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Long term Wellbeing

Let's face it, the last couple of years were pretty challenging for everyone on this planet! Physically or emotionally, human wellbeing was affected one way or another on a massive scale. We can only imagine the level of damage the pandemic caused to the children and the adults in the long term. Post pandemic stress disorder (PPSD), even though it isn't an official term yet, it's pretty obvious for everyone. Some of us were more resilient with our physical body but less psychologically and vice versa; the fact is we were all affected!

Covid heavily influenced the mental and emotional state of families, friends, colleagues, communities even authorities. Even though some of you reminded well balanced, there are still people around who participated in changing or questioning your life perspective forever ( not necessary in a negative way ).

Whether your body or mind was affected by covid itself, vaccination or madness of the reality, life goes on, and it's time to move on. In case you lost your life purpose, there are always ways and possibilities to find a new meaning if you stay open-minded. We always have a choice of what to focus on! The good thing about the last two years is that there was an unprecedented level of great spiritual awakening globally, shifts in human perspective for better, but this is perhaps, another topic for a different place. Here I want to focus on how we can move on, recover, and thrive because the best is yet to come if you allow it! The best we can do for our future is to get united, care and help each other in any possible natural way.

Andrey & Elena, summer 2020

Let me share my personal story, how we managed to live through the pandemic. 

If you are familiar with London Fermentary from the beginning, you would know it has a sister company, Puntarelle & Co. If you are our new followers, Puntarelle is a community-focused fine fruit&veg shop in the heart of London, near Tower Bridge. It runs by my family, husband Andrey and eldest son Pasha. When lockdown began, we became quadruply busy, without exaggeration, working almost seven days a week, providing food to locals.
Andrey worked nights buying fresh veggies at NCGM,  Pasha and I days in the shop, exposed to hundreds of customers. Me trying to juggle between Puntarelle, rapidly growing and changing Fermentary, seven-year-old Max ( my younger son ) at home with online schooling, and my own learning and personal development! It was that time when I would also spend a lot of energy to help my friends and customers to overcome new reality and encourage them to stay positive.
Looking back, I don't know how we did it. It was quite a hardcore ride. Despite all the above, we didn't get sick even once and didn't lose our sanity, and we actually thrived all the way through. Interestingly enough, there were no direct people around us with severe covid cases or those who suffered from vaccinations.

Lockdown team members LF and Puntarelle 2020

If you expect to hear that fermented food saved us :-), you would be mistaken. It wasn't just that, it was a much more complex combination.

To start with, we quickly realized that fear has no place in our lives. It didn't serve us, so we overcame it and focussed on what was good. We ignored talking about covid; there was no space for it in our field. We managed to find time to go to naturebreathe fresh air into our lungs to alkaline blood ( make it less acidic, acidic blood attracts illnesses much easier ), hug the trees, roll on the grass, and get grounded and connected. It's much easier to navigate life and be conscious when we connect to ourselves, trust our gut, and hear our hearts.

Since we don't have a TV at home for many years, we totally skip the mainstream news to avoid psychological damage, negativity and conditioning. News hardly ever gives you an elevated state of being and does not always represent the world's reality. Instead, we found and joined different communities worldwide, focusing on a positive, healthy life, a sustainable future, and transforming the world into a better place as a human collective. 

 We all know that the immune system lives in the gut, so a balanced diet was crucial, but we were beyond busy and didn't always have time to cook properly as we like. So, you can imagine that we would eat loads of fermented foods daily, adding to everything to support our gut. I've fermented a very potent mixture, including garlic, CBD and other super-powerful antibacterial ingredients, which was a must-have remedy every day for a whole family. I would also increase taking adaptogenic supplementsvitamins particularly D, C, Zinc, Magnesium, and natural herbs in different forms.

Drying foraged herbs for the tea

When we are in balance, we positively affect everyone around us. Even though healing modalities and spiritual practices entered my life well before the pandemic, I certainly deepened my meditationsYogaQigong and other practices. It helped and continue to help me to keep my emotional and mental state uplifted and at equilibrium. 

 It's hard to believe, but Andrey and I have done four pretty intense, outside our comfort zonetransformational and empowering live courses online in one year related to business and personal growth. It was a significant positive impact on the whole picture.

 Learn something new and follow your heart! Not sure how, but since I've been interested in energy healing for many years, I've completed the course on Sound Energy Healing/Tibetan Singing Bowls with certification to heal! (not that I'm looking to do that 😅). Learned Reiki, crystal jewellery making, and even knitted two scarves, which was quite therapeutic!

It feels like a decade went by rather than just two years! Surely I must have missed something else 🤣 ! 

My healing-singing bowls

If you like my opinion, to be healthy, with balanced and resilient immunity, is like a puzzle. Emotional, spiritual, physical, mental and financial health means coherence and harmony in life. Many pieces of the puzzle represent everything above. Ignore one, and it wouldn’t work. To be whole and complete in the long run, we would ideally want all pieces in place.

No doubt, you have to start somewhere, but it is good to be aware that EVERYTHING is connected and have a HOLISTIC approach when it comes to wellbeing! You also cannot underestimate the law of attraction and remember that life is a never-ending learning exciting process 😄.

Max and Bluebells, spring 2021

It is well known raw fermented foods promote a healthier lifestyle.

As a brand, London Fermentary stands for healthy, beneficial natural products. Our part in the wellbeing movement is to support human immunity by making high quality, raw fermented foods and drinks for people! The latest research revealed some incredible connections between human microbiome-heart-brain. We are very proud to participate in the gut-brain movement and happy to make someone's life better with our products.

Once you get familiar with it and get into the habit, fermented food is so easy and delicious to use and incorporate into your daily diet. Ferments would elevate every meal to the next level, add extra flavours to your dishes, and most importantly, provide your gut with that precious life lactic acid bacteria (probiotics). Having two-three jars and bottles of different ferments in the fridge is always very handy.

You can find a lot of inspirational recipes on our Instagram page, created by customers, followers, friends and myself for you to use. This is our positive impact on the world.
We love seeing you thrive friends, physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually!

Beautiful food by Rachael @butchsalads

I hope our experience was helpful and supportive. I’m pretty sure some of you will recognise yourself in my writing. I invite you to share your journey, insides, challenges, new finds in life and shifts in the last two years, what you think about wellbeing and the future as a collective. If you just want to talk about this topic, you are welcome to connect. We can start sharing our stories with the world to inspire and support others!

Loads of Love,
Elena.