Annee de Mamiel is the founder of the de Mamiel collection.
What’s happiness to you?
For me happiness is when I am in a place and feel ease in my body. Feeling the support and love of the people around me but mainly in a place where I am challenged and driven but not overwhelmed – its really about being true to who you are.
How did you arrive to your current level of happiness in life?
We all have challenges in our lives, no one’s is greater than another’s, they are just different. For me it has been a process of listening to my body and learning to know what is right, when I need to refocus, prioritise and quite simply stop and rest or dig deep and just keep going. Learning what challenges me, when to ask for help and understanding that, with failure come the greatest learnings and that everything passes. Balance is important, I used to get lost between being a full on adrenalin junkie, physically challenging my body and then after a time of being unwell swinging to the complete opposite side of the spectrum and being a totally focussed on self care but neither extreme allows me to be comfortable, so it is about mastering the right calibration for what I need at a particular time.
What’s the connection between being content and having a healthy flawless skin?
Wabi Sabi – the art of imperfect beauty, is a potent Japanese saying, which resonates strongly with me – in which in a flawless bowl there is darkness and within a flawed bowl, with a crack or a hole, there is light. No one has flawless skin, but is that a bad thing?
We can exhaust ourselves finding perfection and rarely does it exist, so it is through acknowledging where we are and acceptance that we find that place. I believe this is true for all aspects of our life. We tend to be our own harshest critic and even more so when we look at ourselves in the mirror, but every line every wrinkle tells a story and has a beginning.
I have loved the journey of discovering how our minds impact our skin, this continues to drive me to create solutions in helping both. Chinese Medicine, and many other ancient cultures, has understood that the face reflects what is going on in the body and mind, but has not necessarily been able to explain it in a way that our Western trained brains can accept. There is so much we don’t know about our brain and the study of anatomy and physiology and psychodermatology is just beginning to explain what ancient cultures have just believed without question for thousands of years.
How can one stay happy by leading a busy life, for example running their own business?
Finding a way to deal with the pendulum swings, which are constant, and recognise the need to pause, rest and recalibrate or just move. I have been incredibly blessed finding mentors and teachers to explore difficult times and what worked for me and so now I am able to dip into those things when I need to the most – what is constant for me is exercise, meditation, journaling and yoga.
I need time in nature and I need warmth so connecting with nature and trying to live in the now helps me stay happy.
What are you “happy places” in London, or elsewhere?
My happy places are in the water, either sailing, paddling or surfing… the soothing sensation of water, sound of waves crashing brings a deep joy and contentment.