*** it!” No, I haven’t just spilt my coffee over the keyboard, I’m putting into practice a new form of therapy that’s going to transform my life. Yep, merely by uttering these two words at every available opportunity, I’m going to become happier, calmer and less anxious. I’ll see what really matters and stop worrying about the rest. At least, that’s what John Parkin, my new spiritual guru, promises. He swears by it — literally — and so does his wife, Gaia Pollini (who says “f*** it!” beautifully in an Italian accent). They preach their profane wisdom from deep in the Italian countryside, where they run spiritual retreats for the world-weary. But frankly, I ask Parkin, how hard can it be to be happy in Puglia, where it’s always sunny and your biggest decision is whether to have green or black olives with your prosecco? They don’t even have double yellow lines, for goodness’ sake.

“The everyday reality is pretty much the same, actually,” says Parkin. “It was difficult setting up a business with a young family. Anyone who’s moved to what seems like an idyllic location knows that, after the honeymoon period, the same potential stresses and anxieties do come up.” There goes my grass-is-greener emigration fantasy. Actually, it’s reassuring. I’m not about to take life advice from someone who doesn’t know what it’s like to wake up at 6am in a cold sweat.

Putting his therapy into practice could not be simpler. You literally say, “f***it!” whenever you’re stressed, worried or angry. Just doing this helps you to relax and realise that much of what’s getting you down doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things. It’s a more forceful way of saying, “Let it be, man.” It’s choosing not to care.

So what’s behind the approach? Apparently, we’re all too obsessed with trying to find the meaning of life, when we should give up the search and see that what’s in front of our eyes is just fine. You don’t have to “get religion”, you don’t have to rehash your “issues” endlessly, you don’t have to “improve”. You are good enough. Even if your brain tells you otherwise.

In other words, it’s a bit Buddhist, a bit rebellious and a bit cognitive behavioural therapy. Nothing wrong with that. And calling it “f***-it therapy” was a way of making it sound cool, I suppose? No: the words have a raw power, the couple claim. There’s an energy in their anarchy. “Some people will admit in the first session that they don’t like saying the f-word,” says Parkin. “We could have come up with some other neat concept, but it wouldn’t work. It’s so quick and powerful. Phrases such as ‘relax, let go’ are too soft. ’”

At their centre in Italy, “f***eteers” are encouraged to “do less”, through practices such as qi gong, yoga and silent walks in the woods. Stressed individuals — typically ambitious, driven people who feel as if something is missing — learn how to swear like troopers and emerge renewed. Katia, 31, is one of the converted. She went on a week-long f***-it! course at a time when she was tiring herself out trying to get on with her husband’s family and comparing herself to the girls she had grown up with. “They’d had babies, they had the big house, the investment properties — they seemed sorted,” she says. “But I’d travelled the world and set up a business. I actually realised I didn’t want to be them.” After the course, she deliberately lost touch with her old friends. “I let them go.” Likewise, she said “f*** it!” to trying to force her in-laws to like her. “It was so liberating.”

Another woman who you might hear muttering, or indeed shouting, “f*** it!” is Paola, 35, who recalls how she had slowly sunk into depression after turning 30 without ticking off any of the “right” boxes: no man, no child. She, too, talks about letting go of some of the stuff that was making her miserable. “Now I don’t get so uptight. If things are getting bad, I think, ‘How bad is it, out of 10? How bad is it if that guy on the Tube stinks of BO?’ Not very. Before, things like rubbish on the floor were making me really angry.”

Parkin says the key is in letting go. “If you don’t control things, you get results. You meet someone who offers you a job. You meet the right person at the right time.” I’m not used to this way of thinking. But I do try saying “f***it!” next time I’m on the verge of a huge, life-changing decision. And a few fabulous things do indeed fall into my lap, including a very bright and sunny apartment. I can’t say it has entirely worked for me, but I might just be a die-hard anxiety freak — not to mention self-censoring goody-goody. Oh, f*** it! I’ll just stop putting myself down.

F**k It: The Ultimate Spiritual Way by John C Parkin (Hay House £8.99). For courses and retreats, go to thehillthatbreathes.com