When Kate Moss needs to de-stress, she doesn’t merely go for a walk or take a nap like us mere mortals – instead she lies under the night sky to absorb its lunar energy. Of course! This is known as “moonbathing” – and while it might sound a tad witchy woo, it’s in fact an ancient wellness regime, and far healthier than sunbathing.
Moonbathing is thought to calm the mind, manage stress, regulate a woman’s cycle and may even cure chronic conditions like hives and migraines. It’s also just one part of the supermodel’s daily routine. Speaking to The Sunday Times last week, the 49-year-old revealed she practices transcendental meditation for 10 minutes every day, goes wild swimming, does ashtanga yoga and reformer pilates and even grows her own vegetables. During full moons, she likes to “charge” her energy-giving crystals in her back garden, too, all the better to soup up its power. Crystals are meant to positively interact with the body’s energy field – or chakra – and promote physical, emotional and spiritual healing. Moss’s additional daily affirmations – which include “trust the universe and it will lead the way” – might sound cheesy as well, but so what? I say good for Kate Moss! Who needs stress? Rather than laugh at her wacky wellness antics, surely this sort of thing should be encouraged.
According to research, sky-high levels of stress over extended periods of time can impact most organs in the human body – it’s been linked to a variety of disorders including insomnia, anxiety, depression, acne, hair loss, sexual dysfunction, obesity and cardiovascular disease. Stress is also remarkably common – a survey by Rescue Remedy found that one in 14 UK adults (or 7 per cent) feel stressed every single day.
I’ve tried out all sorts of things in my own personal quest for serenity. Like Moss, I was taught transcendental meditation – but I’ve long forgotten the secret word I was given to focus on when I do it. I’ve had deep tissue massages and head massages with warm oil. I had a panic attack that I mistook for a heart attack and ended up in a minor injuries department sobbing to a nurse. It was the best therapy I’ve ever had and it left me feeling renewed.
But what else is out there? And I’m not talking about simple dietary changes or yoga and pilates. I want to get on the Moss wellness programme – where tackling stress is a matter of the weirder the better.
Something that Moss doesn’t seem to do (yet, anyway) is “restorative rocking”, which involves gently rocking your body back and forth to relieve stress. Gemma Arterton is reportedly a fan. Then there’s “dissolve therapy”, which is a massage so deep it’s actually working on your internal organs. Or Wim Hof’s prescription ice baths. Known as “The Iceman”, the Dutch guru has earned himself an army of celebrity followers – including Gwyneth Paltrow, Rita Ora, and Oprah Winfrey – due to his advocating of 11 or so minutes of breathwork followed by six minutes of submersion into freezing cold tubs of water. Moss does this while attending a “social wellness club” in Los Angeles, she told The Sunday Times, and lying down in “a dark room with heavy dark curtains”.
According to Hof, taking ice baths helps reduce inflammation in the body, strengthens the immune system, balances hormone levels, improves sleep quality and helps you learn to regulate your mood – while also giving you a nice hit of dopamine. Hailey Bieber posted a TikTok in June in which she dunked herself in ice-cold water in a plunge pool for at least 30 seconds – she’s said she uses cold plunges to reduce her anxiety. Meanwhile, her husband Justin Bieber uses a trauma therapy technique known as “havening” to reduce his own feelings of anxiety. The self-soothing process includes crossing your hands across your chest and moving your hands down to your elbows.
There are different frequency settings. Some for stimulating change and abandoning past trauma, [some for] becoming more open to human relationships, [and others for] inner awakening and returning to the spiritual order
Charles Mills
Neil Shah, the founder of the Stress Management Society, tells me that in recent years “workplace stress and the cost of living crisis [have had] a profound impact on people’s wellbeing”, adding: “The world changed in 2020 with Covid and it’s never going to go back [to how it was]. People working from home or hot desking, with little to no meaningful human interactions, have caused a mental health pandemic.” Mental health is currently blamed for 63 per cent of long-term absences from work. Stress is also high on the list of reasons for short-term absences.
