Day: November 1, 2020

Women In Wellness: Meghan Rose on the Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing

Rest — not enough of us have arrived here, mentally, physically, or emotionally. Turn off your phone, sleep in from time to time, have multiple days of the week where you’re not working or running errands, or committing to plans. We live in a culture that’s so bent on ‘exhaustion hubris,’ and I hope that we can take away the idea that over-working is something to praise. I want to congratulate the people around me who have healthy, balanced lives where they are their first priority. Rest is just as important as forward movement and work, if not more so. Take the vacation, utilize ‘Airplane Mode,’ sit down with your friends or your partner or your family, and be present. Rest. You deserve it.

As a part of my series about the women in wellness, I had the pleasure of interviewing Meghan Rose.

Meghan’s journey from working in the corporate sector of Private Investments to owning her own Los Angeles based business as a Spiritual Advisor should be a testament to any woman looking to break free and find their wild, creative self again: where you start doesn’t need to be where you end up. The late-twenties author, mentor, and now business owner feels more empowered by her client’s success stories than she does with her six-figure salary- let her help you get back to your truth.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to “get to know you” better. Can you share your “backstory” with us?

Hi my love, absolutely, and thank you so much for having me. My story started in a tiny town in New Hampshire; I was raised in a town with less than 2,000 people and grew up on a dirt road there for the first 20 years of my life. I had very little access to exploring health, wellness, or spirituality, and trying to find people who made a career out of the combination was even more of a rarity.

After putting myself through college, paying my tuition out of pocket for a Marketing degree that I was banking on to give me a “safe” and financially prosperous career, it took just two months for me to decide I wanted to switch paths completely. I remember buying a one-way ticket in the middle of a snowstorm out of Boston-Logan airport and went straight to Los Angeles, California. The journey from then to now was filled with weeks of couch surfing, a couple of cockroach-infested apartments, and corporate gigs for Private Investment firms making more than I would have with my organs listed on the black market. I had “made it” to my family and friends back home from the outside looking in, but I was lost. Each day I had a 90-minute drive into a job that kept me desk-bound, punching numbers for almost ten hours before jumping back into a sea of infamous LA traffic left me feeling more and more detached from myself. A story not so rare to the modern-day working class.

I had always had a deep connection to my intuition, but it wasn’t until I left a job making six-figures to work for minimum wage at a meditation studio that I truly knew this was a gift I needed to trust. That job led me to become a meditation teacher myself, building the confidence to teach classes and work intimately with others struggling to connect to their true selves. After a couple of years, I was blending the skills of meditation, Tarot, and energy healing to build my Spiritual Advisory business, Meghan Rose Wellness — not only my career but my calling.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career? What were the main lessons or takeaways from that story?

There have been so many exciting stories since it all began; I would say my Tarot mentor and our whirlwind relationship of teaching and learning. I met him from his famous Youtube channel and felt an immediate connection to how he read cards and connected to Divine messages. The process and modality are so healing and coming from a Christian background myself — I always struggled with the taboo around Tarot. But from my own experiences, it had never been anything but helpful in bringing self-awareness to my life.

After working with him for nine months, he finally nudged me to start reading for others. After getting positive feedback and teaching meditation classes for a while, I approached the owner of the studio I was leading classes with. I said, “I have an idea, it might sound crazy, but I want to lead Tarot meditation classes” — she was never anything but supportive. We had terrific turnouts for these live, collective, pick-a-pile style Tarot classes. But when COVID hit, I had to transition this experience online; alas, Intuitive Tarot Manifestation was born! My Monday evening virtual classes started with a man in Florida teaching me how to read Tarot cards.

Can you share a story about the biggest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

To be frank with you, I have made countless mistakes. I’ve tried my best to learn from each and every one of them, but the heartache, financial losses, and embarrassment were no joke. I had to struggle with putting all of my trust and power into the hands of other people. Romantic partners, bosses, friends, colleagues.

I remember initially moving to Los Angeles after my boyfriend at the time told me to cancel my Yoga Teacher Training in Manhattan that I had already pre-paid for (on top of renting a $2500 Airbnb) if he promised to go with me. I was so quick to let other people make decisions for me and where my life was going. Then, I learned to trust myself and my intuition, finally realizing: I know what I’m doing.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

The list of people who helped me get here could go on for ages.

I’ll start with my mother for always letting me explore my interest in spirituality, taking me to palm readers and psychics when I was in grade school (despite her mother calling her a Pagan). The way that she defied each and every person’s disapproval of my life & my journey to encourage me is an unconditional love I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to match. I remember moving 3,000 miles away on a whim, and not once have I heard her doubt or guilt me- she always meets me with an “I’m so proud of the amazing person you are” or “This is so good, and it’s just the start” each time I have a win or a loss.

Ok perfect. Now let’s jump to our main focus. When it comes to health and wellness, how is the work you are doing helping to make a bigger impact in the world?

I grew up around emotional repression and spiritual disconnection. I struggled for years with family members and friends that made me feel alienated and insecure about my desire to talk about my emotions, intuition, or interests. Knowing how isolating that felt, I vowed to let my work focus on giving other people the safe space to embrace their truth. The heavy emotions, the shadow self, the mistakes, the quirks — all of it!

I genuinely believe each action we take is either rooted in fear or love, and my work allows people from all walks of life to say, “I’m tired of being afraid of my vibrance, I’m tired of being afraid of judgment… I am ready to love myself as I am.”

Can you share your top five “lifestyle tweaks” that you believe will help support people’s journey towards better wellbeing? Please give an example or story for each.

Journaling — the power of manifestation is real. I firmly believe writing our intentions, facing our demons, learning about ourselves, and feeling gratitude can alter your perspective in the best possible way. I recently found a journal entry about my financial goals from last year and realized I had paid off $10,000 of debt, more than doubled my monthly income, and took myself on the vacations I had vowed to be able to finance. Even the reflection to me makes journaling worthwhile. It allows us to celebrate our victories rather than getting caught up in the process.

Meditation- this doesn’t have to look the same for everyone. As a trained Reiki Master, I gravitate towards chakra (energy center) meditations. Some enjoy silent meditations. Some meditate while cooking, or mountain biking, or painting. But a mindfulness practice of some sort where you are unplugged, slowing down, and connecting to yourself is a non-negotiable for true contentment.

Tarot — this one seems a bit obvious, but even living in Los Angeles, I still have so many first-timers coming to my classes, booking appointments, or that I meet casually. Tarot is a misunderstood and severely misrepresented art form that allows us to connect to our subconscious mind and allows us to bring consciousness to the way we’re living. After all of these years of studying and reading for others, I still read for myself, and I have my own readers that I go to and trust. I hope it becomes more widely accepted, and my goal with my career is to be on the frontlines, pioneering the global embrace of Tarot.

Rest — not enough of us have arrived here, mentally, physically, or emotionally. Turn off your phone, sleep in from time to time, have multiple days of the week where you’re not working or running errands, or committing to plans. We live in a culture that’s so bent on ‘exhaustion hubris,’ and I hope that we can take away the idea that over-working is something to praise. I want to congratulate the people around me who have healthy, balanced lives where they are their first priority. Rest is just as important as forward movement and work, if not more so. Take the vacation, utilize ‘Airplane Mode,’ sit down with your friends or your partner or your family, and be present. Rest. You deserve it.

If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of wellness to the most amount of people, what would that be?

I would start a movement for a global-wide acceptance of vulnerability and emotional expression. I’m not entirely sure ‘how’ that would look, but imagine a world where we all said how we felt? A world where we started to approach ourselves and others with more love and gentleness? A world based on rehabilitation, healing, and acceptance rather than repression. That’s the type of world I’m trying to build, one session at a time.

What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why?

Be here now — if I had started being present and practicing mindfulness PRIOR to these life changes, I would have enjoyed the journey and trusted my process.

Let go of your expectations.

If you don’t respect someone’s opinion, don’t listen to their criticism.

Enjoy each up and down of this journey; it’s not about the money or the end goal. It’s about the process.

Allow yourself to make mistakes & don’t let the fear of making mistakes hold you back.

Sustainability, veganism, mental health, and environmental changes are big topics at the moment. Which one of these causes is dearest to you, and why?

Each of these causes is intersected with one another; I can’t rightfully tell everyone what to buy, eat, and do with their spending power. I can say this: money is simply an energy, and purchasing is simply an energetic exchange. Be conscious of your choices. Those choices are shaping our future.

What is the best way our readers can follow you on social media?

You can find me on Instagram @meghanrosewellness, or on my website www.meghanrosewellness.com — I look forward to connecting with bright, beautiful you.

Thank you for these fantastic insights!

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Women In Wellness: Meghan Rose on the Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Women In Wellness: Shannon Conklin of Organic Edge on the Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing

I eat a zero refined sugar diet. There is just so many other delicious sweet options that don’t do the damage to your body. Coconut sugar, honey and monk fruit are all yummy sweet indulgences that just make me feel good without crashing later.

As a part of my series about the women in wellness, I had the pleasure of interviewing Shannon Conklin.

Inspired by personal events, Shannon Conklin founded the holistic wellness center, Organic Edge, in the popular Hamptons, NY in June of 2020. From chronic illness as a child to losing her father to colon cancer at 49 years old, Shannon has committed to a mission of helping people heal and purify the body in the most natural ways. Shannon has over 13 years of experience in several holistic health and wellness services and techniques and holds many holistic modality certifications including being a National Board Certified Colon Hydrotherapist, an I-ACT Certified Colon Hydrotherapy Instructor and certified in Thermal Imagery.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to “get to know you” better. Can you share your “backstory” with us?

My passion for health and wellness came out of necessity and survival. I was a competitive dancer and straight-A student when I became ill at the age of 12. I fell ill with Epstein Barr and micoplasmic pneumonia and was unable to fully recover. I was later diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue and Immune Dysfunction Syndrome with Fibromyalgia. That diagnosis at the time meant you are sick, tired and in pain all the time without a known cause or solution. After 3 years and no answers, my mom read a book by a holistic doctor and decided we were traveling 4 hours away to a functional medicine doctor. She did all kinds of tests and found tangible answers. I had leaky gut syndrome where everything I ate became something my body deemed an allergen. I didn’t digest or absorb nutrients from food, so all of my vitamins and minerals were completely depleted. I had an almost sterile microbiome from all of the antibiotics I had been on. This was the first step of many on my road to recovery. This was also the first time I saw the value in looking at the body “holistically,” meaning looking at the whole body as one functioning machine and not breaking it down into separate systems, organs and symptoms. I later found out that I had chronic Lyme disease, probably since the microplasma episode. Over the last 20 years, I have taken many steps toward optimal health. One treatment, one test, one experiment at a time. My passion quickly turned into my profession as I found myself managing holistic practices before training to become a practitioner myself. Being your own health advocate is the most important piece of advice I can give someone. There are lots of different approaches to healing and most of them are valid but not all of them work for everyone. My healing journey was long and filled with a lot of throwing things against the wall to see what stuck. I’m grateful for the journey, what it’s taught me and what I’m now able to provide others on their journeys.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career? What were the main lessons or takeaways from that story?

