Monday menu

5 things shaping the week ahead

A 5-piece selection from the collection of intentions I set myself on a weekly basis, based upon my own personal pillars and priorities, such as career, health and wellness, creativity, mindset, food I’m eating, social life, what I’m shopping, and so on. Spending some time thinking about what you want to achieve or how you want to feel at the end of the week is a really good way to begin it. Intentions don’t have to be all serious and sterile, they are about creating, becoming and living the life you want to lead. I hope you do something with intention this week, whatever form it takes.

1. Operating from a higher frequency.
   I came across the above chart a while ago. I mentioned last week that the news had weighed heavily on my shoulders, leaving my frequency levels, according to this chart, to operate around 100-50Hz. I still got my work done, as I am disciplined enough and need to live, but I was inputting low frequencies, outputting low frequencies, and attracting little. I know many will glaze over when talking/thinking about ‘operating at a higher frequency’, but ‘raising your vibration’ is such a healthy thing. It was Einstein who taught us that everything is energy, and the state of vibration - energetic quality - varies in frequency for every object, person, place and thing. According to the law of attraction, ‘As you think, you vibrate. As you vibrate, you attract.’ Meaning the thoughts you have and the energy that you put out in the world will be the energy you get back, and the energy you absorb will affect the energy you possess and exude later. Intentionally setting out to increase your vibration by creating, absorbing and harnessing good energy, will translate and enable you to operate at a higher frequency. You will then give out this energy, and attract this energy back… It’s science, and whether you believe it or not, who wouldn’t want to be operating at a higher level? It’s a key to success (whatever your success looks like) after all.
   

2. Substack: I am working on my next fragrance edit, delving into the samples I’ve been utilising and scrutinising over the past couple of weeks. It includes a really brilliant fragrance described as ‘a sensual shot of provocation’ by a brand I hadn’t heard of until now, a journey to ‘the cool gardens of Roma’ from another, and the ‘sumptuous spirit of a whirlwind weekend in Paris’ by someone else. It’s been quite a journey.
   

3. Reading: I was craving some old-school English literature. Romantic and dramatic, meaty but easy-to-read, full of nuances and nuptuals, chaperones and chivalry, long skirts and even longer sentences. I settled on Villette, the third novel of Charlotte Bronte. A few chapters in and Lucy, the protagonist, has just arrived in London. Her journey has left her tired, scared and feeling alone: ‘I wet the pillow, my arms, and my hair, with rushing tears. A dark interval of most bitter thought followed this burst, but I did not regret the step taken, nor wish to retract it. A strong, vague persuasion that it was better to go forward than backward, and that I could go forward- that a way, however narrow and difficult, would in time open- predominated over other feelings… I had just extinguished my candle and lain down, when a deep, low, mighty tone swung through the night. At first I knew it not; but it was uttered twelve times, and at the twelfth colossal hum and trembling knell, I said: ‘I lie in the shadow of St. Paul’s.’
   Gosh, I love this city.

   

   The Hero, Maida Vale, London

4. Eating: I am very excited to have a table booked for lunch at The Hero in Maida Vale this week. Prior to opening, there were whispers a-plenty: what to expect from the team behind The Pelican, the adored Notting Hill pub? (I wrote about their lobster and monkfish pie for my ‘Eyes on the Pies’ piece for Luxury London.) Have you seen the delicious decor (see above) covering four floors, each dedicated to a different dining experience? And the menu, of course, described by the team as ‘pub food through rose-tinted glasses’… Those whispers are now cheers of celebration, as a steady flow of diners want to make The Hero known. I know it will be a good one.
   

5. Mantra: Have courage and be kind.