It might also explain the sheer number of slightly eccentric de-stressing regimes on the market. London-based Leo Cosendai has been a gong practitioner to the stars for 11 years, but gong baths to reduce stress and tension have never been trendier than right now. Consendai does home visits all over the world, charging from £500 for a one-hour session – “some people like to bring their friends and family – even pets”, he tells me. Clients will lie in a comfortable space while Consendai strikes his gongs with various kinds of mallets, creating “binaural beats” as well as “harmonic intervals” in the process.
“It helps to experience altered states of consciousness,” says Cosendai, whose first permanent sound installation “Om” is on show by appointment at The Other House, a private resident’s club in South Kensington. It also houses two of the biggest gongs in the UK. He tells me that his clients compare the experience of a gong bath to “plant medicine like ayahuasca and ibogaine – but you can snap out of it. It’s more subtle and, of course, it’s legal.”
Microdosing is another current wellness trend – people take small doses of a psychedelic which may alleviate symptoms of depression and anxiety. Shamanic journeying, meanwhile, involves being guided by an experienced shaman into an altered state of being, helping you let go of stress and get a better perspective on life.
The new TikTok trend “Traptox” – in which women get Botox in the trapezius muscle in their shoulders for a longer-looking neck – can also “alleviate pain and tension,” according to Traptox expert Dr Ivona Igerc. Dr Ros Jabar treats jaw grinding with Botox, too, and says “it’s one of the common effects of stress – it leads to waking up with hypertrophic masseter muscles. It’s that big Desperate Dan-like jaw.” It also causes “temporal headaches,” she says, adding that an injection of Botox in the jaw can paralyse it, “[breaking] the vicious cycle” and releasing jaw-centric tension.
Gong girl: Like ayahuasca, apparently, but legal
(iStock)
At Kensington’s The Body Lab, a private state-of-the-art performance and recovery facility, there are hyperbaric oxygen chambers, floatation tanks, infrared cabins and cryotherapy to reduce stress and aid wellbeing. Then there’s Easy21, a new device launching next month that realigns the chakras and relieves the mind of oppression and anxiety by omitting sound frequencies to the brain. Charles Mills, a Made in Chelsea star and the CEO of the wellness company Gelida, tells me that the process involves lying on a bed wearing headphones for 30 to 45 minutes. “There are different frequency settings,” he explains. “Some for stimulating change and abandoning past trauma, [some for] becoming more open to human relationships, [and others for] inner awakening and returning to the spiritual order.” Treatment costs from £120 to £175 per session.
Top hormone doctors are also essential in the fight against stress – especially for women who want to get pregnant. “Women often present with symptoms of hormonal imbalance such as irregular or absent periods, premenstrual syndrome, mood disturbances, insomnia, weight gain and food cravings,” says Dr Ghazala Aziz-Scott, clinical director of the Marion Gluck Clinic, who specialises in bioidentical hormone balancing, functional medicine and integrative health. “But after consultation, it becomes apparent that they are likely to have a dysregulation in cortisol, the hormone released by our body from the adrenal glands in high levels when under stress.”
She adds: “If there is persistent elevation of cortisol, our bodies sense we are in crisis and other important bodily functions become compromised as the body focuses on survival strategies. From an evolutionary point of view, this is not an optimal time to get pregnant! So our sex hormones become imbalanced.”
It can be addressed with diet and lifestyle changes, she says, and “the use of adrenal adaptogens such as ashwagandha and rhodiola rosea that support the adrenal glands to rebalance”.
But what if you’re eager to de-stress your life but haven’t got the immediate funds to jump into freezing cold water with a celeb-friendly guru, or get Botox in your shoulders? Well, you could try laughing. It’s no joke: having a giggle can relieve tension in the body and relax the muscles for up to 45 minutes. It might just work. In the meantime, you can find me in the garden basking under the moon. If it’s good enough for Kate…
