Jennifer Barton – a New York born Londoner – accepted Eventbrite’s #GTFOChallenge to go to 30 events in 30 days for the experience of a lifetime. This is her account.

People I meet keep asking me what my favourite activities have been this month. 

And my least favourite, too. (HA!)

The truth is, I almost can’t answer. I’ve loved them all – and I’ve learned a lot from every experience. I’ve crafted and gotten sweaty and spoken to strangers and used muscles I didn’t know existed and pushed myself out of my comfort zone time and time again (hello, public speaking in a roomful of strangers?) and every day I’ve come home thinking: “Wow.” 

I feel like I might have made a new friend. 


I feel like I’m so much braver than I realised.

I feel so excited to shout about all of these amazing Eventbrite activities from every rooftop. And tell everyone about them.

And then, I get on the Eventbrite app and start scrolling for new activities to sign up to next month. (Yes, seriously.) 

Here’s what I’ve been up to this week so far… 

Face yoga: mindfulness meets massage meets mouth muscles 

I’ve been hearing a lot about face yoga, purported to improve everything from sleep to the surface appearance of skin on the face and neck. Some do it for its relaxation benefits, others to stop tensing their jawline… while others swear their skin has never looked firmer, plumper or better since they’ve started – and scientific studies support this, too. (Is face yoga the new Botox? That is the question.)

Face yoga can be done in all sorts of ways, focusing on one part of the face or all of it, and I was lucky enough to have two different face yoga experiences on Eventbrite this week, one IRL and the other online.

The common theme of both sessions? Reconnecting with yourself: they both kicked off with a mindfulness exercise, a way to ground us and also reinforce that this is about relaxing our minds as well as working our facial muscles. 

The first session was with Marta Jiminéz of Reborn Aura, a Spanish skincare brand (@reborn_aura). The session included a carrot and apple shot (a good collagen boost), before meditation and exercises focusing on our mouth, jawline, neck and tongue. It really felt like a gym workout for the lower half of my face, and we finished off with a gua sha massage and by sampling some of Reborn’s skincare and beauty products.

Then I tried a 40-minute Zoom face yoga session called Love Yourselfie, run by Ellie of Kindfulmind (@kindfulmind_uk). It was exactly the relaxation and “me time” I needed at the end of a busy day hunched over my computer, and I felt amazing afterwards – the combo of meditation plus exercises plus massage was perfect, and I loved how relaxed the whole atmosphere was since the session was online. Definitely planning to join these each month!

Casting spells in a Beginner Witch Circle

Continuing with the mindfulness theme, I wasn’t expecting meditation to kick off a witches’ circle… but, then again, when you consider that embracing your inner witch is all about being a version of yourself that’s in her full power, connected to nature, herself and part of a bigger community, well, of course it makes sense that meditation comes into it.


I was so excited to head back to Fire + Alchemy (@fire_and_alchemy; the crystal coffee shop and studio space in Shoreditch, which hosts everything from breathwork to sound baths), for a beginners’ witchcraft circle hosted by Desiree Diaz of SacredWiseMagick (@sacredwisemagick). 

The session brought together so many elements I love: herbal tea with powerful ingredients like passionflower and lemon balm, meditation with essential oils, connecting with our intuition as we cast the circle with the other attendees, divination… we pulled tarot and oracle cards and it was pretty incredible how many peoples’ cards lined up exactly with what they were currently facing – or needed to confront. (Yes, it happened to me too.) 

In fact, my final card was a picture of a naked witch astride her broomstick and the text was all about letting loose. I have to interpret this as some kind of metaphor for my #gtfochallenge adventures this month. I think the card was instructing me to keep moving, keep trying new things, keep adventuring… long beyond July.

We all cast a spell together at the end, dropping a wish in a pouch with a variety of plants and cinnamon essential oil for our ancestors. I left feeling like there was magic inside me, not to mention that I was smiling from ear-to-ear from the energy of the circle. 

Such a beautiful group to be a part of and I can’t wait to continue connecting with my inner witch, because… she’s awesome. 

Taking a wine tour of Portugal (in Hackney)… 

If an evening of wine sampling and Portuguese snacks (olives, cornbread, cheese in olive oil), and chatting, smiling, faces, sounds like perfection… I can assure you, it really is. 

More Wine & Stories from Portugal 2 was added to the Eventbrite calendar as a special extra after the first evening sold out, and I’m so glad it was. Host Andrew Brown was both entertaining and educational as he regaled us with tales of Portuguese wines, from vinho verde to robust reds. 

Top, supremely useful, tip? If a bottle of wine in Portugal happens to have a bird illustration on the label, it’s bound to be a good one – Andrew has yet to try a poor wine featuring a bird on the bottle.

The best part of the evening wasn’t even about the storytelling, the friendships old and new or the tasty tipples (though I enjoyed myself immensely, even without drinking a sip of alcohol), it was that all proceeds from these events are going to help refugees as part of Thighs of Steel (@thighs.of.steel), which works with Mass Action UK (@massactionuk). The immense work of these charities is another story worth talking about. 

Keep reading about Jen’s adventures with the #GTFOChallenge on this blog – and follow her daily on: