Fashion Week is essentially ego central. Here are 13 ways to channel your inner Unicorn, and transcend the tantrums and the auric trauma…Words and illustrations: Erin Petson
Meditate in the toilets, while the other bloggers and writers star gaze for the nearest wifi, plug socket or mobile phone signal. A moment of solace.
Channel your inner guru when you actually should be taking notes or making scathingly hilarious remarks about the lack of celebs on the front row with some secret speed journaling.
Guzzle vast amounts of the highest vibrational green juice you can get your hands on. When it’s being given out for free at the showcases, 10 bottles in your handbag is, like, totally fine.
Take time to ground yourself with your standing only ticket. You’ve got plenty of time before the show starts to grow those roots.
Snort the must potent hormonal balancing essential oil you can find whenever possible. With oestrogen bombs exploding all around, it’s time to take cover.
Practise the art of being a lighthouse, we don’t want any shipwrecks.
Step out for a quick ‘smoke’ between shows – my preference is sage, and never at a bus stop.
Practice looking fabulously nonchalant while secretly watching Doreen Virtue on youtube (and naughtily using up that precious phone juice).
Actual tree hugging is obviously a big no-no. However, gravitating towards the nearest potted plant for a wee pet, totally fine.
Drape yourself with as many crystals as humanly and stylishly possible.
Dress witchy enough to get a good 6ft auric field clearance.
Make vast amounts of protein rich chia seed pudding and keep it in a coffee cup, as not to draw to attention to your secret attempt at at super-food stop-gap.
…And when your five days on the tundra are up, gong it all out with the mother of all sound baths.
How will you keep your aura clean and serene during London Fashion Week? Share your tips with us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook!
Her juices have a cult following on the West Coast…and she’s basically a total babe. This week’s Material Girl is Moon Juice founder Amanda Chantal Bacon, here’s a peek into her Mystical and super stylish World…
Amanda Chantal Bacon shot by Tasya van Ree
What was your entry point into healthy food and juicing? Healthy and body specific eating began around age five with a divine intervention by an ayruvedic doctor. The gateway to serious juice drinking was an apple lemon ginger green juice.
What’s been the most transformational part of your own foodie journey to date? It really dates back to that doctor, who pulled me aside and had me stop eating sugar, wheat and cow’s milk when I was five years old. It turned out to be life defining. This has all been enhanced by working as a fine dining chef, traveling the world’s farmers markets, and experiencing peasant traditions.
How does this tie into your path as a spiritual being? My meditative practice and life experiences are directly affected by the foods I eat. When I’m juicing and eating light sattvic foods, I can tune in and slip out to other dimensions within seconds. I don’t drink any more for this reason, but even eating heavier, cooked foods and meat just adds some time and pranic work to getting the cosmic high. I would have to say that there was a real shift in my spiritual perception when I made a deep commitment to clean eating and drinking.
What’s in your fantasy juice? Love this question…It would be white peaches pressed into fig leaves drunk on a dock in the summertime on Lake Como.
Amber Locke, a.k.a. @rawveganblonde has gained a cut following for her beautiful and unique farmers’ market art. We meet the woman behind the phenomenon, and ask her…what vegetable would you be?
The artist at work…
How long have you been a Raw Vegan Blonde, and what drew you to the lifestyle? I’ve always been blonde, but only discovered the concept of raw food about 18 months ago! I first read about it on the blog of Ralph Lauren model Valentina Zelyaeva and decided to try it out as an experiment, but I was so blown away with how amazing it made me feel after just a few days, I carried on.
Eating raw gives me incredible energy, improved mental clarity and a general feeling of calmness, harmony and well-being. I’ve become far more in tune with my body and very aware of how what I eat can dramatically affect how I feel both emotionally and physically.
What makes you so passionate about vegetables? For me it’s the fact that fruit and veg not only taste amazing, they’re visually fascinating and have the power to nourish and heal our bodies too. They really are super foods.
And why do you think they’re so beautiful to you? I love the beauty of natural elements, and I’m constantly amazed and delighted by their different shapes, colours, textures, and character. So my designs aim to showcase their unique qualities and reflect the changing seasons of the year, as well as being a celebration of living a healthy lifestyle.
If you were a fruit or a vegetable, which would you be and why? I think I’d probably be a candy beetroot. They look pretty much like a normal beetroot on the outside, but when you slice them, they reveal their amazing pink and white striped flesh and it never ceases to make me smile.
What’s the most out there plant-based experience you’ve had to date? I’m not sure I’ve had an ‘out there’ experience…but I always get a sense of something greater at work when I’m composing my designs. I sometimes stand back and wonder how I did it.
:: M A T E R I A L G I R L ::
My label I love Hermes and although I only own a few pieces (mainly leather goods and scarves) they all have special memories and are so exquisitely made they will last a lifetime.
