"The Years After Cancer - Never give up - Dream Big"

5/5 — A Day of Gratitude & Reflection

Today marks 23 years since I was diagnosed with cancer—5th May 1999. This date always brings with it a wave of deep gratitude and reflection. What I’ve learned since that day has shaped not just my health, but my mindset, my work, and my life philosophy.

Here are just a few of the truths I hold close, born from experience:

• You are the master of your mind, and thus your destiny. If you believe you can’t, you won’t. If you believe you can, and keep your energy aligned, you absolutely will.

• High-vibe energy is key. Low-vibration states—fear, self-doubt, low self-esteem—can make us vulnerable, emotionally and physically. Staying in a high-vibration state protects and empowers us.

• You can have whatever you want—or your reasons for not having it. Choose courage. If something doesn’t make your heart sing, honour yourself enough to walk away.

• Know your worth. Trust that all will be well—because it will. Stay open, and you’ll attract the people, opportunities, miracles, and ideas that are waiting for you. Closed hearts block the flow.

• Take action. Bold ideas are gifts—run with them. Thinking won’t conquer fear, but action will.

• Failure is part of the process. I’ve failed. And I’ve grown. As Richard Branson says, “Don’t be embarrassed by your failures. Learn from them. Start again.” My fav is screw it lets do it!

• Morning meditation/journaling is a game-changer. Creative visualisation helps me connect with my higher self—my intuition, my inner guidance, my best friend. Journaling is beyond powerful…

• You get to a certain age and realise: you’ve survived—and thrived. The evidence is all there. You’re still standing. Stronger, wiser, and more you than ever.

• There’s a power—a source—that connects us all to infinite intelligence. When we keep that connection strong, we tune into what I like to call Abundance FM. It’s a delicious, high-vibe channel straight to our intuition—our divine internal compass. Keep your vibrations channelled to your higher self whatever frequency that is.

• Perseverance overcomes obstacles. Never give up. Keep showing up. Keep believing.

For anyone reading this today who may be navigating a hard patch—please know that you’re not alone. Life is a roller coaster: joy, loss, challenge, laughter, success, heartbreak, healing. The rainbow often comes after the storm, even when we can't yet see it.

Before my diagnosis, I had already built a thriving wellness business— A year ahead fully booked appointments diary, a vegetarian bistro (way before it was trendy and I cooked/prepared all the food) and a happy, bustling hub for self-care with a beautiful clientele… I was also stepping into spa consultancy. Cancer didn’t stop me—it redirected me. It became the catalyst to pursue the next dream: to create meaningful, authentic spa and wellness experiences in the Caribbean. And that’s exactly what I’ve done—building award-winning spas, rituals, and products with heart and purpose.

The photos I’m sharing today are a snapshot of that 23-year journey after cancer…

So wherever you are on your path: keep believing in your dreams. Follow your bliss. Honour your worth. Keep your vibration high.

I’m ready for my next chapter—I can already see it in my imagination. As Einstein said:
“Imagination is everything. It’s the preview of life’s coming attractions.”

With love,

Creating - A positive, passionate, inspirational, holistic home office space

Your email questions lit a spark! After sharing a glimpse of my mindful home workspace, many of you reached out asking how to stay focused, productive, and balanced when working from home. With over 40 years of experience setting up holistic spaces and creating wellness-driven environments, I thought it was time to share everything in one empowering guide.

Why Your Workspace Matters

Working from home isn’t just about having a desk—it’s about creating a sacred space that supports creativity, clarity, and calm. Whether you’re in a hotel room for 6 weeks (as I often am) or a corner of your living room, how you “set the scene” matters. Your space affects your emotions, your productivity, your energy—and your joy.

Top Tips for Working from Home—Holistically and Happily

1. Structure & Routine Are Your Best Friends

• Create a schedule and stick to it. Your schedule can also include exercise and mindfulness slots!

• Prep the night before as if commuting: plan meals, clear the space, lay out your work clothes.

• Dress for work (no pyjamas!) to signal to your brain that it’s “go time.”

At the end of the day, change into leisure clothes to mentally close the office door.

2. Make It Sacred: Personalise Your Space

Surround yourself with meaningful objects—your “desktop buddies”:

• Crystals, inspiring quotes, statues, vision boards, aromatherapy diffusers

• A mini dream board nearby (just for you!)

• Choose items that ground, uplift, inspire and energise you

3. Aromatherapy: Mood-Boosting Scent Rituals

As a clinical aromatherapist, essential oils are at the core of everything I do.

• Use a diffuser to scent your workspace with blends that support your mood

• Try my signature blends—Rapture, Restore, and Release—designed to uplift, balance, and ease tension

Your olfactory system connects aroma directly to emotion and memory—use it to your advantage.

