This blog will be closing down soon!

We have converted to a Wordpress blog and will be only posting on there from now on. 

To keep up with our news, hilarious and witty commentary and other really interesting stuff, simply visit us at our new address:

www.spiritualquest.co.uk/blog

See you after the jump! 

xoxo

Buddha Shaped Pears

You find some interesting things whilst browsing the internet on a regular basis, usually piano playing cats and questionable remixes of vine videos. However I've recently come across a story I think is rather weird and wonderful and even a little related to us at Quest. 

 A Chinese gentleman has started to grow pears in the shape of Buddhas. He owns a farm in south China's Jiangxi province and has been forcing pears into moulds shaped like Buddhas. This makes them take on the shape as they grow He even makes baby shaped pears and said he got the idea from an Ancient Chinese fairytale that says if you eat a baby shaped fruit you will gain immortality. 

dailymail.co.uk

Buddha Shaped Pears

Now I love Buddhas and I love pears so I find this story amazing and I would absolutely love to get my hands on one of these. 

What do you think? Too weird? Cute? Would you eat one? Tell us your thoughts!


Have a wonderful bank holiday :)

Amelia xoxo


For more information see http://www.dailymail.co.uk/

Top 5 crystals for your home

 Here at Quest we sell so many crystals it can be a bit daunting! To narrow them down, we've researched and discovered the best crystals you can have in your home. Rose Quartz is my favourite and I have an abundance of it in my relationship corner; I've found it really helps to strengthen and stabilize my relationships (friends, family and even those occasional romantic ones)


1. Rose Quartz

Rose Quartz is a stone that promotes love and harmony. It assists in opening and healing heart chakras and encourages forgiveness and compassion. It heals emotional trauma which helps one to let go and feel good within themselves.

Perfect if you're going through a crisis, your daughters (or sons) are experiencing their first heartbreak or you feel you need a few more loving vibes at home. 

2. Amethyst

Amethyst is a very powerful and protective stone. It is extremely soothing and calming and is great for any kind of cleansing. A wonderful stone for psychic and spiritual development it also guards against psychic attack. 

This stone is excellent for squabbling kids, argumentative adults and as a protection from any negative energies that may be infiltrating your household, a few pieces of this dotted around and your home will once more be a tranquil haven.

3.Clear Quartz

Clear Quartz is known to be the 'master healer' of the crystal world.  A stone for good health and wellbeing, it can be used to aid with healing on any part of the body. Place a little piece of this energising stone in your home and harmony, healing and happiness is sure to ensue!

4. Citrine

Citrine is a stone for abundance. Abundance in health, happiness, wealth and all aspects of your life. As well as this it's a great cleanser and regenerator, is very creative and energising and is brilliant for recharging when you take a well deserved rest day. 

Citrine in the home will help you to grow anything you wish to grow, whether it be wealth, happiness, love, friendship, creativity or anything else you may desire.

5. Black Tourmaline

Black tourmaline is one of the best stones around for grounding and protection. It absorbs negative energies from electric appliances. When placed around the home it protects the whole space from negative energies. 

 A truly wonderful stone to have at home if you want to keep the nightmares at bay and protect yourselves and your family from all the nasty energy transmissions from the abundant amounts of electrics we can't seem to live without nowadays. 

I hope you find this article and these crystals helpful in enhancing your home life!

 Love and peace, 

Amelia xoxo


For more information or to purchase some of these crystals, visit spiritualquest.co.uk

What is Mindfulness?

Good morning, everyone! I hope you all had a brilliantly relaxing weekend :) 

Last Sunday I wrote about relaxing detox baths but today I want to write about a new thing I've tried called Mindfulness. I've heard this word being thrown around and increasing in popularity for quite a while now but only recently researched into what it is. 

 

Cover Photo by Peter Hapak for Time Magazine

Mindfulness is a 'way of paying attention to the present moment.' It uses a combination of yoga, meditation and breathing techniques, it helps us to become more aware of what is around us and how we are feeling at that exact moment in time to help us manage them better rather than becoming overwhelmed. 

By practising Mindfulness, people can focus more on their emotions, increase their attention span  . and has use it to help aid stress, anxiety, depression and addictive behaviours, making you happier and more peaceful. One is able to practise Mindfulness wherever and whenever they want or need too, whether it be at work, home, outside or inside.

