Champneys Pamper Break 2014

Dates: 8th – 10th October

1, 2 or 3 Night Break with HD

One Pamper Night

2pm arrival

One nights accommodation in twin standard room (£25 single supplement)

All meals

Choice of 2 treatments from the following;

25 minute Champneys massage, 25 minute Champneys facial, aromatherapy body wrap or scalp massage

Departure at 4pm

£150 per person

(£25 Saturday night supplement)

Two Night Blissful Break

Two nights accommodation in standard twin room (£25 per night single supplement)

Use of all facilities

All meals

4pm departure

(Rooms must be vacated by 11am but you still have lunch and use of the facilities)

Option 1:

2pm Arrival

25 minute Champneys Massage

25 minute Champneys Facial

Thalassotherapy session

£275 per person

Option 2:

11am Arrival

25 minute Champneys Massage OR 25 minute Champneys Facial

Thalassotherapy session

£275 per person

Option 3:

11am Arrival

25 minute Champneys Massage

25 minute Champneys Facial

Thalassotherapy session

£299.95 per person

Three Night Relaxation Retreat

Package TBC

To Book

Call Marion Tracey at Champneys Henlow on 01462 818 235 or Central Reservations 0843 316 2222 quoting the booking reference ‘Holistic Directory’

Deposit of £50 required at time of booking, balance due min 7 days before stay.

Prices are per person, based on 2 people sharing a room.

Single supplement is available.

About Champneys

Henlow has been a refuge for centuries.

Once a Cistercian monastery stood here. Now, Henlow Grange is the ideal country escape and pampering health retreat in Bedfordshire, for those seeking the true luxuries of space and peace.

Set in 150 acres of beautiful parkland, the spectacular weir the monks built still stands on the river that flows past. The sound of water has always aided contemplation…

The resort spa is built around an opulent Georgian manor, with hand-painted walls and Venetian-style mirrors.

You’ll experience the finest Champneys traditions of health, fitness and wellbeing, as well as the latest spa facilities, including the state of the art Thalassotherapy pool.

There are more than 80 luxury therapies, from the traditional to the exotic, including Champneys Henlow’s signature treatments: Paraffin Wax Bath, Physiotherm, Hypnotherapy and Chinese body therapy.

Whether you need pampering, detox, relaxation, activity, spiritual escape, extreme sport, indulgence or boot camp, at Henlow spa hotel you can refresh yourself in your own way.

Find out more here: http://www.champneys.com/spa-resorts/champneys-henlow/

What to Expect

There will be a group of us at Champneys during your stay and you will have the opportunity to connect with us during your free time (when you’re not being pampered or sleeping) and also join us at meals, if you wish to.

We spend the majority of our time in dressing gowns and only dress for fitness/relaxation classes and evening meals. We would recommend that you bring comfortable sports clothes in case you want to join a yoga, pilates or sports/fitness class or hit the gym. There are beautiful grounds to explore too, so suitable footwear might be a good idea, although most times your sports kit can be used for both.

Evenings we do tend to dress up a little, nothing too glamourous but it’s nice to make a small effort for this. Slippers are usually supplied but if you have a pair of slip on shoes you’d prefer then bring them along with you. Dressing gowns are supplied Medium as standard (which will fit up to a size 16 approx), if you wish for a smaller or larger size then just let them know when you book, or on arrival.

The food is wonderful and, whatever your diet, you will be spoilt for choice when it comes to meal times and if you fancy a tipple in the evening you can enjoy wine, bubbly or whatever you fancy off the menu. There are also two bar areas where you can top up with drinks and snacks throughout the day.

Any other questions, please feel free to ask: support@theholisticdirectory.co.uk

 

Mind Body and Spirit Show May 24th 2013

Well this was a first time visit to the Mind, Body, Spirit London Festival, for Ruby and I, and it didn’t disappoint. We arrived and zipped up the escalator to find yurts to our left and right. The left one a ‘Mantra Lounge‘; a space to enjoy sound healing and meditation sessions throughout the day. The right, a ‘Love Dome‘; an area to ‘Take a health check on your relationships, delve into your feelings and just let go in an environment of openness, exploration, compassion and calm’. To the right of the Love Dome was a wishing tree, I love those things. write your wish on a red card and tie it to the tree. You can’t help but feel happy when you see the branches covered in all those lovely good wishes and positive vibes.

