We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kristina Daniels a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Kristina thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

Nature inspires me to share my experience through art and education, while embracing in no small measure the healing arts. My end goal is to bring the wisdom nature offers, with all its emanations of beauty and healing, to greater prominence and promise in today’s world. This calling and mission has grown stage by stage out of my lived life experiences and resulting desire to share my acquired awareness and wisdom with others, so that we can guide each other and this planet into a place of healing.

My present business enterprise arose out of a long career that focused on taking care of others. The years of work in social services had taken a toll on me, mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually, and when I was faced with several personal tragedies, I did not have the energy to cope in a balanced or healthy way. Thus began my journey of self-discovery and healing.

I struck out from the known into the unknown, exiting the profession of counseling, leaving my home and family behind in New Mexico, and moving across state lines. I created as much physical and mental distance as I could from my prior profession to re-learn and remember, in the most literal sense, who I am and what I could become.

While on the journey, I came to the realization that much of the compassion-fatigue and professional exhaustion I experienced was due to not having a balanced, health-giving relationship with my core being, my true “Self.” I discovered that I harbored unhealthy expectations for myself — expectations from outside and within that had taught me to accommodate others’ needs before my own. Somewhere I had learned that if I was not putting the needs of others above my own, I was not being a good person/employee/daughter/fill-in-the-blank.

What I discovered through my journey to self-care is that we must each heal our “Self” if we want to administer healing to others and our planet, and that the best way to achieve this is to participate in the hands-on work of caring for “Self.”

Being in balance and maintaining a healthful relationship with my “Self” meant that I had to listen to and engage with what my heart, mind, and body simultaneously needed and desired. We as a human species experience a full spectrum of feelings ranging from the painful contractions of loss, trauma, and death to the joyful expansion of love, atonement and forgiveness. Understanding how to maintain a balanced relationship with my emotions and learning what my body requires for essential rest and care have become the foundational practices for self care, allowing me to live in harmony with my “Self” and achieving balance in my life pursuits, both personal and professional.

If I had not taken the journey to attend to caring for my inner core of “Self,” I would not now be sharing with you my found wisdom. I would likely be working in an office cubicle somewhere dreaming of the life I wanted, instead of actively creating in that life now. My current creative life includes facilitating workshops on self-care and formulating aromatherapy essential oils for healing. I have published several illustrated books in print. My photographs of the flowers and oils I work with are featured on my website and through social media. I am an artist with an expansive toolbox, filled with many mediums and modalities for healing. No matter what medium I choose whether voice, writing, plants, paints, or photography, I remain committed to bringing the beauty of nature and life into focus through art and education.

Kristina, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I have been a creative soul working with the healing arts as far back as I can remember. My eight-year-old Self woke up Saturday mornings at 6 a.m. to tune into PBS and watch Bob Ross paint. At this tender age, I knew in my heart watching him paint happy little clouds that I, too, could pick up a paintbrush and with a blank canvas, call forth beauty into the world. In my youth, I aspired to “becoming an artist” — that was until I turned nineteen.

It was the end of my sophomore year at a two-year women’s college, and I had applied to an art and design school that I never heard back from. The message I absorbed was that I was not good enough to be an art student and out of default I chose another school and a different major.

While my peers were cramming for exams, working or partying, I spent many of my nights sitting in hospital emergency rooms with survivors of sexual violence. My presence in crisis services began with a requirement to complete college practicum credits. Advocating for survivors of violence required I listen to voices seldom heard. This radically shifted the way I experienced the world.

For two decades I sought creative means like photography, painting and writing to balance the challenges I faced in my vocation. In the mental health field, we spoke about self-care and achieving a work-life balance, but solutions were short lived. Like the idea that a monthly facial, or massage will erase the compassion fatigue accrued working long hours with stretched and declining resources, while needs are rising not lessening. Another troubling obstacle I faced was that over time I felt too tired to create and when I wasn’t working, I was in recovery mode, numbing or catatonically watching television. My self-care regimen was focused on recovery sleep and rest, so I could get back to work on Mondays.

After twenty years in a career I essentially loved, I reached a stopping point. I left for the Sonoran Desert where I had enrolled in a natural skin care school and an aromatherapy program. Within a year I had acquired new skills, a new zip code, and the dream of being my own boss.

As esthetics students we practiced healing arts on each other, so I was providing hands-on care as much as receiving it. Touch became an important avenue for healing, and washing my face provided time for mindfulness and relaxation — skin care became self-care.

While pursuing licensure in esthetics, I entered an aromatherapy program, completing 265 hours of in-person training. A great deal of this training included practice between members of the class, which provided more hands-on experience, influencing our anatomy and physiology using the chemical components (healing agents) of plants. I began interweaving my knowledge from esthetics with the chemistry I was learning about plants from my aromatherapy training. My personal and professional toolbox was expanding.

The people I think would benefit from services involving self-care are the caretakers of our planet. Whether the focus is human, animal or the planet’s environment, the caretakers of our world make it their mission to improve life for others. In business enterprise, I had found the audience I wanted to serve.

To pay the bills, I worked at the skin care school I had graduated from. I had tried working as an esthetician for a chain franchise and found their skin treatments were pushed to make a profit more than to support and educate clients on skin health. I knew I did not want to practice skin care for an industry that was focused on selling, not healing. This is what led me to invest my retirement fund savings and begin my business of providing aromatherapy treatments and using essential oils, plants and botanical ingredients to address healing the physical and emotional body.

