Awakened Conscious Conversations
Healing the world one episode at a time by offering realistic solutions to the journey of life. Both self hosted ( By The Gentle Yoga Warrior) and guest episodes.
Many of our guests have overcome significant obstacles and transformed their lives.
Rich with deep talks and solo endeavours, often offering tips on living a more conscious life.
Many episodes include a bonus optional meditation!
Awakened Conscious Conversations
The Alchemy of Beauty: How Spirituality and Self-Care Transform How We Show Up
Beauty doesn’t start at the mirror; it starts in your energy. We sit down with Nina Gan—BBC‑trained makeup artist, commercial veteran, and sound healing practitioner—to trace how resilience practices like gong baths and kundalini yoga can reshape confidence, soften self‑judgment, and make makeup feel like self‑expression instead of self‑erasure. From Red Dwarf prosthetics to island shoots with Elizabeth Hurley, Nina’s career spans high art and hard days, including injury and personal upheaval that forced a full reset and a new philosophy of care.
Together, we unpack what really changes after 40 and why the best techniques focus on lifting rather than masking. Nina breaks down why “rules” about age and products often mislead.
Expect practical ideas you can use today. By aligning nervous system care with smart, tweaks, you’ll glow inside and out.
A beautiful meditation concludes the show.
Nina's contact details: https://ninagan.com/
Nina's instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ninaglondon/
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A note for every episode: we do not necessary agree with all the views on our podcast and leave listeners to make their own mind up with what they do or don't agree with.
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Hello everybody. So I got up bright and early this morning. I've been up since 3 30 and travelled because I wanted to share this special, special, special episode of you today. And I can't wait for you to meet this next guest virtually. So we hit the 250 episode mark earlier this week. So I'm having a bit of a celebratory month, and this is episode 251, and we're on season 19, and I believe this is episode 7, and we're going to be talking today about the alchemy of beauty, how spirituality and self-care transform how we show up. And I think it's really important how we show up in life. And we've got a very specialist person on the show today, and she likes every room-up that she goes into with her natural, uplifting, and wonderful personality. And Nina was trained by the BBC, and she's worked in the professional makeup artistry industry for over 37 years. She's worked with iconic directors to high-end feature films and commercials, and she specializes in professional makeup that is natural and also character makeup. And I know she's done the likes of Liz Hurley to all other stars and even the makeup on Red Dwarf, which is a programme that I used to like watching a while ago. Nina has had a very exciting life. She did relocate to New York back in 2014, but then decided to come back to the UK. I won't tell you everything because I'd like her to share it in her own words. But on her website, one of the quotes is that her approach is more than superficial. It's about helping you feel comfortable, confident, and truly your best. So I thought, what better person to speak to us today about the alchemy of beauty, how spirituality and self-care can transform how we show up. Without further ado, please welcome the one and only Nina Gang to the show. Welcome, Nina. Hi Jane. Thank you. Thank you for having me on the show. Would you mind just sharing a bit about your journey so far and your own life's experience on this path?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, sure. Well, I started doing makeup. I got into the BBC as a trainee, got in my 20s, and that again was a kind of it was a decision. I think all the decisions I've ever made that have changed my life have been snap decisions. They haven't been really well thought out. So I decided I wanted to be a makeup artist. And actually I got in to the BBC. And at that time, you you did two years training, and there were they employed 120 makeup artists full-time. So, you know, we were doing big shows. So you learnt on that. Um, you learned, you know, peri you learnt everything on that, really. Wiggs, period. It was a really beautiful and complete training. Then after a few years, I left and went freelance. And then got I got into commercials because basically I had a baby just before I was 30 and I needed to be more regular. And also I like the I like the vibe of commercials. They were kind of short and sweet and fun and it was lively. And I did that for got more or less up until now, but with big with big breaks in between. So my 30s was really about raising a child and working and enjoying life, I guess, as was my 40s. Then in my late 40s, I went to my my husband, my ex-husband was offered the chance to run his run an office in New York, and it was a big jump, but I felt that we had to make that change. For me, probably the hardest part was giving up my career, even though over the years I I got to the point where I tore my rotator cuff over stretching, and every time I worked, you know, I'd have kind of have to have downtime. And I remember one job, it it was okay, it was fine, a little bit painful. And I was making up Hussein Bolt.
