We recently connected with Abigail White and have shared our conversation below.
Abigail, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Was there a defining moment in your professional career? A moment that changed the trajectory of your career?
My defining moment was when I came up with the name for my business ‘Breath of Life’.
After I completed my intuitive certification, I knew that I was meant to start my own intuitive health and wellness business, but I was also 100% convinced that without a name for the business, there was no way for me to move forward.
The name had to have meaning behind it, multiple layers to it that expressed the depth of what the ethos and mission statement would be as well as what it would mean to the people who were impacted by it. If I knew anything it was that I didn’t want it to be my name, which many people kept pushing me to accept. Every time I considered it, I just didn’t feel right. Then, one night I was mindlessly scrolling and came across an old picture of a past client of mine, and the name came to me like lightening.
Her name was Laura. When I met her, I was in my early twenties and in nursing school. It was right before the winter break and my plan was to go home for the break and relax. I was working for an in-home-health aide company, and I had just finished a contract with a patient that had taken a lot out of me, and I really needed the break. But when the call came in for me to meet a 19-year-old girl with osteosarcoma, I breathed a deep sigh and went to the meeting. Over the next 9 months, I became her one and only aide. Her mom was a nurse and when I needed to be at school, she covered for me. Laura and I became like sisters, and I, as the oldest of 4 with 3 younger brothers, had always said I wanted to have a little sister. It was like I had been given a gift from the Creator.
Then September came and a truth we thought we were ready for came as well. We had spent all summer completing her bucket list; going on adventures and having experiences she knew she would never get to have. But, by the second week in September, Laura’s body was too tired and in pain to continue. We put her on hospice, and I was with her every day. On the last day she was conscious, the tumors in her lungs that were causing them to back up with fluid, were making it hard to breath. In a desperate instinctive move, I put her hand on my chest while she gasped for air and told her, “Breathe with me…” and as she felt the rise and fall of my chest, her body settled, her breathing eased. She closed her eyes and slept.
As I looked at the picture of my gift, my sister Laura, I remembered that moment of helping her breathe. and I was reminded of how many times in the ER that I had helped others to breathe. And then I thought, breath is life, and it was my soul’s mission to not only breathe life into others in various ways but to help show people how to breathe and truly live; teach them how to take a ‘Breath of Life’. And the rest is history.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Well, I have always been an intuitive, a person who can see spirits who have passed on and I knew things I couldn’t explain. Growing up though I never knew what to call it. In an effort to try to understand if I was crazy, I threw myself into science. It helped that I have also known from the time I was 6 that medicine was my calling.
I excelled in science and thought I would go on to medical school and when I went to college double majored in pre-med and neuroscience. As I neared the end of my college career, I realized that I needed a little more time before jumping into medical school. My family was having some medical problems, so I used it as my excuse to take some time and study for the MCATs. As I studied and did research into what it was to be a doctor in the 21st century, I realized that I wasn’t going to be able to live out my lifelong dream of being like Dr. Quinn (yep from the TV show). On the day that I was to take the MCATs, I decided to not go, and I applied to nursing school instead, having realized that what I had idolized in the medical shows was actually the work of nurses.
I applied and got into nursing school and got my second bachelor’s and started working as a nurse. I loved every second of it, but when a change of management happened, I found myself being abused at work. It threw me into a mental state that I was not okay with, and I immediately searched for support and found it. That support led me to my first spiritual mentor who gave me the language of the other half of me. The part of me that made me a damn good nurse. She also showed me ways to sharpen that tool and showed me that it was possible to heal people in a multitude of ways.
As I continued in nursing and the pandemic started, I realized that the medical system that I had once believed to be about helping those with illness, was actually about keeping people sick. I couldn’t stand for being a part of the problem and needed to find some way to be a part of the solution. That is how Breath of Life was born, out of an effort to give people true healing, healing that was truly holistic and highly personalized.
Breath of Life’s mission is to help our ideal clients bridge the gap between understanding their health and knowing when they need modern versus energetic medicine. As a proud biracial and queer woman, I am proud to service a wide audience of women, and some men, who have been in the arena of their health journey. They understand where they have been, and they now know that having only one side of the equation is not enough to achieve true and complete health. They are looking for someone who is down to earth, honest, has integrity and is willing to be in the trenches with them, making sure they have all the skills and knowledge required to finally heal. These individuals are self-starters and know what they are willing to do to get the results that they crave. They are not a stranger to hard work, but they are not willing to spin their wheels for no reward. They want answers and they are looking for clear cut instructions on how to get and stay on a true path of healing. And this is what I provide my clients.
