Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in health and wellness but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Elizabeth Helene, Founder of Magdala Heals, located in Bloomington, IN, USA.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
Through the synthesis of Tantra and the Way, Magdala Heals is an acupressure bodywork practice that provides resources for those who seek to empower their spirituality while honoring the power that their sexual health brings to their life. I work with men and women of all walks of life who seek to transform stagnation and dysfunction in their lives. I trained at Somananda Tantra School, where I learned how to hone in on the electromagnetic field around a person's body that connects their physical reality to their mental reality.
Through stimulation of this field by Ayurvedic acupressure techniques, the real work of integrating and releasing is done. Our bodies are powerful instruments that fundamentally seek to regenerate us. When you give your body permission to do that for you, the results are life-changing. What's best with this form of healing is the conscious mind doesn't have to do any of the heavy liftings. All the conscious mind has to focus on is breathing.
Tell us about yourself
My name is Elizabeth. I am a sexual and spiritual health advocate and survivor of spiritual and sexual abuse. Growing up in Christian purity culture, I've felt firsthand the exploitation of the feminine polarity and the rejection and condemnation of the masculine polarity. From a young age, I became aware of the duplicity and willful blindness of the church when it came to sexuality. I observed how this duplicitous culture permeates nearly every church I have ever attended (which includes multiple denominations) and enables predators to move and prey on young, spiritually minded people undetected. As I've grown up and explored secularism, I've realized this culture isn't Christian-derived or even religiously derived. It is much more ancient than that, permeating society itself: from our economic systems to our philosophies on motherhood and fatherhood. Ultimately, these toxicities derive from polarity power imbalances.
Thus, for me, my life purpose - my dharma - is sharing this energetic knowledge with others and empowering them to restore balance to their masculine & feminine polarities so they can think, feel, speak, and behave in congruency with their mind and intent. While I call myself a healer, fundamentally, I am a facilitator for energy and a coach empowering you to find that regenerative instinct within you, whatever sacred name you may call that.
My journey in healing trauma has taken me through hypnotherapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, twelve steps, and finally, Tantra and the Way. The path that most comprehensively addressed my need for transformation was Tantra and the Way. So I've developed a practice that centers around those philosophies to complement the more Western therapeutic practices so a person can experience a holistic leave-no-stone-unturned kind of transformation.
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
My biggest accomplishment, practically speaking, would be affording my own studio on the downtown square in Bloomington, IN. My intimate studio provides a safe container for a client to really relax... Emotionally speaking, I feel so fulfilled when a client feels the transformation. Sometimes it's during the session. A lot of times, it'll be days after the session when life hits them, and they notice that they are responding in new ways they wouldn't have imagined doing before.
What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?
The stigma and taboo of "Tantra" and "sexuality" is my hardest obstacle, I think, but it's the nature of the beast I wrestle with. While this work has been misunderstood and defiled by pornographers and pastors alike, it doesn't change the truth of what it does for people. I love what I do, and every time I feel shut down by a critic, I remember my clients and what the work has meant to them.
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
My top 3 tips...
- Capitalism does not equate to entrepreneurship - one solves problems while another exploits the problem for profit.
- Be an entrepreneur - the world is not going to get better unless we actually invest in solving problems.
- Money is a physical representation of an energetic exchange so do what you love with discipline, and the energy will naturally flow to and through you.
Where can people find you and your business?
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/magdalaheals
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/magdalaheals/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabethhbhiggs/
If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.
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