Hi everyone,

How far is too far when it comes to wellness?

It's something I think a lot about — and it came into sharp focus this week reading about Kristian Trend, a 40-year-old British wellness coach and cancer survivor who died last month after taking part in a Kambo ceremony in Leicester. Kambo is a toxic secretion scraped from the skin of the Amazonian giant leaf frog. It originates from indigenous communities in the Amazon, where it has been used for centuries in ritual and ceremony. In recent years it has migrated into Western wellness circles, gaining traction on social media and among people seeking transformative healing experiences — even Orlando Bloom has spoken publicly about trying it, describing "a sensation of death."

Doctors have warned that it can cause organ damage, seizures, psychosis and in rare cases death — and that the people administering it are typically not medically trained. Kristian's mother said her son simply wanted to cleanse himself. He was spiritual. He was looking for healing after cancer. And that context is what makes this so hard — because that describes so many people drawn to alternative wellness practices.

It's a good reminder to keep your wits about you when exploring anything outside of conventional medicine, no matter how compelling it sounds or how many people swear by it. Always do your research, always ask hard questions, and always speak to a medical professional before trying anything new.

Emily x

Why most people quit meditation, and what actually helps

If you've tried meditation and decided it's just not for you, you're in very good company. Dropout rates on mindfulness apps are striking, and the standard explanation — that the practitioner lacks discipline or has too busy a mind — deserves more scrutiny than it usually gets. The technique itself might be the problem.

The dropout is a design problem

Most meditation taught in the West — via app, workplace programme or eight-week MBSR course — is some form of attention training: focus the mind, notice the breath, notice the thought, return to the breath. That's genuinely hard work, especially for the stressed beginner who came to meditation precisely because their attention won't settle. When it doesn't click, the dominant narrative invites a personal verdict ("I can't switch my brain off") rather than a methodological one ("this technique doesn't suit me"). If the most-studied form of meditation is also the hardest one for beginners to stick with, the evidence for meditation as a public health tool isn't quite as strong as it's often presented.

Vedic meditation is structurally different

This is the angle Jillian Lavender of the London Meditation Centre raises in this week's podcast, You haven't failed at meditation. You've just been using the wrong method. Vedic meditation is mantra-based, practised twice a day for around 20 minutes, sitting comfortably with eyes closed. The mantra is given by a teacher and used in silence — not as an object of concentration but as a vehicle. You're not trying to hold it, perfect it, or block thoughts around it. When the mind wanders, which it will, you return to the mantra without effort or self-correction. Structurally, this is the opposite of concentration training. The design feature is effortlessness, and the claim is that effortlessness is what makes it sustainable for people who have bounced off everything else.

The neuroscience of doing less

Most of the strongest research is on Transcendental Meditation, which is related to but not identical to Vedic meditation as taught at the London Meditation Centre. Within that body of work, mantra-based practice has been associated with reductions in cortisol, lower blood pressure and shifts in default mode network activity that look different from concentration-based techniques. The state practitioners describe — restful alertness — isn't sleep and isn't ordinary rest; stress markers drop while the mind stays awake. The paradox is that trying harder appears to be counterproductive: effortful relaxation is a contradiction the nervous system can't resolve.

The cost

Vedic meditation is taught in person over four consecutive days with a trained teacher, and courses in London run into several hundred pounds. That reflects what's actually included — a mantra chosen specifically for you, personalised guidance and the kind of structured learning that makes the practice stick in a way that self-guided apps often don't. If you're not ready to commit to a course yet, the principles are still worth trying: sit comfortably, practise twice a day, and remember that the aim isn't an empty mind — it's something gentle to come back to.

If you've given up before, try this

• Sit twice a day for 15 minutes, morning and around 4pm, eyes closed, and repeat any neutral word in silence. When you notice you've drifted, return to it without judgement. Run it for two weeks before deciding anything.

• If you've previously quit a mindfulness app, ask yourself whether it was boredom, time, or the effort of sustained focus. If it's the third, a mantra-based approach is worth investigating.

This feature is for educational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Always consult your own doctor before making changes to your health

You haven't failed at meditation. You've just been using the wrong method.

Jillian Lavender from the London Meditation Centre is on The Health Review this week to discuss why Vedic meditation works when everything else hasn't — and what the practice is actually for. Watch the full conversation now.

Thanks for reading!

💌 Loved this issue? Forward it to a friend!

📲 Let’s connect on Instagram: @TheHealthReview