In addition to personalized help and guidance towards healing, I also provide clients with handmade and handcrafted alternative healing products such as non-toxic bath products and candles, wiccan and native inspired healing crafts. Everything we make has to have one thing in common, it has to have a healing component.
A client can work with me in a multitude of ways;
1. Joining my Mystery School of Health, a three-level program that is meant to take you through all levels of healing, body, lineage, and mastery. Here students learn what their body and emotions are actually telling them when it comes to illness, taught the skills to heal their energy and body and then are taken on journeys to understand their blood line and their own intuitive abilities.
2. Medical intuitive and soul reading consultations for other businesses such as fertility health coaching
3. I do private one on one sessions with clients who want to have me delve deeply into their health and healing and help guide them on their path.
Transformations my clients have include, getting off of medications, healing from chronic diagnoses, activation of their own intuitive abilities, and enhanced self-awareness, and increased confidence and communication.
These transformations and more are only possible because I hold something that many others in the health and wellness field don’t have and that is both sides of the equation; both the medical and the intuitive. I understand what both the body and the energy is saying and I’m capable to translating that to my client.
This is the thing that I am most proud of, that not only do all my clients see results, but they obtain those results in a complete way, a way that incorporates all aspects of the human being and that meets them where they are at.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
Resilience should probably be my middle name with how much of it I have had to have in my life. As a biracial black, queer female business owner, I feel like I’m three strikes and you’re out in this country much of the time. The number of times someone has looked at me and underestimated me, my intelligence, and my determination to succeed, have done only one thing for me over the years and that is strengthen my resolve that this is what I am supposed to be doing.
Just recently, I was having an initial meeting with a new contractor and the questions paired with the look on their face had me taking a breath.
You know that moment when you can feel when you have lost the one listening to you. Either they don’t understand, don’t care, or think you so wildly incapable of what it is that you are describing that they mentally and emotionally check out. I knew I sounded like Charlie Brown’s teacher and in that moment, I had two options; I could carry on like I didn’t notice, or I could make a move that most women and half of the men in my possible wouldn’t make. I decided to take option two. Mostly, because I’m stubborn and I hate it when people make me question myself and my abilities.
So, I stopped mid-sentence, and I said the very thing they were thinking which of scared them more than anything. I said, “Listen, if you don’t want to be here, you are more than welcome to leave. I am incredibly uninterested in continuing this conversation if you are going to already have your mind made up about me.” The response was an apology to which I responded with, “I understand that this is new. I also understand who I am. I am not naive to the fact that the world and history show few of those that look like me attempting half of what I am about right now. But the fact of the matter is simple, I am going to succeed, and someone is going to help me. That can be you are someone else. You decide.”
That moment was different for me. In the past, I had looked at the naysayers and thought that something was wrong with me, but in this moment, I was pissed off. I was tired of defending and I also knew that I would continue to defend what I am and my business to the ground for the rest of my life. The contractor knew that too and we have had a beautiful relationship since.
That to me has been my crowning moment of resilience.
Do you think you’d choose a different profession or specialty if you were starting now?
Short answer is yes.
I have no doubt in my mind that I am an extreme exception to the rule. Many people go through a thousand jobs or career changes and still wonder what they want to be when they grow up. And while I at one point said to people that I would do multiple things, one thing always stayed the same, that was that I was going to be a healer.
What I didn’t know was that being a healer for me was going to be way more well-rounded than anything I have ever seen before.
One thing I tell anyone looking to explore medicine, “Your hardest day, has to be your greatest day, because medicine and healing will challenge you every day and if you go into it for the wrong reasons, you will find your soul fragmenting piece by piece.”
Lucky for me, medicine and healing is my calling and I have never regretted it, not for one minute.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.breathoflifellc.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/breathoflife_healer/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/breathoflifeintuitive
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/abigail-white-73019a44/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMUK0vO2OW48oBBMrA6Cgcg
Image Credits
Abigail White (myself)
Ahmed Hassan
Danika Colucci