SWIHA Blog

Aandra Bohlen is a tough, yet tender, six-figure entrepreneur, business consultant and certified empowerment coach whose straightforward approach to personal and professional growth has launched her into her passion and purpose. Dedicated to helping business owners cultivate grit, clarify their ideas and bust limiting beliefs, Aandra is now serving hundreds of entrepreneurs in a loving and profitable way, while acknowledging SWIHA as one of the many experiences that helped her get where she is today.

Always having had a no-nonsense approach to her own endeavors, Aandra found herself easily coaching others through questions they had about their paths – be it personal or professional. Knowing that this was her calling, Aandra launched her coaching business in June 2008. She found herself effortlessly researching and sharing relevant and timeless strategies with others to help them grow their own businesses. Aandra’s coaching business encompasses marketing, self-promotion, creative selling and strategic positioning – whatever she feels is most beneficial to helping the entrepreneurs she was working with take their businesses to a new level.

As a recent or former graduate of SWIHA, I’m sure you can attest to the growing pains you’ve experienced upon leaving school, suddenly tasked with building your own business or practice from the ground up. Of course, you have all of your accumulated wisdom, teachings, experiences, healings, lessons, trials and tribulations to lean on from your time at SWIHA. So what do you do when you get stuck, unmotivated, or caught up in fear and doubt around moving forward? When you hit those imaginary, yet oh-so-real walls? When you just want to give up your path, lay in bed and just binge watch Netflix until your next incarnation (isn’t that how Buddha did it)?

The mind can create a million different ways in which you can fail. We’ve all been there, and some of you might be in that space currently. If you’re not, read on, as I’m sure you’ll gain something from this article. Wherever you’re at, love it, since if you’re feeling it, you’re healing it! This week, I wanted to focus on the importance of balancing and clearing our chakras, and how each chakra blockage corresponds to a certain set of emotions, physical pains and states of dis-ease. I’m sure some of you have seen this information before, so treat this as a refresher if that’s the case. By slowing down, and becoming aware of where we are experiencing certain pains or emotions in our physical and energetic body, we can accept them, work with them, and ultimately heal, moving through whatever so called wall, stuck-ness or resistance we were dancing with before!

Laurel Hernandez definitely had a heroic journey in terms of her path to the Southwest Institute of Healing Arts (SWIHA). In 2005, she spent six months on pain meds and in a back brace after a quad accident. What she didn’t realize is that her life was about to take a 180 degree turn. Laurel recalled how her incredible and arduous path all began: “I had back surgery for a fracture that didn't heal, got a divorce after 25 years, left a great job of 19 years, moved to a new state leaving family and friends behind, went back to school for a career that didn't suite me, became a caregiver for my parents before they both passed, and I had lived in a ten mile radius of where I was born for the past 50 years!” All of this left her feeling lost and hopeless. Yet deep down, she knew that healing from within was what was really needed.

They say that Spirit works in mysterious ways, and it wasn’t until Laurel had a channeled session from a friend that her journey to Spirit, and to SWIHA, truly began. The week after her mother transitioned, her mother’s spirit came through to her in a channeled session, guiding Laurel to forgive herself, and let go of her past so as to be healed. More specifically, her mother urged her to look into Life Coaching -- something Laurel had never considered before.

Written by StevieAnne Petitt

In 2012, Christa Rimmer was desperately searching for something, but she couldn’t quite grasp what she was missing or searching for. In a state of curiosity and courage, she ventured out on a series of first-time experiences, including a trip to Sedona, diving into the practice of meditation, and sessions with both a psychic and a hypnotherapist for a past-life regression. She felt restless in wanting to know everything and to truly find what resonated with her. She claims that she felt awakened, but lost, for nearly two months following these new events. As she was finishing up her bachelor's degree in Psychology at ASU, she quickly became disenchanted with the idea of continuing on. Christa jokingly shared that in hindsight, she knew she was onto a new path when she excitedly mistook her curriculum’s Astronomy class for Astrology.

As a yoga teacher, part of my preparation for each class is to come up with a focus or intention for the practice. This is typically offered through some sort of inspirational reading or compelling offering. My inspiration for the intention or focus for my classes is usually around something that I am currently working on in my life.

I figure, how can I ask my students to work on something if I am not working on it myself?

In the past, I tried surfing the net to find things to inspire me and was not having great success. So I started to search for inspirational quotes to use as my muse. This has proven to be very successful in putting together an offering for my yoga classes. The quotes and readings I use to open my yoga or meditation sessions are becoming so effective that students come up to me after class and ask for a copy of my offering. In fact, this happened recently as I facilitated a guided mediation for my fellow co -workers.

The guided meditation was inspired by a quote that I came across by Nick Vujicik, an Australian Christian evangelist and motivational speaker born with tetra-amelia syndrome, a rare disorder characterized by the absence of all four limbs.

Plus an easy recipe: Bamboo Steamer Carrots with Cumin & Walnut Oil

We often hear the term whole foods or whole food cooking, yet do we really know what the terms mean?