I put together a website, started toying with social media, and found uses for the photography art I had loved creating over the years. I began offering aromatherapy services but found that I spent more time explaining what aromatherapy was to folks, rather than booking actual appointments. Still working at the beauty school, I was asked to teach a class of students about the essential oils we use in the skin care industry. This initiated a shift in direction for my business. Instead of focusing on creating individual treatment formulas, I could teach groups of people how to safely use essential oils and the chemistry from the botanical ingredients to create healing for themselves and their clientele. I developed several workshops and began teaching about the use of essential oils for self-care and health.

Time passed, and the more I interacted with plants intentionally and purposefully, the more I reflected on how demands related to consumerism put unwelcome strain on already stressed ecosystems, as well as the plants themselves. My relationship with plants deepened when I opened myself to the ceremonial use of plant medicines. I began listening attentively to everything alive around me, and I began noticing that everything in nature was a living organism.

These steps began a new chapter on the pathway to understanding the planet we are sharing with more than humankind. I opened to the understanding that we share this planet with intelligent ancestral beings that predate our species by almost 700 million years, and thus, my perception and behavior shifted. When I found a church that was Animist (a belief that all living matter, including ecosystems, have consciousness and a purpose-filled existence) I got involved. I studied and participated in a year-long course before becoming ordained as an Animist Minister.

My belief that every living being has value and purpose, informs the way I walk in this world and by extension, the services and art I share. I strive to be in right relationship with plants, so that I may continue to work with them for healing and to share their wisdom with others. My business mission is to serve my Self and others by using my voice and art to advocate for plants and invite humans into a deeper understanding and relationship with healing. I am figuring out that to care for others in a balanced, healthful manor, we must understand how to heal our personal wounds and care for our Selves.

Last year, I grew a new branch of my business by applying my creativity to writing, illustrating and publishing three books! These stories, “The Adventures of Avery Finn,” are inspired by my cat Avery, who narrates his life experiences with adoption, death and saying goodbye to a friend, then meeting a new friend. All three stories are available in print internationally through major book retailers, including Amazon, Apple books and Googleplay. Audio versions can be found on YouTube @adventuresofaveryfinn.

During the coming year, my plans include expanding accessibility for digital workshops with a second YouTube channel (@five28_hz) and through my website, KristinaLdaniels.com. I will continue sharing “The Adventures of Avery Finn” books, providing workshops, and sharing information about healing and relationships with plants. You can find my photography and inspired words on my website and through Instagram@five28_hz.

No matter what medium I choose, my voice, plants, paint, photography or writing, I am bringing the beauty of nature and healing into the focus of the world through art and education.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

When I began conducting business in 2017, I promised myself I would allow the business to grow organically, like a plant. From years of tending flowers and observing nature, I have learned that some seeds never open, some plants thrive while others do not, and some of my goals may not reach fruition. Because of this commitment, it has been easier to pivot with changes in business, career and life.

The COVID-19 pandemic brought on the first major pivot in my business. The nature of this infectious disease profoundly changed the ways of working in in-person settings. At that time, in March 2020, I was three months into working as an esthetician, having left the security of a regular paycheck. Three months was not enough time to have built clientele or generate enough capital to support myself and my business during the quarantine. However, I fortunately had a collection of friends who were estheticians, and while providing skincare services, I had discovered a passion for formulating botanical skin healing serums.

While the world was on lockdown, I spent countless hours rebuilding my website to focus services on creating bespoke skin serums (hand-crafted and customized individually). I moved my base of operations from salon to home, designed labels and bought chemistry equipment for blending botanical oils. I entered the universe of social media by starting an Instagram account. Pivoting my business into new realms required intense effort because of the learning curve involved in learning so many new skills, but this pivoting also “grew” me in positive ways.

The next major pivot confronting me was a personal one. My father was scheduled for major surgery, and I made the decision to return to my parents’ home — also my childhood home — to be present for them and assist with their age-related health issues, while at the same time re-establishing my business in another state. This proved to be more difficult than originally anticipated. First, there was a variety of health issues that arose for both my parents, from surgery to heart attacks and strokes. My business had to be relegated to the back burner while my skills as caretaker were needed front and center. I applied what I had learned about self-care and used creativity to bring beauty and balance into my days. I located some stories I had written in the past and decided to pick up my paint brush and illustrate them. Last year, I wrote, illustrated and published three books, “The Adventures of Avery Finn.” I am presently using one of those stories in a workshop focused on processing grief.

Pivots can open new doors! I find that change is an opportunity for discovering and trying out something new.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

Some folks may struggle to understand the creative’s journey because often it isn’t linear. Creativity is linked to the birth process, and birth is all about bringing something new into the world. Creativity and birth involve “process” and do not typically follow any structured or preordained plan — and this is okay. Process involves multiple steps and incremental changes, which are what build strength and resilience — to embrace new ways of looking at our business “process” can only enable us to realize creativity, structure and balance in work and play.

Contact Info:

• Website: KristinaLdaniels.com
• Instagram: @five28_hz
• Youtube: @theadventuresofaveryfinn
• Other: TikToc @averyfinn1 A second Youtube channel is launching soon, featuring short videos about essential oils, rituals for self care, including recipes and safety tips YouTube@five28_hz

Image Credits
All images (excluding the personal photo) were taken by Kristina L. Daniels