SPEAKER_01:And wow.
SPEAKER_00:He's, you know, I'm five foot two and he's six foot whatever. And I stretched up to reach his neck, and something happened in my shoulder, and as I brought it down, that my elbow stayed by my ribs, and for three weeks it it was stuck there. So, um, so that was kind of an indication that it was time to to move on. But I but I've been in the industry so long, I like the lifestyle, I didn't know what to move on to, and then this this um chance of a new life in New York came up, and we went for it. And it was a chance for me to kind of rest and rethink, or supposed to be, but in that time my daughter got pregnant, my husband became an absolute stranger. We we I think it was probably the worst time in my life, and also the you know, the most should we say, exciting time. I mean, it was lovely to be there, but the worst things happened to me. So I found myself coming back two years later on my own, having to restart again, and I didn't want to be in the same house with the same job, but without my family, as it were. Um and so I I guess I well I was broken to be honest. I think that one broke me more than my mum dying, because somehow when somebody dies you can carry on. You you can't, you know, there's a beauty in that grief, but the shock of my whole life being turned upside down again, you know, moving one place, setting up, spending two years, getting that together, then having to set up again was was quite quite devastating and threw me more than I ever thought it could. So that's when I discovered uh gong baths, because I sometimes you're at a stage where uh yoga is doing something. Anything, you know, meditation, you're it you can't access it. Your mind is too busy, and the gong bath just it requires nothing of you. And sometimes that's what you need. And and that kind of enabled me to to build up again my strength. And then I went back to to kundalini, which also is is just amazing for bringing back, you know, bringing making you resilient, really, and moving forward.
SPEAKER_01:So that's that's kundalini yoga listeners, which is a form of a form of a very energetic form of yoga.
SPEAKER_00:It's very yeah, it's quite a special form of yoga. It's not for everybody, yeah. But if you embark on it, it really does make. I think kundalini yoga saw me through the death of my father. It made me balanced enough to, you know, and strong enough. It gives you a very internal strength, as well as physical, because it's quite energetic, we say.
SPEAKER_01:Amazing. And I know that's you count, you've got clients like TikTok and um LinkedIn on your on your books. So that sounds quite a difficult journey that you you went went through, and it's such an inspiring story that you've shared so far. From makeup arts industry as well as yoga and sound healing. How have you put these passions? How have you shaped the way that you you think about beauty and self-expression?
SPEAKER_00:Well, I think they're all in it's very interlinked, isn't it? I mean, I don't think, you know, we I don't think beauty is, you know, they say it's skin deep, but it's absolutely not. You know, the it's the beauty that comes from you, it's the energy, it's all about your energy. You can see it's you know, it's not the most beautiful woman in the world in the world that walk you walk past and you notice. It's the one with the confidence, it's the one with that something you can't quite put your finger on. Well, the gong baths reset everything in you and they bring you back to you, they give you that that peace, I would say. The after after having, you know, gone to gong baths for about a year, I wanted to do something that really helped people. I kind of got to the point where the makeup in commercials was, you know, it didn't mean enough to me. And I and I wanted to do something worthwhile. So with the training to Kundalini and the Gong Together, I kind of embarked on this journey of helping helping people inside, you know, change their, change their energy, feel better. And then I see makeup as an extension of that. You know, makeup for for women who, you know, you've you've got to a stage where your face starts changing, and you don't or you wake up and you're going, where did these where did these bags come from? It's not something you ever thought of. And suddenly all you're seeing is those bags. But you know, you can be doing all the internal stuff, but your face is changing, and you don't quite know how to make that that kind of transition. And for me, it's kind of working on that that energy that somebody has, that individuality that they already have, and showing them that it's there on the outside too.
