Boost your vitality and look great

It’s hard to look good when you are feeling worn-out. Our skin is a mirror – what we look like on the outside reflects what’s going on inside. Bernadette Fallon investigates a new therapy that promises to help regain vitality

Would I like to regain lost enthusiasm, boost my well-being and bring balance to my life? Suppose so, I sighed, if only I could find the energy. Filling my life with ‘vitality’ is occasionally something I fantasise about for five minutes on a Monday morning, before I get out of bed and the reality of life hits. So the new ‘Vitality MOT’, just launched at Neal’s Yard Remedies nationwide, certainly got my attention.

 

Before attending the session with a therapist and having my bespoke Personal Vitality Programme drawn up, I answered an online questionnaire to find out my ‘plant type’. Drawing on the learning of traditional medicine and modern science which uses ‘typing’ as a way to develop greater depth and understanding of individuals, the people at Neal's Yard have used plants as the basis for their vitality typing – which makes perfect sense as plants are at the heart of everything they do.

 

What plant type are you? 

 

There are four plant types – and though you may have elements of each, one will strongly define you. So would I be a ...

Flower – joyful, passionate, sociable and expressive
Shoot – energetic, outgoing, confident and determined
Seed – patient, nurturing, caring and understanding
Root – tenacious, sensitive, imaginative and contemplative

 

A flower, surely I would be a flower? But no, I turned to be a shoot. ‘I’m a shoot’, I told the lovely therapist who did my hour-long consultation. ‘Everybody wants to be a flower,’ she revealed with a smile.

 

There is something very indulgent about taking an hour out of your day to talk purely and exclusively about yourself. She asks about my lifestyle and makes suggestions about what I can do to make my life better, easier, more productive, more energised. We talk about nutrition, about lifestyle, about daily routine – I find it very enlightening and, in fact, rather uplifting.

 

Advice and recommendations 

 

It’s not all rocket science of course. I mean I know I should do certain things - like leave the office to eat lunch rather than sit at my desk and cram down a sandwich, turn off the TV half an hour before I go to sleep and read to relax, move my computer out of the bedroom and avoid sleeping in an electrical field – but it’s often good to have things spelled out. And you know what? I do make an effort and actually do them - just because somebody else told me to!

 

She also prescribes a mix of herbs to take in water every morning, a herb tea full of dried flowers, a flower remedy, and I get my very own shower gel blended for me – full of lovely sounding things like melissa, bergamot, lavender and geranium. I’m given recipes to try out that are specially created for my vitality type, and also a booklet called ‘Understanding Vitality’. I book an aromatherapy massage for the following week. And I’m also given the advice to take my shoes off and walk on grass whenever I can. How odd I think.

 

Information and booking 

 

The Vitality MOT costs between £35 and £50 for the hour-long consultation and between £18 and £25 for a half hour follow up consultation at the end of the four-week programme. For more information and to fill out a questionnaire visit the website at www.nealsyardremedies.com.

 

There is also ‘Vitality in a Box’ – again using the four plant types to custom-make its vitality solutions. Each box contains a bath oil of pure essential oils, a herbal tea, a Flower Essence Blend and a Remedy to Roll. The boxes cost £25 each and are available to buy in store or online – the perfect solution if you’re not close to a store for a Vitality MOT.

 

The verdict 

 

And so a few weeks later, what’s been the reaction? Well the computer is gone from the bedroom and I’m sleeping well, there is a lovely relaxed period before bedtime with TV off, I’m loving the tea and the Flower Remedy, and it feels like such a treat to shower with a product that is made exclusively for me. But the best bit? The walking in grass in bare feet!

 

Visit www.nealsyardremedies.com to book your Vitality MOT or buy ‘Vitality in a Box’