Jo's Journal – August

What glorious weather July and August brought! It was a proper Summer, wasn't it?

We finished July by taking Mantra to the ‘Self Love Summit’, an inspiring one-day event hosted by wellbeing expert, Mel Wells. Mel’s two Mantra necklace designs, focused on self-belief and the power to create your own reality, proved extremely popular at her event.

Over 400 women attended, and listed to engaging talks from Persia Lawson, Shannon Kaiser, Julie Montagu and Suzy Ashworth, along with Mel herself. It was a day to really celebrate ‘girl power’, in the form of fully accepting and celebrating who you are, and setting a clear vision for what you want your life to be like.

One of my favourite speakers was Shannon Kaiser, whose mantras of ‘All problems are pathways’, ‘We learn the way, on the way’, and ‘You get what you focus on’, really resonated with me.

August then started with us agreeing an exciting collaboration with the truly inspirational, global wellbeing movement, Wanderlust. 

Wanderlust describes its mission as helping you to ‘Find your True North’ — to cultivate becoming, and being, your best self. They create events and experiences to guide us all on the path toward a healthy and inspired life; and believe that a personal practice, whether yoga, meditation, or other mindful and focused activity, is integral to maintaining focus and clarity throughout the journey to True North.

One of their key global events is Wanderlust 108 – described as the world’s only Mindful Triathlon – which brings the community together for a 5k run/walk, a DJ-powered yoga session, and guided meditation – the London one taking place this year in Battersea Park.

We are excited to be taking Mantra to this event, on Saturday 15th September. Our Wanderlust necklace collaboration launches at this event too, in a few weeks’ time. You can read more here.

Also this month, we launched our new birthstone pendants, which can be added to our Star Map and Initial necklaces, to make them even more personal; and we launched the first of our new Bar Bracelets, which have been much requested.

My husband and I headed off for a long weekend in the South of France in the middle of August. I am a huge fan of art, and the chance to visit the Rosaire Chapel in Vence, designed by Matisse, and see some beautiful artworks at the Maeght Foundation, proved irresistible. For me, looking at art uplifts and inspires my soul, and is one thing which I try hard to make time for in my life, however busy I am.

As we get ready for Autumn, our latest fundraising necklace, for ‘Trees for Cities’, is set to launch on the first day of meteorological Autumn - September 1st. And we are excited to have agreed a paper-offsetting scheme with this inspiring charity, to plant replacement trees to match the paper we use in our packaging for Mantra.

This month also saw GCSE and A-level results being published – a tense month for teenagers and their parents. Although I don’t have children, I see from friends the importance of recognising and rewarding the efforts of your children, in spite of their results, rather than because of them.

In the end, the results of these particular exams will, of course, have some impact on the future direction of their lives, but you cannot possibly foresee what that impact will be at this stage. So, it is better to reward the effort made, than the output gained.

We head towards September thinking about new terms, new starts, new adventures. I look forward to talking to you again then.

Jo xx