We are all made of vibrating energy and stardust.
I’ve always turned to holistic healing over western medicine. Acupuncture, plant medicine, massage therapy, nature therapy (and so many others) are infinitely more powerful as preventative medicine. Don’t get me wrong tho, if I break my leg, take me to the hospital! I’ve always felt a little witchy and woowoo. I believe we are all connected to each other and that we are all just small parts of one whole big Universe that is in fact just a big energy vortex. I wasn’t always aware of it but now I can look back and see that I’ve always had an inner knowing about things. Which road to take, which plant to choose, etc.
I grew up playing with potions I’d create in the bathroom in the middle of the night when I was supposed to be sleeping. I’d play in the woods for hours talking to the trees and plants and the energy they held. My mom taught about the very safe (and very recognizable) plant edibles I could forage for in our yard like Sorel and violets and honeysuckle. I would lay in the grass and watch energy move as it radiated off all the living things around me.
Then that ability faded as I got older and was way more concerned with “being cool” and surviving middle school. Flooded with mainstream media that has only one purpose: to program us into believing that we need to buy the latest material things to make us cool enough!
In college I was gifted a book called The Secret Life of Plants by Peter Tompkins and something inside me woke back up. The whole book explains plant energetics from a measurable scientific standpoint. Using electrodes attached to leaves, he was able to document how things like light, water and nutrients effect the plant but he was also able to document the energy and EMOTIONS of plants! In one experiment he studied a persons house plants and when the plant owner went away on vacation, even though someone else was coming over to maintain the regular care routine, the electrodes picked up signals that the plants stopped thriving. The only thing that had changed in its environment was the energetic being that was caring for them. The plants missed their owner!! The owner returned and the plants began to thrive again.
The combination of science and spirituality and interconnectedness that book presented re-lit the fire in me. I quite drinking and smoking because I felt obligated to have a pure pristine body to be able to gift back to the plants when it was my time to get laid in the ground. I started learning about permaculture, biodynamic farming and using the energy of the moon cycle in order to do justice in the preservation and cultivation of the magic of plants. I started learning about medicinal herbs and botanicals. I created grownup versions of those childhood potions by infusing oils with whole plant materials to use around my house and in/on my body because I realized that I was also a vibrant energy life force just like the plants. I would do facials for myself and my friends experimenting with different natural ingredients and playing with the synergy of materials in order to heal our ailments. When I would look at a jar of sweet almond oil infusing with bright golden bits of calendula I could see the energy. When I would look at the jar of moisturizer from cvs I would see nothing. It was lifeless.
Once I graduated college I started my career in music. I still relied on whole plants for some things but I was also on the road for much of the time got away from my infusion practice and didn’t spend as much time in nature. When I was 32 I decided it was time to stop touring and “get a real job”. I asked myself what I would love to do and I immediately thought of those facials and potions I had so enjoyed back in college! I enrolled in my local beauty school to get my esthetics license.
There I learned the basic functions of the skin, proper sanitation/sterilization and how to safely perform treatments on people. It was a clinical setting and while I gained some very important and necessary information, the curriculum lacked the magic that had made me love esthetics (although I didn’t know it was called that or that I could even do it as a job when I was back in college). We were given mainstream mass produced products to use that were lifeless and as we moved through the course work the skin was treated as this shell that had ‘problems’ that we needed to ‘fix’. It was the client vs her skin and we needed to decide which topical magic cream was going to cover up the issue so she could look just like the magazine cover. That’s fake news, my friend. When I graduated school I was very excited to start down this new path of nurturing women and helping them to feel beautiful and good about themselves!! There’s nothing better than the feeling of seeing a new light in someone’s eyes after a treatment. But, in the back of my mind I felt like there was something missing.
I found a job at a local Day Spa where I learned all about how to move through a busy spa day. Facials and waxing almost nonstop through the day. Basic protocols and mainstream products that I was required to use and sell. After doing this for about 6 months I couldn’t understand why my clients were not seeing results. They enjoyed their monthly treatments but after that much time using the products I had sold them I would have thought we would have seen a difference in the health and vitality of the skin. And that’s when I finally made the connection. These products are lifeless and we are expecting them to perform magic.
This inspired me to take a deeper dive into the skins function and how our bodies work as a whole to keep us alive and vibrant. The same way I could look at a crop of plants and figure out what sunlight, water and nutrients would support that particular life force thriving, we can do the same for our bodies! And when given the proper tools for the job, our bodies are amazing magical machines that want to thrive and have beautiful glowing skin that radiates from the inside.
I realized that I couldn’t help my clients the way that I wanted to (and genuinely believed I could) with outdated protocols and lifeless products they were spending way too much money on. I spoke with my boss about changing some things at the spa but they were not interested in investing any money in elevating the services or products so I began toying with the idea of going out on my own. I even went to tour a potential office space just to see what the possibilities were. Then the universe stepped in to make sure I stayed on this path (MY path). My boss found out I had looked at an office space and fired me that day. It was a blessing in disguise because I was then forced to jump all in!
I started reading more books on inner health and wellness and made the connections about how a thriving inside body would present as a vibrant outside body. I came across an amazing instructor, Anne Bramham of the ASTECC school that focuses on the magic of the lymphatic system. This was the golden key. Our everyday lives in today’s society are not set up in a way that allows our bodies to thrive! Our water, air and ground are all polluted. Our food has been modified for mass production and the nutrients have been systematically stripped out. Blue screens flood our eyes all day every day. Our culture values hard work and sacrificing everything for your career so while we think we are doing the right thing we are actually killing ourselves. Everything in our society is getting more and more lifeless and our poor bodies are struggling trying to keep us going. No wonder we are all depressed and anxious and dealing with adult onset acne!! I’m crying a little as I write this because it hurts my heart to think about all of us having to live this way. To see my sweet clients come into my treatment room so bogged down, so stressed out, their light so dull as they push themselves to be everything for everyone.
As I built my business I slowly began to experiment and build my protocols in a way that would sustainably help heal. After massive amounts of research on products, ingredient sourcing, manufacturing practices and environmental impact I found products that I could feel good about using. I spent thousands of dollars and traveled far away to learn from people that were clued in to the magic of skin health. With each new certification and specialization I found another piece of the puzzle. Now by combining what I’ve learned about working with the lymphatic system, the connective tissue of the skin, the vibrant magic of plants, nutrition and lifestyle wellness, reiki and my own intuitive pings I am able to facilitate the kind of healing that I always knew was possible.