We were lucky to catch up with Renair Amin recently and have shared our conversation below.

Renair, appreciate you joining us today. If you had a defining moment that you feel really changed the trajectory of your career, we’d love to hear the story and details.

My life has been filled with many defining moments but the most recent has been my challenges with my health. Early on, I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia and inflammatory arthritis. Over the years, I have been able to manage it since my initial diagnosis which was only detectable after not being able to walk. In July 2021, I won Ms. Exquisite Full-Figured U.S.A. At-Large. Within a week of the pageant, I was having difficulties with walking. Although I felt some soreness leading up to the event from a car accident I had been a passenger in a few weeks before, this pain felt like a combination that I was not ready to have impacted my life the way it did.

Since then I have had long stints of bed rest, an inability to hang out with friends or attend events, and moments of severe depression at the onset of a new way of living. To this day, the doctors still have not decided what is going on with my hip. I have been on various medications as well as dealt with menopause and other health challenges. I have had to cut my hair due to hormone changes and revamp what life is going to look like for me.

This experience has been a lesson of gratitude, patience, and faith. I am not going to lie and say that I have not had moments of anger and disappointment. Nor will I act like I have been able to live out my life filled with P.I.N.K. Love, the coaching methodology I use with my clients. However, I will say that this time has caused me to lean on my Pit Crew (support circle) which I would seldom due because I am usually the “strong” friend.

I have also had to rethink what my professional life looked like now. Mobility was more of a challenge for me but the world wanted movement now that we were coming out of the pandemic. I had to learn to say “no” to some things to take care of my mental and physical health. I began wanting to work with female-identified individuals over 40 years old to help people deal with life transitions. I am still in the works. of ironing out what that looks like.

Just the same, I am starting to understand what it means to find reasons for gratitude in the midst of the trial. Even if the day is not to my expectations, I have learned not to through the day away and do what I can in each moment. I also discovered how much the people in my life wanted to love on me and the uncomfortableness of needing that support. I had to learn to receive — fill in the blanks. This downtime hasn’t been the easiest, but I glean many lessons every, single day.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am an award-winning educator, international speaker, coach, pageant queen, and four-time published author specializing in the areas of relationship wellness, empowerment, and LGBTQ faith-based trauma. I have a Master of Arts in Religious Education and a Doctor of Ministry degree from New York Theological Seminary.

In living my philosophy of fully living out loud, I pursued several passions. I am the founder of LGBTQ Faith Matters, a platform dedicated to healing spiritual trauma in communities of color, and the host of the “It’s All About Pink Love” Podcast. I am a PFLAG NYC Safe Schools speaker and advisor to various organizations. I am also a member of the United States Chaplaincy Task Force. In July 2021, I was crowned Ms. Exquisite Full-Figured U.S.A. At-Large as well as Ms. Full-Figured At-Large Covergirl and Ms. Full-Figured At-Large Fashionista.

I am also a relationship wellness expert who centers my work on helping individuals develop and reinforce self-esteem while enhancing personal and professional relationships in their lives. I began this work in 2014 through my Holokeria Coaching practice which evolved into Pink Love Wellness, LLC, through which I provide an array of services such as coaching, consulting, workshop facilitation, and motivational speaking. I thoroughly enjoy being a vessel of empowerment to others. It helps me to help others.

Do you think you’d choose a different profession or specialty if you were starting now?

To be honest, if I could go back, I would have still chosen the same profession but I would have taken a different academic path and not allowed the advice of others to completely guide my steps. Early on in life, I wanted to be either a psychiatrist or an attorney. I landed on an attorney so although I dropped out of high school in the midst of a family tragedy, once I got my GED, that is the path I decided to take. I got my Law Office Assistant degree and began to look for a job in the legal field. Although I worked in the field for over 15 years, I knew that was not where I wanted to end up. Since I had taken the advice from one of the attorneys I worked with to not take legal undergrad courses but to become more well-rounded, I found myself still confused as to what to focus on. I landed on Culture and Communications which took a long time to complete due to funds. By the time I figured out that I wanted to get a degree in psychology, I was well into student loan debt. Now I am able to use everything in what I do but I have wondered what life would have looked like if I took a different academic path.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I do not just have a story to illustrate my resilience, my life does. I have overcome family trauma, domestic violence, drug addiction, sexual assault, suicide attempts, and divorce. I don’t know what keeps me going. Sometimes I think it is simply the desire to see what else life has to offer besides the negative things that prop up along the way. These were no small feats so I don’t want to minimize them with a brief answer. it did take years of therapy, a strong support system (which changed over the years), and other holistic modalities to get through those huge life transitions. Once hearing my story, the people I encounter often share with me that they are moved by my strength but honestly, I don’t know where I would be without God and the people who were part of my Pit Crew at the time so I can’t take full credit.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.pinklovewellness.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/renairamin
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/renairamin
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/renairamin/

Image Credits
Photo in Black Feathers: Isiah Alphonso Photo in sunglasses; Grey Leifer