Sally Appleyard - Rock Body Soul

Nourish and Nurture Your Soul

What were you interested in as a child, and did you know what you wanted to do as a career?

Sally. I always messed around outside when I was little, making potions and pretending to be a witch. I was obsessed with mythical creatures and stories and I had loads of imaginary friends. I’ve realised that’s not necessarily the norm.

We moved to the Middle East when I was around 12. From a sleepy little village in Essex to Dubai, which was a huge change. Dubai was nothing like it is today, utterly different from Essex! It introduced me to a whole new culture which I fell in love with.

After a year, we moved to Egypt, which was a massive thing for me; we lived in the middle of Cairo. I did my GCSEs at the British International School. That time shaped my life, submerging me in an ancient history through the places we visited. The myths and culture of Ancient Egypt captivated me. Cairo is such a busy, vibrant city, and we lived there for five years. I used to go horse riding in the desert surrounding the Great Pyramids and you wouldn’t believe the Energy surrounding them, it was surreal.

I returned to Essex to boarding school to do my A levels, while my parents were still in Egypt. I went back to Egypt every school holiday. Then, I went to Loughborough University to study Media and Communications, following my interest in TV. I thought Uni was going to be creative, but it wasn’t. I’d walk past the art school on my way to lectures, see the students, and think I was in the wrong place. Loughborough is a sports University and it had a very macho culture. I felt lost there and struggled to find my people.

I didn’t massively enjoy my course. I only had four hours of lectures a week, so I had too much time on my hands. I failed my second year but
completed it over the summer holidays; I scraped through and got my degree.

I had wanted to go to art college. I was really into photography. I always took pictures and documented everything. My room was covered in photographs. Because my parents were living abroad, it was too complicated to get a place.

I knew I wanted to get into the TV industry. But I didn’t know how I was going to manage that. My boyfriend at the time, his dad was a director and producer for corporate stuff, and he helped me get my first job. It was a docu-drama about Henry VIII. I’d only just passed my driving test and had to drive Miriam Margolyes around!

I couldn’t do unpaid work forever. By then, my parents had moved to Pakistan, to Karachi. So, I moved back into our family house in Essex for
six months while taking a secretarial course. In the meantime, I did some temping work, including a secretarial job at a banana factory, which I did until I saved up enough money to rent a flat in London with a friend.

So, with great expectations, did you know where to go or who to contact in London?

Sally. In London, I carried on temping work by registering with all the media agencies; work included Island Records and P&O Ferries, randomly, as it’s not media-related. Until I landed a job at London Weekend Television (LWT), now Carlton Television and ITV London.

The job was in the Arts Department, which made The South Bank Show. That is when my TV career began properly. I started as the production secretary, which basically meant doing anything that anyone wanted me to do. It wasn’t glamorous, things like typing up transcriptions for hours on end. It was often a very interesting subject, but its five hours’ worth of transcripts became a 40-minute TV show.

“I had always loved The South Bank Show, and my mum was obsessed with Melvyn Bragg. We’d always watched it, so it was amazing to land that job.”

I criss-crossed the department, doing some production work, which I didn’t enjoy. It was too unpredictable. I’ve always been quite anxious, and I prefer a plan and to know where I’m going and what I’m doing.

I got to work on The Saturdays, a live newspaper TV program, which was a lot of fun. But it was absolute chaos; it went out at 11 o’clock, and we did it for ten weeks, and I’d always get home around 2 am after working on it.

Then, in the early 2000s, I became the Personal Assistant for Melvyn Bragg’s second-in-command which led to me working my way up to be Melvyn’s PA. That was the complete experience, working for him. I loved the job, it was so varied and involved all sides of Melvyn’s working life.

Melvyn presented In Our Time on Radio Four; he’s a Lord so I would go to the House of Lords. There was his work as President of the charity Mind. He is an author, so there was book stuff going on. It was an amazing job, and I used to deal with all of that.

Then I had my son, and the job wasn’t really flexible, so I left to be a full-time mum; I had hoped to carry on working, so that was a completely new challenge.

It sounds like you needed time and space to work out what you’d like to do next.

Sally. When I was at Uni in Loughborough, there was one of those shops that sold crystals and Tibetan stuff. Well, that shop was my place to escape from those sporty people. But there was no time to escape while I worked in London. When I came out of that job, I wasn’t sure who I was, what I wanted to do, or what I was interested in, apart from being a Mum.

“I’ve always read a lot; through that, I reconnected with many things I’d always been interested in, like witchy books and mythicism.”

When I was in Cairo, I used to spend hours in the Bazaar, finding little amulets and statues. I’m interested in the worship of Gods as opposed to the idea of God.

The year after I’d had my first child, Zack, I felt more like myself again instead of being swept up in that TV world. Four years later, I had Aggy; by then, we’d lived in London for a long time. We wanted a change so we moved down to the southeast. We got a house in the countryside with hardly any neighbours. That was the big turning point to reconnect with nature, like when I was a child. I started to follow the witches Wheel of the Year which follows the cycles of the seasons; there are celebrations for the Equinoxes and Solstices. I enjoyed foraging bits and pieces and started making herbal remedies for myself.

