Stolen Souls are planning to carry out a full frontal assault on the Scottish music scene in 2012. With various band members hailing from Wishaw and Bellshill they are indeed “from the far corners of Lanarkshire”, as they describe on their Facebook profile. I caught up with the band for a chat about their plans for the coming year.

Will, otherwise known as Psychic Will, is a medium working with PsychicPsychic, Scotland’s newest psychic telephone company. I spoke to Psychic Will to find out a bit more about what being a psychic means.

Read on for an insight into the mind of another Wishaw's Got Talent heat winner, Nicola Bradley.

It’s not every day that you get the insight into the mind of a psychic. If you, like a lot of us, are curious about psychics and their talents, read on and all will become clear.

Pretty Motherwell student Nikki McMillan was successful in getting through the second heat of Wishaw's Got Talent, the popular talent competition currently ongoing at The Commercial in Wishaw. Nikki answered a few questions about her act.

It’s always good to see a band finally getting the acclaim they deserve, none more so than for Attica Rage.

Katherine Jenkins and other singers of that ilk better start watching their backs, as Nikki Martin is soon going to be stealing their thunder!

Nikki was born in Wishaw; however, moved to Worcester at the tender age of 4. The family decided to move to Worcester as Nikki’s father wanted to start up a hot tub distribution company and Worcester was a central point in the country for distribution. Nikki and her family have not forgotten Wishaw though, and make frequent visits back to the town to see family.

Yoga and Reiki are becoming buzzwords for those who want to get fit and explore their spirituality. Perfect Balance Studio in Motherwell is very widely regarded as experts in both fields, along with a roaring practice in hypnotherapy and stress management. Perfect Balance is an oasis of calm in the centre of Motherwell, run by husband and wife team Tom and Margo Nasmyth. Margo describes Perfect Balance as being “about self-empowerment, teaching and giving people the tools to help them to help themselves.”

I spent the afternoon with Tom and Margo to find out more about Perfect Balance and themselves personally. I can honestly say I had a lovely afternoon, the studio is a place of such serenity and calm, and Tom and Margo are very welcoming and friendly hosts, keen to talk about the Studio and explain how Perfect Balance was born.

Margo said “I discovered yoga when I was in my 30s and I was looking for something new. I wasn’t ever someone who could be called a gym bunny but knew I had to start some form of fitness regime. I knew nothing at all about yoga but decided to attend yoga classes at my local health centre. I immediately had a feeling of coming home. By going to classes I discovered much more than yoga, as it opened so many doors for me. I loved the connection between mind, body and spirit.” After this first step onto the path of self-enlightenment Margo continued attending the yoga classes and so deepened her knowledge, eventually undertaking a 3 year course in yoga teaching. Margo says “I loved yoga so much that I wanted to pass on my knowledge.”

Margo’s love of yoga then led her onto other alternative paths. She explained “I knew nothing at all about alternative therapies, such as energy work and Reiki. There was therefore a natural progression in my learning and knowledge after I started yoga.” Margo says that there is always more to learn, and that as one door closes another one opens. She has almost completed a 2 year course on crystal healing and will offer this at Perfect Balance very soon.

Yoga and Reiki is not all that Perfect Balance offer. Tom is qualified in Clinical Hypnotherapy, NLP and Stress Management with Matthew Ferguson at Motivation Training. Tom explained “Last year I realised I had to get a better work-life balance and do what I wanted to do. Margo and I were not seeing a lot of each other so I decided to join Perfect Balance on a full-time basis. From my background in business development and training I saw a lot of work-related stress cases and realised that my skills could be put to use in another field.” Tom’s knowledge and experience work in tandem with Margo’s, as Tom teaches people how to reduce their stress levels. He also offers smoking cessation through hypnosis sessions as well as hypnosis for weight loss.

Being a smoker myself, I was curious about the stop smoking sessions and asked Tom to expand on this. He said “You need to have the desire to want to stop smoking. My success rate is high but the desire to quit has to be strong within the individual. The therapy is done in one extended session, which can last 2 to 3 hours.” Tom asks people to fill out an extended questionnaire in which brutal honesty is paramount. Tom said “People who want to stop smoking and decide to use my services need to be challenged and they have to be truthful about their smoking habits. People generalise, delete and distort. The purpose of the questionnaire and the lengthy session is to find out the real reason why people smoke. I then use a combination of therapeutic techniques to assist the client from returning to their habit and help relieve the stress.

As can be seen when looking at all that Perfect Balance has to offer, Tom explained “We have really tried to keep the studio as diverse as possible. We encourage people to tell us about what interests them and then find qualified people who work in that area and invite them to the studio to do a presentation. If enough people are interested we will then hold workshops”. Margo replied “I am really interested in astrology at the moment and hope to find someone to do a presentation on that in the near future”.

In keeping with their policy of diversity Perfect Balance attracts a very wide range of people, from youngsters to students to the retired. Margo also caters for the elderly who may have health problems too with gentle classes. Tom explained “We get people from all walks of life coming to the studio, although it has to be said that the split is 70% - 30% women to men. I think this is because men hold onto things more. They will deal with problems by going to the pub and chatting with their friends, they tend to keep things bottled up to a greater extent.”

The thing that interested me most about Perfect Balance is the angel workshops which Margo runs. I asked Margo about this and she explained “I do not see visions but I have always had the knowledge that angels are all around us, and I was always drawn to angels. I had a soul reading in which I was told to read Alice Bailey’s books. Now, Alice’s works had been quoted in other books which I had read so I bought loads of her books but couldn’t understand any of it! I asked the angels for help and they directed me towards Diana Cooper, a very well known angelologist. I read her books and understood them.” Margo, in keeping with her thirst for knowledge, contacted the Diana Cooper School and asked if a course could be held in Scotland. This was agreed, Margo contacted other like-minded people and they all began their teacher training. Margo qualified as an Angel & Ascension teacher in 2005.

Perfect Balance now holds monthly evening workshops. These generally take the form of a presentation, which can range from teaching about different types of angels, how to change vibrations to receive angelic messages and how to invite angels into your home.

Margo also runs a meditation class, which originally began as a normal class and developed into a spiritual development class. She explained “This was a very small class at first but has grown hugely over the years. I strongly believe it is the angels who are drawing people to Perfect Balance.”

I have read several fictional books about angels on earth and asked Margo if she believes that angels do walk the earth in the form of humans. Margo answered “I believe that angels can manifest as human, as they will come in the form which you believe them to take. Some people see them as human, others as balls of energy and others still envisage them as the traditional angel with huge feathered wings and halo.” Margo stressed “There are no religious undertones to the class however. People of all religions come through the doors of Perfect Balance, and I believe that the studio and the work we do here takes into account the bigger picture.”

When I asked Tom and Margo about what they enjoy most about working at Perfect Balance Tom said “I really enjoy doing one to one sessions with people but I also work with businesses to help them understand work-related stress and show them tactics to deal with it. It is extremely fulfilling to speak to a person about something that is troubling them, find out what’s causing it, delve deeper to ascertain the root cause and then tackle it.”

I have never met a couple who laugh as much as Tom and Margo. Their affection, regard and love for each other is clear to see, and this contributes to the feeling of peace and happiness within Perfect Balance Studio. When I asked them what they would say was their greatest achievement Tom said with his hearty laugh “Staying together for 30 years! Especially when we each have such different styles of communicating!” Margo tried to rein Tom in and got the interview back on track by saying “My greatest achievement was bringing Perfect Balance together, people coming to the Studio and being able to offer people more and more variety.”

Tom calmed down enough to add “I love it when someone who is not into the alternative lifestyle comes to the studio and appreciates what we are doing here. A company executive had come to the studio to talk to me about managing work-related stress and even she said that we had something special here. I didn’t come to the studio as much when I was working full-time; however whenever I did come Margo’s students embraced me very quickly. The people who come to Perfect Balance and Margo’s classes are all sincere and genuine people.” Margo agreed with this, saying “They are all beautiful people. My Reiki students for example use their skills and knowledge to help the sick, people in hospices and also work with the Princes Trust”.

Margo said “We like to support charities too, and this year we have offered our assistance to Macmillan Nurses. We are getting organised for the World’s Biggest Coffee Morning on Saturday 1st October, and we also hope to host a health day before the end of the year for the charity.” The coffee morning will take place from 10am until 1pm and tickets are £3, available from www.perfectbalancestudio.co.uk.  Margo added “Our Christmas bash this year also aims to raise funds for the Nurses, and this will take place on 25th November.” Another exciting event in the pipeline for Perfect Balance is the well known clairvoyant Colette Brown launching her book Tarot: From Novice to Pro in One Book at the Perfect Balance studio.

I asked Tom and Margo if they had any ambitions still to achieve, and Margo said “I just wish I’d started earlier! I am just happy seeing Perfect Balance blossom and to be able to help other people”. Tom said “It’s Margo who made Perfect Balance blossom and grow, it’s all her hard work and it is paying dividends, for us in our work-life balance, our relationship and also the people who come to the studio.”

Speaking of paying dividends, it is worth noting that Margo has not raised her prices in 3 years! This last raise was when the studio moved premises and Margo had to put the prices up to take into account increased running costs. The increase was a shocking 50p!

After spending the afternoon with Tom and Margo and hearing how passionate they are about the studio I am going to enrol in at least one of Margo’s classes myself. As I was packing up to leave, Margo gave me a huge hug and I was left with the feeling that these two people were one (or rather two!) in a million.

So do yourself a favour, forget about the rigours of modern living and enrol in a class at Perfect Balance. Your mind, body and spirit will thank you for it. Visit www.perfectbalancestudio.co.uk  for further information.