Their are various courses to help you learn mindfulness however I have done a little research and the three main steps are these: 

1. Focus on your breath. Inhale and exhale deeply and slowly.
2. Whenever any thoughts, emotions, sounds or physical feelings occur; completely accept them, letting them come and go without any further thought on them. 
3. If your attention drifts off and focuses on any of these feelings, just bring it back to focusing on your breathing.

I've tried this out for a few days now and am really feeling a lot happier and chilled out (yay!)

There are more in depth courses online or in person that you are able to undertake that cover all sorts of techniques and reasonings for Mindfulness so you are able to practise it whenever you want to with ease. 

Visit http://www.bemindfulonline.com/ for more information 

What is Lammas?

We are well into summer now, balmy nights and breezy days have taken up our lives for the time being and the warmth is such a welcome change. For Pagans, being this far into summer means that 'Lammas' is just around the corner, or in this year's case, today.

Lammas is a Pagan festival from Celtic origin that celebrates the start of harvest, welcomes the start of Autumn and was one of four festivals to help split up the year. Lammas was traditionally held on the day the fields would be harvested and reaped for their nutritious goods. This harvest season would continue until Samhain (nowadays known as Halloween) when the last of the food would be stored away for the winter months.

To celebrate, Pagans would play music, dance, eat and get together as a community, whilst others would perform rituals and ceremonies similar to this one. A popular thing to do on Lammas is to play traditional games that legend says Lugh (the God Lammas was named after) started as homage to his deceased mother. 

Nowadays people still do all of this to celebrate. They bake berry pies and loaves of bread, spend quality time with friends and family and often groups will be involved in rituals or ceremonies to welcome harvest.

Now I'm not a pagan or a wiccan myself but still find their festivals absolutely fascinating! The celebrations sound like a lot of fun too and I'd really love to get involved and celebrate them one year.

What festivals (if any) do you celebrate and what do you do?

F**k It Therapy

I came into work today full of happiness and glee for absolutely no reason whatsoever (I'm going to put it down to the fact I actually ate breakfast...)  and it was marvellous! I've had such a great day because of it.

I wondered why we don't all wake up feeling super happy every day and how we can go about doing it, so I had a browse through the self help books to see if anything might be of use. I'm not usually one for self help books or CDs or anything as they're too fluffy for me (but just right for others). I found a book called 'F**k It Therapy' by John C Parkin and was very intrigued. After picking it up, reading the blurb and having a flick through, I decided this was not a normal self help book. This one was special.

The plan is to start reading this tomorrow (my day off) to ensure I'm as happy as larry whenever I choose to be. I will keep you updated on how it's going and how great this book will be.

I bought a cute little fairy bookmark that I adore to help keep my place whilst I try and sort out my life; I usually read from a Kindle but I just have a feeling I'm going to be buying more books from now on. 

Both book and bookmark can be found online or in store. 
spiritualquest.co.uk

Sunday detox day!

It's the end of one week and the start of a new one, I always find Sundays to be slightly fragmentary; a little disconnected from the rest of the week. Sometimes slow, quiet and dare I say, boring. But often a day for total relaxation, preparing yourself for the week ahead and spending time with family. 

I like to use Sundays as the day to look after me. Meditation, exercise, baths, wholesome food and naps make up the majority of my day. I've recently been adding Himalayn Salt crystals to my bath as they are fantastic to detox and balance out your body's natural acidity and alkaline levels.For more information, click me 
 

I got thinking and thought that there must be other things you can add to your baths to detox, not just salt. A quick google search yielded lots of results; ginger detox, the baking soda detox, a hydrogen peroxide bath (?!?!) I decided to play it safe and try out an essential oil detox bath. The main reason being is that whatever ailments you may have there is usually an oil that can help you. 

I chose lavender for it's calming, relaxational effects. All you need to do once you have chosen an oil is run a hot bath, mix together a handful of Himalayan crystal salt (or Epsom salts), half a cup of baking soda (I thought this was slightly strange too) and add to the bath alongside 10 drops of essential oil. Soak for 20minutes and rinse off with a cool shower to clear off any residue. This was a gorgeous recipe and I really felt the toxins being drawn out and eliminated from my body, it smelled great too.

So draw yourself a nourishing detox bath, make yourself a green tea, find a good book, light some candles and relax (tea, book and candles optional but advised)

Quest sells both gorgeous selling candles, Himalayan crystal salt and essential oils! A win win for everyone 

Enjoy your relaxing Sundays, peace and love xoxo

Learning to read the tarot cards..

