On Wednesday 18th October, Victoria Leeds hosted a ‘Boost Wellness Day’. The event, which was brought to life in collaboration with several health and wellbeing brands, offered a range of activities for people to enjoy.
The Boost Wellness Day included a free autumn yoga class, cuddles with puppies, and a specialist panel event offering menopause advice, alongside complimentary massages and sampling across Victoria Leeds’ wellness brands, including NEOM, Kiehls and Molton Brown.
I cycled down to Victoria Leeds on Wednesday lunchtime to check out what was going on and arrived in the City Centre just before 1:30pm. At the Victoria Quarter I was due to join the ‘Move into Autumn’ yoga session hosted in Sweaty Betty by Yoga Kula. The free, autumn-inspired Flow yoga class offered some respite from the busy working day.
On arrival I was offered a cup of herbal tea, which was much appreciated after my windy ride over. The class itself was intimate, with only 12 people, and was relaxing, with opportunities to get my body moving and mind calm. I loved the lunchtime opportunity to be surrounded by candles and incense that gave me a much needed energy boost for the rest of the afternoon.
After the yoga session, I looked around the Sweaty Betty store and then over to see the puppies brought to Victoria Leeds by the Cuddle Club. Puppies have been proven to reduce stress and boost happy hormones, and so they were in Leeds to enable people to take a moment out of their busy days to have a cuddle. There were a lot of people waiting to see and stroke the puppies, so I looked on but didn’t stay long.
Instead, I headed back over to Victoria Gate. After wandering round some of the shops and stalls in the space, and sampling some of the drinks available from the new shop, Bird & Blend Tea Co, I listened in to the ‘Master the Menopause’ session that was presented in front of the John Lewis Store. I heard about the challenging symptoms that those going through the menopause experience and listened to advice from the panel about how to feel good when navigating this time of life.
Whilst I didn’t get to enjoy a massage or cuddle a puppy, I thought that the day was a good way to bring a focus to autumn wellness and boost wellbeing in Leeds. It would be great to have more mood-boosting activities and advice available in the City throughout the year, but this was a good step forward. It also reminded me of the importance of self care and trying out new things every once in a while. I am already looking forward to finding a yoga class near me and will bring out the essential oils at home as the darker nights draw in.