Very early on I had a client come in with his mother for a colonic. He was about 25 years old, didn’t really communicate much, with me not at all. His mom told me that he had neurological Lyme disease. He became suddenly sick in college and went from being a normal young adult to laying in a hospital bed. When I became a part of his healing journey, he had been sick for a few years. Joe had gone for colonics before, but his mom Donna told me that they were painful for him. He was chronically constipated due to the Lyme. Throughout the session, Joe seemed comfortable and released an INSANE amount of waste. The following week when I asked him how he was doing, he responded he was doing well. I looked at Donna and she said it had been an interesting week. Ridding his body of its waste made a huge difference in how he felt and not just in his stomach. He single handedly showed me how important colon hydrotherapy could be. I got to see Joe weekly for years and was witness to his transformation. I’m grateful to have been a part of his healing journey and a part of him and Donna’s life.

Can you share a story about the biggest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

In school I was taught “nutrition” in regard to both general health and in relation to colon health. With that knowledge, I had an idea of what the perfect diet was for everyone. Now thankfully, I wasn’t counseling anyone nutritionally, but I soon learned that our bodies are all very different and need different diets. I learned that first by experimenting on myself. I have been vegan, keto, vegetarian, paleo, pescatarian and ovo-tarian over the last 10 years. I’ve also at this point seen thousands of clients with different medical backgrounds on different diets and protocols. What I know for certain is that it is not one size fits all. Not even close. I can say with certainty that the quality of food we intake matters, regardless of what food works best for the individual. In all the nutritional lifestyles I’ve tried, it was always organic, pasture-raised, wild caught, etc. I think the one size fits all approach to anything health and wellness related is a mistake. I truly believe my biggest strength as a wellness practitioner is that at the heart of it, I am a person that has been bio-hacking myself from a chronically ill person to where I am now. I’ve learned to always to listen to my body. Our bodies speak to us and give us so much information that we are used to ignoring or silencing. Explore, research, hear everyone, but listen to your body.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

There are many people I learned from throughout the years. Every person I worked for and worked with professionally and on my personal health journey, both added value to my practice as well as taught me what I did not want to incorporate into my own business. Life is fantastic in that way if you spend time absorbing all that you can. The biggest impact on my professional life was my late colon hydrotherapy mentor Barbara Chivvis. She truly LOVED colon hydrotherapy and was a pioneer in the field. When she first started, she was one of two colon hydrotherapists in the area. The field was widely undervalued and unknown. Her personality was quite the opposite of mine. She was soft spoken, reserved and timid. That made her passion for colon hydrotherapy so much more apparent because she spoke with conviction about health and wellness. She walked the walk and lived what she believed to be the healthiest lifestyle possible. She trained me throughout all 4 levels of colon hydrotherapy certifications with I-ACT and for the National Board Exam. I was then lucky enough to work beside her both as instructors for I-ACT and as a practitioner. Even with all she gave me, I still find myself wanting to ask her opinion. I love and miss her dearly. I wouldn’t be where I am without her.

Ok perfect. Now let’s jump to our main focus. When it comes to health and wellness, how is the work you are doing helping to make a bigger impact in the world?

My impact on the world comes one client at a time. My clients have total access to me. I have clients that I haven’t seen in 10 years who text me every now and then to ask if I’ve ever tried a treatment or supplement. I’ve been where they are and sometimes, they just need someone who understands. I give every single client everything I’m able to. Being part of their healing journey, whatever that looks like, is my biggest gift and what fills me up at the end of the day. Everyone deserves to feel well and if I’ve contributed to that in any way, I’ve done my job.

Can you share your top five “lifestyle tweaks” that you believe will help support people’s journey towards better wellbeing? Please give an example or story for each.

These tweaks are effective and easy if you get into the habit of doing them.

1) Our bodies have two neurological settings; fight or flight and rest and digest. Fight or flight is meant for us way back when running from a tiger in the jungle. It’s when your body prioritizes getting out of a crisis by flooding your body with adrenaline to give you “superpowers.” In our current society, we live in that state most of the time. As a business owner and a type A person I am absolutely guilty of this. Our body cannot properly digest food in this state. Taking 5–10 deep, cleansing breaths prior to eating gives your body a chance to switch back to rest and digest. Breathing is so important to our overall health, but it really helps us digest our food better, which in turn leads to better absorption.

2) I think sleep schedules are so important. One major turning point in my health journey was getting on a sleep schedule. I had terrible insomnia and was exhausted all the time. When I got married, I was worried about how I would stay up late because of how I was so used to going to sleep between 10–11 p.m. Our body loves routine, it is very smart and knows how to optimally help us if we give it what it needs.

3)I know you hear about hydration and water all the time. I have many clients who drink a ton of water and still feel dehydrated. One of the best things I ever did was start putting electrolytes in my water. My absolute favorite is Superieur Electrolytes. They have real Vitamin C from fruit, pink Himalayan salt that provides the electrolytes and no sugar. They also taste amazing. Electrolytes were an absolute game changer for me.

4) I eat a zero refined sugar diet. There is just so many other delicious sweet options that don’t do the damage to your body. Coconut sugar, honey and monk fruit are all yummy sweet indulgences that just make me feel good without crashing later.

5) If I want treats or junk food, I make it myself. I use real, quality ingredients and make whatever I want from scratch. At that point I’m having comfort food, not junk food. Sometimes the soul needs a little comfort food!

If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of wellness to the most amount of people, what would that be?

I can’t help but take the bait on this one. The wellness movement that I think would bring the most value to everyone is normalizing the BOWEL movement. I am here to meet people where they are at and assist them in getting closer to their health and wellness goals; bringing their body back to balance. It’s amazing to me how many people are still embarrassed to talk about poop! It tells us so much about what is going on inside the body. If everyone had daily bowel movements, they would feel so much better.

What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why?

If you love what you do and you’re providing value to other people, the universe will continue to open doors for you to fulfill that purpose. Letting go of control and being in the flow, while putting in the necessary work will get you to where you want to be.

Aside from that I have to be honest, “the school of life” is a very real thing for me. What I’ve learned through all my experiences is why I am where I am today. I don’t know if anything anyone could have said to me would have changed things and if they had, would I want really want that? I value every lesson and everything I’ve learned over the years and wouldn’t have wanted a spoiler.

Sustainability, veganism, mental health and environmental changes are big topics at the moment. Which one of these causes is dearest to you, and why?

I debated on how to answer this question. My last three cars were hybrids and speaking about mental health is not in my scope of practice so I can only speak from my experience. When someone is chronically ill, we concentrate a lot on the physical. We focus on the symptoms and the tangible information we receive from testing. After years of experience dealing with my own illness, and my chronically ill clients, I’ve come to realize that one of the most unrecognized aspects of it all is the mental health of the person. Advocating for your own health and searching for answers can become all encompassing. Your identity starts to become that of a sick person. Part of my healing journey was to look at every aspect that contributed to it. For me, recognizing that I had started to identify, first and foremost, as a chronically ill individual helped me break that habit and helped me heal.

What is the best way our readers can follow you on social media?

On Instagram @yourorganicedge

On Facebook https://www.facebook.com/yourorganicedge

Thank you for these fantastic insights!

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Women In Wellness: Shannon Conklin of Organic Edge on the Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Women In Wellness: Dr. Swathi Varanasi on the Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing

A Moment For You — Whether it is sitting on the family room floor for five minutes before the kids come home from school, or an hour in a dedicated meditation room, closing your eyes and taking a few deep breaths is a great way to reset and revamp your brain for the rest of the day.

As a part of my series about the women in wellness, I had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Swathi Varanasi.

Dr. Swathi Varanasi, or Dr. Swathi for short, is a bilingual pharmacist specializing in integrative health and cannabis. She is a natural medicines educator, a clinical researcher, a TV show host, and a multimedia content contributor. She is dedicated to leading the charge in medical education by creating innovative programs about the range of healing modalities and their impact on the overall health and wellbeing of patients around the world.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to “get to know you” better. Can you share your “backstory” with us?

Even before I started on my path to becoming a pharmacist, I had always been interested in holistic health and healing. I found myself in pharmacy school where there was little to no discussion about nutrition and preventative health, but I knew there was a way they both could work in synergy. When I graduated, there was no formal training for pharmacists interested in pursuing integrative health, so I partnered with one of my brilliant mentors to co-found and was the first-ever resident of the PGY1 Integrative Health Pharmacy Residency program. During this postdoctoral specialized residency program, I trained at an independent natural pharmacy and HIV clinic in Los Angeles, California. Emphasizing an evidence-based approach and working with the patient as a team, I was able to provide natural medicines education and guidance to help each patient achieve their own treatment goals; these conversations involved a number of methodologies and modalities of healing, like eastern & western herbs, homeopathy, cannabis, therapeutic aromatherapy, dietary supplementation and everything in between. Since my training, I have moved on to a variety of educational ventures, including but not limited to creating online courses, guest lecturing, college and postgraduate course curricula consulting, and textbook and reference guide writing.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career? What were the main lessons or takeaways from that story?

During my training to specialize in integrative medicine, I was fortunate to be a part of an interprofessional healthcare team including but not limited to a community pharmacy and an HIV/AIDS clinic. I set up the clinic’s first-ever medication therapy management (MTM) program in which I saw patients on a biweekly or monthly basis in appointments that lasted up to one hour. Given my highly specialized niche, it was beyond gratifying to provide answers to practitioner and patient questions regarding drug-drug interactions from my western didactic and practical training, but also questions regarding nutrition, cannabis and overall wellness. There was one patient in particular, let’s call him Joe. Joe had been diagnosed with HIV in the 1980s and has since suffered with depressed mood and anxiety. Through years of trying various varieties of conventional prescription therapy cocktails, he was looking for something that would be work, saying ‘I am willing to try almost anything.’ We had a wonderful discussion about the multitude of options for mood imbalance including but not limited to therapeutic aromatherapy, mindfulness, sleep hygiene, interpersonal relationships and nutrition. Since the start of my career, like Joe, more and more patients are interested in learning more about complementary and alternative therapies. The increased number of patient questions was accompanied by practitioner questions as they wanted to learn more about integrative health modalities to help their patients as much as they could. By having ongoing discussions with healthcare practitioners, I think slowly but surely they are beginning to really appreciate the value of many avenues to optimal wellness.

Can you share a story about the biggest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

The biggest mistake I made was assuming that other western practitioners would understand my chosen career path… Many of whom do not take what I do seriously. I receive comments about how I have ‘thrown away my education’ and that I am telling patients to ‘stop taking all of their prescription medications.’ The misconception that being an Integrative Health Pharmacist involves discounting the use and benefits of prescription medication is something I deal with all of the time. Every practitioner has their own definition, but the way I practice evaluates the many modalities of medicine (eg. medications, dietary supplements, eastern & western herbs, therapeutic aromatherapy, homeopathy, physical exercise, sleep practices, meditation, etc.) to determine options for the patient. This very personalized methodology requires that the practitioner and patient work as a team to evaluate which one or combination of these modalities is best for the patient’s lifestyle and treatment goals.

