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I have just got back from the most incredible weekend in London for Mel Wells Self-love Summit and I promised I would blog about it.
I will firstly apologise though, because I genuinely have no idea how I’m going to put the day into words so I don’t know how this is going to come out or how long it’s going to end up. I built up the day in my head so much. I was lucky enough to get a free ticket when I joined the academy in September so I’ve been daydreaming about it for months. Then about a week before I started to panic about a number of things. What if it wasn’t everything I wanted it to be? What if I didn’t recognise all the people I’d been talking to online all these months and they thought I was a rude bitch? What if I was judged for being overweight or what I was wearing?
But all of my worries were quickly eradicated when I got there. I’d already been lucky enough to meet up with my pen-pal the night before as we were staying in the same hotel. We didn’t stop talking the whole time and it was amazing to finally meet the woman who’s reminded me how much I love to write. We met up the next morning, along with a few other gorgeous girls who were staying in our hotel and walked to the venue. We may of been a bit keen as we ended up being right at the front of the queue which worked out great for me as I had a VIP ticket, so it meant I bagged myself a front row seat. I was over the moon! I was also sat right next to another friend who had travelled all the way from Canada just for the event. It was the first time we’d met too and it’s uncanny how similar we are. And this was after another goddess had already came over to me and gave me a present and card to say thank you for inspiring her. So by 9am I was already feeling pretty chuffed with myself. All the VIPS received an amazing goody bag filled with treats such as healthy snacks, granola, gin, a happiness planner and another copy of The Goddess Revolution, which was perfect as I’d just gave away my copy for about the fifth time (and have already promised someone else they can borrow this one too.)
I managed to squeeze in a few hugs before the event started (and I recognised almost everyone - phew) and then Mel came on stage with the amazing Zoey (@schoolofstrut - I’ll come back to her later) and made a fantastic entrance. Mel then introduced herself and started talking about the well known quote by Marianne Williamson. Just in case you haven’t heard it before, here’s a little bit of it, ‘Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.’ How powerful is that? And that quote pretty much sums up the whole theme of the day. How important it is to be yourself and to never dim your light for anything.
Mel also talked about the food on our plate just being the tip of the iceberg. There is so much more underneath the water that has an impact, just as there’s so much more to what we eat than just what ends up on our plate - how our day has went, how we’re feeling, or if there’s something much deeper - just like the iceberg.
The first speaker of the day was the incredible Shannon Kasier. She is an amazing author and I have recently read her book The Self Love experiment and would recommend it to anyone starting out on their self-love journey. She also talked about ‘problems’ not always being the main problem - linking back to the idea of the iceberg and the fact that what we think is the issue (food) isn’t actually the issue, it’s usually something much deeper. She was so sincere and her smile lit up the room. One of my favourite quotes of hers is ‘the more you you show, the more your life will flow.’ She talked a lot about just doing you and said that you can’t love yourself if you’re not being yourself. So to anyone reading this, are you truly being yourself?
Rebecca Campbell was the next speaker. I’ll be honest, I bought her book when I heard she’d be speaking but I never got round to opening it. I love the idea of spirituality, but I don’t really get it. I’ve tried to meditate but I always end up thinking about my to do list or what I might have for dinner that day to switch off properly and as much as I love the stars and the moon, I’ve never really noticed if it affects my mood. But - WOW! Rebecca talked about how much energy was in the room and encouraged us to breathe. Then she asked for 20 people to come on stage with her - I dived at the chance as did around 50 others so I ended up feeling up the lady in front of me several times - apologies if you’re reading this! She played ‘Warrior’ by Aurora and asked us to repeat ‘Heaven, Heart, Earth, Heart’ whilst pointing to heaven, our heart and the earth - hence the butt grazes to the goddess in front of me. But it lit up the room, it was absolutely magical and for the first time ever I understood what being spiritual felt like, it was the only way to explain how I was feeling. I had the pleasure of talking to her later on and she was so intense, it was literally like she could see into my soul. But she told me everyone is spiritual, so it’s something I’ll definitely be working on in the future - I have her book right next to me as I type this and this time it will be getting opened.
