Elon Musk is set to become the world’s first trillionaire. I’ll just let that sink in for a minute. A TRILLIONAIRE. He’s already currently worth $487.9 billion. There’s so much wrong with that I don’t even know where to begin.

​

Sorry to start off on such a depressing note, but it feels like rubbing salt into the wound of an already broken world, run by capitalists and systems that are failing us, making us and the world sick. There’s a lot to be angry about at the moment and these are real feelings felt by a lot of people. Many of them gathered in October for the first Brighton Wellness Festival.  

​

But the festival wasn’t about getting together just for a good whinge. This was a week-long series of events, workshops and discussions by people who have put a lot of thought into how we can create change and disrupt the systems failing us. Systems that are responsible for climate change, genocide, famine, war, AI, ICE raids, rise of the far-right, cost-of-living crisis, trillionaires... Shhh, I don’t want to think about all that bad stuff, stop with the negativity! I’m off to my yoga class, followed by a sauna, and I’ve just booked a week’s retreat in Sardinia for next year!

​

Precisely, says Natasha Jackson, who founded the festival for exactly that reason. We are a quarter the way through the 21st Century and spend so much of our lives online, yet we are disconnected from the people and world around us, a world which seems like a pretty frightening place right now. More and more of us are investing in ‘fixing’ ourselves and giving time and attention to our well-being. As a result, the Wellness industry is worth trillions, yet our mental and physical health is worse than ever. Natasha, and many of the speakers at the festival argue that the root of the problem lies in the fact that our individual health and the state of the world are connected.

​

What does this mean? What can we do about any of this? And how can I, as just one person, make any kind of difference? This is the scepticism that I brought with me to the festival. 

​

I attended 5 talks, a workshop, a discussion group and a Shamanic fire ceremony over the week and at the end of it came away with 3 words: Equity, Community and Revolution. And what I learnt is that hidden in all 3 of those words is POWER. It may be on a small scale, but nonetheless, power has the potential to create change.

​

Let’s start with Equity. 

 

We are all familiar with the concept of equality; it has been a topic of discussion for years, in schools, workplaces, politics, the media, women’s rights, and within the LGBTQ community. We have had it drummed into us that to be a fair and successful society, we need to create an equal society, and most of us would probably agree. But it’s not equality we should be focussing on, but equity.​ Equity is giving a dyslexic child longer in a school exam, so they have the opportunity to do their best.

​

Even in the wellness space, more and more people are recognising that something is wrong. It’s not quite true that we are all striving to be well, because it’s about who can afford to be well. Our health systems are geared around fixing us when we get sick, rather than giving us the means to be well in the first place, which is or should be, a basic human right. For everyone. Yet most wellness spaces are largely populated by white, middle-class women. Wellness has become exclusive rather than inclusive. 

​

I attended a women's group event as part of the festival where all this and more was discussed. Held on a Thursday evening in a yoga studio, (just the space that promotes itself as being open to all, yet is predominantly used by white middle-class women - the irony of which was noted), a group of about thirty women came together, to listen and debate. 

​

And much of it was echoed later in the week in the festival’s first panel talk, ‘It’s All Connected: How can we move beyond personal healing to collective care?’

​

In both events the predominant question was: Can we heal both ourselves and the world? 

​

Hmm, I don’t think so, was my first response. 

​

I’m sure many of the speakers at the festival would say that’s a poor excuse, that I’m using my middle-class, white, Britishness as a mask for lack of accountability. It’s easier, safer to disassociate ourselves from all that is bad, for our own self-preservation and well-being. 

​

The problem, I learnt, lies in the fact that we are separating these two things, ourselves from the world. Personal healing and collective care are one and the same thing. But what does this mean and what can we do about it? Start by shifting our thinking from Me to We, and we do this through Community. 

​

Talk to the person next to you, at home, work, on the bus, whilst waiting for a yoga class. Join in with local community events, go to the pub, anywhere that’s away from screens and where other humans might be, like we used to do. Replace small talk with conversations about the state of the world, how you’re feeling about it, what’s happening in your own community and in others. They might not agree with your viewpoint, and that’s fine. The important bit is that it will get them thinking. There might be one thing that strikes a chord with them, which they then pass on to their husband / wife / colleague / child / friend / teacher and that causes a ripple effect. If you run a yoga studio or a sauna, make sure you offer one class a week that is accessible to low income people, be community-minded and inclusive.

​

It builds and strengthens communities, person by person, brick by brick. It’s the IRL version of going viral. And it leads to my third takeaway word from the festival: Revolution.

