Spoiler alert: This is the revival.
My first step in reviving my long-abandoned and little-loved blog is rewriting the story of how this business came to be. Because to be perfectly blunt: I do not like the original telling of the story – it does not encapsulate the essence of the journey enough. So, once you are feeling comfortable, I shall begin.
Chapter 1: The Initiation
All the way back in 2020, everyone’s world was uplevelled by the pandemic. When it began, I was part way through my Masters degree in Digital Marketing, in fact, I only had about two classes through online learning and the rest was me holed up in my teeny London flat researching and writing my dissertation all summer long.
It was during this time, with the onset on online socialization that I got introduced to mindfulness – specifically, meditation – and it was here that my personal journey began. As you can probably tell, I began practicing mindfulness like most others do: through meditation. The most foundational and popular form of mindfulness at the time. I go into this experience more in my other blog post which you can read here.
2020 comes and goes; I complete my degree and hunt for jobs in digital marketing which for me was a challenge being Canadian in the UK without permanent residency (I needed a visa, and most companies are highly unwilling to sponsor you).
Which takes us to 2021.
Chapter 2: The Ignition
With one visa about to expire and needing to find a way for me to stay in the UK (something I desperately wanted to do), I set about exploring my options. After a frantic search, I (with some help from family) came up with the idea to set up this business and hastily put together a business plan, pitched it, got sponsorship and then a visa and was able to begin getting everything together.
I had a lot of research to do – my initial outline had me researching for six months. Then another six months was meant to develop the app that I was going to build. It would have been the primary way the business was going to function, however after months of research I realized that an app was not the best way forward and I scrapped that idea. My initial plan also only had me targeting students in higher education in the UK, but that also turned out to be rather unfeasible and so I opened things up to everyone.
Fun fact: it was not until the end of 2021 that I finally came up with the name for the business: MyEirene Ltd. It was something I struggled with for so long. That and the branding – which I despised but thought it was what a ‘wellness’ brand should look like.
One year in and I was still deep diving in the research phase. Spoiler alert: it took me almost 2 years to gather enough research. It was a sea of mindfulness. Most research was self-experimentation, i.e. I practiced an explored varying forms of mindfulness practices and so on, on myself first. In essence, I vetted them before I brought them into my work.
Chapter 3: The Trials and Tribulations
Enter 2022. This was a year of major upheaval in my personal life, and it brought about a massive change in how I dealt with both personal and business matters. My outlook on mindfulness really began to form and take shape here. For 2 years I was stuck in outdated loops that came from external sources and struggled to rely on my own navigation. It meant that a great deal of work produced during this time was not work I considered worthy of sharing with the general public – it simply felt too much like what everyone else was doing and not at all innovative. Perhaps I was being too hard on myself but there is a standard I like to uphold when it comes to my work.
2022 was a lot of research, research and more research. I was exploring as many nooks and crannies as I could so when I finally felt ready to produce content, it would be content I was proud of producing.
This was also a year where I tackled a lot of imposter syndrome - I was 26 when I began this journey back in 2021, which is crazy young to start a business. I had no idea what I was doing and many times I felt totally underqualified. For a good while, I had to take a step back with this business and focus on my personal health and wellbeing…can’t run a wellness business when your own health is in shambles (more or less). Especially when it dulls your creative juices so much, you run dry…better known as burnout.
You may be wondering why I am divulging all of this. Well, it is because I want to share. I want it to be known that times get tricky and not everything goes according to plan. It takes a long time to get a business up and running. I want to be transparent with you all.
With that, let’s move on to 2023.
Chapter 4: The Redirection
2023 was a slightly better year in certain aspects but for the most part, it was another super tough year. Towards the end of the year, I managed to regain a lot of the confidence I had lost along the way, and I began to find my creative spark slowly, after a lot of rehabilitation.
All in all, this year was also a year of trial and tribulation…and a huge amount of stress. I do not have the fondest memories of 2023. Such is life. Two great things that did come of it was rebranding. After a heart-to-heart with a dear friend, it was pointed out to me that my original colour scheme was severely lacking and did not capture my spirit (I was told that I needed to pick colours that better represented who I was because although this business is a separate entity, I created it and from that I live through it). It was a darned good point and I will forever be grateful to my friend for pointing it out.
The other great thing was rediscovering my love of writing, and with that, came a stubborn determination to find out how I could incorporate writing into this business. With that came renewed hope and motivation.
2023 also saw a total redesign of the website, with the new branding, a new sleeker look and the inclusion of our membership page and forum.
There is not much more I wish to say about this year, so let’s fast forward to the present: 2024.
Chapter 5: The Present
At present I have been working on streamlining the updated and improved website. A lot of the original copy is completely out of date and does not align to where this business is at currently. And one cannot have a website that does not accurately represent their business, that is a big no-no.
I have also been updating some older content and working hard on producing new content that covers every aspect of mindfulness and wellness. I realized that not only do I want this business to be a database for all things mindfulness, but I also want it to be a publication that creates plenty of affordable and accessible content. This is the way I intend to bring in my writing skills. And this blog is part of the publication.
Although it does not yet exist, I envision a magazine of sorts being birthed into existence at some point in the next year or so as well as a monthly newsletter. The forum will be full set up within the next month and will be accessible to all members as part of their membership. For those outside the membership, the forum will be accessible through a subscription service.
To sum up: this year will be focused on building upon the foundation that has been laid out over the past 3 years. Time to construct our skyscraper. There are a few other things in the pipeline but perhaps I will write up a proper manifesto for your perusal later.
Chapter 6: The Conclusion
If you are wondering if anything has remained the same since this all started three years ago, the answer is yes.
My original mission was to make mindfulness more widespread, palatable, and affordable. I always envisioned this space as being more ‘self-help’ orientated which is still the case. I wanted to develop a platform for people to learn about all things mindfulness, something that I did not have but wished I did. A one-stop-shop if you will.
This has not changed. What has changed is how I am going about making it so. I will say that one big change – and this is probably a tad surprising – is that I am not solely focused on mindfulness as a form of spirituality anymore. In actuality mindfulness contains both science and spirituality and this needs to be made more aware.
So, my dear readers, this is where this space is at.
The End.
I hope you enjoyed this read. I promise that my other posts will be a lot more mindfulness-orientated, although I did feel that this was a necessary piece to write. If you are totally new here, then click here to find out more about what we do.
Enjoy the rest of your day!
Until next time,
Jamila
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