At the end of last month Emma, Cathy & I ran our first relax and restore retreat. We were delighted with how well it was received by all the lovely people who joined us.

I had a good feeling when the girls told me some of the themes of their sessions ‘the Joy of movement’ and ‘Mindfulness and compassion.’

We all know that the only way we will maintain healthy habits is if they are enjoyable… I feel it is so important to find a form of exercise that we enjoy, to eat a diet that it not just healthy but also tastes great, and to practice mindfulness regularly until we find that we really look forward to it and really enjoy it.  Joy is so important. We only have one life and we owe it to ourselves to schedule in as much joy as we can.

Compassion is also so important. I suspect many of us are better at showing compassion to others than we are to ourselves, yet this is so vital to our wellbeing. We often need to be reminded to be kinder to ourselves but taking time out to look after ourselves makes us better equipped to look after others.

So, I’d like to extend those themes into my next project ‘Harriet’s Healthy Supper Club’. I’m hoping to spread some joy by preparing a healthy tasty three course supper, whilst bringing in some guest speakers who are health & wellbeing experts and feel passionately about the importance of taking care of ourselves….

To me joy is sitting around a table eating and talking with family and friends. Indeed, we have already shared many joyful evenings at Okens kitchen making and sharing food together. but I’m hoping that bringing in an additional element to the evening will add something special. I’m hoping that as well as having fun & going home armed with new healthy recipes and a healthy homemade treat, people will also go home empowered with some simple, practical lifestyle tips.

So, if you’d like to learn how to be kinder to yourself and have some fun doing it, please come and join us at Harriet’s Healthy Supper Club. We will invite experts from a wide range of specialist interests to share their stories and lifestyle tips. I feel passionately that health and wellbeing goes way beyond just eating well (we need to move, relax and sleep well too) so we will bring in experts to help us in all these areas. However, as my background is nutrition this seems the most obvious place to start! I am delighted therefore to welcome local Nutritional therapist, Karen Ward to speak at our very first session. We’d love it if you liked to join us! For more details, please click on the link below.

 Facebook Page for Harriet’s Healthy Supper Club