I have learned that regardless of what you do, people will always have an opinion, so you might as well do what lights you up rather than what makes others happy.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

There is no way I would be where I am today without the faith and guidance from one of my mentors, Integrative Health Pharmacist, Dr. Pam Tarlow. As I briefly mentioned in my background, even before I was a Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) student, I had always been interested in preventative medicine, but did not know a pharmacist who was able to marry both the western and eastern mentalities of patient care… That was until I met Dr. Tarlow, one of the first Integrative Health Pharmacists who started 20 years ago. I reached out to her inquiring about a clinical rotation spot at her site, an independent natural pharmacy in Los Angeles, California. When I came out to rotation, I knew I had finally found my place in pharmacy, with the opportunity to help educate practitioners, patients and students about natural medicines. Beyond this realization, our relationship has since grown and inspired many of my other professional relationships with other bold, trailblazing women who are unapologetically passionate about what they do regardless of what everyone else says.

Ok perfect. Now let’s jump to our main focus. When it comes to health and wellness, how is the work you are doing helping to make a bigger impact in the world?

As an Integrative Health and Medical Cannabis Pharmacist, I am committed to educating practitioners, patients and students about the therapeutic potential and the possible pitfalls of botanical medicine as well as other modalities. In my practice, the intersection of many methodologies of health and healing is what is most vital to patient outcomes. I found through my training that I am so passionate about sharing my evidence-based knowledge and expertise about natural medicines with everyone.

I am proud to be the co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer at the women- and minority-founded CBD & botanical brand, Element Apothec. I am the incoming Chief Pharmacy Officer at CalEthos, in which I will be responsible for founding the first-ever brick-and-mortar medical cannabis dispensaries managed and run by healthcare professionals in the state of California. I manage educational efforts at an innovative cannabis genomics and integrative wellness company, Jade Health, and an adaptogenic cookie company, Madeby. In addition to my post as adjunct faculty and/or guest lecturer at colleges of pharmacy and colleges of traditional Chinese medicines, I recently launched the first-ever online course on medical cannabis specifically for pharmacists (Cannabis Science & Therapeutics for Pharmacists) in collaboration with the educational platform, Medical Cannabis Mentor.

Can you share your top five “lifestyle tweaks” that you believe will help support people’s journey towards better wellbeing? Please give an example or story for each.

Tweak #1: Good Bye, Alarm Clock

Sleep is so underrated. One of the top ways to feel refreshed in the morning is not setting an alarm. Well-named, the alarm is alarming to your body and forcing it out of its current sleep cycle. By cutting a sleep cycle short, you may not feel fully rested and you may have a temporary hormonal imbalance. Allowing your body to wake up naturally goes hand in hand with the importance of a personalized morning routine that will set you up for success for the rest of the day.

Tweak #2: Herbs, Herbs & Herbs

As an Integrative Health and Medical Cannabis Pharmacist, I would be remiss not discuss the incredible therapeutic potential of botanical medicine. Adding specific herbs to your daily routine, called adaptogens, can improve your body’s resilience to stress and can have life-changing and anti-aging properties with consistent use. Popular examples of adaptogens are ginseng, ashwagandha, matcha, and functional mushrooms. Without delving into too much detail, the endocannabinoid system is a system in the human body that maintains our body’s homeostasis; most famously influenced by Cannabis sativa, the addition of a low-medium CBD dose of daily (eg. 25 mg) could be an amazing addition to your routine as well.

Tweak #3: What Is Kohlrabi?

Nutrition is a mainstay of my discussions with patients. As I view food as nature’s medicine, I urge my patients to challenge themselves to get out of their comfort zone with their food choices. For example, this could be buying a fruit or vegetable that is new to you, or this could be trying a new recipe to mix it up. I always say that if you have not tried it yet, then you do not officially know if you like it, or not. Given the vast array of nutritional benefits in these plant-based foods, studies have shown that eating a variety could impact your body’s homeostasis.

Tweak #4: ‘I Am Amazing’

I can be the first to admit that I never anticipated the impact Tweak #4 could have in my life. Like my western-trained physician, dentist and nursing colleagues, I was not taught about the benefits of mindfulness or meditation practices in my curriculum. A healthy mindset has played the most impactful role in my maturation as a person and professional. I would suggest beginning with seemingly simple ‘I am’ statements to remind yourself how ‘awesome’, ‘strong,’ and ‘successful’ you are. Especially in these times, you may be feeling trapped in a negative mindset about the future; transforming your mindset to a positive one about yourself and your capabilities could work wonders for your trajectory. Your subconscious does not know the difference between what is real and what is not. If you tell it that you are amazing, it will believe it. With repeated affirmations, you will also start to believe it, consciously.

Tweak #5: A Moment For You

Whether it is sitting on the family room floor for five minutes before the kids come home from school, or an hour in a dedicated meditation room, closing your eyes and taking a few deep breaths is a great way to reset and revamp your brain for the rest of the day.

If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of wellness to the most amount of people, what would that be?

If I could start a movement that would bring the most amount of wellness to the most amount of people, it would involve the widespread discussion of and accessibility to healthy food and a healthy mindset. There would be many moving parts including a list of authoritative bodies, private corporations and nonprofit involvement, however, I believe this movement is key to improving overall health in the American population. Studies have shown that food desserts not only have high rates of chronic disease, but also have high rates of crime and mental health concerns. Working with grocery stores and food banks to eliminate food deserts in low-income areas would be beneficial for so many communities.

In addition, certain cities have begun setting an example for others by incorporating prescriptions for specific healthy foods that can be found in pharmacies alongside prescription medications. This not only helps patients but also local farmers who can provide seasonal produce for these programs. With pharmacies on nearly every street corner providing these new healthy food services, pharmacists can play an essential role in helping provide guidance and answer patient questions.

New specialties such as nutritional psychiatry are demonstrating the intrinsic link between the food we eat and how we feel. My proposed movement would also extend past nutrition to include the accessibility to low- to no-cost mental health providers. I firmly believe that ample access to nutrient-rich foods and mental health care services is pivotal for the future of the country.

What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why?

There are so many things I wish I was told before embarking on this unconventional professional journey. I have the opportunity to lecture at quite a few undergraduate universities, colleges of pharmacy, and colleges of traditional Chinese medicine regarding this exact topic. As someone who forged her own path and created a niche that did not exist, my first piece of advice is to figure out what you want by asking yourself questions like, ‘What does your ideal day look like?’ and ‘What do you want to known for?.’ Once you figure what you want, the next step is to take inspired action to work towards that goal. I think it is very easy to get caught up in the day-to-day and lose sight of the big picture. I wish someone would have told me about the concept of chunking large tasks into smaller ones; creating attainable, realistic monthly goals has helped me propel projects forward rather than feeling overwhelmed and unsure where to start with long-term deadlines. Overall I wish someone had told me that it is completely okay (and normal) to want to achieve, be, and think differently than others. In pharmacy school, when we were only told about a limited number of career options, I initially felt ashamed that what I wanted did not resonate with any of them. Following your intuition is much more important than satisfying other people’s standards.

Sustainability, veganism, mental health and environmental changes are big topics at the moment. Which one of these causes is dearest to you, and why?

This is a wonderful question. In my opinion, all of these topics are inherently linked. As someone who is vegan for nutritional and environmental reasons, I am passionate about the impact of a plant-based lifestyle on the human body and the world. If I had to pinpoint one of these big topics, I would select mental health simply because if we are suffering mentally, emotionally and spiritually, then we are unable to think past our current circumstances. By targeting the state of mental health in America and the world, I think that could translate to a much healthier, happier population and planet.

What is the best way our readers can follow you on social media?

Connect with me on LinkedIn! If you have any questions, DM me on Instagram and let’s chat (@doctorswathi). Looking forward to e-meeting you!

Thank you for these fantastic insights!

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Women In Wellness: Dr Swathi Varanasi on the Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Women In Wellness: Rachael Szmajda of ‘Elemental Wellness Center’ on the Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing

Live in the moment. Don’t let the past overrun your present. The only constant in life is change, but we have the ability to choose to choose again and again, and that is a beautiful thing.

As a part of my series about the women in wellness, I had the pleasure of interviewing Rachael Szmajda.

Rachael Szmajda grew up in Maryland before moving to Chicago, ultimately graduating from Columbia College in 2006. She relocated to California to grow cannabis in the legal market, quickly becoming a vendor of cannabis products to cannabis clubs in the Bay Area by 2007. Later that year, Rachael landed her first in-house position at a cannabis retailer as the Purchasing Assistant for Harborside Health Center in Oakland, where she personally saw and reviewed 500+ vendors per month. After 13 years, numerous awards and mainstream media appearances, four cannabis clubs, countless harvests, hundreds of sold pounds, and thousands of purchased pounds later, Rachael is a veteran of the industry. She currently serves as Chief Purchasing Officer at one of the most respected dispensary brands in the United States: Elemental Wellness Center in San Jose, CA.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to “get to know you” better. Can you share your “backstory” with us?

Growing up in Maryland, we had access to a fair amount of cannabis for the times. It always came in pressed bricks that required carding out the seeds on a baking sheet, and we always assumed was shipped up from Mexico. In 1999, I bought my first half pound in the parking lot of my parent’s neighborhood pool, and started my life-long endeavor of bringing quality cannabis to the people. At that time, I didn’t realize how much better it would get, but I quickly learned there was much more out there then brick weed and closet grown hydro. In 2003, I saw my first legitimate indoor grown cannabis. It was Skunk #1, it came to Chicago from Indiana, and my cannabis life and perspective was altered forever. The next year, we started up our own little indoor grow and everything developed pretty quickly from there. One room quickly turned into a floor of a duplex, and that duplex quickly expanded into another two locations.

After graduating from Columbia College with my Bachelor of Fine Arts in the fall of 2006, I moved to California and started up my first legal California home grow in Fairfax, CA quickly upon arriving. I was a vendor to Bay Area cannabis clubs by 2007. Later that year, I started as the Purchasing Assistant at Harborside Health Center in Oakland. Let me tell you, there is no better way to learn cannabis products then personally seeing 500+ vendors a month and reviewing their cannabis goods all day every day. My cannabis knowledge and life developed as quickly as the industry did.

At this point, I’ve done quite a bit. I’ve have worked with Ed Rosenthal and had my cannabis photography published in his Marijuana Growers Handbooks. I’ve been quoted and photographed in various cannabis magazines, smoked a joint with Jack Herer, kicked it with Tommy Chong, I’ve won two High Times Cannabis Cups by picking the right entry from an amazing selection of growers, I’ve been on Weed Wars on the Discovery Channel turning a friend’s cannabis away because of spider mite excrement, I’ve been on the BBC explaining trichome color as a determination of maturity, I’ve been on National Geographic negotiating a pound with a patient provider. Hell, I’ve even been on German TV buying a pound.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career? What were the main lessons or takeaways from that story?

There are many, but the one that stands out takes me back to July of 2010. The City of Oakland decided they wanted to license four large cultivation facilities, which would effectively put hundreds of patient providers completely out of business. At that time, no one was licensed, and the city was not giving the growers the opportunity to be licensed or regulated in any way. They were talking about introducing big corporate businesses into a world that existed without them. This caused a massive uproar. People were being forced underground, unable to fight for themselves and their rights due to a fear of being found, robbed, or raided by the government that had no problem capitalizing off of the tax revenue that these people had created.

