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Boost your vitality

Carmel Thomason
14/ 7/2008

HOW many times have you jetted off on your jollies only to spend half the holidays totally tired out?

After months at work without a week off it's all too easy to suffer from burn-out by the time you get your break.

Which is why, with adrenaline levels and energy low, so many of us fall ill while away.

However, there are a few simple changes you can make to boost your wellbeing ahead of the hols - or even if you just want to put that summer spring back in your step in general.

Over at Neal's Yard, on John Dalton Street, they've put together a summer MOT designed to warm up your mood, whatever the weather is doing.

Maintaining balance

As Neal's Yard therapist, Blossom Higgins explains, a few simple changes can quickly inject that elusive vitality back in our lives.

"All too often vitality can feel like something other people enjoy which can sometimes be sadly lacking in our own lives," she says. "Feeling burnt out or flooded with inertia, unwilling to engage with the world or just plain exhausted are feelings that most of us experience from time to time.

"Listening to what your body is telling you, how it reacts to the world and the choices we make, is essential for maintaining balance and vitality.

"It is easy to ignore the signs but not so easy to know what to do about it, which is why we have put together a Vitality MOT to help people find out simple ways to regain lost enthusiasm, boost well-being and bring balance to their life."

The Vitality MOT works from a system of "typing", placing people into groups using a similar principle to that which has been used in traditional Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine for hundreds of years. Neal's Yard Remedies has developed four Plant Vitality Types:

Flowers: joyful, passionate, sociable and expressive

Shoots: energetic, outgoing, confident and determined

Seeds: patient, nurturing, caring and understanding

Roots: tenacious, sensitive, imaginative and contemplative

These categories are then used to help assess and understand what type of person you are, how you react to different situations and what steps you can take to help you become healthier.

The inspiration was taken from the plant as a whole, because one cannot exist without the others and no one is better than another. Indeed, as with all broad-brush typing, people are a blend of all four types and will exhibit different characteristics at different times in their lives. However, there will always be one dominant personality type in everyone and Blossom believes being aware of yours can help you achieve the necessary balance in your life for optimum vitality and health.

"It's a way in to find out what lifestyle tips, remedies, foods and therapies will work best for you," she says.

"For many people the number of different therapies on offer can be confusing. The Vitality MOT offers an introduction to what might best benefit them, using the plant typing as a general way in to what may help and then a more in-depth chat to personalise it.

"By assessing your type you can find out how you interact with the world around you, plus how your personality changes when you are full of energy or under pressure and stressed.

Small changes

"Lots of people have never actually sat down with someone and talked about how they are feeling for an hour. Sometimes by doing that it becomes easier to see where you can make some small changes which will make a big difference in your energy levels."

The therapy starts by finding out which Plant Vitality Type you are by using a questionnaire, which you can also take for free online, and having a one-to-one discussion on your current energy levels and lifestyle. From this a personal vitality programme will be drawn up offering advice on health and lifestyle, diet and exercise, supplements and treatments to boost your energy levels.

The session will also include a short taster of either reflexology or massage, depending on which the therapist thinks will be most beneficial for you.

The Vitality MOT costs between £35-£50 for an hour-long consultation and between £18 and £25 for a half hour follow-up consultation at the end of the four weeks. You can also buy a Vitality box of products designed for your plant type, aimed at introducing you to a range of gentle therapies such as herbalism and aromatherapy. The boxes cost £25 and are available in store or online.

You can try a free computerised vitality quiz in store at Neal's Yard on Wednesday (July 16).

For details call 0161 835 1713 or visit vitality.nealsyardremedies.com.