My shoes I’m addicted to Belstaff boots as they’re so comfy, look great and fit my narrow shins well! I have several pairs and wear them almost all year round.
My fragrance I’ve worn ‘Un Jardin Sur Le Nil’ by Hermes for years. I think the top notes are green mango but I love it as the smell reminds me of tomato leaves which are one on my favourite fragrances along with orange blossom. I’m still pursuing my quest to find the perfect orange blossom perfume and the closest I’ve come across so far is by Jo Malone and I wear this sometimes in the Summer.
My jewels I don’t wear much jewellery apart from my boyfriend’s old Breitling watch which I love as it’s so big and chunky on my wrist, and an antique silver fob chain given to me by my Mother which I wear as a charm bracelet.
My pampering A trip to the hairdressers! I recently took the plunge and had 10” chopped off by the brilliant team at Richard Ward Salon in London, their colourist David Viner is a legend too!
My home I live in a quirky house in a small countryside village. Its part Tudor, part Georgian, part Victorian and part Medieval so it’s a real mix of architectural styles.
My food I love to eat a mainly raw diet so my kitchen is always full of fresh fruit and vegetables and I eat this way at least 90% of the week. I love green smoothies, as well as my beloved high-speed ‘Blendtec’ blender makes them super smooth, rich and creamy.
My awakening I have a very simple morning ritual; I drink a large glass of water (warm water and lemon if I have time) then take a walk with my dog before making a big green juice for my boyfriend and I. We’re really into stronger flavoured spicy juices now the weather has turned colder so I use a lot of ginger, lemongrass, whole lemons and sometimes a bit of green chilli for an extra kick.
My sign I’m a Capricorn
My mantra I don’t really have a mantra as such but I love the line in the Baz Luhrmann song ‘Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen)’ which goes: ‘Enjoy your body… it’s the greatest instrument you’ll ever own’. I think so many people live unhappily with their body but if you can learn to love it and feed, nourish and exercise it properly the rewards of such team work can be incredible.
My healer I think a balanced diet of fresh, natural food can be a great healer – physically, medicinally and emotionally.
My reading I’m fascinated by food so for me it’s any book related to the subject (I have hundreds!) and I really love searching out vintage cookbooks and out of print titles.
My transformation Trying out a raw food diet was a big transformation for me as I had no idea eating this way had the ability to make you feel so good. I think it should be renamed the ‘Happiness Diet’ as it’s almost like nature’s happy pill.
My mission I love to share my passion for fruit and vegetables (through my designs and recipes) and if that encourages or inspires others to eat more of them then that makes me very happy!
When Alexandra Roxo decided to embark on a hardcore nine-day Ayurvedic cleanse, she had no idea her girlfriend would decide to come along for the ride. Cue tears, tantrums and an ocean of emotion.
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I was a bit nervous about telling my partner about the detox. We’d only been together five months, after meeting at a karaoke bar in Koreatown where I was instantly drawn to her off key rendition of “Stand By Your Man.” Since then, we’d been falling in love over wine, croissants, late night snacks, drunken dancing…you know, the general dietary rule breaking that happens when you’re in a state of hormone induced euphoria. So deciding to put the brakes on the fun, so to speak, was a bold move. Especially seeing as we were moving in together a week later.
But I’ve always been one to take risks and do things in extremes, so I went with it. To my surprise, my girlfriend’s response was “I want to do it too.” This caught me very off guard because a) she’s more religious about her nightly cigarettes and wine and her morning coffee than her Jewish heritage, and b) I had been planning spending the week wearing mumus and listening to Enya while journaling, and never imagined doing it in front of my lover. Not to mention the idea of us both of being hungry/grumpy/gassy at the same time! Ew. I was hoping she’d be bringing me tea and holding down the emotional fort while I was the one being “transformed.”
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Okay, so what’s the big deal about a silly cleanse? Well THIS cleanse ain’t for the faint of heart. It’s a full on Ayurvedic experience, which includes rising with the sun, doing daily yoga, meditation and dream journaling, eating only two handful sized portions of vegan food at meal time, drinking your weight in greens, doing a three day juice fast, skin brushing, self oil massage, garlic liver flushes, kidney flushes, oil pulling, salt water colon cocktails. It’s basically its a full time job. But I did it last year and emerged glowing like a baby’s bum and happier than I’d felt in ages, so after this #$%^ing winter it was the medicine I needed. Plus with all the falling in love stuff (loads of white bread, recreational drugs…) I felt like I was in need of a full-on detox to get back on track.
What I wasn’t expecting was the emotional upheaval that occurred. Geez, not only had I stored up a few extra pounds this winter but also like, A LOT, of emotions. Four of my close friends also decided to do the cleanse and we were group texting about it all week. The word “meltdown” came up almost daily. Why were we all crying so much? Were we pms-ing? Nope. Were bad things happening? Not really, except not being able to eat. Shit just comes to the surface when you’re doing a detox, which I guess is why some people opt to take off work or go to a spa to do it. But alas, I’m not Lilo, so the closest I came was steaming up the bathroom and chilling in some epsom salts.
