Elle Sera… how did it come about? What is it and what’s with the name?
I’ll endeavour to answer all these questions in the following passage, along with the biggest question of all…What is it that women want?
For the past five years I’ve been running a health retreat The Life Lab retreat, both in the UK and abroad. Like with most retreats you’d find, 90% of our clientele were female.
Although the women came to me as strangers, I found after building a rapport and trust, they often felt comfortable enough to tell me their inner most thoughts and feelings.
On paper, they’d say ‘I’m here to lose weight, tone up’ but actually, when their guards were down and the real source of their problems became apparent, I knew their issues ran much deeper and were going to be harder to fix than just shedding a few pounds.
We always made sure The Life Lab retreat was a safe, non-judgemental, welcoming environment where people could share their worries. Not only was the retreat set up to help them get their health back on track, it was also a place to work on confidence and mindset.
For the first time in a long time, these ladies were away from home, out of ear shot from the family and kids, taking time out from their jobs to work on themselves and over the course of the week, they would eventually confess to the real reason they had to get away. What was really bothering them.
The answers were wide-ranging. Faltering relationships or no relationship at all, loss of youth, weight gain, diminished confidence, loss of libido, the menopause, anxiety, stress, lack of energy, ailing parents, how they felt they had become ‘invisible’, how they felt they were now surplus to requirements, time was not on their side and neither was the way they felt.
The worries about their health and mortality were inextricably linked to their outlook and now firmly in the forefront of their minds.
“I’ve only got 20 Christmases left” a 60-year-old said to me “what a sobering thought that is.”
It wasn’t just a sobering thought, it was one which stopped me in my tracks.
It was as if I was suddenly looking into my future. A stark reminder that life as I knew it; youth, confidence and time on my side, were all precious finite commodities.
All the conversations I’d had with my clients were now being replayed in minds eye and for the first time ever, I began to understand what they were really telling me.
Old adage’s about ‘youth being wasted on the young' 'You only know what you have, when it’s gone’ and ‘whatever you want to do, do it. There’s only so many tomorrows’ were sentiments which carried new weight with me.
It saddened me to see some of these fantastic, strong women feeling like they were worthless and surplus. I didn’t want this for my clients. I didn’t want this for anyone. It distressed me to realise as age began to climb, the more the confidence would fall. They would become invisible and unimportant spectators in their own lives.
What to do about it? I figured confidence and mindset was an inside job and if I could help these ladies feel better on the inside, this would somehow start to radiate on the outside too.
I set about researching this often depressing topic, not only so I could better understand my clients but because I wanted to help myself in the future too. I want to be able to live a life that’s full of health, zest and vitality for as long as I can.
Tackle this fear head on, before I’m as invisible as the generations before me.
After speaking to scores of women between the ages of 30-75: I came to the conclusion when it comes to their health and outlook, most of there problems stemmed from, or related to; weight gain, anxiety, energy, brain fog and sex drive.
The majority of my clients were keen to eat healthier, cook their meals from scratch, attend yoga for their flexibility, work out for their fitness levels and wind down with meditation exercises.
They were ready to make some serious lifestyle changes in a bid to reclaim the confidence of their youth, feel great and enjoy the rest of their life. They would ask me regularly about what supplements I would recommend to aid them and nearly every time I would suggest the same few ingredients for nearly every client.
That’s when Elle Sera was brought to life.
A supplement which combined all the major health boosting adaptogens in one pill which would directly help to combat the range of issues these ladies faced. Using the highest grade ingredients in a potent dosage, I would make sure it did exactly what it said on the tin.
Speaking of tins, it was also how the beautiful gold container was born and became a symbol for everything Elle Sera embodies: durability, sustainability, visibility and accountability.
In a youth obsessed society, where old is passed over for the young, where all eyes are on the nubile 20 somethings and the more experienced are unseen, where everything and everyone is disposable, our solid sparkling golden tin serves as a reminder of all that is great and good in the world.
It’s durable, it’s sustainable, it’s visible and seeing it everyday makes you accountable.
Now, I’m not going to go so far as to say these golden pills are the fountain of youth and will make you look ten years younger while inhaling cake. But they will radically boost your health in the areas which women need them the most. Not only that but the action of taking the empowerment pill and what it represents, will go along way to changing your mindset and confidence.
So why it is called Elle Sera? Well this is a nod to the French, who celebrate older women in their society and translated into English it simply means, ‘she will be…’
And to return to my earlier question…What is it that women want?
This is something I’m still trying to figure out but in the mean time…
I believe, she will be…whatever she wants to be.
STAY GOLDEN,
Elissa x