4. Invite Nature In

Plants and flowers are powerful allies:

• They purify air, calm the nervous system, and uplift your environment

• Add green energy, or gaze at blooms between tasks to reset your brain

5. Use Mirrors & Light to Expand the Space

Even if you’re in a 3ft x 3ft corner (like I am!), a mirror can create openness.

• Position it to reflect nature or light

• Use accent lighting for a cozy, spa-like effect

6. Create Boundaries: Physically & Mentally

• Use a screen or visual divider to create a sense of “entering” work mode

• When you leave, really leave—don’t return until the next day

• Clear your desk at night to reduce anxiety and start fresh

Build-In Wellness Breaks

7. Break-Up Slots: Movement, Mindfulness & Magic

• Schedule mini meditations, breathwork, short walks, exercise or stretching

• Join a Zoom fitness class (I love Barre with Tracy Whitehead & Chi Ball or Pilates with Sandie Keane) Or better still attended a class on your designated lunch break time.

• Add in creative joy: cook, dance, or learn a new language

Take a 15-minute language lesson with headphones during your walk!

8. Snack Smarter, Plan Ahead

• Keep a tray of healthy snacks and water by your desk

• Prep lunch and avoid unnecessary kitchen distractions (unless they are part of your break up designated slots)

9. Treat Yourself: Rituals That Restore

• Midday aromatherapy bath? Yes please.

• A little luxury can shift your whole energy and boost productivity

10. Inspire the Whole Household

• Many of these tips apply to home-schoolers and co-working families

• Children can benefit from wellness tools like crystals, oils, visualisation and mindful rituals

My godson carries a crystal I gave him in his pocket and connects with it when he feels anxious—it’s his happy stone!

Final Thoughts: You’re the Director of Your Day

Working from home has its perks. You can:

• Use former commute time for meditation or journaling

• Work aromatherapy into your lunch hour

• Bake a cake, do laundry between meetings, or hop on your bike!

With intention, you can design a workday that nurtures you, supports your goals and leaves you feeling energised—not drained. The key? Plan ahead, personalise your space, and prioritise your wellness

sandie@sandiekeane.com www.sandiekeane.com

Making "You Time" for self-care has a powerful, positive impact on our mind/body/spirit health & wellbeing

Why Self-Care is a Necessity, Not a Luxury
– From the Desk of a Spa Consultant & Natural Product Creator

One of the most fulfilling aspects of my career is creating natural aromatherapy spa products and designing holistic rituals that de-stress, recharge, and uplift. These rituals—enjoyed in spas around the world—offer more than just indulgence. They provide real moments of healing and reconnection.

Over the past 11 months, life has thrown more than its fair share of stress, fear, and uncertainty our way. In times like these, our minds, bodies, and spirits crave stability, nourishment, and familiar routines. The long lockdowns reminded us just how much we relied on those everyday wellness rituals—spa visits, beauty treatments, time at the hairdresser’s—for grounding and emotional support.

These weren’t frivolous luxuries. They were part of our self-care ecosystem.

If there’s one silver lining to emerge from the challenges of this pandemic, it’s the rediscovery of home care. Slowing down gave many of us the space to reconnect with ourselves—and to understand the powerful benefits of self-nurturing routines.

Let’s not forget that feeling after the first lockdown, when you finally returned to the spa or salon. That wave of relief, the sense of normalcy, the deep appreciation for something we may have once taken for granted. It was a beautiful reminder of the importance of prioritising ourselves.

Now more than ever, self-care is essential. Whether it’s a facial, massage, reiki session, scalp treatment, journaling practice, or simply carving out time to breathe, these small acts have a powerful cumulative effect on our wellbeing.

My Self-Care at Home

For me, home rituals are a blend of the therapeutic and the playful:

• Lavishing my skin and hair with Revitalising Butter with Hemp

• Soaking in a Rapture Bath with a glass of bubbles (alcoholic or not!)

• Enjoying a Restorative Face Mask during an episode of A Discovery of Witches

• Meditating under the full moon

• Journaling for clarity and calm

• Or getting my body moving with a Zoom workout from one of my amazing fitness goddess friends

(Side note: My flat is tiny, so every workout becomes a choreography of dodging furniture—especially when I’m doing Seasonal Pilates with Sandy or Barre with Tracy!)

Spa Vibes at Home

While we await the full return of spa days and wellness getaways, we can still create sacred time for ourselves. Over the coming weeks, I’ll be sharing home spa rituals and product secrets—inspired by my work as a spa consultant and natural product creator—to help you unwind and restore from head to toe.

These are simple, soulful practices to bring balance and beauty into your everyday life.

Let’s turn your home into a sanctuary. Let’s make self-care part of your lifestyle—not an afterthought, but a cornerstone.

