The second Better Way Conference of the World Council for Health in Bath, England

Organized, informative and overall: excellent

Allo! I was invited again to be a speaker at the second Better Way Conference in Bath, England and this year I was able to attend in person. Before I simply show you in photos what this trip was to me, I want to say a profound and public thank you to Tess, Shabnam, Emma, Christophe and Mark for being such a lovely, powerful, relentless group of humans. The thing I like most about the World Council for Health (WCH) is that these individuals provide a platform for other individuals to empower themselves - with knowledge and true education. I learned a lot about law and legalese speak in one of panels this weekend, and it has ignited a fire in me to learn how to get over arrest and not under it, in the future. Here’s a photo of the Gala dinner prior to the start of the 3-day conference.

Better Way Conference Gala Dinner with honorable guests Drs. Paul Marik and Pierre Kory.

They walk the walk of action. It is no picnic doing what they do, or to pull off an event like this. So, well done. And sorry for running away with the ‘EIO’ sticker Emma: I had to crash. :D

Better Way Conference, Bath, England, 2023. Mark Trozzi, Christophe Plothe, Emma Sron, Shabnam Palesa Mohamed, Tess Lawrie. Photo: Jessica Rose

You are all individually special to me, and you all hold places in my heart. I find it much easier to put how I feel into words. And thank you so much for this beautiful certificate of appreciation!

Better Way Conference, Bath, London, 2023. Photo: Efrat Fenigson.

In additional to the Steering Committee members, I must give an enormous shout out and thank you to Lucy (I love you woman) and her lovely daughter Harriet, and to all of the people who were tirelessly working this past weekend to put off a flawless event: you were powerhouses of organization and caring.

Lucy and Jess at the Better Way Conference, Bath, London, 2023. Photo: Jessica Rose

To the security guys - earwigs and all - you were not only excellent in a professional capacity, you were kind and warm and went above and beyond what security would ever be expected to do. We will always have our laughs about how the automatic doors would never open for me, and then open on my face.

And last but oh so not least, to the people who attended. It would take 10 Substacks to write about all of the conversations I had with all of you. I know I am not the most approachable person in real life (I actually do tote around a bit of an attitude and God help you if you try to steal my wave), but having said that, interactions with individuals are incredibly meaningful and potent to me - probably even more so since the convid two week flat curve trauma. Post-convid interactions are without pretense and I hold them in very high regard. It is because of this, and my low bandwidth for the number of interactions I can process, that I have to limit them. I know that might come off as stand-offish or ‘snobby’ to some (I am often accused of this), but it is quite the opposite, in truth. Fitting in too many unique experiences to me, would be like over-stuffing an already full suitcase. It ain’t gonna close if I try.

I don’t quite know what to say most of the time when a lovely stranger comes to me and says that I helped them or their loved one, for example. It is, kind of staggering. In a good way. At this latest conference, I missed a lot of the talks because I was talking myself - not just to media - but to you: the attendees. I didn’t get to speak to all of you, of course, but I did speak to many and besides getting emails and business cards, I took many cherished memories.

Better Way Conference, Bath, England, 2023. Speaker: Andrew Bridgen. Photo: Jessica Rose

There was a medical doctor who approached me at the end of the third day and just said “I love you”, which might see odd (or it might have been odd a few years ago), but it absolutely didn’t feel that way to me now. It was really authentic - as in, appreciation. I looked right at him and I felt it was true. We had an amazing and lengthy conversation about medicine (he’s a brain guy) and what’s going on with the injections and I truly enjoyed it and felt I had made a new friend. It’s all too easy to just bond when all the pretense and nonsense of ‘usual’ conversations don’t exist, isn’t it?

That’s how I felt about all of the chats I had. They were all so special because there was no pretense or motivation other than a desire to say thank you (although, I did rack up quite a few presents). It took me a while, but I did actually feel I was able to simply accept the gratitude and to give it back too. It’s like a skill that can be improved with practice. Again, I am not used to the attention so not sure if I succeeded but I hope so.

Thank you to my buddy Pierre for the autographed copy of his new book,

Better Way Conference, Bath, England, 2023. Pierre and Jess. Photo: Jessica Rose

and also to the WCH for the amazing gifted book, 180 Degrees: Unlearn the Lies You’ve Been Taught to Believe.

Better Way Conference, Bath, England, 2023. Book presents. Photo: Jessica Rose

Without further ado, I will share some of the hundreds of photos of the city, the conference, the presents, the presence, and the landscape. I will only share a few here (no conference shots yet) and then dedicate another post to many more photos.

The first 9 photos of Bath.

Please do enjoy!