Straight ahead was the welcome desk to book into events and workshops and of course pick up a goody bag. We ditched our bags and coats and wandered into the main Exhibitor Marketplace, a plethora of holistic wondrousness with products, services and therapies to delight all tastes. Also in this space is the free stage, where you can watch a variety of acts, speakers etc throughout the day, and even join in with many, the Wellbeing studio, a place to try out yoga, dance, meditation and more. There’s also the Pop Up Temple, non-stop free mantra, meditation, kirtan, bhajans, traditional pooja demos, micro talks and more and the Chill Out Zone – a fab, uncovered geometric dome in the centre of the room with pillows and seating for some ‘chilling out’ during your visit. We also discovered a lovely meditation stand, The Meditator, where we spent 20 mins or so just relaxing at at the end of the day.

Now food is always pretty high on my agenda when attending events and normally you’re stuck with pretty beige choices. Thankfully the MBS Show provided a couple of cafe style vendors for coffee, sandwiches, salads, cakes etc and we were thrilled to wander into the centre of the Exhibitor Marketplace and stumble across the InSpiral stand, jam packed with an abundance of fabulous raw goodies. Needless to say, as avid raw foody folk ourselves, Ruby and I both enjoyed a wonderful raw cashew cheese tartlet with salad for lunch (see pic) and also bought some super tasty raw cheesecakes to take home (and I can confirm it wasn’t long before they had been devoured!).

So appetites sated we were ready for some more exploration of the festival. We’d already done a round before lunch, said hello to some lovely people (old and new friends) and spotted a few things we would like to learn more about or purchase. So we set off and had a lovely afternoon. We chatted to the Neal’s Yard Remedies Organic team (always enjoy the NYR products), Niki’s Balms (a range of moisturising and healing organic balms) Crystal Cups (a great idea to create womens tops with a special pocket for your crystal). We chatted to The lovely people at The Henna Den (henna candles, silk scarves and other mehndi inspired goodies), of course the guys and girls at Inspiral (a fab raw cafe and venue in Camden) and Conscious Ink (greeting cards and temporary tattoos with positive affirmations and inspiring words). I had a look at the shambala stand who had an amazing shambala healing pyramid to try out (see pic). Ruby bought an astrology report for the year ahead and I had a Jyorei healing taster which was lovely and relaxing (a new one on me – a form of energy healing). We spoke to lots of other great businesses and lovely people throughout the day too, made some more lovely purchases and enjoyed some of the performances on the free stage including; Carolyn Cowen, Jonny Cope, Cate Mackenzie, Ranchor Prime, Chloe Goodchild and we heard many other great things as we explored away from the stage.

We hadn’t booked into any of the workshops as time was on short supply, though I have no doubt that with the high calibre of speakers, some I’ve had the pleasure of seeing at other events, all of them were wonderful and offered great value and learning to those attending. Had we been at the festival for more than one day we would have certainly booked in to enjoy a handful of workshops too. Also visiting a second time we’d also know better how to fit the rest of the day around one or two workshops.

Our verdict:

It was a lovely event with a nice vibe about it and we will be attending again and would heartily recommend it to you, whether you’ve fallen right down the holistic rabbit hole or you’re just considering dipping your toe in the water. There was such a variety of businesses there that you would be hard pressed not to find something that interests you, whether it be for personal development or care or as a consideration for expanding your business offerings. Definitely pop it in your diary for 2014, you’ll be pleased you did.

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Top Tip – If you’re traveling then consider bringing a larger bag that you can put in the bag store – you can pop your coat and other things in there, leaving you with a lighter load for enjoying the day. You can of course also make purchases and pop them in the bag during the day to save you carrying hints round with you.

Find out more:

Facebook: www.facebook.com/mindbodyspiritfestival
Website: www.mindbodyspirit.co.uk

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Author: Sophie Jewry, The Holistic Directory
www.theholisticdirectory.co.uk

10 Branding Tips for Holistic Businesses

1. Fonts

When looking at your own business branding keep it simple – choose 2 or 3 fonts that compliment each other and stick with them for everything that you do in your business: stationery, adverts, emails, letters, posters, website etc.

By using only these fonts and always using them in the same way (ie. one for titles/headings, one for body copy (main text) and another for other things like big bold titles or quotes) you will begin to see a uniformity appearing that will help customers identify your business quickly and a brand will start to magically appear.

