My Journey Toward Holistic Healing and Teaching
My personal health story and the challenges I faced as a young teen lead me down the path to research and find answers to why I was sick.
My blog post from earlier this year, Living With Lyme, goes into my Lyme journey in more detail. The symptoms of Lyme disease are so widespread and varied and coupled with the fact that standard Lyme tests are largely inaccurate, it becomes incredibly hard to get diagnosed and find treatment that works for a particular individual. After years of lacking true answers from the allopathic medical community, I had to find my own answers. A quick search on Google will overwhelm anyone with the many ways to treat symptoms of Lyme and its co-infections, and while I certainly did my fair share of Google research, I also leaned into books and research of holistic healers.
It was around this time I started following some of the first settlers in the holistic healing space—the men and women who had been practicing and preaching clean eating, non-toxic living, herbology, energy medicine, yoga, and beyond. Today, holistic health has become more mainstream, and mostly everyone knows what ‘whole’ foods are. But for those who are new to the term, whole foods have not been processed, refined, or genetically modified, and usually are organic. Whole-food eating is always a better choice for the body than fast food.
As many do, I started experimenting with my diet and exercise routine while trying to better my mental health by doing meditation and breathing work. I was reading all I could on holistic wellness and nutrition. It became a passion and a stance I wanted to take on my life—I knew the answers were out there and all I had to do was ask and be open to the response.
Even while living with my Lyme and co-infections it was important to continue my education. I graduated from Purdue University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Health and Wellness with a focus on Holistic Health. After that, I attended the Institute of Integrated Nutrition and became a certified health and wellness coach. Simultaneously, I completed the YogaWorks intensive and received my 200 HR Yoga Certification so I could share my love of yoga with my community. It was at this point I knew I wanted to share my experiences and knowledge with others, and thus Holistic Umbrella was born. An idea and name I had in high school, but now had a purpose and mission. Though I’m currently running my wellness events and retreats through my position as Director of Wellness and Sustainability at Pacific Hospitality Group, Holistic Umbrella is still a supportive community for those wanting to balance their health, wellness, and spirituality to create joy in their personal lives as well as positively impact their communities.
Education is a lifelong commitment. It does not have to be traditional accolades, but we can all learn through communities and conversations with like-minded people. As soon as you stop learning, you stop growing. As I continue to show up for the HU community, I’ll present the facts and experiences I have had on my journey. We all need to show up for ourselves by getting educated about our own health. We are the advocates for our personal health journey.
Listing my accolades is not to brag, but to show my experience in the space and to be honest about my passions. I recently received my Women in Leadership Certificate from Cornell University which has motivated me to support my female community here at Holistic Umbrella. In August, I will be starting the Corporate Sustainability program at New York University’s Stern School of Business. Sustainability has been a passion that was not planned but fell in my lap and I fell in love. The purpose and difference we can make by being more sustainable is an easy non-negotiable for Mother Earth. I’ll be implementing corporate sustainability here with our 14 properties at Pacific Hospitality Group to make wellness travel safe and accessible for all. (FYI: where we live, travel, and stay impacts our health. Check out my latest blog, 9 Essential Building Modifications for Healthier Living, for more info.)
What I want to educate people about is the power of mother nature. Nature has and will continue to provide us with treatment or cure for almost any health ailment we may face today. Our mission as humans on this beautiful planet is to take care of Mother Earth so she can continue to provide resources for healthy living. And the truth is, no matter how much you ask for help from doctors, family, friends, whomever… the answers always come from within. That is what wellness is––tapping into our own truths about our purpose, energy, and reason for being on this earth. Respecting what we do and put into our bodies and using herbs and natural means to treat and cure our ailments. As someone who had to learn first-hand what it was like to speak up for my health and learn to ‘treat’ myself, I believe it’s my mission in life to help others do the same. We all have the innate ability to feel our best by the choices we make.
If you are interested in coaching or special group events in wellness, please feel free to reach out. I love questions and meeting new friends. Email me at Kenzie@HolisticUmbrella.com.
Be sure to follow and be part of our community on Instagram, @HolisticUmbrella, for more wellness advice. Shoot me a DM to say hey or if interested in a collab. I’d love to hear what your thoughts are about the blog!
Wishing you health and wellness always…