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And of course, the meltdowns melted into my relationship. It began with me announcing I needed to be alone for the week and storming off in tears, and soon I was dividing the green powder and groceries in two as if I was the star in a reality show about cleansing. I also cried pretty much every day as I released fears about all the attempted relationships gone awry in the past year. And I’ve already gone to therapy and done a peyote ceremony to try and work through that shit.
But those past heartbreaks and insecurities came rushing to the surface with a vengeance with every organ flush I did. And all of a sudden my girlfriend was angry at me! I’d “taken away” her freedom and her ability to be herself (i.e. eat when she wanted to). She grew resentful of me as I asked her; “Did you read the cleanse booklet?” and reminded her “wait, you can’t drink out of the faucet!” As she was too embarrassed to admit she was having these feelings, she just got really cold and distant until I broke down and cried into my turmeric stained hands. (As an aside: she said she didn’t cry at all, but later admitted to sobbing while watching a film about low income housing in Israel. I mean…) It’s an emotional thing, this cleansing.
Very dark green juice
In the dark alone time while staring at my garlic olive oil slurpee, I found myself challenging and questioning everything about the relationship. Everything. No stone remained unturned. The cleanse had forced me to get REALLY real with myself, and now there was no turning back and nothing to hide behind. No robust red wines, no morning coffee in bed, no trips to the bakery on the corner holding hands like we were in some 1990’s rom com. No spontaneous nights getting stoned and laughing ‘til you pee your pants and pass out holding a bag of Doritos. None of that!
You’re just raw. Real. Without frill. Looking tired, feeling grumpy, stinking of garlic and coconut oil. And actually, an honest look at yourselves as individuals and as a couple is pretty much the best gift you can give your relationship. Detoxing together as a couple is hard, but worth it. You don’t have to cleanse your colons together or scrape each other’s tongues, but making a goal and seeing each other for who you are without all the other stuff is a risk that – hopefully – will only deepen your bond.
Here are some tips for doing a detox for couples and not fucking up your relationship:
If you’re fully addicted, the first few days without coffee are bad. You may get evil, so maybe take this time alone to yourself and try to start on a weekend when you can scream underwater or hide in a closet.
Do not micromanage your partner. If you know more about cleansing than them etc, it’s easy to say things like, “wait that apple’s not organic!” before snatching it out of their hand and throwing it across the room. Just don’t.
Be gentle on yourself. Be gentle on each other. Ride the emotional ups and downs like a pro surfer and don’t do anything rash. Just breathe and imagine yourself in that exotic spa, staring at an extremely overpriced juice while gazing at a partial ocean view.
Resist the urge to send a photo text asking “does your poop look this green?” Just ask Google instead, please.
Alexandra Roxo is a Brooklyn-based filmmaker. She and her business partner Natalia Leite have a company called Purple Milk that makes all kinds of fun stuff. See more here: Drinkpurplemilk.com
Their new web series Be Here Now-ish, which chronicles the spiritual pilgrimage of two girls’ from NY to LA , will be premiering April 10 on Beherenowish.com
Beyond green juice for fashion’s sake, transcendental fasting could take your detox to the next level, says Ruby Warrington. All images Karolina Daria Flora.
In the late summer of 2013, yogi, healer and spirit and lifestyle coach Raquel Griffin designed for herself the ultimate spiritual detox. Negotiating changes in various areas of her life, she found she’d hit a roadblock in her personal development, and so she embarked on a week-long juice fast.
But she didn’t stop there, also incorporating transformative daily mind practice and physical activity, a self-help blast, a daily ‘conversation’ with the Universe (putting all the big questions out there), and what she calls a ‘negativity diet’ (“avoid negative people like the plague, skip the trash talking at the water cooler and leave the rag mags at the checkout”).
“7 Days to Transformation (7DT) was a seven day mind, body, spirit boot camp that I created to generate massive shifts in my life…And boy did it ever!!! Kind of like a giant cosmic reset button the MASSIVE shifts I’ve experienced on 7DT are nothing less than ASTOUNDING,” she wrote on her site Granola Glamour at the end of the week. More than your average detoxer’s high, “I’m talking SEISMIC changes in the landscape here, people…and this coming from someone who’s meditated with the best of ’em and gone on MANY M-A-N-Y a mystic/yoga/health/wellness retreat….”
As Vanessa Grigoriadis noted in an in-depth report on juice fasting for New York magazine later last year, “you will, perhaps, meander down the road to transcendence. When you see people at the end of a long juice fast, they reach a special kind of accommodation with their bodies. It’s out of this world.” And beyond a desire to lose weight, experience increased energy or align yourself with the funky philosophy at Juice Press, 2014 is about fasting for a spiritual experience.