So, we called a meeting with all of our 500+ patient providers. We made handouts. We promised the ability to maintain anonymity. We promised working together to create the change and justice that we all deserved and needed to see. It was difficult. The most common concern was being followed back to your grow, or for your car to be identified and then followed and robbed when leaving a cannabis club you were doing business with. This was a common occurrence back then, and something people dealt with regularly.

Many of our patient providers did not come because they did not want to be exposed to the risk that potentially outing themselves could cause them, and the ones that did come tended to isolate themselves from each other, in an attempt to not to be identified. They wanted to be legal, and the system was giving them no way to do that. I have always been an activist, protesting and standing up for what I believed was right since I was a teenager, but this experience really lit the fire in me to stand up for what I believed in and speak on behalf of all of these people who weren’t in a position to speak for themselves.

So, when the Oakland City Council held it’s meeting to discuss and potentially approve the plan to open four large scale cannabis production facilities, I stood loud and proud in front of them and fought for the rights of the hundreds of small and medium sized boutique home-growing patient providers to be allowed to continue to provide medicine to the people in the industry that they had created.

We fought to license, tax, and regulate small growers over corporatizing the industry that we built. We fought to keep them from giving it away to big business which would successfully have put thousands of people across California out of the industry they had built with their own time, blood, sweat, tears, and efforts. Many of these people had even grown legally according to the state, and faced raids from the federal government, effectively putting them behind bars and seizing everything they had for something that they were doing legitimately. Where was the righteousness in what was happening? Where was the oversite and accountability? As we engaged with the City Council trying to help them understand and make the right decision, the vendors hid out in the balconies, shouting words of support, but forced into silence due to the fear of identification and retaliation. It all seemed so wrong and so backwards.

In the end, the plan was approved, and Oakland decided to move forward with their plans to license four large-scale cannabis production factories. In December of that year, they actually ended up suspending those plans after receiving a lot of criticism and warnings from federal authorities who said that the city ordinance would not keep the federal government from criminally prosecuting those locally licensed facilities. So, Oakland decided to license four new cannabis clubs instead. One of which I got to be a part of bringing into creation!

Looking back on it now, it’s strange how this was just a sign of everything that was inevitably yet to come, but it was a really great experience to be able to be a part of that process and a part of that fight. I guess it just goes to show that the only constant in life is change, and while it is imperative to fight for what you believe in, actively seek the change you want to see, and stand up for those who need your help; ultimately we all have to continue to adapt to every “right-now’s” reality in every given moment.

Can you share a story about the biggest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

Once upon a time, I was considering a 300-gram bag of granulated cold water hash for purchase from a vendor and had it sitting open on the counter in front of me. There were other things on the table as well, so I turned my attention to another item while mulling over the cold water. While my attention was elsewhere, the entire bag tipped over and dumped itself out onto the carpeted floor of my office. We salvaged what we could, and I paid him for the difference lost, but there is likely hash still embedded in that carpet to this day. That experience definitely taught me to be very cautious and considerate of products, especially when they are not yet owned by the company that I work for. In my mind, I had already decided I wasn’t going to purchase the hash, but dropping it on the floor changed that ability to negotiate.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

I met Mickey Martin shortly after his edible company Tainted Inc. was raided in September of 2007. Immediately I knew that he was someone I would look up to. Mickey dedicated his life to cannabis activism, and it was amazing. An entire book could be written on Mickey Martin’s accomplishments.

He founded Parents 4 Pot to keeping everyone accountable for their actions, and Mickey would call out anyone who operated on false or impure pretenses. From demanding payment from clubs who refused to pay their patient providers, to leading the charge of the protests when they wouldn’t comply. From calling people out for trying to capitalize of someone else’s efforts, to making sure that the entire community knew when someone was denying accountability that they were the reason a cannabusiness went under. From standing up for women’s roles in our industry, to demanding they get the respect they deserve instead of the objectification many tried to keep serving up on platters. Literally.

Never one to hold his tongue, Mickey Martin really set a precedence for me to do and say what’s right when it comes to the things we want, need and deserve in our lives. If you want it, go get it. If you don’t like it, speak up. If you can do it better, or make it better, do it; and do it with integrity.

Mickey Martin’s death in 2015 was the biggest loss to the cannabis community and industry as a whole. Everyone misses Mickey. As much as I and other people he influenced will always do our best to play our parts, the industry could never be the same without him.

When it comes to health and wellness, how is the work you are doing helping to make a bigger impact in the world?

The use of pharmaceuticals is just out of control. Massive drug corporations are being back-end funded and protected by the governmental bodies that are supposed to regulate them and protect us. Doctors who are supposed to care about our health are pushing drugs into our communities to get bonuses from their ties with those same drug corporations. The cost of filling a prescription these days can often break the bank of someone’s reality. It’s outrageous. It doesn’t seem to be about our health and wellbeing anymore, it seems that the ones who are supposed to care about us are only seeking to profit from personal gains.

Due to the limited competition in the pharmaceutical industry, these companies can price their drugs wherever they want to, and people just have to pay it, because they can’t find it any cheaper anywhere else. Those issues, coupled with the current state of health insurance in the US, make me feel really good about helping to secure and provide quality cannabis products to the recreational masses. It all comes from a plant, the processing can be very limited or non-existent depending on your product category of choice, and there are no detrimental side effects or risks of overdose. The level at which cannabis has been able to replace pharmaceuticals for so many people makes my heart swell with happiness.

In my opinion, all cannabis being consumed has medicinal benefits to the user, whether they consciously realize it or not. It may help someone with sleep, anxiety, appetite, pain, or just the simple ability to relax. These are basic everyday things that most people struggle with at some level, and cannabis helps immensely. The benefits are limitless, and they are not restricted to health alone.

Can you share your top five “lifestyle tweaks” that you believe will help support people’s journey towards better wellbeing? Please give an example or story for each.

1. I’m honestly not sure what could I say to help support other people’s journey towards well-being, probably because I feel like I’m not well-equipped enough to even answer that question for myself. Wellbeing is a constant daily struggle that takes a lot of hard work, time, and dedication. Despite being fairly active, I personally have a tendency towards laziness at home. Maybe someone has a “lifestyle tweak” for me?
2. Tell people how you really feel. Dishonestly only breeds confusion and contempt, and people deserve to use the truth when making decisions in their lives. Especially when it comes to cannabis. As a buyer, many would be tempted to tell everyone what a great job they’ve done, so as to not hurt people feelings and egos. Initially, it may be hard to say no, and they may not take it well, but ultimately, it’s what they want/need to hear, and you’ll feel better for doing it. The most important thing to remember is to be impeccable with your words when doing it. If you’re able to give someone constructive feedback that they can take away and use to do better somehow, that will generally overpower any wound to the ego. I have personally seen many growers and brands completely transform themselves and their reach and relation to the members, by taking honest tips from buyers providing honest and straightforward feedback.
3. Live in the moment. Don’t let the past overrun your present. The only constant in life is change, but we have the ability to choose to choose again and again, and that is a beautiful thing.
4. Don’t work all the time. If work and play overlap too much, when you lose or fail at one, you’ll feel like you lost and failed in everything, and that isn’t fair to yourself. Be sure to do things that you love that don’t involve cannabis, or whatever your job may be. Take vacations. Travel. Read books. Relax. Turn off your phone. Turn off your computer. Log off. Over the years I have developed a lot of solid friendships in the industry, and the ones who know me best know not to try to sell me weed on the weekends.
5. Get outside as much as humanly possible. As an ’80s kid, it’s so sad to me how little time I spend outside, and so much sadder to see how little the kids these days get outside at all. I know 2020 sucks, but please keep going outside. Please keep breathing the fresh air. Please get off of your phones and go hug a tree. Who knows how much longer this will all be possible.

If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of wellness to the most amount of people, what would that be?

The number one thing that I feel could universally change human and animal lives, permanently and positively across the world, would be for us to much more greatly utilize the endless possibilities of the hemp plant. As Jack Herer said best, “I don’t know if hemp is going to save the world but it’s the only thing that can.” If utilized to the full extent of its power, biodegradable hemp plastics could completely replace petroleum plastics, and that is just the tip of the iceberg.

I went to college to study fashion design, and using hemp fibers in the US was a big point for me. I designed and created my senior collection with all hemp fabrics, and the fact that I had to order the material from Canada was disheartening. That was 2006, and now that we have the Farm Bill, which passed in 2018 and allows farmers in the US to legally produce industrial hemp. I’m really hoping things start to change on that front. We’re just in the beginning and the road is long.

In 2019, after a huge jump to hemp because of the CBD craze that swept the nation, a July survey from Whitney Economics found that 65% of hemp farmers in the US failed to find a crop buyer. I bet there would be a lot of buyers if the broader uses of hemp were truly entertained.

Hemp can be used to make the obvious paper, rope, clothing, and CBD oil products, but also the lesser obvious. Diapers, biofuel, sunscreen, makeup, nail polish, surfboards, flour, beer, milk, paint, ink, mulch, shoes, soap, hot dogs, protein powder, straws, utensils, plastics, carpet, fiberboard, hempcrete building material, car bodies, insulation, animal bedding, super capacitators, and batteries can all be made utilizing hemp over their lesser environmentally non-favorable counterparts. And guess what — it’s biodegradable.

But we don’t use hemp for these things, because that would put big business plastics, and gas, and all these other industries out of business. The US won’t stand for that with how intertwined our big businesses are. They all protect each other from anything that may affect their bottom lines, or worse yet, put them completely out of business. Hence, no hemp toilet paper this year… as much as we all could have used it!

What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why?

1. Sell as much cannabis as you can before January 1st, 2018, because you will make drastically less money in the cannabis industry from that point forward. I guess I was a bit jaded in my prime and felt there was no pressure to go as hard as I could have. Don’t get me wrong, I went really hard, but now I wish I had worked even harder while the opportunity was there. Now all of the money in the industry goes to licensing, permits, and taxes. No one is building a nest egg around here anymore, except our local and state governments.
2. Everything comes and goes. Everything. As secure as you may feel where you are, don’t count on it being there forever. Because things change, people change, life changes, and there isn’t anything you can do about it but to keep moving forward.
3. Don’t let anyone try to change you, and never compromise on your morals. Ever. Stick up for what you believe in, and hold on to what makes you, you. Unwaveringly, unapologetically you, especially when it’s difficult.
4. Buying cannabis from cannabis providers should never be about relationships and instead it should always be about quality and price. Making a business negotiation over how much you like someone or what someone has done for you in the past will never play in your favor, and that pound will always sit on your shelf for months, haunting you.
5. Don’t let anyone intimidate you. You could imagine some of the things I’ve heard turning down hundreds of pounds of cannabis that patient providers were desperately trying to sell in order to pay their rent, support their families, afford the surgery their pet needed. It’s a hard thing to do, but never negotiate based on emotions.

Sustainability, veganism, mental health and environmental changes are big topics at the moment. Which one of these causes is dearest to you, and why?