SPEAKER_01:Get older, and in the society that woman I'm particularly judged by the way we look, or maybe we just have this perception. I don't know, to be honest. But um, I know a lot of women over 40 say their relationship with makeup changes as they get older. I know, I know I had I had the gift of having a makeup lesson with your yourself recently, and you got me to stay clear from the the the green and blue eyeshadow, which I have has kind of been my signature look for for maybe far too long and I've stuck with it. I'm just wearing the browns now.
SPEAKER_00:I don't mean to limit you in that. There are greens, but it was the it was more the tone of the green. Yeah, the makeup does change because you know, perhaps even you know, the eyeliner that you used to put on that looked quite striking and and was your signature look, as your eyes droop slightly, it can look it, you know, it can start to look hard. Yeah. And so that but there's a way to soften that. So I think aging beauty is more about softening. It is it is about embracing where you are, but not just letting it all go. It's just finding finding those points and not focusing so much on what you've lost, but seeing, you know, there's seeing what you've what you've got now.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that's a really beautiful way to put it. When you s when you speak about that, it makes you think of my friend, and she's she's like she's in the late 70s and she's just she's all beautiful because she she looks really nice, but she also her inner light comes comes through and and she and she really knows who she is. And I find that that that deeply inspiring. But I guess not everyone has the ability to know that about themselves.
SPEAKER_00:No, I think that's going back to what you said about women feel so judged, but I think women are the worst people to judge themselves. I mean, you know, if you look in the mirror, you're looking critically. It's like, what's wrong here? What do I need to take out? What rather than hey, I'm here. Yeah. And I think men are far more accepting of the way they look. They don't judge themselves as harshly as we judge ourselves. And it does come from years of having to look like this, you know, having to look like that. This is a certain way, the restrictions that there were when we were younger.
SPEAKER_01:Yes.
SPEAKER_00:Maybe they're not so much now. But then it's nobody wants to be that invisible older woman. You don't want to be reflect, you know, things happen. Yes. Your body shape changes, your your skin changes, your hair changes, and it's finding the way to find the beauty in that and the confidence in that. What we want is, you know, what beauty is, is a freedom, isn't it? It's a sense of freedom. It's feeling free. It's like when you've been on the beach for a couple of weeks and you're brown and you're relaxed, you're beautiful.
SPEAKER_01:I had this b this vision. Do you think it's because you feel relaxed and accepting of oneself?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and I think the sun has a lot to do with it and the rest and the the and the not having to be whoever you are in your work, whoever you are, you know, in your life, in your area or whatever. You are you feel a bit freer. And it's that freedom and that sense of freedom, which is and confidence, which is what the beauty is about, isn't it? That's what that's what you double take on somebody, not somebody who's really made up and has the perfect figure, you know, or it's the quirks, it's that individuality, it's like that bright red lipstick on a 75-year-old woman. It's that that to me is is the beauty.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, and there's the whole industry. Oh, Barbara, there's like this, this, there's so brace and like models, the older models, like some of them are in the hundreds, like I know one model, I can't remember her name, but she's like a hundred, and it's all so they I think what you're saying, and what I'm feeling is that you dear listen is that you can embrace and accept and love yourself, but also kind of not be invisible, like like Nina said. So, Nina, what are some of the biggest myths or misunderstands you see with relationships with women and makeup as they get older? And I know your new business is helping to define beauty at this stage in their life. Yeah, I'm thinking about that.
SPEAKER_00:I would say a lot of the stuff that that comes on right now, the the things like if you're a certain age, you can't do this, you can't, you it's the can't, I think. Um there are certain products that won't look so good on your skin. You can't put on with that much ease. But I was thinking about this question, and actually a few weeks ago I was making up some 20-year-old models, and in the end, I use the same base that I use on older women for them. So it's not so much about you can't use this or this, it's what individually suits suits you, and the beauty industry's gone a little bit nuts with again restricting women in older women have to wear this, you can't do that. And and I find some of the products are excellent and they do help, but a lot of them a lot of them are just gimmicks. Yeah, it's just it's just selling to another insecurity that we have, or making another insecurity. You know, it's the rules and regulations. I mean, one myth that has all myth or mistake that has always gotten me is they you know, but they always say when you when you go to try on a base or foundation, do it test it on the side of your your jawline because that will match your neck. But the problem is as you get older, or even if you're younger, if you've got you know high colour in your skin, or your pores are more visible, that's not going to, you're not going to know if that's covering them or hiding them. And so what I always say to everybody is just put the base, take the tester, put it or as much on your face as you possibly put, on all over your face, cover the the areas that you want covered, and then go outside and see what it looks like in the daylight. So it is really very much about what you see rather than what you're told you should wear.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. There's all these things that come on Instagram and they're saying, Oh, this is going to go wrong with you, this, this, and this. And I'm just thinking, like, if you listen to it all, you'd be kind of be completely like paranoid.