37 Years Ago - 5th September 1983

37 years ago, today I started my own business… I joined the ranks of the “Self-employed” – The Brave Entrepreneurs - The Mavericks - Pretty fluffing amazing! As my friends in Jamaica would say “Big Up Yourself”

In the seventies and from my working-class background no one told girls at school they could have a meaningful lifelong career, still less run their own business…  My advice to young women wanting to start their own business today with all the fantastic global tools at their fingertips and drawing from my funny, amazing, harsh, brutal yet brilliantly rewarding career journey (No regrets whatsoever by the way) would be –  Dream very fluffing big, anything is possible, you don’t get there on the first class train in the early days, however  you will arrive at your destination and it will feel fantastic... Never sell yourself down the river, know your worth- even when you don’t have a £ in your bank account, go for it, plenty will want to exploit you, make you feel less than the amazing unique creative person you are. Be clear on what your offering, never lose sight or focus on your “why” who you are and what your business (you aim to achieve) Ride the storms, there will be many, lick your wounds, go within when you need to, ask yourself the questions and don’t allow yourself to be defeated, sometimes we can be our own worst critic. There is no such thing as a mistake. Every decision you make is a learning experience, and the only real mistake you can make is not to try in the first place or be defined and kill yourself (mentally) over your  perceived  failures (sometimes these so called failures can take you down and I mean really take you down) the light at the end of the tunnel goes so close to being out that in your mind that’s it, your crap, you totally doubt yourself, spiral into periods of awfulizing “I am not good enough, look what I did wrong blar, blar, blar” Fluff it get back in the fluffing saddle girl!  At least you had the balls to own your own businesses – you went for it; you took that big risk in the first place. Learn from these experiences and don’t stay down for long, if you do it’s so much harder to come out from under that cloud, get your ass up and get back out there. Tap into that goddess intuition which is there just wanting to support you every step of the way, to help you, guide you. Don’t wait for the right moment to start. As Richard Branson says “Screw it just do it” The longer you wait the harder it becomes to start. If circumstances prohibit you from starting, then do something towards that start. (This applies to starting your business or coming back from a SETBACK)

Next year I celebrate 40 years in the Spa & Wellness Industry. It seems like only yesterday, I still feel that optimism, passion and joyfulness (and adrenalin rush) that absolute self-belief I had back then. I think that’s the marker for a career, taking risks and going for it as - A well-made decision. No excuses – Screw it just do it!

SEPTEMBER 2020

Energetically - Spring & Autumn are my favourite seasons. Both gift us with very clear unmistakable vibrations and ancient messages. The powerful pull at these times connect us with our relationship to the environment around us and our path, our purpose in life. They are dynamic seasons which have a powerful effect on almost everyone. For me, the months of March & September signify the feeling of “anything is possible” - they are big months of change, when the seasons transition. September’s transition is from Summer to Autumn.  On Tuesday 22nd September we celebrate the Autumn Equinox a brilliant Pagan festival, when the sun crosses the Earth's equator from North to South, this only happens twice a year and I passionately celebrate all the Pagan festivals!  I have been known to wear white and walk into the ocean and float flowers on the sea under the soft glow of the moon as the women do in South America to celebrate this time by offering gifts to the great Goddess, mother nature, who, at this time is beginning her decent from Earth into the deeper depths of the underworld. This is a purging, cleaning time when it’s good to decide what we want from life and what we don’t! The equinox marks the time when daylight and night time are approximately the same length, there is a spiritual shift and you can totally feel it. When day and night are at their most equal, the feeling is tangible... I am already working with that powerful balance today (1st September) The smell of Autumn is in the air and there is something reassuring and very persuasive about that. September, like March, always has that effect on me – “A call to action”. After the year we have all been through, lockdown, unprecedented upheaval, juggling all our emotions, loss, work/business issues, out of work, family, finances, loss of identity, and experiencing fear in every area over our present & future, balance is something we all need right now.

It might be reassuring to think about it this way. Remember, how as a child/teenager/student/parent, your year began in September with the return to school after the long summer break? (Admittedly - 2020’s break has gone on for a long, long time!) You felt excited, it was seen as a time of organisation, of preparing for the future, a time of a higher level of organisation, decluttering, full on business, timetables, time management, the urge/need to "learn something/do something new". I love the back to school, new academic year vibe... Everything about it is a prompt for letting go for change, for renewal. The activity in the fields is busy, the farmers are flying around country lanes (sometimes scarily) in their tractors, busy sorting out the fields, harvesting and getting ready to sow their winter crops. It's a dynamic season which has a powerful effect on almost everyone. Back to school, back to work, back to reality, back to what we want, back to whats really important... Covid is not going to take away whats important to us. Now more than ever we will have a real sense of what that is, what is really important, what really matters to us. We can use this natural time to let go, to cleanse, purge, declutter and decide what we want from life and what we don't. There is so much about 2020 that we need to let go of, so much fear and pain, however there is also much to be thankful for and there is so much to plan for. Nothing stays the same in nature, therefore we can hardly expect ourselves to be the same month after month, year after year. I hope the world will have matured and grown after this year of Covid. I hope we will seek new ways of caring, of kindness, with different goals in place to move forward with integrity. We cannot stop or turn back the clock; we need the constant flux & flow so we don’t stagnate, but we can learn. When the flow is vibrant, healthy and in balance, we move forward in a beautiful way and the world becomes quite literally, an amazing place. Happy September x

