2019 was a hugely eventful year for Anala. Many different facets of the business grew and brought me closer to my long held desire to teach more people about Ayurvedic Medicine. Additionally, I now incorporate everything I love into my work life. These things, in no particular order are:

Ayurveda and holistic health (obviously)

Cooking wholesome food and feeding others

Writing

Speaking to groups about the holistic health of society and individuals

Giving my time and skills to charitable events

Creating and blending beautifully scented, and hugely therapeutic body oils

Sharing photographic moments of things that make me smile, and bring me joy, both on my site, and on instagram

Ayurvedic Medicine

I can honestly say that when I first started my Ayurvedic Practice, hardly anyone knew what Ayurvedic medicine was. Therefore, I felt frustrated and disappointed that clients weren’t queuing up for consultations. I also naively thought everyone would instantly be as amazed and in awe as I am, of this beautiful science and philosophy that allows us to live in holistic health. However, over time, Ayurveda has become more popular, as people begin to understand that true health is a synergy of mind, body and spirit.

Self Belief

Despite my frustrations, I never felt a lack of confidence about the way I was trying to grow my business. Furthermore, my gut told me my hard work and belief in Ayurveda for modern society would eventually lead to more. So I gave, and continue to give the best advice possible to clients. I continued to bore people about the powerful benefits of this ancient science of life. As a result, the feedback I began to get was amazing to hear, and I was often being told I had totally changed my clients’ lives. And so I simply carried on doing what I loved, as well as writing my musings to further deliver my message.

Years later, it feels I am getting there. I have a regular stream of clients coming to see me in order to help them to heal from both physical and emotional imbalances. My writing, both for publications and on my website about everything related to health and wellbeing, makes me happy. The seasonal Ayurvedic supper clubs and short talks are such fun. Happily, at the end of 2019, I launched my first own brand products.

Anala 100% Pure flower Ayurvedic Body Oils.

 

Anala Body Oils

I actually first created my body oils prior to setting up my business. However, I felt I needed to wait until I was established as a Practitioner before embarking on the fairly humongous task of launching them. Having been pretty busy over the previous couple of years, I hadn’t quite found the headspace to think in a detailed way about how to put them together. A dear friend who was visiting from Sydney, Australia told me I should now introduce them to the world. She said the world needs more products that instil a sense of purity into our daily rituals. My friend is my ideal client, being fully engaged in natural health and wellbeing, as well as obsessed with beautifully pure body products. I realised this was the sign that it was time to launch!

A little help sure helps

However, I was realistic enough to understand I would need help from a professional who is well versed in branding and marketing for the wellness market. Once I decide to do something, and feel it is absolutely right for me to do so, I waste no time. Within a matter of 3-4 weeks I had found a gorgeous person whom I knew was going to be perfect. I needed someone to also immediately understand my vision, as well as my often exhausting desire for perfection. I found out we had already met a few years ago, so it felt like fate had brought us back together, but that’s another story. Sophie from Season Communications set to work on first cementing the foundations of my Ayurvedic Medicine lifestyle brand, before helping me with developing the brand identity for my packaging, labelling and putting together a national press release. She conducted competitor research and compiled lists of press contacts and stockists.

I knew my images needed to completely reflect my desire for a stunning, yet pure aesthetic. They had to showcase the beauty of the ingredients, as well as the ancient Ayurvedic ritual element. The art of anointing with pure flower oils had to be transported from a bygone era in India, and into a modern setting.

 

Photographic perfection

The person I absolutely felt sure could deliver this is another wonderful human being. Deborah, whose photography I absolutely fell in love with when I first met her (and there are more coincidences here too) kindly agreed to work with me to capture the images of my oils. I am forever grateful to her, particularly because she had so much going on in her life at the time. She was literally about to exchange on the sale of her house and move to another part of the country when we did the shoot, so she could so easily have said no!

 

We had a wonderful day’s photoshoot, and I was simply over the moon with the final images. I cannot thank both Sophie, of Season Communications, and Deborah Wastie, of Alchemy of Ordinary Things enough. They will forever be a huge part of my journey, and I know I have made a lifelong connection with them.

And so onwards and forwards; I will be doing more of what I love to do in 2020. I will help people to become the best version of themselves through Ayurvedic Medicine. They will thus be ready to live the life they want to live. I will work hard to always be in my truth, and will trust that the universe will recognise this as my path. I know that this way is my only way, and will bring what is meant for me.

That’s all we can strive for. The rest just happens.