As all the married ladies out there will know, planning a wedding is like running the comrades; stressful, highly stressful. For the last three months I have been craving a massage. I had first been promised one by my maid of honour as a gift, which unfortunately never happened, and then by my husband, which also never happened. Finally though, with a bit of luck, meditation, manifestation and belief that I would get one somewhere from someone, sometime, Semantha came to my rescue. It’s all about the essence.
                            
Running for 6 years now, and with over 10 years of total experience, Semantha, owner of Vanilla Essence Mobile Massage, treated me to the deep tissue, acu-point, full body balancing massage I had been dreaming of. Concentrating on my back, neck, shoulders, arms and legs, the massage polarised my right and left to, as Sem says, create a’ homoeostatic state of euphoria’. That’s the best description I have ever heard for the state. During the massage she found that my entire body was out of alignment. The one shoulder blade was sitting far too close to my neck for comfort and my muscles were as knotted as my personality has been lately. Too many knots.When she was done, finally, for the first time in months, I relaxed. The experience must have rejuvenated my soul. 60 minutes of pure bliss. Priced from R 400 depending on where you stay, that’s excellent value for money.

She’s multi talented and capable of assisting with both pre and post sports massage, deep tissue body friction, full body balancing massage with hypoallergenic oils she has blended herself (herbology has formed a large part of her studies over the years). It was magic. Using a mixture of Swedish and Shiatsu massage, she removed every bit of tension from my body and mind. A testimony to her goal of providing a physically and mentally healing holistic experience at affordable prices to anyone, anywhere, any time. It is an admirable dream and I’ll certainly support her. She is making her dreams a reality and her business now also caters to corporate requests where she has up to 3 therapists that assist her, giving employees 10 to 15 minute head and shoulder massages at their desks (nice way to increase the overall productivity of your staff and a lovely incentive if you are managing a team). Her repertoire also includes private couples massage, where she and another therapist will come to your home (note to my husband: honey if you read this, any time you feel like treating us, this would be lovely) and provide you and your significant other with a tandem treatment that will leave you both feeling pampered and re-energised. Vanilla- its all about the Essence. For more info or to make a booking you can reach Semantha on 076 818 0723.

To my mom, my new “other mother” and all the other “Mutha’s” out there, Happy Mothers Day! Thank you for being you. Infinitely loving, caring and incredibly supportive. Where ever you are, your children will follow for where ever you are is home. What did you do for your mom this mother’s day, or conversely, what did your children do to thank you for all you have done mom?

We are finally launching the system that I have spent the last 6 years developing. The detailed operation manuals are complete, the system tested and the green lights shining, screaming silently ‘Go’.

Dandy as all this may be, what scared me most was when a friend asked me the other day, ‘So, what’s the next big thing?’ and I could not give her a direct answer. I have so many wide and varied interests (those regularly following this blog know it). On Tuesday, while hiking from Newlands to Rhodes early in the morning overlooking the entirety of the Mutha City, the answer dawned on me. Perhaps I need to see the list of options in practice before buying in to any particular industry.  I need to find my passion, my groove, something that will have me jumping out of bed in the morning ecstatic about the day ahead. I’m not going to find it by guessing, I’m not going to find out by doing the same thing I did yesterday. How can I change anything while employing the same strategy I did yesterday? No, to find a passion, I will need to experiment, open my eyes and my heart to the possibilities that will present themselves.

Being proactive about these sorts of things, I’m challenging myself to shadow different industries for three to six months at a time for the foreseeable future, until I find what I am looking for. At this point I have a list of potential industries to explore, namely;

• Advertising
• Agriculture
• Photography
• Industrial Design
• Architecture
• Environmental Management
• Journalism
• Nutrition
• Microbiology
• Brand Management
• Marketing (SEO/Web/Analytics)

Perhaps you work in one of these industries. Perhaps you have already found your passion. Perhaps you would like to tell me what makes you passionate about your industry or you’d like to convince me that you have the world’s most incredible job and you are prepared to explain to me why feel that way. Perhaps, I will love what you do so much it will impact me for the rest of my life. Perhaps. Drop me a line via our contact page if you work in one of the aforementioned industries and wouldn’t mind having a shadow for a few days. I will be posting feedback on this journey via the Mutha business news feed.

noun /enˈgājmənt/engagements, plural

A formal agreement to get married

The duration of such an agreement
- a good long engagement to give you time to be sure

An arrangement to do something or go somewhere at a fixed time
- a dinner engagement

That’s the definition according to Google. However having lived the concept I find this definition seriously wanting.  There are a few  things I would like to share with engaged couples that no one ever mentions to you when you are there. To all those that are considering marriage or  who are currently, consider the following…

Post matrimony,  with not even a few hours of  ‘legally wed’ under my belt, I reflected quietly on the last two and a half years of engagement with fresh perspective.  There was such a sense of relief. En.gage.ment is now, in my opinion the period of limbo in which a couple, promises to marry each other, yet for the entire duration, they test and push each other, to the very limit of their patience in order to establish boundaries and confirm that they are not absolutely insane in wanting to spend the rest of their lives with the other person. A self-defeating process by any count. Engagement is Limbo. You will fight. There were so many times we fought were we wouldn’t normally have. You will think you are insane. You will break each others hearts regularly. If you can survive this and get to the other side of the matrimony line, you will look back and probably laugh at yourselves for acting like bafoons towards each other on occasion. Perhaps worse than bafoons, psychotic clowns. I remember that most of the time, the only thing that got me through was the fact that deep down, I knew I was testing him, or he knew he was testing me. That we knew we loved each other more than we wanted to test each other got us through the ups and downs. Perhaps, ultimately that was the real point of engagement; but there is no need for the prolonging the process. We can get through anything now.

My advice, when you do one day decide to tie that knot, make sure it’s for the shortest amount of time possible. No one ever mentions this, and in fact having recently given this advice to engaged friends of ours, their eyes shone with recognition and an ‘engaging’ conversation on the topic ensued. I wouldn’t say it is a completely unnecessary process, for most though, if you have done the time to a point where you want to marry that special person in your life, in all likelihood you should get married. Just skip that long engagement if you can. Are you married? Share your pearls below.

All my Love,

Mutha