Hiya everyone,

About a year ago I posted a bit on how I was going to teach myself how to learn the tarot and that I was so determined to do so. Unfortunately, life (and my inability to stick to one project at a time) got in the way and I got distracted by other shiny new things. 

This summer however, I will do it. I've managed to get a few family members on board who are going to learn with me which I hope will be beneficial as we will be able to encourage each other and help each other whilst learning. I've mentioned it to my friends and they've been very supportive and are keen for me to practice on them which is even better! 

We have an exellent teacher named Steve (who works at Quest as an angel card reader) and lessons are due to start any week now. I'm getting rather excited and will be posting a little summary after each lesson to keep track of my progress. 

The pack of cards we will each be using are The Original Rider Waite Tarot Deck accompanied by The Tarot Bible. 

You can purchase these from spiritualquest.co.uk

I've been toying with these cards for well over a year now and they really are beautiful and the clearest deck I've seen before. The bible is filled with detailed explanations of each card; different layouts and how to read the tarot. Both are fantastic for beginners.

If you are interested in learning how to read the tarot yourself, Steve is holding a 5 week Tarot Course running from 7pm - 9pm on Tuesdays 29th July, 12th August, 26th August, 9th September and 23rd September for £60. If you'd like to book a place, give us a call on 01372 878606

Sunshine and suncatchers!

With all the gorgeous warmth and sunshine recently, I decided I needed to get something little for my house to help me enjoy the weather from the inside as well. I visited the store and chose a pretty suncatcher with a rose for my window. It was difficult to pick one because a. I'm terrible at making desicions and b. There were so many! Suncatchers of all different sizes, with one or more crystals, motifs, plenty of colours and designs; there really was one for everyone.

The suncatcher is designed so that if hung on a window, any sunlight that catches on it, reflects off it into the surrounding environment as little fragments of rainbows. I was excited to get home and test it as I was anxious that the sun would suddenly dissapear.

I hung it up and it immediately caught the sunbeams shining into the room. Miniature rainbows were bounced around and my walls looked beautiful! I was so happy with my purchase that I'm considering buying another to go on the same window just to increase the rainbow-ness.

I will upload a photo of the suncatcher in action later on (when I've given my windows a bit of a scrub) 


This specific suncatcher (and many others) can be found on Quest's website here: spiritualquest.co.uk

Indian Head Massage Review

At work yesterday I was treated to a beautiful Indian Head Massage by Quest’s reflexologist, Sarah Newby. 

At only 15minutes long, it was a great session that covered by head, neck, upper back and shoulders. I wasn’t sure what to expect as I was an Indian Head Massage virgin but I will definitely be going back for more.

It left me with an amazing sense of relaxation and rejuvenation. I wasn’t sluggish and tired like I usually am after a long day at work and showed it by going home for a jog before seeing friends in the evening!

I would 100% recommend getting an IHM if you ever get the opportunity. Sarah is currently offering 15minute taster sessions at Quest for £15. 

For more information, send us a message or drop us a call on 01372 878606 

Our annual Halloween event!

Our annual Halloween Event is back this year! For those of you who have seen us there before, we are back to open people’s minds to new experiences, (or familiar ones!!) we will be outside the House of Fraser for taster sessions with our readers, or shiatsu massage, along with this we also have the wheel of fortune and loads of prizes to be won!! 

2nd & 3rd November outside The House of Fraser

Tarot Readings with Gill
Angel Readings with Steve
Psychic Readings with Juliet
& Back / Neck Acupressure with Murray
All £10 for 15 mins

So call to book your appointment or just pop down to the Ashley Centre that weekend!
Hope to see you all there!

For more info call the shop on 01372 878606 & don’t forget to tell all your friends!!

Rainbows

As we all know, rainbows occur when it's both raining and sunny at the same time. But why do they occur and what can they mean? 

Rainbows are made when the sun reflects off of millions of tiny rain droplets. The white light enters an individual droplet and leaves as one specific colour of the spectrum.The colour that is produced depends on the angle that the light hits the rain drop. If you only had a few rain drops, you would only have a few colours and there wouldn't be a rainbow. 

As the raindrops fall through the sky, the angles change and consequently, so will the colours. This is why rainbows seem move and appear to change in density. Rainbows are actually a circle, however because of the horizon, you usually only see half of them.

