Zala Wellbeing

28/07/2026

Do you practice self gratitude?

Hi all, Sophie here. As some may know I am a Palliative care nurse and currently work in the community in South Wales. Recently, I received a patient allocation for someone who lived in the same small village as a Nursing Home where I got my first job in healthcare as a Carer 19 years ago. It was the first time seeing the home in years and it got me thinking about how far I had truly come. 19 years ago I was 17, had just moved to Wales without any family. I was incredibly lonely, frightened, insecure and lost. But that home was where I found one of my best friends Zara. It was also where I learned the true meaning of care. I learned how to communicate, even with those difficult to communicate with. I learned how precious life is, and how quickly it can pass you by, especially resonant when caring for dementia and palliative care patients.

I had time-travelled, back to that poor lost girl as I sat in my car. I brought myself back to my current situation. About to go into a house to sit with a dying man over night, relieving his symptoms and alerting his family if there are any changes. I have a masters degree in palliative care. Me. that poor lost girl. I have overcome the loss of both parents 3 months apart, had two IVF rounds and 1 miscarriage and am now going through a divorce. Yet, here I am. Coping, finding love again, reclaiming my freedom. I am no longer lonely, frightened, insecure and lost. I am now loved deeply, confident and grounded.

Although the struggle is real, and I do still have some crippling anxiety at times, this recognition of my journey and how far I have come and what I have overcome has enabled me to be truly grateful to myself for pulling all that off. Maybe you could take some time today and look back, not in sadness, but in gratitude, that you are no longer there. Wherever there may be.

Feel free to share below something about yourself you are grateful for.

With love x

22/07/2026

Our last sessions in the bell tent sold out in two hours so take this as your notice, creative journaling sessions go on sale 4pm tomorrow.

During these sessions we will use creativity to support us to express and transmute those parts of ourselves that we find difficult to look at. Creativity is both gentle enough to enable us to look at difficult emotions and powerful enough to help us process and heal. It supports us in our growth and can help us undo years of conditioning that has been put on us by the systems we have to live within. All while having fun.

Sounds too good to be true? Try these sessions once and I assure you, you'll never look back. Creative journaling will be a new tool in your belt for wellness.

You don't need any creative ability, just a willingness to have a go. We are so confident, if you don't like it, we will give you a full refund.

The opposite to depression is expression.

20/07/2026

This unique sensory experience is one we are really excited about.

Come and leave the world behind with us for a while. This deeply relaxing session will leave you replenished and feeling better equipped to deal with life.

Calm that nervous system and give yourself some true relaxation.

Also funded by CWTSH so some deep healing for absolutely free. Don't hang about, tickets almost gone already!

A Sensory Singing Bowl Experience in a Blissful Bell Tent.

20/07/2026

We have an event coming up, facilitated by the lovely Joanna Bryant for Cacao in the wild.

Come and be held in the Welsh countryside while you allow mama Cacao to open your heart. Relax and breathe while you release what no longer serves you, making room for more peace and joy in your life.

This event is funded by CWTSH so you get all that for free you lucky duck! ❤️

Allow your heart to heal with Cacao in a bohemian bell tent, hidden in the Welsh countryside. Pure bliss!!

14/07/2026

**We are very much against diet culture and hope this post is your sign to ditch it altogether** ❤️💁‍♀️

Hello, Caroline here! I've thought a lot whether to post this or not, because I didnt want it to be another "I've lost loads of weight with this magic diet I tried".
This isn't from a fad diet. In fact, 3 years ago when these photos were taken, I decided to stop dieting altogether because they just do not work and you always put the weight immediately back on when you stop.
So I decided to retrain in health and nutrition!

This is just from a balanced lifestyle, which did not happen over night.
I had just been through almost 2 years of medical hell, and I just wanted to see if food would help my eyes heal. I started researching nutrition and holistic health and fell down the rabbit hole! The goal was NOT to lose weight, I just felt I needed to work on myself as a whole to try and get myself healthy after all my surgeries.

I started moving my body a bit more and a bit more, but I have NOT forced myself to do any exercise I don't enjoy.
This is the result of healing my body, my mind and my spirit.
It's the result of healing my relationship with food and not thinking there are "good" or "bad" foods, but acknowledging that everything is ok in moderation. Knowing that a takeaway doesn't mean I'll have to starve myself the next day and FINALLY allowing myself to have a desert if I want one.
I learnt to meditate, to breathe properly, to move and stretch my body and reconnected with my spirituality. I also started writing and singing again which I never thought would happen again. I did therapy, learnt somatics and ways to release emotions stored in the the body... and loved it so much I am now training to be a somatic counsellor!
This comes from little changes, one at a time, which have happened so naturally that they haven't made this feel hard or daunting.
I eat when I'm hungry, and I eat intuitively, which used to be such a strange unattainable concept to me. "Won't I just want to eat bad stuff all the time?". But I learnt nutrition, practiced cooking lovely meals from scratch, and attuned myself to what my body needs, whether that's a salad or a greggs!
I started being able to make healthy food taste good and to look forward to all the nutrients a meal will give me, until some strange thing happened: the more nutritious foods I ate, the better my anxiety and depression got.

These results did NOT happen over night, they have taken 3 years. And counting. But I don't care so much about the numbers on the scale, I do not have one and nor do I intend on ever getting one.
I found out that ultra processed foods, even the ones advertised as "healthy" do not nourish us like our bodies need to be nourished. I still eat them sometimes because life is for living and everything in moderation is fine but demonising any type of food is definitely not the way forward.

So here it is, a long post about "not weightloss" but more "life gain". It has definitely not been easy but it has been so worth it and I am and have always been grateful to my body for allowing me to live this beautiful life!
I have learnt so much about myself and life in general and although it has been and will carry on to be a long, winding road, I feel happy and well ✨️❤️

Please reach out if you have questions or would like some advice! 😊

12/07/2026

We spend so much of our lives planting seeds.

We dream. We hope. We work towards something gentler, more peaceful, more meaningful. We imagine a life where we can finally breathe a little deeper.

But sometimes the biggest thing standing between us and that life isn't opportunity...

It's whether we believe we're worthy of receiving it.

Self-worth quietly weaves its way into everything. It shapes how we speak to ourselves, the love we accept, the boundaries we hold, the chances we take, and how we respond when life begins to bloom.

Do you make yourself smaller?
Do you apologise for taking up space?
Do you feel uncomfortable when someone is kind to you?
Do you wait for things to go wrong because they always have before?

If so, be gentle with yourself. Those beliefs didn't appear overnight, and they don't disappear overnight either.

Just as a flower doesn't question whether it deserves the sun, perhaps we can slowly learn that we don't have to earn our right to exist, to rest, to be loved, or to build a life that feels nourishing.

That's part of the work too.

Not just creating a beautiful life...
but believing you're worthy of living it.

🌿

04/07/2026

Here are some flowers from our Zala garden this year. Sessions coming from our beautiful bell tent very soon, she rises this week! If anyone is free to help her erect, give me a shout. Would love to have the community there to help her rise again.

02/07/2026

Stunning review from Sam who had some 1-1 sessions with Zara. Watching people grow and thrive in their own way is exactly why we do this here at Zala. Building a strong community of people creating a world we want to live in.

Thank you so much for taking the time to say this Sam. We hope that your finding more peace and joy in your every day and the effects ripple wide. Here whenever you need us. ❤️🫂❤️