After flying all around the country for two weeks and my boyfriend just finishing exams, we decided to do something relaxing for ourselves to ‘destress’ and we found just the place to go. Nimbus & Co is a contemporary wellness space, they have locations in Bondi (NSW) and Byron Bay (QLD) and only 4 weeks ago opened in their brand new location in Cremorne, Melbourne (VIC). Both Corey and i had never been to an ‘infrared sauna’ before although we both love traditional sauna’s, when hearing about Nimbus & Co’s Infrared sauna i had to learn what all the fuss was about. I looked up online some articles and on their website some information on why we should go and then decided to book our appointment. Apparently an infrared sauna, is different to a traditional sauna as it heats up your body by penetrating it’s infrared wavelengths into your core and heating up your core body temperature, in other words making you sweat a hell of a lot more than a traditional sauna. A traditional sauna merely heats up your surroundings, therefore the heightened temperature your body is feeling is only surface level and therefore you’re not going to sweat as much. As infrared saunas heat you up by using your core temperature rather than surface temperature, according to the Nimbus & Co website, Traditional saunas only remove about 3% of toxins in your body, whereas an infrared sauna can remove up to 20% of toxins from your body. Thats a whole lot of toxins leaving your body!! The benefits of sweating regularly include: Detoxification, weight loss, anti-ageing, skin health, immune boosting, pain relief, stress reduction, help with sleep. I did a bit of research of my own, as i wanted to write a proper article on this but i couldn’t find anything too scientific as yet for me toactually reference, and for me to make this an ‘article’. What i found was that there have been signs of infrared saunas helping improve the symptoms of chronic fatigue, although this study was only done on two patientswhich is a significantly low sample size for me to tell you that it does help chronic fatigue.  Another study, this time on 10 healthy active males stated that the use of an “[Infrared Sauna] appears favourable for the neuromuscular system to recover from maximal endurance performance.” in other words, helps you recover faster after you have just worked out! Although again, this is also a very small sample size.  Overall, theexperience was amazing!!! There was an aux cord for us to plug in any music of your choice. I could change the lighting to 3 colours, Red, Green or Blue (so good to help you fit into your insta theme, am i right). Eva, the co-owner was there and she was absolutely the kindest human, gave corey and i a cup  of tea after! It was a beautiful experience and i’d definitely love to go again, i felt very relaxed and rejuvenated afterward and am very thankful for being able to have had the opportunity to spend a day at Nimbus & Co. for more info: http://www.nimbusco.com.au/infraredsauna/ ~ Jem xo

What makes somebody confident? is it their ability to be able to not be afraid of speaking to a room full of people? Is it a deeper understanding of oneself? We can never truly know. Confidence is one of the biggest attributions we as individuals try to grasp. According to the dictionary, confidence is a feeling of self-assurance arising from an appreciation of one’s own abilities or qualities. How do we achieve this though? As much as we must individually love ourselves, we must also love one another, confidence usually comes from being comfortable in ones surroundings, the hardest thing we face daily is the constant ridicule or judgement of others, and more importantly ourselves. If we as a collective start to encourage and love even those we may be “jealous” of (lets face it we all get jealous of someone or someone’s achievements from time to time), our surroundings will be one of love rather than jealousy or hate. Unfortunately, this ideal world does not exist and although it’s still important to emit kindness and teach others to do the same, we must learn to live in this world, where people feed off hate, anger and jealousy. I think more often than not, being confident and being obnoxious has been seen to have a blurred line. We must be careful we are not becoming arrogant but instead confident. I personally find it hard, understanding the judgements people may place on me, when i feel as though i am acting “too” confident then I retreat into my own shell and detriment myself by missing out on opportunities or developing new “friendships”. Most of the time, I judge myself more harshly than anyone else in this world. Confidence I believe is a mixture of being yourself, pushing the boundaries of what you believe to be “too forward” and suppressing your own judgements. People believe I am confident merely because i portray a certain persona online, even though I am extremely confident around my friends and my loved ones, when I am around people I do not know too well, I naturally stay silent and can often be anxious, although as soon as someone comes up to me I’ll become my bubbly self again. Recently I have tried to push myself out of my shell just a little bit and I have noticed a massive difference, I found some amazing friends, I have developed many opportunities, but then I get comfortable again within my own friends and family, and retreat back into my shell. I think developing confidence is an ongoing battle, of being comfortable within yourself and learning to speak up even if you think you’re going to embarrass yourself. Finding people who you are comfortable around and finding friendship groups with no judgements and constant support helps anyone’s confidence levels rise. You’re able to go into any situation, even if you are anxious and breathe, understand even if you make a “fool” of yourself your real friends and family will never judge you. I think confidence is all about balance, learning to deal with the fact that not everyone is going to “love you” and place more importance on those people who support and encourage you than those who are negative and putting you down. It’s not easy, I know, to say “find a good group of friends” but I promise you, if you settle for so called “friends” who judge, ridicule and suppress your confidence, you’ll never have the strength to find new real friends who will help bring out your true confidence. The measure of a person is not just how you get up when you fall, but also how you help others up when they fall. I don’t believe as humans we are meant to be completely “individual” we are “pack animals” we are better together. Encourage, support and be there for your friends and your community and in turn you will hope they do the same, if they don’t then find yourself a better “support system” and confidence will find you. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ I hope this helped even one person, don’t be afraid to message me on Instagram: @jemmasiles if you want to talk more about this or anonymously write in the comments, i am more than happy to do a second blog on this topic, just let me know. Love Jem xoxo