Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in health and wellness but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Beverly Akhurst, owner of Ocean Breath Yoga & Wellness, located in Vancouver, BC, Canada.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

Ocean Breath Yoga & Wellness and Ritam Of Life are the seed for everything I share. Through my intuitive, empathic, and learned abilities, I guide women who are moving into the sequel of their next story of life. As with all sequels, the characters usually gain depth, and their lives take on far more intricacy.

These are women who may be considered themselves successful but are either facing a litany of health issues that have no real explanation. Many also are finding that there is an underlying unease in their lives that they feel they need to cover with busyness.

In a world that offers quick fixes via diets, boot camps, creams, surgeries, and more, I instead offer the opportunity for women to take back control of their experience, embrace the beauty and wisdom of who they are, and learn how to become the best, most sensual, brilliant expressions of themselves based on who they need to be not what they are told they should be.

I don't offer this without background. During COVID, I lost 40 lbs while everyone else was struggling with food. It was not through a diet but through a discovery of the sacredness of being connected to the food going in the body. I separated from my partner in a loving and caring way in order to be true to my need to continue to grow. We are still great friends because of this. I am thriving in my business because I stay true to my heart and write and create from a flow of inspiration.

Anyone wanting to work with me must be willing to commit to themselves. If you are not willing to show up for yourself, who else will? Women who do sign on are in this for change. If it took you 40, 50, or 60 years or more to create your habits of living, you need to be willing to commit to the time it takes to reverse your habits. And you must be willing to take this work seriously but also let go of a push to get somewhere and instead believe in the possibility that where you are in this moment is where you need to be in order to really embrace the change that is coming. You do not need to be fixed! You just need to remember who you truly are. 💚

1 to 1 Program (6 months to 1 year)
Sacred Living Program
Retreats
Corporate Retreats
Workshops
Facilitation
Coaching
Corporate Wellness programs via Posture, Breath, and Movement.

Tell us about yourself

There is no single thing that led me to my business. Everything within my lifetime is organized to prepare me for what it is I am meant to share. Having said that, there are pivotal moments in every life that, to some degree, offer everyone a choice. Do this or continue down the path you are on!

My moment started during and after my father's journey through pancreatic cancer, followed by his passing. It was not much time after this that I landed in a hospital's cardiac unit, where I spent a week with a heart in full disfunction. Doctors convinced I shouldn't be walking. I slept for a week, my heart balanced out, and I returned to my Yoga practice while the doctor tried to convince me to have a heart operation which would have had them burn out a piece of my heart and possibly insert a pacemaker....all at the age of 42.

I sensed that I was simply physically, emotionally, and mentally exhausted. My choice to take on my health by diving into a deep understanding of the foundations of life via Yoga was intuitive, and it worked. It is from this that my business started. I became a Yoga teacher and, from there, have progressed, taking everything I have learned and experienced and translating it into programs that offer the possibility for women to become embodied in their best lives.

Now at 55, I am in the best shape of my life, feel more empowered, and am aligned with life in a way that is not only embodied but has a quality of Sacred to it that never used to exist. I have fallen madly, deeply, and passionately in love with myself and am excited about the coming years. Not aging but thriving. The old story is that life gets worse, and our bodies and minds are far less functional as we get older.

The new story is what inspires me to continue. If we, all of us, begin to learn the language of our individuality and begin to have a deep loving relationship with our bodies and lives, the whole of our experience becomes empowered and something to be embraced rather than discarded.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

My biggest accomplishment?.....hmm. This is one of those questions I have had to contemplate for a while. It can seem like such a simple question, but when I consider what I believe accomplishment to mean, then the answer becomes far different than the initial thought. I could say it was when I became a Yoga teacher at the age of 42. Some people thought that was a bit of an odd choice or just a bit of a side route I was taking, but I did it and changed my life - Accomplishment.

Then, five years later, I opened my own studio because I saw a space that felt so right I decided to just follow my gut and do it. It was a beautiful heart-centered studio that no one thought I could pull off - Accomplishment. I then started my own teacher training school to counter what I felt missing in training being offered - check, and I kept going. Everything I have done that has been guided by my heart and my belief that there is a better way for people to be able to live is an accomplishment, but here in this moment, I will say that by far, my biggest accomplishment as a business owner has been the fact that I have not only remained true to myself, done everything my way (not always perfectly) but that I have been willing to learn. Now I feel like what I offer women is what I was gifted. The ability to offer them a deep transformational change in their lives that shifts how they see and experience their bodies, how they interact within their relationships with self and others, and how they evolve in their lives far more connected to a sacred sense of being in rhythm with living. If I am not here for that, then what, at this crossroads in time, would be the point?

What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?

For myself, the hardest thing about being a business owner is the way in which I (and everyone) am bombarded by the ever-changing world of tech and the message that if you don't learn this or do that, then you are obsolete. Your message will never be heard, and your very superficial expression of what you do is the only message that counts. I know this is not true for everyone, but for myself, I find this soul-sucking. I do what I do with the understanding that the overriding need at this juncture in time is for individuals - especially women - to take control of their lives and their health. So much of the online world counts on people losing a sense of individuality and self-sovereignty. To be online and try to expand my business and how I share my message, I am in a continual battle with balancing how I share and ensuring I don't lose my way. Looking at what I see happening right now on social media, I would say this is going to remain my living lesson for a while.

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

This is a good question. In a world that has become so engrained in a very "masculine" push energy of business creation and growth, I would offer this.

  1. Don't get stuck on how you believe your business will look. Have your goal/target, but don't be so set on the path you believe you need to follow to get there that you miss the inspired routes that you may never have even been able to believe were possible.
  2. Be sure to surround yourself with people who care enough about you to be willing to tell you when they see you drifting from your purpose. What is needed right now is your heart; you need to know when your head thinks it is in control.
  3. Don't be a cookie-cutter version of everything else that is out there. Be inspired by what you see, but believe enough in yourself to trust that your voice and vision are what is needed in this world.

Is there anything else you'd like to share?

I could go on for a long time with everything I would like to share, but I will leave it with this. Step outside and look around, take a breath, close your eyes and feel the ground beneath your feet. You were made out of every element that surrounds you; you are a part of this beautiful dance of life. You were not created to be miserable and sick but to be as much a part of the health of this life as the bees that pollinate the flowers. Life has become unbalanced, and us with it. Women were not meant to function as men but to celebrate their own unique gifts in order to maintain a balance in life. Take back your beautiful, vulnerable power and be the white blood cells of this planet.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: http://www.oceanbreathyoga.ca/

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/bjakhurst/
https://www.facebook.com/oceanbreathbeverly

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/oceanbreathyogawellness/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/beverly-akhurst-om/

If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solopreneur that you'd like to share, then email community@subkit.com; we'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

Feel inspired to start, run or grow your own subscription business? Check out subkit.com and learn how you can turn "one day" into day one.