SPEAKER_00:You're paranoid and also feel really ineffective because I some of them are great to watch, and some of them, you know, there are the the general rules, but the thing is, everybody's face is so different. So, you know, if you follow the rules to where you should now do your eyeliner from one Instagram post, you're going to feel like a failure because maybe your eye doesn't fall in that same way. And and makeup is about millimeters, it's moving it millimeters.
SPEAKER_01:You know, I like that. Moving it millimeters. Yeah. And you've been in the industry for years. So, what shifts have you noticed in what women want and what they look? Has it changed much at all?
SPEAKER_00:I would say it has, because if you think about you know my mother's generation, it's, you know, the mate well, the first start, bases were very heavy then. They were thicker, they were real, you know, you put on your face, as it were. And I and it's like uh they slightly stepped into that older woman role. Whereas we don't, we've still got that kind of it's a different, it's a different energy. It's not like, oh, okay, I've reached this point, I'm settled. Nobody's settled. There's divorce, there's grief, you know. So many people are are still working harder than they worked before in their 50s, in their sixties. So and also I think COVID had a lot to do with with the change in it. You know, when it sud suddenly started, you know, before it's like if you had grey hair, you were an old woman. But then suds people start into embracing their grey hair, and and it's beautiful. Addie McDowell, she looks great. Yeah. And it's and it's and it's that freed. It's more it is again, it's going back to feeling that youthfulness or wanting to feel that youthfulness, not wearing a full face of makeup, but using the makeup to bring out a freshness. You want that radiance, don't you? You wake up in the morning, that there's a little bit of work to do. You're not, you know, the I've noticed my face takes a lot longer to wake up than my body now. And that's accepting that, but also it doesn't mean okay, I'm washed out. It just means that it takes that time. But you know, the base we the basis we want, the look we want now is more to lift our faces as opposed to mask our faces.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so working with what we've got to kind of rather than try to change it.
SPEAKER_00:And it's that element of freedom and freshness again, isn't it? It's an element of embracing natural, but not just being, you know, there's natural and there's embracing natural working. Natural takes a bit of work now, yeah. Not a lot, you know, it's not an hour's work, but a little bit of work. A little bit of tweaking.
SPEAKER_01:A little bit tweaking here and there. I'm a real good fan. I've not had time to do it this week, but generally I like to do facial like massage or yoga, and I find that helps my my my face a lot. When the time once I've had time to do it, it kind of makes it feel a bit more lifted. At the very least, it kind of relaxes that startled look I could sometimes have from looking at a computer all day.
SPEAKER_00:So yeah, yeah, facial facial yoga is very effective, but you have to be quite disciplined about it.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, definitely, definitely. But I think I think it's definitely worth it, dear listeners, and there's so many things on YouTube. So you start a new business, Nina, which is a it's always a brave move, and I I always find it inspiring. People that can start a new business. What inspired you to create something specifically for women over 40? And what's been the most rewarding or challenging part of that so far?
SPEAKER_00:Well, again, that slightly came out of the blue. I thought I'm not going to do makeup, I'm going to just focus on the gong and and yoga, which I did for a few years, but but I've missed working on people specifically. And really, a couple of people, actually one from my gong class, asked it for you know, uh asked me their advice on makeup. And I did it as a as a favor, and I thought, actually, I really like this. And then other people started asking, and I thought, if there's a there's a real need for it's something I know, it's something I I I know really well, I'm good at. And it's there's a real need for people to learn how to naturally look good. You know, it's easy to it's easy to blank out the face and stick on lots of makeup or not bother, but there's a big, you know, there's a big gap in in the in in between, if you like.
