This year, the W.E.L.L. Summit 2018 was in October 5-6, 2018 in Brooklyn, NY. I If you missed it, I’m here to fill you in!

W.E.L.L. stands for Wellness, Empowerment, Learning and Luxury. This two day conference is an holistic 360° wellness experience focused wellness, self-love, empowerment and all things green beauty and clean living.

Last year, I stayed at the conference for one day and it was anamazing experience, so I decided to stay the full days this year.

The 2017 W.E.L.L. Summit was packed, but this year, wow, the vibe was electric with so many like-minded people cheering and sharing this experience together.

If you follow me on Instagram, you know that I suffered severe burned out recently and I needed to go back to prioritizing myself and being present; I also re-read two of my favorite books : The Power of Now and Own Your Glow. This conference felt like a perfect opportunity for me to just hit the reset button. 

So, I was so excited to the W.E.L.L. Summit  2018 in Brooklyn, NY.

What were my expectations of the event?

• Relax and Rejuvenate
• Learn more and reinforce my self-care practices
• Connect with like minded people
• Discover new wellness brands
• Get some green products at discount prices
• Learn about self-love and clean living from the panels and sessions
• Go outside my comfort zone by learning about fermentation cooking and Chinese medicine

So , how was the conference?

At registration, you get a bag of goodies. My bag was full of natural beauty and wellness products. The amount of products you receive in your bag depends on your ticket (general admission, VIP, etc...) and several of the products were full size too.

During  the conference, all the vendors had plenty of organic and natural products samples for us to try  from your favorite brands. I bought few products at 20% or 30% off. I also enjoyed the free fruit juices and alkaline  water they had for us to stay hydrated. 

They also served breakfast and lunch with vegan and vegetarian options. 

If you've never been at the WELL Summit, there are panel discussions on a main stage with experts and keynote speakers and then there are breakout sessions for smaller  group discussion with experts.  

It was so inspiring to listen to all the busy women sharing  their experiences with us and empowering us to get a little closer to our own wellness path.

Here are few tips that resonated with me: 

Balance does not exist; we should focus on  designing our environment to meet our needs.

• Feeling overwhelmed and struggling is ok. It all about how we handle our challenges. 
• Your self-awareness is your superpower. Listen to your body and act on what you feel.
• Let's not overburden ourselves with "must dos".  We could use mantras to help us embrace what is. Mantra: This is what it is right now! 
• Having a structure helps. Being organized and having a reference that always calm us will help us feel rested and restored.
• The words we use to describe our lives have energy and we become that energy. If we say that our life is busy and crazy, our energy shift to being busy and crazy. We need to rephrase. Maybe replace "I am so busy" by "I have so many opportunities" Liz Plosser, Editor-In-Chief of Women’s Health.
  

Have you been to the WELL Summit? What did you think?

The breakout sessions feel so intimate!
These sessions are in small groups of 40 people and It really feels like the experts are directly talking to you. It is also ideal to ask direct questions to experts. 

Fermented food is amazing for gut health. I took a course by Phoebe Lapine, a food and health writer while attending the WELL Summit in NY in October 2018.  Phoebe's book, The Wellness Project, chronicles her journey with Hashimotos Thyroiditis and how she learned how to cook food that support our health.

During the class, we learned about the impact of fermented food on our health; Phoebe was great and gave us few tips and an easy recipe on how to make Sauerkraut. We also tasted a salad with fermented food and it was delicious!

Few things to know:

• Th health of your gut impacts everything from your mood to your sleep. Fermented food supports the body production of good bacteria. 
• The focus here is the health of your microbium. Your microbium is the whole bacteria system of your body and it is essential to our health. 70%of your microbium leaves in your guts. 
• We all know it,  but it is worth repeating. Antibiotics, while helping us,  also wipe out our microbium.
• Chlorine in the water is also killing the bacteria in our body.
  
• Anti-acid reduce our stomach acid. This depletes the first layer of bacteria that fights for our immune system.
• Advil and birth control pills also create an unbalance in our hormones.
  
• Avoid probiotics that are not in the refrigerated section.
  

Misconception about probiotics : they add new good bacteria. The truth is that probiotics act as an agent to help create the good bacteria in our guts.

Food that are  have insoluble fiber are great for gut health.

• Artichoke
  
• Asparagus
  
• Leek
• Onion
• Sauerkraut
• Kimchi
• Kifer- higher concentration of probiotics vs yogurts
• Miso
  

Diversify our natural source of probiotics is essential too. You could do a stool testing to assess your diversity.

Easy Sauerkraut Recipe!
All you need is :
• 1/2 Green cabbage
• 2 tsp of salt