But taking your fast to the next level isn’t just a case of drinking greener juices for longer. “People are juice fasting every day of the week in America and not everyone is having a ‘spiritual’ experience,” says Griffin. “Heck, I’ve been fasting for seven years and it was only until I added intention, energy work, meditation and a serious negativity diet that I had these amazing results. Fasting opens you up but it’s what you do with that opening that really makes the difference.”
She has since been coaching clients through the same process she went through, with similarly enlightening results. “By cleansing my body and releasing anything negative, I was able to consciously choose what I put back in,” says Jillian Villafane, who embarked on 7DT at the beginning of January. “Fasting with conscious intent allowed me to change and transform without limitations, which resulted in a deeper connection to my true self. As a result I have a clarity and awareness that I don’t remember having since I was a very small child.”
But transcendental fasting does still begin with the physical – specifically with decalcifying the pineal gland, or third eye. “Our ability to connect to higher frequencies is related to the openness of our pineal gland – and it’s when we clean it out that it starts to awaken,” says Griffin, who also points out that it was only last year that scientists reported finding DMT – the consciousness expanding psychoactive molecule in ayahuasca – in the pineal gland of rodents.
Drain your body of toxic mucus the theory goes (or “mucoid plaque” if you want the technical term) and you drain your third eye – which exists in the sinus cavity. From there on in; “you begin to tune in to the fact that miracles are happening all the time. That’s what blew me away – it’s like a constant conversation with the Universe! It’s answering all your questions – mundane things like ‘what shall I have for breakfast, should I sign into this business deal’ – ALL THE TIME. But most of the time we can’t hear the answers, because our pineal gland isn’t open enough.”
On a deeper level; “Having all this input from your angels, your guides, or even God, whatever you want to call it, you realize, ‘I’m not alone.’ And that the Universe is always trying to give us the information that will lead us to the life of our greatest good, which is essentially our purpose.”
Heady stuff – and an idea Elizabeth Gilbert explores in her latest novel, The Signature of All Things. One character, Ambrose Pike, describes his experience of living for several months “on sunlight and rain alone.” “I met he divine,” he says, “Or, I believe I did. I had the most magnificent thoughts. I could read the language hidden inside the trees. Also, there was a full fortnight when I could hear people’s thoughts. I was kept joyous by exalted feeling, by rapture.”
Which sounds not unlike the experience of Matt Monarch, founder of The Raw Food World and something of an expert on extreme fasting. Over Skype, he describes the physical sensation of his third eye opening following an extreme 7-day psyllium bentonite cleanse, after his first year of eating 100 percent raw; “As soon as all this stuff came out of me I started to feel this magnetic vibration right here (he gestures at his brow point) almost like 2 magnets opposing each other. The sensation is bliss…it just feels really, really good, it’s almost orgasmic.”
For the stinky details of what exactly a psyllium bentonite cleanse involves click here, but suffice to say; “it’s designed to take out all the mucoid plaque, and really scrape out your small intestine.” Monarch believes that the only way to “get over the hump” of fasting, and take it into the transcendental, is with intensive colon therapy; “it’s not the raw food or the juice that increases your spiritual experience, but the removal of all toxicity.”
Is it any wonder that yoga preacher Seane Corn joked to attendees of a “detox flow” session at Wanderlust Vermont last summer that; “you know you’re a true yogi when you can openly discuss your bowel movements,” or that there’s an exercise called “Unblock Your Bowels, Unblock Your Life” in Gabrielle Bernstein’s upcoming book Miracles Now? “I believe that the flow of our bowels has a direct correlation to the flow of our life,” she writes. “Skeptical? Ask yourself if when you’re feeling super stopped-up, your life is stopped up too.”
This could be because, as Clean Gut author Alejandro Junger puts it; “Your body has two brains: one in your head and one in your gut. While your first brain serves as your intellectual hardware, your second brain—the gut—is your spiritual and emotional GPS. Without it, you’re lost.”
Authors of the website Astro Dream Advisor, where you can find information on different ways to clean the gut, advise; “While doing (a psyllium bentonite) cleanse it is helpful to imagine that with each elimination you’re having you’re getting rid of any old outworn, un-needed thoughts, ideas, feelings…”
Which comes back to Raquel Griffin’s approach. “Our emotions are stored in our tissues, so when we detox we start to shift all those cell memories – which in turn can change the way you relate to the world and be a building block towards a ‘spiritual experience.’ Because once we remove the emotional lens through which we see the world, we’re able to see how it really works.”
For Monarch, this meant the beginning of a lifelong spiritual journey; “And trust me I’m not religious, but once you realise that god is in everything about our existence…then he has the ability to bring you through that door, and up and up and up.”