SPEAKER_01:Ah, I like that. So if it came it, it kind of came your way with someone asking and obviously your expect expertise and you enjoyed it. That's lovely.
SPEAKER_00:And I think, you know, the biggest for me, the biggest I I love, I get real pleasure out of somebody feeling better about the that I've been able to make somebody feel better. I remember once I was working, can't remember what I was working on, something channel, I think, and an old lady came in and she was wheeled in. And you know, when somebody, all you see around them, their energy is grey, they are grey. She was so there was so nothing coming from her. And she was 86. I think she it was it was an interview of something. And she was, I don't wear makeup, I don't bother with that, it's not going to make a difference. And I said, Well, what about if I just do a little bit of this? And by the end of it, she was a different human being, you know, and she was sitting up straight in her chair and she was asking me what I used, where I got it. It was like she came alive. And and that all that admitted always stayed with me. It's like that there is a power in in sh teaching someone or showing someone what the, you know, what their potential is in their face. I mean, the challenges are the business side of it. You know, I can make up a thousand people, no problem. But the sitting down and doing the business and doing the the posting, that for me is is a challenge.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, yeah, it's hard that side, isn't it? Wow.
SPEAKER_00:I think especially for my generation.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. But you're you're overcoming it. Yeah, I'm I'm working at it. Brilliant, brilliant. And I I as looking on your Instagram, you've maked up you've made up the likes of Liz Hurley and used to do the makeup on Red Draw. That I used to love that show. I didn't know it was you that was did it. It's an amazing show.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I did I did two seasons on on um I made up Crichton mainly because it took so long to do that every day. I mean, oh my god, yeah, that put me off prosthetics. It's one millimeter out, and you're pulling, you know, he's in pain for the whole for the whole um shooting session.
SPEAKER_01:Oh wow.
SPEAKER_00:You know, it's um it's where it was glue, you're gluing his face basically.
SPEAKER_01:Oh wow. Wow. Yeah, and it's it uh for those dear listeners of you who don't know who Crichton is, if you just Google Red Dwarf and Crichton, you'll see a picture and you'll see how intricate this this makeup makeup was. It was a whole rubber helmet that we had to put in place on.
SPEAKER_00:But but it was a great experience, yeah. And Elizabeth Hurley I did when she was very young. I we I made her up for three months on uh probably my best job ever. We were out in Dominica and the Caribbean for three months, and that that was that was incredible. Wow, she was great, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:She's uh she's such an icon. Actually, so so many women describe that when they get to midlife, or not just women exclusively, but it's a kind of spiritual awakening, I guess going through the change, all these kind of things. From your experience, how does embracing that transformation change the way we approach beauty and confidence?
SPEAKER_00:Well, that's a tough one. For me personally, I wouldn't say it was a spiritual awakening for a lot of women. It's just like what the hell is going on? It's like, you know, you you don't sleep suddenly, you don't sleep and you forget things. I mean, on to be honest, I I have always forgotten things, I've always been really scanty, but it's worse. And trying to, it's that trying to hold it together. It's a bit like I think when you when you're pregnant and you get to the last term, you just know you can't hold it together. So you so you just embrace it, and there is there's quite a loveliness in that. I think the confidence comes in comes in the fact that you don't have to be the one that people look at and judge all the time. You know, you it's not about invisible, but you're not that it's like you're not on the front cover anymore. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You can sit back in those pages and it doesn't matter that you've put on half a stone because nobody's it's it's like the expectation goes and you feel kind of comfortable in not being seen for a bit, and something else kind of evolves from it, and you feel comfortable in being a bit scatty, and and then I guess that's that's where the spiritual awakening comes. There's there's a freedom in that.