Next was Suzy Ashworth. Suzy was probably the speaker I knew the least about, in fact I knew nothing about her. Her raw, honest energy was infectious though and she had us all laughing out loud. She talked about love-bombing yourself which is definitely something I’m up for doing. Bascially, standing in front of the mirror and showering every part of your body with compliments! She also said she did it with photographs and other people too! I think we could all use more love-bombing in our lives! She also talked about imagining yourself 12 months from now, which is always such a powerful thing to do. Where would you love to be 12 month from now?
Julie Montagu was next. Julie is a big believer in finding time for self-care every day. She is also a yoga instructor and I was fortunate enough to be gifted with one of her yoga DVDs which I am looking forward to using after months of saying I’m going to start doing yoga and doing absolutely nothing about it. The biggest thing I took away from Julies talk though was her talking about what legacy you want to leave. She talked about utilising your gifts and your traits to leave a legacy and that really resonated with me, I want to be remembered for something, I’m going to leave a legacy - so watch this space!
After dinner, the stunning Zoey from School of Strut made another appearance. Her confidence is contagious. I was full of Wagamamas bao buns and we were in a room with a glass ceiling and I had to dance. I’d of been upset except the energy in the room was still electric and it was so much fun! This time I made a stranger feel me up instead to even out the sexual harassment. We practiced our dance moves and then we danced to I ain’t your Mama by J-Lo which I have now had on repeat since because it makes me feel like an absolute Goddess. Totally ironic if you listen to the words though because I do in fact do all the cooking and laundry in this house and if I told him he couldn’t play any more video games he would laugh in my face, but that wouldn’t make a very good song at all.
Persia Lawson started her talk by singing to us all. I could see how nervous she was so I kept smiling at her every time I locked eyes with her - she later thanked me for doing this and said I looked like her cousin - her cousin must be gorgeous too. I didn’t think I would relate to her much as her talk was about relationships and obviously mine is perfect despite his love of video games. But she was so funny and ‘smutty’ in her own words and talked a lot about the power of music and poetry which was beautiful. She also talked about her love of dinosaurs and Jurrasic Park so she totally won me over. At the end of the night she said to me that she hadn’t heard one negative thing all day and night which was just beautiful and so true. There was no bitching, no comparing, just so much love and so many compliments for every single woman, which is how it should be every day, every where and I’ll be trying hard to keep my attitude the same from now on.
Lastly was the Body Positive QUEEN Megan Crabbe (@bodyposipanda on Instagram.) She is the author of Body Positive Power - a book that absolutely pisses all over the diet industry and makes you realise what utter bullshit it all really is. She is funny but deadly serious at the same time. And she has the BEST hair! I was lucky enough to get my book signed by her and she called me flawless! She is only 24 years old and is already changing the way women look at their bodies in such a positive way so she is a huge inspiration to me and to everyone in that room I think it’s fair to say.
At the end, half of the room took to the stage so because I was at the front I ended up at the back and I got a little but claustrophobic! But it was only for a short time until the VIPs were taken into a smaller room for questions, pictures and book signings. All of the speakers were so down to earth and so kind to everyone who asked questions and it was a pleasure to get the chance to speak to them all a bit more. Then we went to get changed and freshened up for the night where all of the VIPS had a 3 course meal and drinks with Mel, Persia and Zoey. It was absolutely surreal getting to talk to Mel but it was amazing to be able to thank her for everything she’s done for me and give her the biggest goddess hug of the day - or seven! I joked that I was like Dopey from Snow White who keeps coming back for more but I just couldn’t help myself! But she couldn’t of been nicer or more genuine if she tried. My night was truly made though when another Goddess mentioned the caramel sundaes McDonalds used to do with crumbled shortbread on top. I have mentioned these to SO MANY PEOPLE before and NO ONE remembers them! Not even my Mother who used to buy me them! I gave the table a few laughs getting so excited about it. Yes I get excited about food - shock! Seriously though does anyone else remember them?! I honestly thought I’d dreamt them up.
Anyway, I digress. This weekend has truly been amazing and I already can’t wait for next year. I will be blogging a lot more now and will be sharing more things I learnt from the weekend in future blogs. If you’ve got any questions about self-love please feel free to message me or seek out any of the amazing women I’ve talked about in this blog. They were all so different and unique but their message is so clear - Love yourself and be yourself! So go out and be more you!!!
LOTS OF LOVE, LAURA x