Mental health and the welfare of this year’s contestants are hot topics surrounding Love Island right now.
Since former Love Island and Celebs Go Dating contestant, Mike Thalassitis, was found dead earlier this year, many people have been pondering ‘just how dangerous is reality TV fame?’. How powerfully can that experience affect our mental health? And are TV producers doing enough to protect their stars from deteriorating mental health?
Thalassitis is the second former Love Island contestant to die by suicide in the past year. Sophie Gradon died last June. The causes of suicide are always desperately complex and it is impossible to pinpoint one single cause. It is relevant, now, though, to ask how vulnerable these young people felt after appearing on television – and how responsibly they were cared for before, during and after that experience and how future reality TV stars will fare.
One contestant flying into the island this year is hoping to boost morale with the help of a rather quirky wellness technique.
When GLAMOUR flew to Mallorca ahead of the show starting, we met Amber Gill, a 21-year-old beauty therapist from Newcastle, who hopes to bring zen to the villa courtesy of crystals and reiki.
“At the salon, we do beauty and holistics so I have all my crystals and do reiki healing. I feel like no one really talks about it so if I do have a platform, that’s what I’ll talk about. I feel like it’s really good for mental health and when you’re feeling down, it’s how you can pick yourself back up.
“I’ll be taking my crystals into the villa because I love them and I take them everywhere and if anyone asks, I’ll tell them. I only talk about them if people are interested because sometimes you do get people saying ‘this creepy girl is using crystals with her witchy ways!’. If someone is interested, I am more than happy to do reiki on them.”
And it seems that Amber is on to something.
Whether Victoria Beckham is adorning her runway with them, Miranda Kerr is meditating clutching hers or the hippest beauty brands are infusing their serums with rose quartz, crystals have become the trendiest route to enhanced wellness.
Hey, if you haven’t jumped aboard the crystal bandwagon yet, have you been living under a rock? Pun intended.
With A-listers and wellness gurus espousing crystal’s life-changing benefits, I enlisted Kate Deely, a Quantum Healer and Claircognizant at Scientia London, to investigate their benefits.
Essentially, a crystal healer works to stimulate the body’s energy flow to restore balance and help the body heal itself. Describing energy healing and her practise, Kate explained: “The way I best view energy healing, is in alignment to the teachings of the Eastern World. The East have always seen and understood the chakra body to be the fundamental influence for the physical body. So when there is a blockage or disharmony within the energetic body, it can very often manifest into a physical or emotional illness or imbalance. Therefore energy healing is hugely beneficial for the wellbeing of all three bodies: emotional, physical and spiritual.”
Kate says crystals work as tools for energy harnessing. “Think of the micro processor inside a computer, which uses quartz crystals to hold and submit precise signals and frequencies,” she explains. “Crystals work as vessels which are able to hold energy, transmit energy and transmute energy. In order to understand crystals, you have to start thinking in terms of energy, vibration and frequency.”
We can’t wait to witness one of Amber’s crystal healing sessions in the villa.
