SWIHA Blog

If you’re someone trying to eliminate animal products from your diet or avoid dairy, you may find yourself occasionally missing some summertime staples – Janet Lee, raw food chef and Holistic Nutrition instructor at SWIHA is here to help you! With her creative kitchen skills and years of dedication to a raw, plant-based diet, she shared this recipe on #WellnessWednesday in a live video on SWIHA’s Facebook, which you can replay below!

Many people are opting to remove dairy from their diet, opening their eyes to the many alternatives and getting creative with ways to recreate traditionally dairy-based items! Janet Lee, a raw food chef and SWIHA Holistic Nutrition instructor, recently shared on a Facebook Live video for #WellnessWednesday two ways to make delicious and nutritious coconut yogurt.

Coconuts have numerous health benefits – they contain fiber, manganese, copper, iron and medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs), supporting your heart and bones, healthy weight loss, as well as having many essential electrolytes to prevent fatigue. When you add probiotics to the mix for gut health, you have a treat that is yummy and supportive of your total wellness.

Hypnotherapy is a powerful way to create change in your life. It brings you into a highly relaxed state of inner concentration and focused attention so that you can make new choices based on the awareness and clarity that arises. Additionally, self-hypnosis is an empowering skill to reduce chronic pain, improve sleep, and alleviate stress!

If you’ve been into the Healing Pages bookstore on the Southwest Institute of Healing Arts campus in the last decade, chances are you’ve been blessed to meet Roann Monson. “She has such an eye for picking outstanding books to sell in the bookstore,” her fellow Healing Page's co-worker Anyada Francia says, “She is always up on the newest, most interesting books, and people loved to see what she would bring in.”

Her passion for books is life-long. In fact, she served in the ASU library for thirty years! During that time, she would often come in to Healing Pages and declare that when she retired from ASU, she was going to work in the SWIHA bookstore. A woman of her word, Roann retired from ASU on a Friday and picked up her first shift with the SWIHA community the following Monday!

Southwest Institute of Healing Arts found its humble beginning as a Massage Therapy school wanting to do things a little differently. Our dream has grown, our campus has expanded, and Massage Therapy is still one of the amazing programs we offer. Over the years, we have graduated hundreds of well-rounded, talented healers that are thriving as stand-outs in this booming industry.

A recent survey of massage therapists revealed that 88% report being satisfied in their career. Considering that the average job satisfaction rate among Americans is 51%, today we are going to analyze the many reasons why massage therapists LOVE what they do!

Just as necessity is the mother of invention, uncertainty can be the catalyst for entrepreneurship. A study conducted in 2009 by the Ewing Marion Kauffman foundation revealed that a staggering 57% of Fortune 500 companies were founded during periods of economic hardship. Out of the 2008 downturn, we saw companies like Uber, Pinterest and Groupon form, flourish and become regularly-used services.

“The best time to be an entrepreneur is when everyone is running for the exits,” Eric Reis, author of the best-selling book The Lean Startup, said in a recent interview with CNBC.

At Southwest Institute of Healing Arts, we dedicate ourselves daily to our mission of inspiring individuals to discover their gifts and graces and support them as they share their talents with the world in a loving and profitable way. It was this idea that resonated with SWIHA graduate, Melissa Richardson:  “I didn't want to work for anyone else,” she says, “I wanted to make my own way and chart my own course. I had my own ideas of how I wanted to participate and give to the world.”

Melissa is a licensed Massage Therapist in Buffalo, New York. She loves what she does and one day realized that, while she was making a difference for her clients, she felt she was only helping them temporarily and in a physical way.

Stories have been used in every culture, every language, to connect us to a larger self and universal truths. Whether they are myths, songs, paintings, or traditions, storytelling helps form a common goal, honor sacrifices, and pass down knowledge. They also have the ability to transport us to another time, place, or body and allow us to empathize with an experience we’ve never had.

There are two pretty amazing women who are leaving quite a legacy by capturing the stories of hundreds of women of all ages in a series of books. Living Brave...Finishing Strong is the fourth book of the Living Brave series by Dr. Hilda Villaverde and Mary Beth Stern.

As a massage therapist, you are consistently educating yourself on new techniques and modalities to better serve your clients. After all, you have been called to be a healer and improve the lives of others! You’re already aware of the transformative effect that bodywork has, and today we’ll look at some reason you may want to consider adding Hypnotherapy to your skill set to truly integrate mind-body-soul wellness.

“I've had a few starts and stops over the years,” says Amanda Dodd, a graduate of the Mind Body Wellness and Integrative Healing Arts programs, “what I really want is to be of service in a profound and healing way for others because it salves my soul. It's giving something that I haven't received in my own life.”

Amanda has been a holistic practitioner with many modalities for over a decade, practicing Reiki, Angel Card Readings and Mediumship. However, she always struggled to really launch herself out into the world with confidence.