SWIHA Blog

“How blessed am I?!” exclaims Amanda Martin, “I'm excited to wake up every day knowing that I get to assist clients with their personal journeys of discovery.”

Amanda recently graduated from the 100-Hour Life Coaching program at Southwest Institute of Healing Arts and is currently working on completing her Reiki certificate. She says that since stepping in to her power as a Wellness Coach, she has found her life’s true passion: being an active partner for those on their journey to uncovering their best selves.

If you were to tell someone fifty years ago that you’re going to a hypnotherapy session or a sound bath, their reaction would likely have been a mix of confusion and laughter. Holistic wellness was something for the counterculture, living on the fringe in spiritual communities and somewhat cloaked in taboo.

Today, more and more people are embracing holistic modalities

• Between 2012 and 2016, the number of Americans doing yoga increased from 20.4 million to 36 million.
• The number of U.S. consumers who adhere to a vegan diet grew from 1% to 6% between 2014 and 2017, increasing 600%.
• The global demand for essential oils was 226.9 kilotons in 2018.
• Wellness tourism is growing 12% per year, with awareness doubling from 1 in 10 people to 1 in 5 people.
• The number of spas have doubled since 2007, producing 2.6 million additional U.S jobs.
• Employment of massage therapists is expected to increase 26% from 2016 to 2026.

Full of fiber and packed with nutrition, green smoothies are a staple in any health-conscious diet. Making this delicious drink is as easy as 1, 2, 3!

• 1 cup of fruit
• 2 cups of liquid
• 3 cups of greens

Step One: Choose Your Liquid Base

To ensure even blending, add two cups of liquid to your blender first. Be mindful of the sugar content of liquid bases, and feel free to choose more than one!

“Everything that happens in life has a lesson. Sometimes you have to look harder to find it, but it is there,” affirms Jenny Sirwet.

Jenny is a graduate of the 800-Hour Yoga Teacher Training program, has studied Polarity, Life Coaching and Aromatherapy, and serves future SWIHA community members in the Admissions department with her warm and welcoming presence. Though Jenny is now what we lovingly call a ‘SWIHA-Lifer’, she admits that she didn’t quite jump in to her journey feet-first: “I was allergic to the word ‘trauma’ when I first started as a student at SWIHA,” discloses Jenny, “That word was a trigger for me. It was a reminder of the ‘victim mentality’, which I try to avoid.”

Five years ago, Jenny suffered a serious back injury which launched her into a journey of healing and a mindset of growth. After a year and a half of  physical therapy, she had lumbar spine surgery in August of 2016 followed by six more months of remedial exercises.

Many view their jobs as ‘just’ forty hours per week. However, when you actually do the math, the average American spends a collective thirteen years and two months of their life at work.

So, why are three quarters of Americans reportedly unhappy on the job? And why should we be okay with spending so much of our life in a discontent state?

According to The American Institute of Stress, one in four people surveyed had been driven to tears due to work-related incidents and 65% reported that job stress caused difficulties resulting in decreased productivity. It’s not just a mental/emotional problem, though: job stress has been demonstrated to be associated with increased rates of heart attack, hypertension and other disorders, and 62% of people reported leaving work experiencing stress-related neck pain.

Every year, the EWG (Environmental Working Group) analyzes the chemical residue on fruits and vegetables widely available in the average grocery store. Their report notes things such as the average number of pesticides found on a single sample and the maximum number of particles detected.

Here are their findings for 2019:

Southwest Institute of Healing Arts has been celebrating National Nutrition Month by inviting you in to our teaching kitchen for informative Facebook Live sessions with Becca Briley, Lead Admissions Coordinator, and Janet Lee, Online & On Campus Holistic Nutrition Instructor.

In case you missed the Facebook Live Videos, enjoy these replays below, and check out the next opportunity to join us on March 26th at 5PM (AZ) for a discussion about eating right for your blood type!

“Though I reside in Wisconsin and SWIHA is a distance from me, I know my people are out there,” Jamie Reklau says with a full heart.

From an early age, Jamie has loved to build others confidence, offer wisdom and lend an ear when needed. She tells us: “During my junior high school years, I passed around a notebook and started a ‘Dear Jamie’ column.  I had passion, even back then, to offer new ideas and do whatever I could to assist my classmates to have a better life.”

However, as she navigated adulthood, she realized that she had shut herself off from her authenticity: “I felt like I was not allowed to be my genuine self,” says Jamie, “I lived a highly traumatic life. I survived a Traumatic Brain Injury and lived most of my life feeling like I could never accomplish anything meaningful. My mindset was that it wasn't in the cards for me.”

It’s no secret: Our society is saturated with unhealthy, unbalanced options for food. In fact, many households spend over three-thousand dollars--or 10% of the average income--eating out per year; the United States fast food industry is forecasted to make 223 billion dollars by 2020.

The Standard American Diet (S.A.D) is causing an epidemic of diabetes, cancer, heart disease and a slew of other ailments to affect ourselves, friends, family and loved ones. According to the U.S Department of Health & Human Services and the Center for Disease Control:

Anthony Oliver has always loved science, nature, psychology and helping others, though he wasn’t always sure how to merge all of those things into a profitable future.

“The thing that led me to SWIHA was my mother, Veronica Oliver, because she had completed the Mind Body Wellness Practitioner program and is now a certified Clinical Hypnotherapist,” he tells us, “She told me that I should consider taking nutrition classes through SWIHA, and intuitively it felt right to me.”

Anthony recently graduated from the Holistic Nutrition Wellness Practitioner program and is awaiting examinations for his Behavior Modification Specialist and Fitness Nutrition Specialist certifications. He says that SWIHA significantly changed his life in a multitude of ways: “I value myself much more than I did before because I know I have credentials now that make me marketable and I am more knowledgeable about holistic methods of healing.”