SPEAKER_01:You're just embracing it and just allowing it to kind of that's I yeah, I like that. You think so, yeah. Yeah, it's kind of I mean it's hell for a lot of women. It's really yeah, it can be helpless for a lot of women, can't it?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Feeling good about oneself is a is a way to help navigate through all that. And I know that you've helped so many people feel their best. When when you think about your own spiritual journey through gong, yoga, etc., and now this business, what does beauty mean to you today?
SPEAKER_00:Well, I think, oh god, beauty is everywhere, isn't it? I think when you're younger, you're very limited in what what is beautiful and what is not. As you get older, you you just it expands, doesn't it? Beauty, beauty doesn't get limited to anything. But beauty is the kind of it's it does begin with the in the energy inside, and that's and that's a bit contradictory because a lot of the time, well how can you have this great energy when you haven't slept or you've been up since three o'clock in the morning and you've or you're worn out or you're overthinking, all those things. But actually that that self-care is uh is essential and the beauty, yes, it does, it it's it's um it does show in your face. But I think you know, you have to look you also have to find that beauty and not find not focus on again on the negative. It's like going to you know, an art gallery and you look at art and you you you get filled with something, you know, or you go into the you know nature and there's this beautiful tree. It beauty transcends something, it takes you somewhere else, it elevates you.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I like that. It's it's it's kind of uh it's like it's like a blast of uplifting energy. It's like when you connected with like source or in in in in the zone. Like if you I don't know, one time I This beautiful piece of artwork in this shop. I couldn't afford to buy it, but it just made my soul sing. Yeah, it's it's all of that, isn't it? I'm trying to help my listeners a lot, and that's why I think this is such a good show to have you on today. And I want to ask you, we also all start out with good intentions, but keeping up with positive habits can be tough. What do you think tends to get in the way and how can we overcome it? Are there any tips that you can give them?
SPEAKER_00:Oh, I think what gets in the way is it, you know, while we're trying to achieve something, while it's like a diet or I don't know, a facial routine, an exercise, whatever, while we're trying to get there, we can do it. We've got all that energy, you know, and adrenaline. We push ourselves, but but it's only a limited amount of time we can we can stay on that level. Then it gets, I think for me, it's boredom. You know, you're meant it's maintenance. And that's boring because you're not seeing these dramatic changes anymore. You're not on that path to the dramatic, the drive. So it's the boredom that gets you, and then you slump, and then you slump, and then you beat yourself up for slumping. And then, you know, if you're anything like me, you lie in bed going, Oh, I should be doing this, and I'm not. But I think you take out that should what I've learned very recently is I do it in sound bites. I'll just do five minutes, and rather than say, I should do this, I'm going to experiment with this.
SPEAKER_01:Ah, I like that.
SPEAKER_00:Experiment. And it's not setting yourself up for failure. It's like five minutes you can allocate. You know, and no, maybe I should do my practice for an hour. No, I'm gonna do five minutes and then let that extend. It's the I think it's the pressure we put on ourselves, and then you do reach a boredom level, and then maybe you have to change it a bit.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and uh it's like microhabits, I think, is like what you describe like the five, five, like to do five minutes, because it is sometimes we can be we can talk ourselves out of doing things, can't we? We think, oh, actually, like why bother? But I nothing I know from experience, nothing ever changes unless we do some some kind of new positive habit. Well, none of us are perfect, and and and when our listeners hear about the difficulties that other people have and how they overcome it, it's always think it's a really good, a really wonderful gift.
SPEAKER_00:Because you think you're the only one, don't you? You think everyone else is going out. They look at those runners, look at the you know, they're practicing every day, they're doing this, and you start, it's it comes back to judgment, doesn't it? And when you're in judgment, you can't grow, you can't change.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely. So if I'm a listener, if if there's there's a one small thing that they can do to feel more elevated and and beautiful and more confident.
SPEAKER_00:I would look for, I would say today I'm thinking look for the look for the good points in you, look for the beauty in you that's there, rather than look for the negative. Look just find one thing that you like about yourself, your smile, your whatever, and or your lips if it if we're talking about beauty, and bring that out. Focus on bringing that out, you know, if it's your eyes, if it's your lips, if it's you know, work on that, if it's your hair, you know, a jumper you love that that lifts you.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, because things like that can make a big difference, can't they?
