Last Wednesday I had the opportunity to participate in the launch of WRKSPC Oasis, A women's coworking + wellness popup at the Parachute Hotel in Venice with Skin Food Talk. WRKSPC Oasis was founded by two bad ass entrepreneurs bosses that I’m so grateful to have met. Kristine Lo, who was also my wedding videographer and SFT’s ebook photographer and Mikayla Mitchell, whom I had met previously through conscious city guide. These ladies were paired together at a meditation workshop (how cosmic!) and manifested their creation together so flawlessly. All day Tara and I got to sit outside on the rooftop and meet with women who were either self employed, in between careers or attracted to a women run wellness popup. When I get to meet with people all day long and talk about their health there are a few themes that consistently come up; we tend to overwork, under eat/sleep and lose track of that little voice within that says “slow down”. Women led companies are changing the world right now and it’s incredible to be apart of it while we are seeing a lot of darkness rise. We bring the light to all aspects of life - our friendships, family dynamics and our workspace. Many of us are empaths or sensitives that feel a lot of what’s going on and start to notice the physical and emotional symptoms that don’t seem to have a root cause. The reason the launch of WRKSPC Oasis was so successful was because they found the root which is how to care for ourselves and each other while balancing our super woman responsibilities. I wanted to take the chance to share the practices I learned from the event and how they have immediately impacted my life.

At the end of the day we got the opportunity to attend an Ayurvedic self care workshop taught by Julie Bernier, and she just blew my mind. My esthetic training was with Aveda, which is an Americanized version of ancient Ayurvedic practices, but Julie reminded me of some simple practices that brought me back to 19 year old Hayley in beauty school. It felt cyclical to have these concepts reintroduced to me at a time where I haven’t been feeling well. When I was 18 I was so depressed that I stepped outside of myself enough to go forward with a path less traveled and I dropped out of college to become an esthetician. Having that depression led me to bettering myself and I overcame what I thought was my permanent state. Julie reminded me that Ayurveda is the science of life which includes daily routines and rituals to help keep your life in balance.

As a self-employed woman, I never really saw how my lack of schedule was possibly what was making me sick in the first place. She reminded me that our bodies want routine and her first piece of advice was to wake up with the sun. That means between the hours of 5 and 6 am. I’m an early riser because I literally always have to pee around that hour every morning, but I generally find myself heading back to bed for another hour or immediately staring at my phone and checking emails. Yes, I check emails as early as 5 am sometimes. Instead of doing that I have been waking up, peeing (which she describes as cleansing) and then I follow with her second piece of advice which was to tongue scrape. I tongue scrape everyday but maybe not until 9 am or if I’m not seeing clients, 12 pm (Gross to think about now that I’m reflecting but it’s true - lack of routine means lack of immediate oral hygiene I guess). We detox so much overnight that our tongues typically coat with a white substance that is meant to be gently scraped off to help cleanse ourselves of the waste we detox over night. There is a theme of cleansing in the morning that I absolutely adore and resonate with because it’s what I teach my clients - so why wasn’t I doing it too? Again, this circles back to lack of routine due to self-employment. In addition to this she suggested drinking warm water and follow up with meditation or simply going outside to connect with the world.

For the next couple of days following the event, I got an outstanding amount of work done without the initial anxiety I’m faced with every morning. I took notifications off of my phone and started to give myself what she described as the golden hour. Golden hour means spending an hour without screen time when you first wake up. I literally never thought I could get through this concept but you can get a lot done in an hour that doesn’t require your phone. I showered, did light yoga and stretching, had tea on my balcony, meditated for 20 minutes and wrote a list of to-dos with an intention for myself for the day. Some examples of my intentions stemmed from what was coming up for me during my meditations: “Simplify and slow down”, “Calm and confident” and “Surrender” were just a few that I came up with. Each time I lost track of myself, I looked at my to-dos and spoke my intention which brought me right back to where I needed to be.

So I followed the suggestions of Ayurvedic self care workshop every day since the workshop and I feel great. I’m consciously and consistently eating which has helped with the cravings, taking breaks which helps with the fog, and sleeping better which sets me up right for the day all the while getting so much done. As women, we are capable of accomplishing anything but what we need to remember is our health doesn’t have to suffer for it. The best part of the whole experience was the reminder to stop shaming ourselves if we are not perfect in our wellness routines. It’s okay if you miss a day, the important part is that you have the tools to get you right back to a grounded place.

I hope this helps you continue your work week with a positive outlook. Thank you for reading! Xo - Hayley

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