Taking "Baby Steps" Breathe and connect with what feels right for you.

Getting back to our pre-pandemic life is something most of us want to do or at least the good parts of our lives, taking the positive lessons learned since March 2020 with us into our new normal. I for one began to appreciate the opportunity of a quieter, slower life that the break from our busy day- to-day lives offered (It might sound crazy but the last time I gave myself permission to slow down so much was back in 1999 when I was diagnosed with cancer. I went from working a 7-day week to 4. I did change my life dramatically after that and thankfully I am still here to tell the tale. My life work balance is much better (always room for improvement) and just prior to Covid I was revisiting/scrutinizing all again (I tend to do this “big time” every 20 years, when I am ready for the next chapter!) Covid just heightened/clarified whats important as it has for most of us. The break this time didn’t last too long for me (Part of my job was to start working on Spa & Wellness Guidelines to be fully prepared for when my industry would be able to open again) which meant days filled with global zoom and conference meetings and then typing Covid, Covid Covid over and over till I just couldn’t type the word again for over a week. However, the shift and break in general business commitments afforded me with time to focus more on my creativity outside of business, which sometimes goes on the back burner. I was able to revisit projects and pick up on things I had wanted to do for some time which was brilliant.  During that still, noiseless month (April) I was able to wake up and smell the roses, muse, ponder, just sit, look up at the amazing clear blue sky and just be!

If we look for the positives to come out of this situation (always there in any situation) and take those pearls of wisdom and insights with us as we move forward, I think the world can be a better, kinder place. We are far from out of the woods with all this chaos (negative) yet we are moving from the initial shock, doubts, and fears into other stages of the grief cycle. Now, hotels, spas, restaurants and gyms and most businesses are starting to open again which is fantastic for the economy and every person on the planet who has been hit financially (positive). It feels like we are starting to take those big steps and now things feel like they are starting to move forward fast (too fast for some) it feels too soon. Whilst some people do the right thing (about ¼ of the population) the rest seem to think the rules and Covid19 does not apply to them (Big Negative). I see it every day and cannot understand how they don’t seem to care about the rest of society? If we plunge back into the depths of Covid in the winter, sure these people will have blank expressions and blame everyone but themselves. I know people who are just to afraid now to step out into the world and have completely retreated and I totally get that. Those beautiful people I delivered medication/shopping to during the last 5 months have become very fearful and institutionalized, they just dont feel safe or have the desire to go out, this is so sad to see. They have sacrificed and done the right thing for the greater good and now they are stuck in this limbo place. If they do venture out and see so many doing the wrong thing it begs belief “What was 22 weeks of isolation/shielding for? To save their lives yes! To help the NHS yes! To save others’ lives yes!

Moving forward with gratitude that we still have the gift of life when so many have lost theirs and being respectful, mindful, aware, and doing the right thing is the way forward. It is the only way to respect those who sacrificed, who lost their lives and to rebuild society. While the world is taking those massive steps towards “Normality” it’s perfectly acceptable for you to take “Baby Steps” be kind to yourself, trust your judgement and do what feels right for you. Work for me didn’t really stop and I have returned to elements of my work that had to stop, however two pre-pandemic lifestyle steps for me this week. First day having spa treatments yesturday, first day back at the gym and doing a BARRE class today. Did it feel good? Yes, it did, great.  Was it different? Yes, it was! At Barre with only 3 in the class and all the H&S aspects in place it was very strange however I totally loved the feeling of doing something that was a joyful part of my lifestyle routine. Tried zoom online classes which are brilliant if you have the space my apartment is tiny therefore, I decapitated my buddha and knocked over a vase of flowers doing Pilates… Not Good! On my way to my exercise class today I felt like the first day at school not knowing what to expect. “Baby Steps” Breathe and connect with what feels right for you. One day at a time. #Covid19 #Kindness #Barre # fear #isolation #muse #babysteps #breathe #bekindtoyourself #dowhatfeelsrightforyou #dotherightthing #wellbeing #wellness #mindfulness #caribbeanessentials #lindahallbrand #awardwinningspabrand #lindahallspaandwellness