2. Colours and Formatting

Similar to the fonts, it’s best to stick to a set format for your promotional materials. Choose a few colours that you feel suit your business and that complement each other. Use these for your fonts, backgrounds and accents. If you use a designer then they will usually do this by default so you can follow their suggestions. Another good tip is to use different colours for different parts of your business so they are easily recognisable within your framework.

Once you have a set of guidelines for your colours, fonts, layouts, structure etc then you have what are called ‘branding guidelines’. When you utilise these in all your promotional materials then you will give your business a much more professional appearance.

3. Tag Line

It is well worth your time to create a ‘tag line’ or ‘strap line’ – a short, sweet, memorable phrase that is a strong identifier for your business. Think ‘Just do it!’ and ‘Every little helps’ and a mass number of other similar phrases.

By using your logo and a tag line on all your promotional materials you are increasing the likeliness of being remembered. The catchier and more unique the tag line the better. What you will find, much like the above examples, is that your business will be remembered and talked about due to it’s catchy tag line – and being remembered by your current and potential customers is what it’s all about.

4. Identity

When building a brand you really need to know the identity of the business. Who the business really ‘is’, what are it’s goals, principles, values, beliefs and how would you like your business to be remembered after it has been experienced – whether that experience be a meeting, an advert or a purchase?

By having a strong identity you will be able to create specific targets and have far more effective marketing and customer service strategies.

5. Testimonials

If you have happy customers then ask them for a testimonial. Customers old and new enjoy seeing that others think highly enough about your service to put their name to a testimonial for you.

By building a series of testimonials for both your products and services you have another effective tool to use for marketing your business.

6. Expertise

By demonstrating that you are an expert in your field you build trust with your audience and trust is a hugely important commodity that cannot be bought.

Get actively involved on forums and post interesting and informative articles/information on your website, blog and/or social media accounts. When people see first hand that your business has expertise in an area then they will think of you when a situation presents itself and will also feel confident in recommending you to others.

7. Networking

Branding is still relevant when you’re face-to-face networking. They say ‘people buy people’ and this certainly seems to be the case when you compare businesses that actively network, both in person and online, and those that don’t.

Remember to keep focus of your identity and your promotional strategy when networking and utilise your time to promote the benefits of your business, rather than selling your product or service. By building and nurturing relationships with business colleagues you are investing in a powerful referral tool. When you utilise this to its full potential the rewards can be quite remarkable.

Do your research and find groups and events that are most relevant and will hold the greatest benefit to your business and then get active with them and start growing your referral network. When used with the correct strategy and motives (i.e. farming not fishing) networking can be one of the most powerful tools in your marketing tool box.

8. Review and Plan

Life is always changing and branding is no different. By reviewing your branding regularly you can keep track of how your business is being seen, monitor its effectiveness and then make tweaks or changes when necessary.

By planning for the future you can also set budgets and develop a strategy that will make life much easier when considering where and how to promote your business with literature, adverts, e-shots and social media campaigns.

9. Consistency

Be sure to consider how your brand will appear in a variety of media, for example; newspapers, web, social media, magazines, websites, radio etc. Be consistent with your message, your formatting and logo.

This is how you build a brand. It is many small things tied together by their uniformity and used in a consistent manner that gives your business a professional edge and one that is easily recognisable.

10. Know when to use a professional

It’s tempting to go totally DIY with branding and there are certainly times when this approach can be effective, however there are a few things that are worth investing in:

A logo – by employing a designer to produce a strong logo you can then use this on all your literature and tie it all together your styling guidelines.

Photography – this does depend on the business but it is usually very handy to have at least one set of personalised images that you can use to promote your business. Especially handy for printed publications and websites. It’s also useful to have a professional image of the staff for use on a variety of media incl articles, email signatures, websites etc.

Copywriting – it’s so easy to think that we are the only ones that can write about our business because no one knows it as well as we do. But there are many different copywriters out there that you can work with to create some professional copy for use in your promotional materials. For example, investing in a 100-200 word descriptive piece of text that is well written can be hugely useful and used in online directories, advertorials and many other places. Well worth investigating.

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Author: Sophie Jewry
Graphic Designer | Entrepreneur | Business Coach
http://www.theholisticdirectory.co.uk
More free business and marketing tips at www.sophiejewry.com