SPEAKER_00:I think they make a huge difference. You can be feeling a bit, you know, tired of but when you you know you see this kind of colour on your on your on your clothes or an uplifting, you know, red jumper or whatever it is, or or something that's soft and cozy, you feel okay. It's it's all about preparing, you know, very much it's it's not like we're going into battle, but it's like uh preparing ourselves to get through something. What's the one thing you wish everyone knew about beauty and self-worth? It's a very hard thing to kind of get your head around that it doesn't come from external validation. It comes from inside. But at the same time, I think external validation is important. You know, if I see somebody who's got a looks great or has not, you know, something nice about them, I will, a stranger, I will mention it to them because it uplifts their day. It also uplifts you, doesn't it? If you see everybody in the same clothes on the tube in the same colours, you you kind of think we're we're so as human beings, we're so attached to everybody else's energy. We pick it up and you think, don't you? If you see somebody in a bright coloured this or somebody who's made an effort, might not be your style, it doesn't matter. You know, it perks you up a bit. It gives you, it lifts you. It's quite it's it's a really important, subtle thing, I think. But I think as human beings, we're so we're so vulnerable to to to these energies that that uh Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:The point you're saying is that it when we see someone who's really been themselves, it kind of reminds us to be ourselves. So if I'm a listener and I I'd like to work with you, Nina, um I do have an international audience, maybe it's through makeup or through the your brand new business, new makeup business, or the gong or yoga, how can they reach you and what's the best course of action?
SPEAKER_00:You can find me on my website, nina gann.com. This November I've just posted a thing. So if you book me this November, you don't have to take it in November for a makeup group. There's I think there's£100 off my one-to-ones, and there's there's discounts anyway. Oh wonderful! So just to give people the lift before Christmas, they might want to know what suits them, what what would look better.
SPEAKER_01:That's such a good idea with the party season coming up. Gifts for like loved ones as well.
SPEAKER_00:It's been really lovely talking to you, and thank you for having me on.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, I've really enjoyed it. As promised, here is your meditation inspired by today's show. Top tips for the meditation is either sit nice and cross-legged on the floor with a nice straight back, always nice to sit on a block or a cushion, or if that's not available for you. You sit in a chair with the back nice and straight. The important thing is you're not slouching. And if you're doing something that requires you for concentration, all you need to do is just pause this and you can reconvene the meditation at a time that is good for you. If you're doing the meditation, let's begin. So as you slowly and gently sit there, just stop to connect with your body and allow your mind to be quiet. Take a slow deep breath in and out through the nostrils, and just feel as if you surrender and settle into the moment. You feel a sense of quietness, and in your imagination, you can imagine a beautiful mirror. It's a full-length mirror, surrounded by ornate patterns, in a room where the light is honest, and in that imagination, in that imagined thought, you look into this mirror, and you see your face, your eyes, your being, and you notice yourself looking back at you via the reflection, all that you have been through in your life, learned, loved, and hated. But whatever path you've been on, that reflection is you. Take another deep breath, and as you breathe, you feel you can relax even more as you envision yourself again in that mirror. That honest picture of who you are. You meet your gaze again and you allow your presence to be seen as the light cascades in the window. You have no judgment of what you behold. Maybe your hair has a few more grey hairs now than when you were young, a few more gentle expression lines. Perhaps you don't feel the same as what you were, but instead of focusing on that, can you look into that mirror and see the divinity of your soul? And tell yourself that you are beautiful. What one small thing can you appreciate about yourself? One small thing you can appreciate about yourself. Maybe it's the color of your hair, the way you smile. Focus on that. And also an internal aspect about how brave you can be sometimes, or how you have this kindness about you. You are a resilient, amazing being, as you let the warmth of the moment of this beautiful mirror, which is in a reflection of your soul, and you let go of anything that stops you from feeling total and utter self-love. You look to that mirror as if it's eyes into your soul, and you tell yourself, I love you, I love you, I love me, I love me completely. And you thank the mirror and you slowly come back into the moment, come back into the room, knowing that you are always worthy.