Of these topics, without a doubt, sustainability is the one I hold nearest to my heart. If we can’t sustain the planet we’re living on, that literally gives us life, what are we doing? This isn’t about us, and the concept is simple. It’s about our planet, and our planet’s future, and our planet’s future ability to maintain life. The life of our children, and the life of all living things as we know them. This mass and unconscious destruction of our planet is just uncalled for. We can do better.

What is the best way our readers can follow you on social media?

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elementalwellness408

Twitter: https://twitter.com/elementalwell

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/elementalwell

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/elemental-wellness-center

Website: https://elementalwellnesscenter.com

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Women In Wellness: Rachael Szmajda of ‘Elemental Wellness Center’ on the Five Lifestyle Tweaks That was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Women In Wellness: Amanda McIntosh of ‘Take My Face Off’ on the Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing

Ignore what works for other people. Health and nutrition are very individual. What works for me might not work for you. What works for you might not work for me. My dear friend is a functional nutritionist, and she helped me understand that your health is a combination of history and genetics. There are no cure-all diets, or supplements, or exercises, or regimens. We all have different bodies and different health journeys. Don’t jump on any bandwagon.

As a part of my series about the women in wellness, I had the pleasure of interviewing Amanda McIntosh.

Amanda McIntosh is the founder of Take My Face Off, a brand that creates reusable, super soft makeup removing Makeup Mittys and Mitty Minis that are much better for the environment than single-use products like makeup wipes and cotton balls. They are on the forefront of combating the beauty waste issue with gentle and effective beauty tools. Plus, they take off every trace of makeup, are way cuter than a gross old washcloth, and can even be used on eyelash extensions! TMFO recently collaborated with world-famous lip artist, Vlada, to create Vlada’s Mitty Pout, a reusable lip cleansing tool that removes even the most stubborn lip color with ease.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to “get to know you” better. Can you share your “backstory” with us?

I’m from a small town in Texas. I was a little girl with long, brown hair who never talked or smiled until something really mattered to me and then I wouldn’t shut up! I was always told that I was the “creative” type, which was my family’s polite way of saying that I wasn’t a practical person. Now I realize that people were assuming that my enthusiasm was just naïveté. My first big job was playing the clarinet in an orchestra in Spain. I was the only foreigner and female in my section. My harassment stories would be funny if they weren’t real!

Anyway, rather than file a lawsuit against one of my coworkers, I left and took a job as a consultant for a while so we would have health care while my husband pursued music. For the first time, I saw that being creative and practical are not mutually exclusive. I also saw the creative potential in the world of business. That job gave me a chance to understand I can be creative AND practical, which I now see as my greatest strength. Right now, what matters most to me is bringing environmentally sensitive products to the masses, since I see that as the best and fastest way I can help the planet. I also love coaching “creative” types on how they can expand their careers. I’m married to a trumpet player in the Los Angeles Philharmonic and I have two young children.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career? What were the main lessons or takeaways from that story?

The most interesting story took years to unfold, and I learned that people can take a long time to “get it” when you’re doing something new. I’ve always known that there was a need for better reusable products. However, people kept telling me that there was no need for a wipe or cotton ball replacement. I could have listened to one of the gazillion naysayers, but I was stubborn.

Fast forward a few years, and I’m seeing multiple copycats. I’ve had a major brand that copied my messaging, several smaller brands that copied my actual product, and just yesterday I saw a brand stealing videos from my Instagram feed to use in their ads. It took a while, but I’m really glad that I didn’t listen to the people who thought that wipes and cotton balls were “good enough.” Most people won’t understand something unless they’ve seen it before. This is especially true of the “experts” — they’re only an expert on what has already been done.

Can you share a story about the biggest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

I thought that I needed a whole line of products to show retailers that they should carry me and that I would be more than one “hero” product. I put too much pressure on myself to produce packages, photos and samples of products before I had even a single retail partnership. I did too much work and spent too much money before I had any proof of concept. Now I know to share things with the world so that I get more feedback sooner. It makes the product better and it cuts out a lot of wasted time and money.

You have to wait and see how people receive your product and then be willing to make changes. It’s not “finished” when you release it. That’s just the beginning of a long conversation.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

I had a mentor who gave me permission at the very start to be different. He’s a successful inventor and film producer. He’s not like anyone else I know. I check in with him occasionally for a reset. Over lunch, he’ll usually say something like, “You started your own company so YOU could decide what to do. Quit being such a good student and go be creative. Go break the mold. Quit imitating everyone else.”

Ok perfect. Now let’s jump to our main focus. When it comes to health and wellness, how is the work you are doing helping to make a bigger impact in the world?

I’m working on two things. First, I want environmental products to be available to a wider audience. We launched on QVC this month, which was the fulfillment of a huge goal for me. I don’t want environmental products to just be available on Etsy or Whole Foods or Patagonia. I want them to be everywhere, in every store. Consumers shouldn’t have to work so hard to find products that are truly “green” (as opposed to ones that are “greenwashed”). The next goal is helping people understand that skincare is not just aesthetics — it’s about skin health. Dermatologists tell us that the most important thing for skin health is to wear sunscreen, and the next most important thing is to wash your face at night. I can’t tell you how many people tell me they don’t need to wash their face because they don’t wear makeup! This really worries me, and I’m on a mission to get them to understand that face washing isn’t just for makeup wearers.

Can you share your top five “lifestyle tweaks” that you believe will help support people’s journey towards better wellbeing? Please give an example or story for each.

1) Start paying attention to your body’s reactions. Notice how you feel when you do things. I’m not saying you shouldn’t pay attention to your doctor’s advice, but sometimes your body is trying to send you a message and you shouldn’t ignore it.

Things like gluten, dairy, caffeine, or alcohol are problems for some people, but not for others. You won’t know unless you pay attention.

For example, I always LOVED bread and starch, but I was sick my whole life. I had aches, pains, massive stomach problems, and I was constantly coming down with respiratory diseases. I also felt like a zombie. Doctors told me it was in my head. Out of desperation, I tried several things, including quitting gluten. Five weeks after I cut it out, I was a completely different person. I was more awake, happier, and I was totally pain free for the first time I could ever remember. To complete the trial, I stayed gluten free for a few more weeks, for seven weeks total and then I started adding it back to my diet. Problems that had evaporated over those five weeks slowly came back. It’s hard to overstate what a change this made for me. This was years ago, before “gluten-free” was common. I had an old-fashioned doctor who tried to convince me I was doing myself serious harm, but I felt amazing and I couldn’t bear the thought of going back to feeling awful. So I ignored him and changed doctors. Later, I learned a lot more about the science of what gluten did to me, and I was so glad I had listened to my own body and found new doctors. For years, I tried to quit coffee. Finally, I switched to really noticing how it made me feel instead of letting my thinking be clouded by how I thought I should feel. I finally realized that a small amount of coffee in the morning and afternoon makes me feel amazing.

2) Look at your wellbeing as a “long game” and collect information carefully and over time. I’ve seen so many people make a slight change and then pronounce that it didn’t make any difference. Not to hammer the gluten thing, but you can’t know if it impacts you unless you’re extremely careful about eliminating it for weeks, preferably six. I see people skip a Friday pizza and then decide it didn’t make a difference in their stomach issues. They might be right, but it’s not like that’s a very thorough experiment. Your health matters. Pay attention for longer than a few days.

3) Ignore what works for other people. Health and nutrition are very individual. What works for me might not work for you. What works for you might not work for me. My dear friend is a functional nutritionist, and she helped me understand that your health is a combination of history and genetics. There are no cure-all diets, or supplements, or exercises, or regimens. We all have different bodies and different health journeys. Don’t jump on any bandwagon.

4) Meditate. It’s one of the most powerful “medicines” in the world. More and more science is showing the incredible impact meditation has on so many issues. At the very least, it helps sleep, mood, anxiety, and stomach issues.

It might not solve your problems, but it cannot hurt them. It’s free and it has no negative side effects.

5) When in doubt, eat more kinds of fruits and vegetables.

While there are no panaceas, most people don’t understand how much our bodies benefit from a huge variety of nutrients. They might eat vegetables, but not very many different kinds. If you’re taking in a large variety of fresh food, you’re much more likely to be getting whatever things your body needs. You can’t know your specific needs without testing, but eating a wide variety of plant-based food gives you a great chance of fulfilling your nutritional needs by “accident.”

If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of wellness to the most amount of people, what would that be?

There are so many problems and so many opportunities. I currently focus on the area where I’ve had my best ideas — reducing our use of single-use disposables. Reusable

products only have to be created, packaged, and transported once. Disposables go through that cycle for every single use. Some people say, “but don’t the reusable items have to be washed? Doesn’t that take water and detergent?” That’s true, but it’s a tiny, tiny fraction of the resources and pollution needed to create a new disposable.

Replacing single use items with reusables removes a lot of the pollution, toxins, and waste from our environment. It’s not as visible to those of us living in first-world economies. It’s huge for the workers and residents of third-world economies. Third world cotton production is a good example. Cheap cotton uses the largest dose of pesticides of any crop in the world. The pesticides themselves are the longest-lasting ones known to man. They result is massive health problems for the labor force, much of which is is child labor, as the water supply is used up (cotton is really thirsty) and/or poisoned. I don’t know how to make people quit producing disposables. However, I can play a role by inventing better reusables and by inventing those things, I can maybe reduce the demand for extremely cheap, pesticide-doused cotton that sickens child workers.

What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why?

1. Ignore the overnight success stories. We hear so much about the brands and the people who achieve success in a year or two that it’s easy to think you’re a failure if it doesn’t work that way for you. Even worse, you might imitate them, which rarely goes well.

2. Take a stab at every area of your business at some point. There should not be a single function that you have not tried to do yourself, including working on your website. Unless you know how it works, you can’t choose the right team members.

3. Don’t look at interns as being the answer to your labor problem. Look at interns as an outlet for giving back by helping someone else’s career.

4. Look for employees and contractors that challenge you, but who you can trust. Beware people contractors who make you feel dumb or less cool than they are. Trustworthy people don’t use manipulation to get work.

5. Understand the IP issues. I actually DID get this advice and I followed it, but I see so many people making big mistakes around this. Talk to a trademark attorney about what names, logos, and slogans you might want to protect. Find out if you need a patent. If you’re working with a lab, be clear on whether they own the formula or you do. These issues HAVE to be understood upfront. It cannot wait until later, when you think you’ll have more money.

Sustainability, veganism, mental health and environmental changes are big topics at the moment. Which one of these causes is dearest to you, and why?

The environment is the issue that seems like the biggest emergency. So that’s where I put most of my effort. Of course, veganism is related — I think the environmental aspect of veganism is really compelling. The angle I focus on is the human affinity for stuff. We like to buy stuff, look at stuff, touch stuff, and use stuff. Of course, all that stuff is part of the problem with the planet — we make too much. It seems unrealistic to expect people to quit wanting new things. Maybe we can consume less, but we’re still going to want to find and consume things. It seems like the only hope we have of healing the planet is inventing new products that cause less harm, that reduce our consumption of other resources, that require less packaging, or that last longer than the old stuff.

