Bonus: Nikia Phoenix, Leading Ladies in Wellness

Episode Summary

Title: Bonus Nikia Phoenix, Leading Ladies in Wellness Nakia Phoenix defines wellness as loving and taking care of oneself with grace. She believes self-care is important before you can fully commit to others. As a woman of color, Phoenix feels it's important that her voice is heard in the wellness space. She suggests looking harder to find people of color reflected in wellness, and to trust you'll find someone who resonates. Phoenix has meditated for years, realizing its calming effects. She coaches others through meditation, emphasizing that it's a practice requiring persistence. Her self-care rituals include morning and evening meditation, breathwork, yoga, journaling, and Reiki healing. Phoenix recommends starting small by checking in on how you feel throughout the day. Phoenix notes people often see wellness and religion as conflicting, when they can actually coexist. Finding balance between the two leads to inner happiness and joy. Overall, Phoenix inspires leading a wellness lifestyle through self-love, healing, and spiritual practices.

Episode Show Notes

Nikia Phoenix is a model, content creator, self-love activist, and overall leading lady in the world of wellness. On this bonus episode, learn about her morning self-care routine, the importance of meditation, as well as the one thing she wishes the world could understand about wellness.

Episode Transcript

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SPEAKER_03: My name is Nakia Phoenix. I am a model, content creator, and also a self-love and women's activist. Wellness to me means loving oneself through and through, taking care of oneself and having grace for oneself, because we go through so many things and oftentimes we can be hard on ourselves. And so we have to give ourselves some grace. I believe wellness is important for everyone because we have to first take care of ourselves and love ourselves before we can commit to loving other people, whether that's in romantic relationships, friendships, or even family. If we are constantly thinking about others and not taking care of number one, then we cannot be the humans, the spirits that we were put on this earth to be. So even before I realized what wellness actually encompasses, I had been meditating for years and I kind of dropped into meditation. It wasn't that I read a book about it or saw someone doing it. It just called to me. It just kind of happened. And I remember in college, coaching some of my friends through a meditation session and realizing how much calm it brought me. And I realized that especially as a woman of color, it is so important that my voice is heard and that the sentiments of other black women are incorporated into this wellness practice, because the things that we have been experiencing for so many years, for so many generations, it's not simple for us to work through those things. So if I'm able to connect with someone and speak with someone and really empathize with them and say, I see you, and let me be the conduit to help you heal yourself, then I know that I'm fulfilling my purpose on this earth. I know it's often hard to see yourself reflected as a person of color in the wellness space. However, we do exist. We are out there. You just have to search a little harder. And sometimes when you stop searching and you just trust in yourself and trust in the law of attraction and universal energy, then you will actually come across that person, that person who ignites your self-love flame, that person who really resonates with what you have been experiencing in your own life. We're out there. We're out there. You just have to believe that you can find us. I had this conversation with some girlfriends from college the other day, and I suggested to her that she should start meditating. And she said, oh gosh, I just can't do that. I can't quiet my mind enough to meditate. I said, did you just give up on the first try or did you keep going? And she got quiet. I said, everything in wellness is a practice. Meditation is a practice. Practice doesn't make perfect, but the more that you do it, the more grace you give yourself for when you have a difficult time getting quiet. It's about pushing through those obstacles. We can all achieve this thing if we stick to it and love ourselves through the entire process. So before my day starts, and my day has not been as busy as of late because of COVID, but before my day starts, I take moments, minutes, however long to get in touch with me and see how Nakia is feeling. And even in the middle of the day, I will find myself doing a few minutes of breath work or yoga just to tap back into myself. And even at night, I do very similar rituals. I meditate, I journal, I am studying Reiki now. So I make sure that I do a little Reiki healing on myself before I go to sleep to kind of cleanse my aura of whatever challenges have come up throughout the day and wherever I need healing. But self-care can start with just tiny little things, tiny little moments of checking in with yourself and saying, hey, are you okay? How are we feeling in this moment? In this crazy world that we live in, we're constantly used to going, going, going, going, going, and without stopping, without even taking a breath. So my hack is before you say anything, before you do anything, just take a beat, take a moment, breathe, and then proceed. Something that I think people often get wrong about wellness, and this is when you're coming from other spiritual traditions or religious traditions, I think that often people believe that your wellness is conflicting with that tradition, and it's really not. It's not either or, it's both and. If people can understand that you don't have to choose one and you can do both, we all have to find a balance. And I think once we're able to find that balance, we will find the balance and the happiness, the joy within ourselves. SPEAKER_06: I hope you found this special bonus episode of Encyclopedia Womanica as calming as I did. For more from this inspiring leading lady in wellness, find her on Instagram, at Nikia Phoenix. Thank you to Care Of for sponsoring this special bonus episode of Encyclopedia Womanica. Head to TakeCareOf.com to take their five minute quiz to figure out what vitamins and supplements are best for you. Care Of's in-depth online quiz asks you questions about your diet, lifestyle, and health concerns to help address your specific wellness goals. It's like getting a one-on-one consultation with a nutritionist. Care Of is committed to providing a tailored, holistic approach to your unique health needs. I took the quiz the other day, and I'm so excited to get my product. Use the code ENCYCLOPEDIA for 50% off your first Care Of order. Visit TakeCareOf.com. Again, use the code ENCYCLOPEDIA for 50% off, five zero percent off your first Care Of order. Go to TakeCareOf.com, and tune in tomorrow to hear more from inspiring leading ladies in wellness. Talk to you tomorrow. 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