I started using essential oils for healing and returned to using crystals. My anxiety had got quite bad again when we first moved down here; I didn’t know anyone at all. We had our seven and three-year-old, and it wasn’t easy to meet people. I found essential oils and crystals helped me to feel more grounded and better about things in general.

I’d always had stones around, but I began to understand the process of using them thoroughly, and learned more about their healing properties and how powerful they could be. I was becoming more attuned to the Energy of the Earth. We are all made up of Energy. Each of our organs vibrates at a different frequency, while crystals have a single frequency, so our bodies are attracted to the vibrations of crystals as they have a really stable Energy. Each crystal has a different vibration, some high and some lower. So, when I talk about using crystals, you can use them in different ways. Including just as a decorative object.

Right now, I’ve got Amethyst in my hand. I’m fiddling with it because it keeps me calm, and sharing my story is a little out of my comfort zone. For somebody reading this article who doesn’t understand how people can use a crystal, this is one way, in the most basic form.

I would openly say that I’m a witch, and that’s become a stronger part of my identity as I’ve gotten older. Films and cartoons have created a negative identity for witches. But a witch is a healer, essentially. There are different kinds of witches: Hedge Witches, Kitchen Witches, Sea Witches, and Crystal Witches. There’s a vast community out there, but I take things at my own pace and do it at my level. I’ve been known to cast a spell; you can create your own magic.

It all goes back hundreds of years, people have always used natural products to heal. The ancient Egyptians used Amethyst as a protective amulet and different crystals to adorn tombs, for example. Like anything, it gets passed down through the generations and documented.

I can’t remember the last time I took Aspirin or Paracetamol. If I’ve got a headache, I use Peppermint Oil. Or I lay down with a piece of Amethyst on my forehead for 20 minutes. That’s what works for me. Investigating and trying out things like that led me to set up Rock Body Soul.

So tell us how your shop Rock Body Soul was created and how it has developed.

Sally. I bought my first batch, a large assorted box of crystals. I had connected with a supplier with whom I often talked about crystals. I gained confidence in my knowledge and I thought, OK, this feels right, this is what I want to be doing.

At this time, I was away, I sat on the beach in Formentera, designing my logo and set up an Instagram account, and that’s how I started. I didn’t have a big plan; I just went with my intuition. I started to post images of the crystals and didn’t want to overthink the minutiae of it. Through Instagram, I saw a pop-up market in Hastings; I messaged them to see if there was space for me and a week after my holiday, I did my first market.

On the run-up to Christmas, I did Harborough Nurseries Market and the Great Dixter Christmas Fair after I’d asked Gina Portman for some advice. And that’s how I started, in the right place at the right time.

Then, sadly, COVID-19 arrived. But we had that excellent summer weather that year. Everyone was going through so much stuff. I used that time and got deeper into everything; I had more time for meditation and yoga. I was spending a lot more time doing stuff with crystals.

People wanted something to make them feel better. By this time, I had rockbodysoul.co.uk. People would buy something, and if they were local, they would drive past, and I’d hang the purchase in a bag from the gate so they could collect it.

During lockdown, Rob built me a studio in the garden. Then I had a little base out in the countryside. So, after the lockdown, people could come, and I did an open day with Julie Tucker-Williams who makes my crystal necklaces.

Then we started thinking about moving to St Leonards. I wasn’t looking for a shop, but this just happened, and I went with it. When I began to think about opening Rock Body Soul as a shop, I knew I wanted to sell more than crystals. So, I set about curating stock. We have candles, either for spell work or just for their aroma. Essential oils, which again are healing without even thinking about it. Some are Calming and Uplifting; some are Grounding. Incense, which you can use with or without your crystals. And ceremonial cacao. All-natural products from small companies, some of which are making everything from scratch. I wanted to support small businesses like me.

When you look around the Rock Body Soul shop, you’ll see quite a few palm-sized polished stones, and they are fantastic to keep in your pocket to hold as something to soothe you. So, in their most basic form, crystals can be used like that. Some people might see them like a comfort blanket, but you’re also connecting to the Energy, whether you realise it or not. You can Meditate with them and set Intentions. All the stones have different properties so there is something for everyone.

Many people who visit Rock Body Soul say they don’t know anything about crystals, but they are drawn to a particular one; I’m like, well then, that’s the one for you! You’ll benefit from its Energy even if you don’t do anything with it.

This shop is about bringing all these things together. There are so many practices that work well with crystals, including using Oracle Cards and working with Cycles of the Moon. It’s great to work with these practices into your everyday life.

The shop is a modern, light, calming space. I wanted to create a sanctuary to hold workshops and events here on Norman Road. So, my furniture is on wheels and can be moved out of the way to open up the space. Now, we have a collection of practitioners using the space for different things, including Breath Work Classes, Sound Baths, and a combination of Yoga and Sound Baths. It’s a great community building that brings it all together.

Sally Appleyard
Rock Body Soul, 70 Norman Road, St Leonards-on-Sea, TN38 0EJ
www.rockbodysoul.co.uk
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