Mel Wells’ Self Love Summit (aka. A dream day)

Hi! This is a long post for me, you might want to get comfy to read this and make sure you have 10 mins or so.

I am starting this blog with a little spoiler alert. One big thing that changed my life for the better was a book called The Goddess Revolution by Mel Wells. For reasons that I will explain in a future blog, this book resonated with me so much that I joined the Academy.

In my own words, the Academy is a programme that helps women to transform their relationships with themselves and their food. For more information, check out Mel’s website.

When I joined the Academy, I got 2 free tickets to the Self Love Summit and immediately invited my eldest sister to come with me. Partly to show her how I have come so far, partly for her to get some more self-love in her own life and, I am not going to lie, partly for comfort.

During the Academy live round, I joined a WhatsApp group with a bunch of women who I didn’t know so that we could lend support and hopefully make friends. I didn’t expect a lot from it but can honestly say that there has barely been a quiet hour in the group – never mind day! These beautiful, amazing, funny, soulful women very soon learned more about me than I have ever shared and became my tribe so quickly. Of course, we made arrangements to attend the Summit together.

On the weekend of the Summit, I travelled down with two Goddesses from Newcastle who I have met a couple of times before. I had fears that the journey would be awkward but it was so natural to be with them. I met my sister off the coach from Wales at Victoria and we travelled to Greenwich (where our hotel was) and had dinner with a few of the Tribe. Again, so natural, so fun and sooooo not awkward at all.

The next morning, we got up at 6 (bright and early for me on a Saturday) and got ready to go and meet the rest of the tribe (sadly, minus 2 who could not make it) and one of my favourite girls that I’ve known for a few years outside of the Academy (and in the Academy).

We arrived at the Canary Wharf location at around 8:30 and the queue of Goddesses was UNREAL. Massive well done to Sarah Little and the gang for signing us all in on time!

We took our seats, which had a scarily accurate card from Rebecca Campbells new deck on (Some people had Shannon Kaiser’s cards)

Mel arrived in style by doing an amazing dance with Zoe McNulty. Talk about powerful, sexy women!

Mel spoke first and immediately got us thinking about who we are and what we bring to the world. She spoke about how ‘you love yourself’ is said as an insult but shouldn’t be. We should all love ourselves! It’s not self-indulgent, it’s not being a big head. It is necessary.

She got us shouting about who we are. “I am Becky. I am brave. I am energetic. I am funny.” and dancing around the place. She got us giving Goddess hugs.

Goddess Hug. Verb. Like a hug but lasts much longer and the emotions go a lot deeper.

I was buzzing! Almost literally, the energy in the room was so electric that the blood was almost vibrating through my veins. If I could bottle that feeling, I would. And I would release a little of it every day.

Shannon Kaiser was up next. What an incredible woman! She spoke about self-love and gave 5 steps on how to do this. She said a lot of things that resonated with me. Including the following.

“How can you be happy if you don’t love yourself?”

“Be your own best friend”

“You can’t love yourself if you’re not being yourself”

“Don’t waste time with negative thoughts”

She also talked about theme songs and getting one for yourself. Picking one that spurs you on and encourages you to embrace yourself. She then played hers (Rachel Platton – stand by you) which we all sang and danced to. I chose True Colours sang by Kesha as my own.

A group of us got up on stage with Shannon and Mel, where I got to give Shannon a hug and tell her she is amazing. I also got a goddess hug from Mel and was able to thank her in person for the dream day she created and everything she has done for me. And let me tell you, that hug was the ultimate goddess hug. This woman has the ability to look right into someones eyes and make it feel like she can see your soul. The type of person I aspire to be like.

Rebecca Campbell was next on stage. She immediately commented on the energy in the room, which by this point was so powerful that I felt high! She spoke to us about the room being a group soul at that moment in time and I really felt it.

She spoke about constantly growing as souls and about intuition being the voice of the soul.

She told us to “harness the mysterious force of life” and “surrender to the feminine”.

Next, she got a group of us on stage and we did an incredible chant “Heaven. Heart. Earth. Heart.” to the sound of Warrior – Jeremy Wheatly mix by Aurora. It was one of the most mesmerizing experiences that I have ever had.