What is the best way our readers can follow you on social media?

@takemyfaceoff on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

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Women In Wellness: Amanda McIntosh of ‘Take My Face Off’ on the Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Women In Wellness: Dee Burrowes of ‘Transformational Life Coaching’ on the Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing

I am a strong believer that success and happiness works in alignment with your mindset — which is one’s belief system that affects everything from your thought, action, emotion, and how you react to the world around you.

As a part of my series about the women in wellness, I had the pleasure of interviewing Dee Burrowes.

Dee Burrowes, Certified Professional Coach, NLP Practitioner, Speaker, Trained Teacher, International Awards Judge, Mental Health and Behavioural Disorder Coach help individuals to gain more confidence in being more effective at bringing happiness into your life. Through NLP and mindset modalities, I will support you to identify and eradicate the emotional pain points that hinders you in achieving balance, clarity, fulfillment and success — not only personally but professionally with forming good habits and rebuilding self-confidence. If your quest for life is authentic in achieving mental and physical wellbeing as part of your journey — I will put you in the driver’s seat.

Dee has held executive senior management roles in her corporate career and represented the United Kingdom at the International G20 summit.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to “get to know you” better. Can you share your “backstory” with us?

Coming out of university after my first degree in Hospitality Management, I secured a very lucrative role in a well-known global hotel chain. After twelve years in the hotel industry at senior executive level, I then had a stint in the financial sector. I gained more skills and pivoted from a corporate career to a professional life and mental health coach for the last four years. When I began my career in a fast paced industry, I quickly learned that individuals took on more mentally than what actually meet the eyes. As a result they were never given the opportunity to live life authentically of being present emotionally, mentally and physically.

At the level of hierarchy I was privileged to have held, I led many individuals and my passion was to support them in their career aspirations as much as it was in my power to do. Shooting for the starts was always within me which transcend to the culture of my team and ultimately the organisation to an extent.

In hindsight, I knew I had a raging fire burning on the inside to be and do better as a human being and that aligns with my desire for personal excellence that eventually became a powerful driving force.

After successfully completing my MBA, I had many chances of direct introduction to the entrepreneurial environment that sealed the opportunity to delve into the world of entrepreneurship that birth my life coaching business.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career? What were the main lessons or takeaways from that story?

As my career grew, I have had a few interesting stories that in fact turned into learning moments — satisfying to an extent and a few strong decisions made for the better. For me, it was taking chances when others thought it might be impossible to achieve specific life goals.

How difficult could it be to manage a hotel? It’s more than just folding towels and managing a diverse workforce right?

One of the most coveted positions to have had my name embellished within the hospitality industry. There is never a dull day and that came with its own challenges, varied encounters (some strange and isolated) and these experiences will last a lifetime. I have seen it all from meeting heads of state to having the odd female walking the corridors searching for what could be found in case she struck luck on any one night.

I was afforded the opportunity to connect with individuals from all walks of life as the nature of the business had daily checking in and out of guests globally. I’ve mastered the art at some point of how to thrive in a fast paced environment that is a 24 hour-a-day, 365 day-a-year non-stop operation which keeps anyone on their toes under emotional and physical tension as well.

Dealing with high maintenance guests, one may encounter a bit of a grumbling and are often at the receiving end of the ire that must be resolved very pleasantly and tactfully.

The sacrifice — time away from your family and friends that eventually had burnt out creeping in along with negative daily habits as a means of coping mechanisms if you aren’t careful. I had to keep healthy boundaries between personal and professional life when it could be squeezed in. Conscious efforts had to be made to actively strike a balanced life between both.

There’s nothing worse than feeling like you’re trapped in your career and to escape the office stress seems distance away — if this habit persist professional support might be your guiding light in the near future.

On a personal level, I have learned a lot of things — not having balance and setting healthy boundaries will no doubt result burn out as many can attest to or they are teetering on the edge. In fact some of these very lessons are continued to be relearned to this day — recovery and reinventing oneself is a constant process.

• Know your limitations
• Be selfish — take care of you first
• Relax frequently — wake up daily and refuel your mind
• Don’t Bring Work Home with You

Can you share a story about the biggest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

At some point, making mistakes that can be learned from are bound to happen. Simply because finding solace in the fact that mistakes are completely human. From that perspective coupled with anxiety induced emotions mistakes are a part of life — the big questions is, what lessons can be had to avoid or minimize such mistakes in the future.

Earlier on in my career, I learned a valuable lesson when I under-communicated with another team member. It was an extremely busy morning at the front desk and the team was overwhelmed with both guests checking out and in simultaneously. Suddenly the system developed an error and as the front office manager on duty I had to report the fault to the external IT department to have the matter rectified. I returned to reception and decided to support the team with checking in a few guests in. I was assured that the manual vacant room list was up to date and all rooms already assigned were ticked off. As fate would have had it — that wasn’t never the case. I manually checked a guest (double booked the room without my knowledge) into a room and the guest immediately returned to reception informing that the room was already occupied and for your sanity I will exclude the brief encounter both guests had.

When I realized what had gone wrong, I profusely apologised to both guests and took responsibility by accepting the reality. I explained to the guests what had happened, they both respected my honesty and transparency and as such to inform that the guests were over compensated in true hospitality style would be an understatement.

I learned the value of communication even when it comes to be misinformed and why it’s paramount to establishing trust through admitting that a mistake was made.

Despite the cringe worthiness of mistakes and failures they eventually create a guidepost in learning and growing personally and professionally. It allows us to embrace shortcomings, failures and screw ups because they not only form a part of life’s experiences but also teaches profound powerful lessons.

In reflection, the mistake taught the following –

• To accept fallibility and face our fear.
• Teaches about oneself and how to tell the truth.
• Focuses on a mindset shift
• Not to confuse your mistake with who you are.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

“We don’t live and work in isolation, and when you can take advantage of the wisdom and even failings of those around you, the climb toward success is made that much easier.” — Carol Dacey-Charles

My truest source of inspiration came from innumerable amount of individuals that have supported along the journey. More so transitioning from corporate to starting a business. I have been encouraged, motivated and lifted to not giving up despite topsy turvy moments.

Even though I had quite a few supporters there was one person that pushed me out of my comfort zone all the time. I had a mentor for many years that taught me how to better navigate the challenges, empowered my personal development sphere, helped to identify and achieve personal goals.

I credit where I am now to my mentor and I am incredibly grateful for all of the time that was invested in me — one of my biggest cheerleader yet toughest critic and a forever sounding board.

As I share the story of when I was first starting up and attempting to grow a business, I was somewhat apprehensive as I thought I did not have what it takes and clearly underestimated myself. Through my mentor, I regained much needed confidence in executing systems and being retrained as a life coach and later on in NLP and Mental Health coach. I gave myself the extra push, disregarded any negativity from the naysayers and wholeheartedly believed in the person that I do see daily in the mirror and that was me. Patience is key as I continued to crush my goals and be proud of myself even on the cloudy days.

Ok perfect. Now let’s jump to our main focus. When it comes to health and wellness, how is the work you are doing helping to make a bigger impact in the world?

I came to the realization that in order to encourage healthy behaviors we will need to address and support both physical and mental wellness.

I am a strong believer that success and happiness works in alignment with your mindset — which is one’s belief system that affects everything from your thought, action, emotion, and how you react to the world around you.

A mindset shift also prime others to be more effective in learning from past experiences and adapting to change.

“It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.” — William Shakespeare.

Every day in my work as a mindset strategist and mental health coach, I support professionals and consult with companies that are deemed a cut above the rest however their workforce are not living a balanced and health lifestyle that directly impacted the scope of achieving optimum return on investment. I’ve observed over 10 years (combination of working in corporate and within my business) that there are critical factors behind generating sufficient productivity. Too often, this is linked to subconscious blocks and negative mindsets that are holding individuals back from being there authentic self.

My main focus has always been on supporting others in cultivating wellness and having a sound mental health that promotes a healthy lifestyle. Through emotional, psychological and implementing physical wellbeing individuals can experience balance by tailoring interests in creating an environment which prioritize their wellbeing in bettering themselves.

Emotional wellness is our own ability to accept, understand and successfully cope in dealing with obstacles life and work throws at us. Emotional wellness identifies how you are and why you’re feeling certain emotions — what emotions are surfacing as well as acknowledging and effectively channelling anger, fear, hope, love, happiness, frustration, sadness and stress.

Similarly physical wellness is administering proper care of the body for the most favourable functioning that also encompasses activity, exercise, diet and nutrition. Health and wellness supports improving wellbeing and support recovery from stress-related symptoms or trauma.

Encouraging development and maintaining a growth mindset can boost positive changes by increasing one’s propensity to remain determined, focused and motivated in the face of change. To achieve both personal and career goals, your mindset will have to match your aspirations otherwise there is a high chance of not moving purposefully and getting to where you want to be.

The current global crisis have impacted many detrimentally and still is with social distancing and different restrictions in place — anxiety and depression among individuals have skyrocketed. The fear is that not many know how to handle the feeling of uncertainty and distress. It continues to burden resources and the sudden isolation is unfamiliar to all and may not know how to reach out to others for support — this is where my expertise comes in as a driving force for accountability, inspiration and motivation

Nothing I enjoy more than having that wellbeing talk in bringing awareness to mental illness. Although there is significant stigma around mental or emotional wellness, it’s important within my practice to create an environment where others feel comfortable, safe without judgement to express and share how they feel. Improved psychological wellbeing can result in a reduction in stress, associated absences from work by being present as well as more positive with better outcomes for happier and healthier life.

Can you share your top five “lifestyle tweaks” that you believe will help support people’s journey towards better wellbeing? Please give an example or story for each.

The path to wellness do have the tendency to feel more like a marathon, life can tend to be journeying through the hills which appear too high or the valleys too low and the need to reassess our focus is imminent. Implementing small wellbeing changes is one aspect that I incorporate within my daily habits for myself — from meditation, to journaling and exercising. As you make small yet effective tweaks in your lifestyle these changes eventually become habitual that will be noticeable in the long run. It will enhance your emotions with a renewed sense of hope.

The art of gratitude –

Gratitude is such a powerful emotion that can make life much better in more ways than one. Gratitude is an affirmation of goodness and a recognition that these sources of goodness exist outside of ourselves.

Over the last ten years or so, gratitude is something that I have become very fascinated with in my life — the practice of and decided to be intentional in appreciating what I have instead of what I do not have. My new found obsession led to stumbling across Robert Emmons’ work in recognising the benefits of positive emotions and confirms that the human mind is always craving something new and exciting. Practicing gratitude is a way to appreciate the value of something that needs to be practiced every day to be consistent with until it becomes a habit. Keep a gratitude journal to attract more positivity in your life by writing down the reason and why you’re grateful for the things you have.

Embrace self-love –

Do you tell yourself I love you? Do you smile when you look in the mirror?

Self-love can make a positive change in your life.

To love ourselves is to know ourselves and to recognise the full spectrum of our powers within. Self-love is the foundation of the single most important relationship with oneself. The strength of all other relationships lies exactly equal to the strength of that self-love foundation. Self-love always create an environment of liberty, and health where people can thrive, create and explore.

