There was a time when I wore exhaustion as a badge of honor. As an Executive Chef in Manhattan, an instructor at the Institute of Culinary Education, and a graduate student in clinical psychology, I thrived on chaos—or so I thought until my body turned on me.

Indeed, as it turned out, my body had been keeping score: a severe rheumatological illness that left doctors baffled, with traditional medicine offering few answers. That’s when my true journey began. Actual wellness isn’t about pushing harder; it’s about listening deeper.

There were no easy miracles on my path, but I discovered that practices like somatic therapy, breathwork, and sound baths did offer lifelines. They didn’t cure my condition, but they taught me how to rebuild a relationship with my body and mind that I’d lost in the grind.

Slowly, I began to radiate a calm that friends and family couldn’t ignore. Their questions—“How?”—planted the seed for Health & Bloom.