SWIHA Blog

What do Holistic Nutrition and Life Coaching have in common? According to Janet Lee, the answer is almost everything! “Holistic Nutrition is looking at the whole person,” she explains. “Life Coaching does the same.”

Janet Lee’s unique style of coaching is deeply personal to her. Her own challenges, experience in therapy, and, ultimately, finding her own wellness led her to pursue her passion for healing. Janet’s philosophy is that mental and physical health are profoundly interconnected. From how we interact within our relationships to what we choose to eat, it all affects us in a much bigger sense than we may initially realize. “I firmly believe in the power of a decision, she shares. “One small decision can transform a person’s life. It has in my own life many times!”

The holidays are a time when we want to look and feel are best so that we can truly enjoy the company of our loved ones and the spirit of the season. Yet, it’s so easy to overindulge when faced with the wide array of traditional treats popularly consumed at the time. Sugar cookies, pies, alcohol-laden drinks, and other sweets can weigh us down and leave us feeling slower, sleepier, and less energized than usual. Meals that contain dairy can have a particularly negative effect on our health and well-being. In fact, excessive consumption of dairy products has been shown to cause skin troubles, increased mucus production in the respiratory system, slowed digestion, and the sudden onset of bloating, cramping, gassiness, and general tummy troubles.

Way up in Anchorage, Alaska, SWIHA Graduate Kris Hwang comes from a family of entrepreneurs whose business has been running strong for 40 years. Growing up with that background had fostered a strong entrepreneurial spirit in her, as well as a desire to be her own boss and do what she loves on her own terms.

Kris’ work as a bartender had left her feeling emotionally and spiritually drained. As an empath and highly sensitive person working in the service industry, it can be easy to give too much of yourself and take on the energetic and emotional baggage of your customers. Kris found herself seeking balance and looking to grow, and so she began practicing meditation exercises and nurturing a personal yoga practice— her first steps towards beginning a new chapter of her life.

Maureen Ihle has always been dedicated to helping people, and yet it wasn’t until she enrolled at SWIHA that she realized that doing so was her life’s purpose (INSERT: www.blog.swiha.edu/life-coaching-corner-are-you-brave-enough-to-be-an-entrepreneur). Maureen shared that before she firmly found her path at SWIHA, she was struggling both personally and professionally. It took clearing away some of those personal cobwebs to ultimately see where her path was leading her.

“I was working at a job that was very unsatisfying. I had gained 30 pounds the year before I enrolled and was at my highest weight ever. I didn’t know where I was going in my life, and I certainly had no idea of how I was going to get there. I knew I needed to do something different with my life, and I knew I wanted to help people, so I started looking at psychology programs. I looked at a lot of programs at other schools, and nothing seemed to quite fit until I found the program at SWIHA. As soon as I saw the program, I knew that this is what I needed to be doing with my life. I am so passionate about life coaching and helping other people find their purpose.”

For some people, the traditional college route is not the road to success. Amanda Petro is one of those very people.

After spending a year at Arizona State University, Amanda wound up feeling completely unfulfilled; she was beginning to lose interest in her path of study and was increasingly aware that she was not resonating with her classmates. In her search for more like-minded friends, she ended up connecting with two soul sisters here in Tempe, Arizona, who were soon graduating from the Yoga Teacher Training Program at Spirit of Yoga. “It was there at their YTT graduation ceremony that I realized I wanted to be apart of this incredible and seemingly magical school. I started off staying at ASU while I began my 200 YTT. Mid-way through, I quickly realized I couldn’t handle the workload of both. ASU was taking me away from diving deeper into my SWIHA education, so I decided to go full time at SWIHA and leave Arizona State University behind. It was the best decision of my life.”

As technology, the pharmaceutical industry, and our modern obsession with treating the symptoms rather than the roots of illness have continued to evolve over the years, we have increasingly found ourselves living in a world that has separated itself from the natural healing perspective. At one point in human history, we relied directly on the earth for our spiritual sustenance and our inherent understanding of the different types of healing energies that exist within the world. Now, in search of what will make us look or feel better, most of us turn to the “quickest fix” without giving any thought to what the consequences may be.

Sharon Rose made the trek out to Arizona following an opportunity in her previous career of hospitality and to experience a much-needed change in scenery. Attending a school like Southwest Institute of Healing Arts was far from her mind. At the time, she had no idea that her recreational and self-preservationist interests in yoga would become such huge components of her life path, and ultimately, the fulfillment of her life purpose.

After four months here in the desert, a sinking feeling began to creep into her soul that something significant was missing. Looking back, she shares, “I became uninspired and mentally checked out. I started practicing yoga at Spirit of Yoga around this time. I realized then that I wanted to pursue yoga full time and decided to look into SWIHA.”

Meet Cameo Rose of Foxy Fruit Açai Bowls & Smoothies! This girl is serving beautiful bowls to beautiful souls and changing lives through her passion for and knowledge of Holistic Nutrition.

This dream life wasn’t always her reality, though. To hear Cameo talk about her sheer fervor and zeal for Holistic Nutrition and Urban Farming, you would never believe that just a few years ago before attending SWIHA, Cameo found herself trapped in a cycle of negativity. As she puts it, “I knew something had to give, or else I would feel this way forever.” She decided to dive in and begin researching how to live a more healthful life.

From there, she was exposed to a seemingly infinite fount of information about healthy eating. She talks of this time fondly; as if her life burst open, made colorful in the presence of organic options after living for years in the black and white world of processed foods and unconscious living. “I started falling in love with healthy eating, creating delicious vegetarian recipes, and taking care of my mind, body, and soul for what seemed [to be] the first time in my life.”

By 2014, Angelica Belmar was happy in many areas of her life. Her family, kids, and husband made her feel proud of them. She was grateful and humble for all she had in her life, however her only frustration was that she didn’t have a career, and that feeling was strong in her heart. She knew that she wanted to study, yet she didn’t know what she wanted to study. “My entire life, I have been inclined towards kindness, gentleness, compassion, and diplomacy. I like to help others. The holistic field sounded very fascinating to me, so I started researching it, and I found Southwest Institute of Healing Arts (SWIHA).” She enrolled and graduated with an Associates degree of Occupational Studies in Mind Body Transformational Psychology specializing in Hypnotherapy, Holistic Nutrition, and Life Coaching. Within the program she also studied Aromatherapy, Flower Essences, Prayer Therapy, Ayurveda Introduction, Energy Anatomy, Psychology of Addictions, Developmental Psychology, Ethical Consciousness.  She calls SWIHA one of the best schools in the world because it is a school that gives holistic education, and therefore they care for each one of their students. She experienced their support during her program, and now that she is graduated, she feels that her success is important for them. “I’m so grateful.”

Loree Bischoff had always been intrigued with what causes people to think a certain way, what makes them tick and what motivates them to do the things they do. “I’ve also always loved helping others so in 2007 I, along with my sister, developed a special event called ‘Motherhood Redefined’, a weekend seminar for mothers that ended up being very successful. My sister and I noticed that most of the mothers we knew were really struggling on some level with the balance – or lack of it – in their lives. We saw this great need for moms to have access to new tools and strategies for having a more balanced and fulfilling life.” The weekend event consisted of speakers, interactive workshops, and fun. At the time, Loree wasn’t familiar with life coaching as a profession, yet one of the speakers she had hired for the Motherhood Redefined event happened to be a life coach who specialized in working with mothers. It was then she knew that she really wanted to begin her own private coaching practice. So she picked the brain of the life coach she’d hired, looking for recommendations for training. One of the places she suggested Loree check out was the Southwest Institute of Healing Arts (SWIHA).