More of self-love is the right antidote for mental health and well-being — keeping depression and anxiety at bay. Learning to love yourself takes effort and acknowledgment, but its benefits are rewarding therefore embrace it in full throttle.

Live life on purpose –

What gives your life meaning? What should I do with my life — you ask? Your life purpose consist of the motivating aims and reasons why you get up out of bed. Purpose will guide your influence, shape goals, offers a sense of direction and know that your life has value and importance. Do your purpose allows commitment that serves both yourself and humanity in a positive manner.

Finding and living on purpose is key to having a fulfilling life and thus strive to support others by infusing purpose into their lives.

You can reflect upon your life purpose by asking:

Who am I?

Where do I belong?

When do I feel fulfilled?

Be physically active –

Maintaining your physical wellbeing is crucial to incorporate daily activities like walking, gardening, yoga, running, muscle relaxation exercise and biking. Moving your body slashes your risk of premature death and improve your overall mental health — any amount of physical movement you can squeeze in counts.

Regular exercise promotes positive attitude and outlook, supports falling asleep quicker and sleep more soundly as well as improving self-image and self-confidence.

Food affects mood –

Eating a well-balanced diet that is nutrient-rich can improve mood, increase energy levels and gives clearer thinking.

Can what you eat affect your wellbeing?

There is quite a strong correlation between diets and mental wellness as poor diets play a role in mood disorders such as anxiety or depression. Food is the fuel that fills the human brain even while sleeping the brain functions is at its best. Taking care of yourself and controlling your diet certainly counts as your spirits pick up, gives more energy and that’s an antidepressant in itself.

If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of wellness to the most amount of people, what would that be?

Happiness is a choice! It is an emotion that is deserved by all despite anxiety, stress and disappointment at times. Starting a Happiness Movement would be my ultimate passion. I realized that when individuals are happy they show up more and do live a fulfilled version of themselves amidst life’s inevitable ups and downs.

Be the happy change you want to see.

How does one sustain happiness in a world full of hate and negativity?

The movement would be a catalyst for change underlying wellbeing which will be experience as an emergence of positive psychology focusing on strengths rather than weaknesses, faults and mental ill health.

On a daily basis many are dodging hatred, resentment, bitterness, disappointment, jealousy that are being thrown into our minds, bodies and souls that eat away kindness, love, joy and peace. It’s time for a happiness movement. I need happiness — you need it, our neighbours, communities and the world beg for the constant infusion of happiness.

What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why?

I have had multiple evolution and stages within entrepreneurship journey — if I knew what I know now things would have been a bit more seamless.

• Strategy over vision and mission — It took a while realising how powerful a great strategy could be. Execution of strategy is where the real playoff takes flight.
• Mentors are not optional — I wish I had sought a mentor at the starting gates.
• Critics will be your fuel — the naysayers will come in droves no matter who you are — let them be your perceived motivation in moving forward.
• Have patience with the process — everything that is destined for you will come at the right time. In your pursuit for success — it will take time.
• Don’t listen to everyone — Too many opinions will spoil the recipe literally and cause unnecessary doubt. Trust your gut feeling and deep purpose.

Sustainability, veganism, mental health and environmental changes are big topics at the moment. Which one of these causes is dearest to you, and why?

I found that individuals were having difficulty and overall poor experiences with these various topic areas. All causes do have significant importance personally however I am passionate about Mental Health and supporting the mission to living a balanced emotional and healthy life.

As mental health is stigmatized by society — it is highly associated with shame and being misunderstood. Like anything, once left unsupported and untreated the symptoms will unravel for the worse. I am the voice in advocating for those who are directly affected and removing any barriers that will deter any coping mechanism.

What is the best way our readers can follow you on social media?

Website: http://achievepurebrilliance.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dee_burrowes/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mindsetstrategist/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/coachdeeburrowes

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Women In Wellness: Dee Burrowes of ‘Transformational Life Coaching’ on the Five Lifestyle Tweaks… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Women In Wellness: Julie Levin of Leaf People on the Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing

Take time to center yourself each morning. Whether it is a few minutes of deep breathing, stretching, mindful tea or coffee drinking, grounding myself first thing in the morning sets a beautiful tone for the day.

As a part of my series about the women in wellness, I had the pleasure of interviewing Julie Levin.

Julie Levin is a Medical Herbalist and Founder of Leaf People, a Carbondale, Colorado based line of plant-based skincare for modern life. The extensive line is encompassed by daily facial and body products, a clinical collection for those 35 and older, and a men’s line formulated with certified organic, ethically wild harvested, certified herbicide/pesticide free, gluten free, and vegan ingredients. All products are packaged in a mix of recyclable and compostable materials printed with vegetable and water-based inks.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to “get to know you” better. Can you share your “backstory” with us?

My name is Julie Levin. I’m a Medical Herbalist and the founder of Leaf People, a line of botanically focused skincare products. I grew up in rural Alaska, where I spent my youth learning about wilderness survival, which fueled a lifelong passion for plants and their healing properties. I took my curiosity across the globe, traveling from the Amazon to Australia for most of my 20’s, gaining an education in herbal cultural traditions everywhere I went. In my medical herbalism training, I studied the science behind plants, their chemical properties, and various healing modalities, including indigenous plant utilization and harvesting techniques. I have been a formal student of Buddhism for 20 years, and even spent a year in silent meditation. My journey eventually led me to Colorado, where I founded Leaf People, in 2003, well before conscious beauty was a trend. Leaf People is plant-based skincare for modern life, marrying botanical science with western medical herbalism. Our ingredients are certified organic, ethically wild harvested, certified herbicide/pesticide free, gluten free, and vegan. We donate 5% of all sales to charity.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career? What were the main lessons or takeaways from that story?

My career has been full of interesting stories from the start. One in particular that has shaped my life, and Leaf People, is my experience living and learning from Don Miguel Kavlin, master student and protégé to the famous healer of Beautiful Painted Arrow and South American legend Don Agustin Rivas Vasquez. Under their guidance, I was immersed in nature’s sacred spaces and followed a plant-based diet. Most days I would consume just one or two plants at a time in order to fully receive the plant’s messages, this practice is called Plant Spirit Medicine. This spiritual awakening opened my eyes in a completely new way and helped me recognize my interconnectedness with the Earth. As a child in Alaska, I often talked to trees, but I never thought to listen back and there in the Amazon, I finally heard them speak.

Can you share a story about the biggest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

When I was first starting out, I made the mistake of listening to people outside of my core mentor group. When you start a business, everyone wants to share opinions and advice. It takes great strength and focus to commit to your own vision without letting the ideas of others become more important than your own. Early on, I was convinced (against my better judgement) that I needed to invest in advertising. I placed their knowledge and expertise above my own and in the end, I lost both money and time without any positive results.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

My husband joined Leaf People about six years after I started my business and brought a tremendous amount of calm to the frustrations of owning and running my business, helping me to expand my long-term vision for the company. He had successfully started and operated several businesses before we met and journeyed firsthand through the entire process that I was going through multiple times. His wisdom and guidance aided me enormously as the company continued to grow from year to year.

Now let’s jump to our main focus. When it comes to health and wellness, how is the work you are doing helping to make a bigger impact in the world?

The goal of Leaf People is to create a deeper connection between the physical body and the environment. The skin is our largest organ, an incredible sense organ, and a key player in immunity and protection. We formulate each product with powerful medicinal botanicals that help each person steep themselves in the benefits of the natural world.

Can you share your top five “lifestyle tweaks” that you believe will help support people’s journey towards better wellbeing? Please give an example or story for each.

1. Take time to center yourself each morning. Whether it is a few minutes of deep breathing, stretching, mindful tea or coffee drinking, grounding myself first thing in the morning sets a beautiful tone for the day.

2. Make little decisions every day that push you towards better health. Choosing water over juice, taking the stairs instead of the elevator, stretching or mindful breathing while waiting in line, picking a whole food snack instead of a processed snack — all of these little check-in moments and small decisions add up over the day.

3. Take the time to make your food. As a vegan/vegetarian for over 35 years, I had to make all of my own food because there weren’t many options available. This laid the groundwork for my lifestyle. I bake bread for my family each week and make all of our food from scratch so that we can avoid the hidden, unwanted ingredients that come in pre-packaged or pre-made food. It is a great opportunity to practice gratitude for the time and energy that goes into growing and preparing food, along with gratitude for the growers and the food itself.

4. Exercise regularly. Regardless of how busy I am, an hour of exercise at least four days per week is a must. Not only for the short-term endorphin release, but after working intense hours for decades, it has physically trained me to deal with the long hours and an unforgiving schedule.

5. Sleep! You must sleep enough. I read a study once in college about how you can never really make up for lost sleep and that terrified me. Proper sleep is so critical for healthy aging, stress management, and a clear mind. Now that I am 25 years into this business (and not always getting enough sleep), I can say that proper sleep practices will help you through the toughest times.

If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of wellness to the most amount of people, what would that be?

I would encourage everyone to grow their own herbal medicine garden. There are a plethora of benefits that come from growing and caring for plants.

What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why?

1. Don’t underestimate your target market. When I first started out, I thought the Leaf People target market was a very specific, niche market. After about a year of business, I realized that our target market was a broader and more expansive group. This taught me to keep an open mind so I could shift our focus to address our ever-growing variety of customers.

2. Embrace social media. When I started Leaf People, social media was very new and I was not very excited about it — I still prefer letter writing over emailing. Once I eventually gave into the shift towards social media, I learned the payoff from developing active channels, a healthy following, and using those platforms as an avenue to grow our business.

3. Embrace a marketing team early on. Leaf People is a self-made, self-grown, community-based company. Though we have had steady growth each year by word of mouth, I think we would have eased some of our early growing pains had we hired a few key marketing experts.

4. Balance being introversion and extroversion. I have always greatly loved my time alone and my private life. When I started Leaf People, I envisioned that I could stay behind the scenes. However, as it turns out, people love meeting the maker, knowing all about you, where your ideas come from, and learning about your brand. I have since learned to open up in a way that allows me to share my story. It’s certainly an ongoing process that I am continually learning to embrace more deeply each day.

5. See the value of delegation and asking for help. I was raised in a remote area of Alaska in a small family where we provided for ourselves. Being fiercely independent was a way of life. With Leaf People, I had to retrain myself to learn how to trust and rely on others because it was not part of my origin experience. We wouldn’t be where we are now without our wonderful collaborative team.

Sustainability, veganism, mental health and environmental changes are big topics at the moment. Which one of these causes is dearest to you, and why?

Veganism is the dearest to me. I have been an ardent animal activist and vegetarian/vegan most of my life, and I’ve learned that veganism encompasses all of the other issues listed. From decreasing deforestation used for animal farms and minimizing chemicals in the water from raising animals or fish farming to respecting animals as an extension of respecting ourselves, veganism is kinder to the Earth. The practice of non-violence is not discriminatory — it applies to everything. Veganism, plant-based diets, and vegetarianism are generally beneficial for your health thus helping you feel better mentally and emotionally. Obviously mental health issues and treatment are much more complex than diet alone, but diet can play a critical part. I have yet to meet a fellow vegan who disregarded the environment — often those committed to a vegan lifestyle are also interested in sustainable and renewable living practices.