The ‘Whole Food’ way of eating is enjoying as many “whole foods” as possible – that is, eating foods as close to their natural form as possible, with very minimal processing. This is the way people were eating a hundred years ago prior to the age of fast food restaurants, manufactured processed foods, convenience foods. It was when people actually spent time in their kitchen cooking, and less time eating out or eating on the run.

Simply, Whole Foods Cooking uses S.O.U.L. Foods: Seasonal. Organic. Unprocessed. Local.

Many health experts believe eating more whole foods improves health and helps prevent disease. Whole foods – like vegetables, fruits, whole grains, nuts, and legumes – retain their fiber and beneficial phytochemicals and nutrients that are often removed in processed foods.

Eating organic, whole foods, and shopping at farmers’ markets, CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture) and food co-ops is something many people have had to re-learn. Our intention with the Whole Food/ S.O.U.L Food Wednesday BLOG is to get you as excited about cooking and eating real whole foods as we are.

Written by StevieAnne Petitt

Mary Abeyta is a living, walking example of the SWIHA’s motto – To serve as an instrument, not an ego, in the peace and healing of others.

Mary Abeyta’s life story has been nothing shy of miracles, each step building upon the next. As we sat together for this interview, her demeanor was both joyous and peaceful. We began with the simplest of questions, each providing proof that her entire life, even up to this very moment, has been Spirit-driven. In fact, Mary’s overall message to others is to acknowledge that although we each possess unique gifts that we all eagerly wish to share, our main point of focus ought to be our relationship with the Source that gifted us.

This statement opened up nearly an hour of dialogue; Mary’s phenomenal journey started with a calling to study Theology. After seeing an ad for a Theology program, within one week’s time she received confirmation from three other people who had seen the same ad – each totally unaware of the other, and even living in different time zones. All of the messengers suggested Mary should apply to the Theology program. With just a tad bit of initial resistance, Mary intuitively knew she’d be selected for this life-changing program.

By definition, a dream is described as:

a series of thoughts, visions, or feelings that happen during sleep an idea or vision that is created in your imagination and that is not real something that you have wanted very much to do, be, or have for a long time

Source: Merriam-Webster Dictionary

More often than not, each new day in our modern lives comes with an overwhelming number of responsibilities and duties that have to get done: work, school assignments, childcare, cooking, cleaning, doctor appointments... the list goes on and on!

Unfortunately, our contemporary fixation on being busy leaves very little room for dreaming. Whether we aspire to find a better job, meet the love of our life, be the first in our family to pursue a post-secondary education, or even to open our own business as a holistic entrepreneur, the reasons we all desire success are as numerous as the stars in the sky. 

Many times, however, the stark reality of our current lives keeps us fixated on our fears, causing us to avoid our futures and to stop dreaming. Dreaming requires the intentional devotation of time to a vision of a better life and self; it is, in itself, part of the process of change. 

Adrian Ealy is a multitalented and equally meticulous practitioner who’s calling and current practice as an energetic bodyworker complements his strong background in Kung Fu and fitness. His approach to his own thriving health, as well as those he serves, integrates mental, emotional and spiritual well-being. Thanks to a series of events, conversations and a strong sense of discernment on his part, Adrian’s journey is now very much in alignment with his purposeful calling.

Just before his studies began, Adrian worked for a corporate company, and began noticing signs of stress and strain on his body. His knowledge in fitness led him to pursue yoga as an additional means of healing physical discomfort, especially because the roots of Kung Fu stem directly from yoga. Adrian chose to enroll in Yoga Teacher Training at Spirit of Yoga offered through Southwest Institute of Healing Arts (SWIHA) solely for the purpose enhancing his own personal practice.

Actively doing the work required in the Yoga Teacher Training program, Adrian was gifted a certificate to receive a massage. He willing took advantage of the opportunity to receive as massage as he was still experiencing job-related discomfort.

As her 50th birthday approached, Sandy Flores knew she wanted to do something special to honor the next stage of her life, now that she and her husband, Bill, had an empty nest. She always dreamed of completing her college degree and thought this would be the perfect time to focus on her and her passions.

As she looked at schools and curriculums, nothing seemed to fit her personality, interests, and goals. That is, until late one night, while looking at schools on the internet, she stumbled upon the Southwest Institute of Healing Arts (SWIHA). Just reading the College’s name alone seemed to bring a stir of excitement. Each and every class she scrolled through sounded interesting and life-affirming, which was something she desperately longed for during her mid-life crossroads. She felt butterflies in her stomach as she read that the school offered online classes for distance students. She began to entertain the idea that perhaps finding SWIHA was no coincidence at all. The next morning, Sandy called and spoke with an online advisor and by the end of the week, she was fully enrolled to study Holistic Nutrition and Hypnotherapy. The most exciting affirmation to her decision came when the advisor told her the starting date for her classes – Sandy’s 50th birthday!