This year was my first time at IRIS : Your Escape ; Hong Kong Health and Wellness Festival. I couldn’t make it to the last two. I was joined by my best friend, Estelle; you’ve probably already seen her on my Instagram ;). We had been impatiently waiting for this event for a long time.
The festival was held in Kowloon Nursery Park, by the seaside. On the first day, we had a quick look at the stalls that sold everything from sport attire to food.
The first class I took was martial arts self defence against a knife attack while my friend chose yoga. I’ve always wanted to try a self defence class, so this was my opportunity! We learned the basics and immediately applied what we were taught in pairs, one being the aggressor and the other playing defence. The key was to put as much distance as possible between you and the attacker to give you time to anticipate the hits, then deflect the moves with a few determined gestures. This was definitely a useful class because you never know when something like this can happen when you live in a big city or on your travels.
Later, we chilled on the grass and explored the pop-up stores. In the afternoon, we took two yoga classes. One was a Dharma class called “Peace and Happiness”. The other was ‘’Sunset Wonder Flow For the Curious Explorer”, a gentle Vinyasa class led by two of my favourite yoga influencers in Hong Kong, Rosemary Vandenbroucke and Natalie Soderstrom. As we did yoga poses, the sun was slowly setting. It felt magical to end the day with some yoga at sunset, with two coaches I admire so much.
On day two, we took part in a lot of classes. Most were yoga classes, including the first one that started under a dark sky and to the sound of distant thunder. Then, after a few minutes came a heavy downpour. We were drenched, but so into what we were doing that we kept going regardless. We also took a pilates class. I can’t even tell you how much my core was burning (in a good way). It felt so good. We also tried a Zumba class that we had great fun doing together. We danced a lot – everybody’s energy was so uplifting and the teacher was killing it with her moves.
At the end of these two days, I felt good and energised. It was like a back-on-track weekend, reconnecting with my values.
The Fashion Vitamin 