What is the best way our readers can follow you on social media?

@leafpeople on Instagram and Facebook, Leaf People channel on YouTube, and the Leaflet at LeafPeople.com

Thank you for these fantastic insights!

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Women In Wellness: Julie Levin of Leaf People on the Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Women In Wellness: Face Yoga Expert Fumiko Takatsu on the Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing

…I trust my intuition. It never lies. I have trusted people based on their business experience, background, thinking that they knew more than I did. Only found out that they did not know anything I was doing. I was feeling something was not right but I was forcing myself that I needed them in my business. I was betrayed.

As a part of my series about the women in wellness, I had the pleasure of interviewing Fumiko Takatsu.

Fumiko has been practicing yoga for over 30 years. Since 2006 Fumiko has pioneered the unique techniques that make up facial yoga, and is one of the best known face exercise instructors in Japan. The results she found in her own face
and those of her students speak for themselves.

Frequently traveling between Japan and the United States, Fumiko hosts
events and workshops in both countries. She has spent the past years
teaching, creating Face Yoga Method DVDs, writing books, developing the Face Yoga Method products and making frequent appearances on TV and in magazine articles in Japan. Her Japanese books have been translated in Chinese, Korean and Thai and sold in China, Hong Kong, Thailand, Taiwan, Korea and Japan. She also has appeared on Korean TV shows.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to “get to know you” better. Can you share your “backstory” with us?

I was born and raised in Japan, a “tomboy” with big lips and a longing for adventure. I never quite fit in and even as a little girl I had dreams to explore and travel the world, and even move to the US. Until I made the move, I was both a teacher and professor in Japan, mostly teaching women-only classes, so I guess you could say I’ve always been about empowering women through education. Even though I was successful, I knew that there was more from life I wanted to experience.

During a vacation in California, I was in a nearly fatal car accident that left my face, neck and shoulders off kilter. I saw a chiropractor in helping me regain the muscles in the body, but no one mentioned my face. This is when I had the realization that if through training, I can fix my body, I should be able to do the same for my face! As a lifelong yoga practitioner, pairing breath with poses was my natural remedy. It didn’t take long for people to start noticing differences and if it worked for me, it could work for others. This is how the Face Yoga Method was born and has been growing ever since! We are now a female-led business with a global reach, empowering women to embrace their age and LOVE the way they look.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career? What were the main lessons or takeaways from that story?

Before I started the Face Yoga journey in Japan almost 17 years ago, I was teaching at one of the oldest women’s universities in Japan. It was a very prestigious position as a woman. There was no regrets leaving that position because very deep down, I was not feeling that it was my calling. After leaving that position and starting teaching Face Yoga full time, including teaching, magazine interviews, TV shows, people did not take me seriously at first. People thought it was a joke. I started appearing on a lot of TV shows, but many times, I was treated like a comedian. But I kept doing it. One day, a good friend of mine asked me if I had lost my pride. “With your background, your high education (Master’s degree), don’t you think you should be doing something better? Don’t you have pride? Why do you keep making silly faces in public?” It hit me so hard, especially coming from somebody who knew me well — I could not find the words to say to her. It was something that I was not prepared to hear from a good friend.

Then, more than 10 years later, she told me that there was something she was meaning to tell me. At that time, I forgot about what she had said (about my pride). My business was thriving. She deeply apologized for what she had told me. “I did not really foresee Face Yoga’s potential. You are amazing.”

And while this was nice to hear and kind of her, the real lesson came from how I chose to persevere after the early conversation she and I had. The teachable moment I discovered from this is that even the person whom you think understands you very well does not understand who you are, what you are deeply thinking of, and/or passionate about. If I had listened to her and taken her comments personally, I might not have been where I am at now. I wrote about this in one of my blogs recently, never take advice from someone you wouldn’t trade places with. Remember not to take things too personally, and to focus on your own goals and letting your heart and inner voice be your guide — then you cannot go wrong!

Can you share a story about the biggest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

When things did not take off as I had expected at first, I started doubting myself and even my Method! I was looking for someone’s approval or token of “authority” to back up my theory of Face Yoga. Since I was the very first person who created this method in Japan 17 years ago, I could not find any “authority” figure. I felt so lonely. Then I realized that I had to be the person I was searching for — and prove through diligence that this Method really does work. Instead of seeking approval from some highly acclaimed source, I realized I needed to become the master I was looking to find. So I did!

My lesson was that when you set out for something new, do not limit yourself with a conventional mindset. The newer and stranger the idea is, the less people listen to you. Do not try to convince people because it’s not important what other people think/believe about you. What is important is to focus on your beliefs and the offer that you have that can positively impact the lives of other people. Once you do that, you won’t need to convince people anymore. They don’t even question.

Now, I use the airplane example with my students. Who thought that so much heavy metal could fly up in the sky with so many people on it? Now, nobody doubts it.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

My sister in law and business partner, Maria, has been the backbone of my journey and The Face Yoga Method. She is the visionary of our business and even from day one had ideas of how to bring this Method to more people worldwide. I remember in the beginning, Maria wanted to recreate the business model I had in Japan, a conventional way to spread the message using TV, interviews and selling physical products. Even though I was very successful, I was exhausted. Teaching all day to my personal clients and then late night TV features left me with no personal time nor freedom. I didn’t want to be busy again like I was in Japan. Then Maria came up with the idea of creating Digital Courses which sounded better than recreating what I did in Japan, but I wasn’t sure how I could teach poses online. Also,I felt self conscious about my accent and initially thought I just wanted to share this work through books and eBooks. The demand from our customers was so high however that I started to reconsider video format programs and Maria has been such a great help and inspiration while I worked on getting out of my own way.

I’ll never forget when our “big picture” business model was just to sell 15 of our eBooks per week. Such humble beginnings, I’m so grateful for every moment, and now I am SO grateful for my amazing team of women who allow me to spread this empowering Method in multiple languages and on a global scale.

Ok perfect. Now let’s jump to our main focus. When it comes to health and wellness, how is the work you are doing helping to make a bigger impact in the world?

There’s a silent crisis going on in our world where mothers, sisters, and daughters have given their all to others and begin to feel unwanted and invisible. Our beauty industries have taken the beauty and value out of the aging process, and quite successfully if you look at the dollar value on “anti-aging” products.

Women (and men too, of course) come to us to look younger, naturally, but they stay for the way they feel and the value they get for being a Face Yogi. We offer 100% natural alternatives to cosmetic procedures and plastic surgeries but we NEVER label ourselves as “anti-aging”. We empower men and women to reclaim their confidence and embrace their age naturally and become part of the new age in beauty — the PRO-age movement.

And you can literally SEE the impact we are making. These women are literally glowing. It’s not makeup, it’s not fancy tricks or lighting, it’s a true and genuine glow that comes naturally when we have sparked our self-care fire, and reclaimed our value.

Can you share your top five “lifestyle tweaks” that you believe will help support people’s journey towards better wellbeing? Please give an example or story for each.

1. First and foremost, hot water. Maybe it stems from my Japanese background but I believe that drinking hot water is the simplest addition to one’s wellness journey. Hot water first thing in the morning detoxifies our whole system, cleanses our internal organs and hydrates us all at the same time. Most of our practitioners already correlate this practice with Face Yoga, as we often encourage them to add it into their routines.
2. A morning ritual and/or self care routine. When I first became a mother I completely lost myself. My endless devotion and love for my family made me forget that I also had myself to take care of. With time, however, I realized that when I care well for myself, I can also take better care of others. I now know that when I prioritize my wellness, it also gives my daughter permission to prioritize hers as well.
3. Meditation. Meditation is one of my non-negotiables in my morning ritual. Once we discover the power of a mindset practice, it is hard to go without. The best part, it can be any length of time. Even 5 minutes in stillness goes a long way and I would recommend people to start there and build up on this practice.
4. Movement. Most of us spend most of the day sitting. We also spend the bigger part of our day at our desks. Our business is completely virtual, and we encourage our employees to take breaks in the day to stretch, to walk, to move. I strongly believe that movement is one of the biggest answers to maintaining health, and once again, even a few minutes a day is a good place to start.
5. Face Yoga — of course I had to mention this, right? But really, this practice will change your life and it is SO easy to fit into your day. My team always laughs at me when I say it, but if you INSIST you don’t have time in your day, do your Face Yoga while you’re using the bathroom! Even a minute or two a day can start to create that habit of self-care and the physical benefits will get you hooked.

If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of wellness to the most amount of people, what would that be?

I think I might have — The Pro-Age Revolution!

What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why?

1. Do not limit myself. I was limiting myself based on societal expectations and based on my past experiences. I knew the physical benefits of the Face Yoga Method but didn’t know the mental benefits until I started hearing from my clients. Many of our Face Yoga practitioners have reported that Face Yoga has changed their life! They feel beautiful, alive, confident and so much more. The more I heard those comments from practitioners, the more I realized that I needed to let go of my limiting belief. And you know what, the more I let go, the bigger the business has grown.

2. Do not take advice from someone I don’t want to trade places with. At first, I took advice from people I thought had more than I had; business experience, life experience, etc. The more I did that, the more lost I felt. I realized that I needed to listen to myself, I needed to trust myself. If I don’t trust myself, how could I expect anyone else to? Their advice might have been accurate for them and their experiences, but I would never want to trade places with them. I loved my freedom doing my business online.

3. I don’t need to change myself. When I decided to take my Face Yoga Method global by doing everything online, I was worried about my lack of fluency/knowledge in English. Japanese is my first language and doing everything in my second language, English, scared me so much. “Do people take me seriously?” It turned out, because of the fact that I am not a native English speaker, we have so many international followers from all over the world! I didn’t need to change myself. I just had to give myself a little push to put myself out there. My weakness is my strength now.

4. Surround myself with like-minded people. At the early stage of my business, I was trying to find people with “power” and “success” and doing the business with them. I soon realized that their interests and mine were different. They did not care what I care about. I was pouring my energy into what proved to not really be worth my energy. I felt like my energy was getting drained, my creative ideas were ignored. Now with the Face Yoga Method team, they make me laugh, make me happy but also challenge me to be a better version of myself. It is a workplace but we feel so connected. It feels like my creativity ideas are stronger than ever with my team.

5. Trust my intuition. It never lies. I have trusted people based on their business experience, background, thinking that they knew more than I did. Only found out that they did not know anything I was doing. I was feeling something was not right but I was forcing myself that I needed them in my business. I was betrayed.

Sustainability, veganism, mental health and environmental changes are big topics at the moment. Which one of these causes is dearest to you, and why?

While these all have a place in my heart and business, I would have to say mental health is dearest to me. Our mindset and our ability and resilience to face change builds us up and prepares us to take on challenges, as well as gives us the strength to pursue causes that are dear to us.

What is the best way our readers can follow you on social media?

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/faceyogamethod

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/faceyogafumiko

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/faceyogamethod

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Women In Wellness: Face Yoga Expert Fumiko Takatsu on the Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.