. I accepted it as part of life and a minor irritation. I put the place back on the market and got on with life. It cost me a few£ but i did not see it as a big deal - no one died, there was not real disaster.

    I agree totally that had help been available for people with PTSD after WW2 it would have helped some people. My own great grandfather both of whom are still about do not talk about it- never have . However to compare losing a buyer to war and battle induced PTSD to losing a sale on a house is incomprehensible to me. I think that all that matters is the heath of the people I love as long as they are well and happy nothing is going to bother me, certainly not moving house.

    Daniel Hamilton-Charlton

    I feel it is fair to interject to stop this crazy war on words between Jan and Algarve Investor. It is turning in to a measuring competition.
    People handle situations in their own way. For one person, the transaction falling through 'could' be a catastrophe and something that does seriously rock their world in a negative way.
    Thankfully we are not all the same and manage situations differently.
    How anyone can bring the stress of war and compare that to a house move is ridiculous, BUT, no one can deny that people in either situation will react in their own ways and, just maybe, need support.
    One persons mental health is not the same as the next persons, no matter how much you wish to argue about it.
    Surely the point has been missed.....some people do get stressed, and those people might need some support and advice. If that is not you, fantastic. But don't belittle those that are affected otherwise it becomes too difficult for them to speak up and get help for fear of being ridiculed or being accused of being weak....which is far from fair and tantamount to bullying.
    So please, reel it in.

     
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    You say that losing a sale could be a catastrophe for some people - sorry I do not agree it is an irritation if anyone thinks losing a sale or a purchase is a catastrophe they need to get some perspective.

    "So please, reel it in"

    You do not tell me what to do. I have the right to express my opinion as you do and I respect that.
    You also have the right to disagree with me as I have to disagree with you.
    I do not tell you to REEL IT IN I accept that you have a different point of view - so do not presume that you have the right to tell me what I am allowed to say.

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