​

I’m thinking Greta Thunberg skipping a school to protest, Joe Wicks getting us exercising during lockdown. They are public figures now, but weren’t when they started campaigning. Even with his celebrity status, Jamie Oliver had to shout loudly about his healthy school meal campaign, and not give up until change happened. 

​

It turns out there are lots of people singing from similar hymn sheets right here in Brighton, who spoke at the festival. People or ‘change-makers’ who have made their lives and careers about shouting loud and clear and fighting for their own revolutions. Some just small seeds, and others already taking root, inspirational people who aren’t just sitting back and hoping someone else will make the world a better place, but who are going out and doing it themselves. 

​

But what does this all mean when we are sitting in a sauna, and should we guilt ourselves out of booking a yoga retreat? 

​

‘Fit your oxygen mask before helping others with theirs.’ If we are burnt out, exhausted, or overwhelmed, then we can’t possibly have the strength to show up for others. We can’t build connections and bridges if our own foundations aren’t solid. Brighton Wellness Festival wasn’t about sacrificing our own wellbeing for the greater good. It wasn’t about guilt-tripping or focussing on the bad and negative in the world. It was about saying - look there’s a lot of shit going on, there’s a lot of broken systems, but don’t despair, it doesn’t have to be like this, let’s get together and figure out how to get the best out of the tools we’ve got, for us and everyone around us! 

​

The festival provided many different tools for the picking. I attended a sound bath and workshop about overcoming imposter syndrome. I lay on a yoga mat with an eye mask whilst gongs and symbols thronged in my ears, followed by a workshop designed to reignite my inner self-confidence and banish those negative mindset demons which often rule our heads. I left feeling energised, confident and ready to take on the world. This was what the festival was about.

​

I went to a talk about using psychedelics in neurodiversity. Legal functional mushrooms which alter your mind and are featuring more in medical trials of neurodiverse conditions like ADHD. One speaker said how they helped him make friends with a cockerel who woke him up at dawn every day. I wasn’t expecting the festival to go down this route, but I came away from this talk wondering where I could source my first trip.

​

Another inspiring panel talk was entitled ‘Old Medicines for Modern Wounds.’ It discussed the idea of going back to basics, reminding ourselves what it fundamentally means to be human, and what in our modern world we have left behind of value.

​

One speaker argued that we need to look back at early man, sitting around the campfire, telling stories. Just as some of us might have done this summer, with friends at a festival or camping weekend. It’s a simple act which connects us to one another. We all tell stories everyday, whether it’s asking our daughter what happened at school, our partner about their day at work, watching a film, catching up with a friend… Scrolling through our news feeds or Instagram may feed our thirst for stories, but it doesn’t connect us. We need face to face interaction to connect, and this is what being human is about. Plus it’s free, it’s equitable and about community.

​

Also about community, going back to basics and the ripple effect, was my last festival experience - a Shamanic Fire Ceremony on Brighton Beach, led by Matt and Paula of Full Circle Healing. I signed up knowing nothing about Shamanism but after a week of inspiring talks and events, I was up for pretty much anything.

​

About a dozen of us gathered on the coldest night of the year so far (or so it felt), huddled in a circle around a fire, wrapped in blankets. There was meditation, breathwork, drumming, chanting and journaling. Matt and Paula shared their stories of the journeys that had brought them here and we were invited to do the same. We made little packages of rice, seeds, nuts and other offerings for the fire, along with our journaling; and chanted as we took turns to throw them in. It was a South American interpretation of sitting around the campfire, sharing stories and connecting with others and the natural world, and it was fantastic.

​

A few passerbys stopped to watch or even join in, showing the power a bunch of strangers coming together can create. It wasn’t the same as sharing a beer on the beach with a friend, the structured nature of a ritual that’s been performed by people for hundreds of years is different. It has meaning and depth. It’s universal and timeless. It’s human. It’s free. It’s about Equity and Community. 

​

For me the festival was about celebrating our wellness, bringing out the best versions of ourselves so we have the strength, resilience and motivation to take on the challenges of life and the world in 2025. For me this was what is meant by Revolution.

​

It doesn’t matter what your tonic is. Go out there and find it, and then use it. I learnt that power lay not just in those 3 words, but in the festival itself. Mega fist bump to Natasha and her own revolution that is Brighton Wellness Festival. Power to the people indeed.  Just one request Natasha, please can we close next year’s festival with a huge Kirtan?