Before the next introduction, Mel spoke to us more and quoted Tony Robbins “Change happens when the pain of staying the same is greater than the pain of change.”, this stuck with me.

She reminded us to turn our lights back on!

Suzy Ashworth spoke next. My word, what a woman!! I’d not really heard of Suzy before but she was so compelling. She made me laugh until my belly hurt, made me think, put tears in my eyes.

She spoke about love bombing yourself (ie. showering yourself with loving comments toes to head). She gave us the priceless tip of how to escape the tunnel of self-loathing (STOP. BREATHE) and to remember how we want to be in 12 months when we do need to just stop and breathe.

Julie Montagu was after Suzy. She reminded us to take at least 10 minutes out of the day for self care. Some things that I will be doing are; Yoga, Meditation, getting outside, breathing exercises and journalling.

She said “Self care is the foundation of which everything else can be built on”. WOW! It really is that important.

She got me thinking about my importance in the world, again, what I can bring to it.

She reminded us that “We have a 1 in 400 million chance at being born- do something with it.” A piece of advice that I have already shared.

She advised to keep a journal by the bed and to write 3 things that you are grateful for every day.

We then had lunch and got some gorgeous goodies from some stalls that were there. On my way into the ladies, I saw none other than the gorgeous unicorn Megan Jayne Crabbe

Let me tell you, I fan-girled embarrassingly hard. I shouted her full name in her face. She said hello and asked where my “beautiful dress” was from. I said her full name, again. She asked again where the dress was from. I asked for a photo. She obliged and asked again where the dress was from. I finally told her and then let her leave. She must have thought I was insane! Haha.

 

After lunch, we got more acquainted with Zoe McNulty from the School of strut. She was so powerfully sexy. I literally went up to her and told her that she was the sexiest woman I’d ever seen in real life. I’d love to be half as potent.

She got us dancing and owning our own sexualities with it. There were a lot of laughs because she is a funny lady but also because I got way too into the dance and head butted the chair in front. Whoops!!

Then, Persia Lawson came on like an absolute rock star with her bare feet and a Ukele and sang Jason Mraz – I’m Yours with us all. She spoke about relationships, gravitating towards the familiar, even when it is sh*t and being afraid that things might go right.

She told us about how she connected and still connects with the love of her life with music. I was in hysterics by some of the ‘smut’ she came out with, it was so spot on and relatable.

She gave us the tips; sing and dance daily, get your own theme tune and read a sonnet every day.

She spoke to us about Shakespeare being a genius by writing his sonnets in iambic pentameter which is like the sound of a heart beat and read one with us- hands on heart.

She gave us a quote to live by.

“Surrender to the festival of life and let her take you wherever she wants to go.”

She and Mel then sang Let it Be by The Beatles and had us all join in. It was magical.

Between speakers, Mel was giving us talks, getting us dancing and thinking, and leaving us with words of wisdom.

She got us writing lists of gratitude, lists of key takeaways of the day, lists of possibilities and dreams.

Up last was Megan Crabbe (who I have already introduced). She spoke about our bodies knowing what is best for us, the failings of the diet industry and the history of the ‘perfect body’.

She reminded us that hating ourselves is a learned behaviour and “We cannot take on the world when we are hungry.”

In the wrap up, Mel spoke with us about self sabotage and how we do it to keep ourselves safe in our old stories.

She helped us to write our intentions and choose what we wanted to believe about ourselves.

My intention is to continue to write my blog and share my stories and experiences in the hope of inspiring at least one other person to choose to believe that they can love themselves.

I self sabotage because I am afraid to be seen and known as that may make people reject me. But, I choose to believe that I am loveable, no matter what.

Then, we got to all mingle and meet each other and the speakers. And I was lucky enough to, once again, thank Mel in person for the day.

 

After the day was over, a very emotional tribe of goddesses (me and my tribe) made our way to Soho for dinner, cocktails and making memories that are once in a lifetime.

Thank you Mel Wells, Shannon Kaiser, Rebecca Campbell, Suzy Ashworth, Julie Montagu, Zoe McNulty, Persia Lawson, Megan Jayne Crabbe, My Tribe and every other Goddess in that room for the perfect day!