To find a rainbow, face the rainclouds (when it's raining) and make sure you have your back to the sun.

Spiritually, rainbows signify different things to different religions and beliefs.

 In Christianity, a rainbow is a sign from God to show that he is there and will not flood the Earth again. In Pagan lore, the rainbow symbolises happy events, great success and spiritual enlightenment.

 In Greek mythology, Goddess Iris was the Goddess of the Rainbow. She is deity of sea and and sky and was believed to supply the clouds with water. Thus creating rainbows. Iris was messenger of the Gods and was believed to travel on rainbows whilst delievering messages to the mortal world. Ancient Greeks believed that as Iris linked the Gods to humans, the rainbow links Heaven to Earth. 

 

Copyright Lisa Iris

 
To many people, rainbows have their own meaning, whether they signify luck,  happiness or wealth! What do rainbows mean to you? 

Palm Readings, Reiki and Chakra Balancing

Tomorrow, Saturday 11th May, we are having a special day with Carolina who is available for Palm Readings, Reiki and Chakra Balancing. 

Carolina has been a Palmist for 16 years and has read thousands of palms during this time. In a typical reading she takes a look into your past, present and future to help you go forward in your life. 

She has studied and offered Reiki healing for five years and chakra balancing is a new treatment! 

Prices

Reiki - £60 for 1 hour £35 for 30 minutes 

Palm Readings - £40 for 30 minutes

Chakra Balancing - £35 for 30 minutes

                              Come on down for a lovely relaxing, pampering Saturday! 

Wise Words

"The best way to pay for a lovely moment is to enjoy it."  Richard Bach

Mixed Daisy Tea Light Candles

I've been scouring the web for cute little things to make these summer days even better and I've found these adorable daisy tea lights. 

                    

Great for the garden or dotting around your house it's only £6 for 8 candles from urbanoutfitters.co.uk

If these aren't your thing, we sell sets of 24 organic tealights for £5.50 at spiritualquest.co.uk

Happy bank holiday!

We hope everyone had a fantastic Bank Holiday relaxing in the sun with family and friends. 

Carolina has created a lovely little video, taking you around our shop in Epsom, Surrey. 

Click this link to have a look!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3enKxLUprNI

Click the photo to go to the video!

She will take you round and show you our popular products and most of the things you can buy online at spiritualquest.co.uk

For those headache sufferers out there..

We have found a yummy recipe (we like food) that helps to soothe away any aches and pains. The perfect comfort food, it'll relax you and also make you feel 100 times better!

Gurpareet Bains’ No More Headache, Baked Beans on Toast uses ingredients that have been medically proven to help chase away the pain.

Ingredients - Serves 2

Olive oil
1 tbsp caraway seeds
1 tbsp nigella seeds
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp curry powder
400g (14oz) can baked beans
Freshly chopped coriander

Method

1.Pour some olive oil into a deep saucepan; add the caraway, nigella and mustard seeds and cook over low-medium heat until the seeds start to pop.

2. This should take no longer than 1-2 minutes. Remove from the heat and immediately sprinkle in the curry powder, mixing well.

3.Pour the beans into the saucepan and heat through, stirring occasionally.

4.Garnish with the freshly chopped coriander (cilantro), and serve on hot toast.


This recipe has been taken from Gurpareet’s latest recipe book Indian Superspices, £12.99.

Wise Words

'Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy.' Norman Vincent Peale

How to smell good with a simple soap

If you're looking for a new fraqrance that's gentle and organic but just can't decide, Quest's Strawberry & Rose Organic Soap Bars are just perfect. Smelling gorgeous, they give a subtle smell that isn't too strong and is just wonderful to relax with.

They're long lasting, paraban free and available in two other scents; Relaxing and Indulgent & Wild Fig and Grape.

£3.50 for a 100g bar, they are quite the bargain! Can be found in store or online at spiritualquest.co.uk

Current Offers

Shiatsu Offer - spend over £30 in Quest and receive a voucher for a free 15 minute back massage with Murray.

Sarah is offering a 30 minute Stress Buster Reflexology Treatment for £10, 40 minute Hot Stone Reflexology Treatment for £20 and 20 minute Indian Head Massage for £10. Sarah is available Wednesday afternoons.

Penny Siggery our massage therapist is offering Quest customers£10 off her normal price massage treatments.

 

 

Pop in; call us on 01372 878606 or email in at info@spiritualquest.co.uk to book or for more information!