Heather Kennedy is a partner in a busy timber sales and marketing business. She is also studying part-time, writing a book and, lest I forget, mother to three children aged 17, 15 and eight. Heather says that her daily practice of Tai Chi (the ancient Chinese art of mind and body exercise) gives her the ability to cope with the many different demands in her life.

"I have to say it totally changed my life," she says. "It helps your body to become strong and supple but it's also a very spiritual discipline. It's about a journey into your inner self, accepting yourself and knowing that's it's perfect to be imperfect. When you achieve this it frees up an enormous amount of energy.

"Before I practised Tai Chi I spent a lot of time worrying about not having enough time. Now I use this time productively. At work I've learned to delegate and to use the supports that are there. In business life it's very easy to lose yourself in the pressures of the business world to the exclusion of everything else. You can become lost among ambitions and expectations and I see a lot of people who have no time to share the rewards with their partners or their kids and they become desperately stressed out.

"What Tai Chi has done for me is to bring a balance to my life which allows me to work very well but also to have time for myself and for my children and for a good social and family life. These different strands can all be accommodated and enjoyed if the balance is right."

Heather is about to finish the second year of a three-year training programme to become a Tai Chi teacher. To complement this she is studying stress management and anatomy and physiology. "This gives me the three dimensions - spiritual, physical and mental or emotional, and I believe you can't separate them if you want to be in harmony with yourself," she says.

When she is finished studying, Heather hopes to combine Tai Chi and stress management and to offer corporate self-development courses. "I've been through quite a bit, including depression which I cured myself, and I can understand how one can lose the sense of purpose and joyfulness. I would love to be able to help others to recognise that having the best of all worlds is not impossible," she says.