We were lucky to catch up with Elle Molchan recently and have shared our conversation below.

Elle, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

The summer of 2021 I embarked on a nomadic journey, not having a plan of where life was going to take me. This was a first for me as I’ve always been one who is very grounded in the now, but also has a clear sense of where my future path is taking me, both personally and professionally.

Like many, Covid was eye opening to me. It was a time of both introspection and growth. It was also a time where I lost sight of how powerful I am, when connected to my inner-voice and intuition. Although I delved deeper into my spiritual practice during lock-down, I also lost sight of my “true north” and what I was passionate about career wise.  

I knew I had to escape my current reality aka “my pod” so I could nourish my heart and feed my soul in nature. With this, I left my life in LA (Venice, CA to be exact) and traveled intuitively for 10 months. 

To my close friends, I referred to this time as my “eat, pray, love” journey. It was a time of deep healing, adventure and connecting back to my inner-self and inner-wisdom.

One of my fondest memories of this time, was when I was living in Costa Rica as a Creative Resident at Zunya (@zunya) and I experienced life as a “super-hippie” (a term I created lovingly to my fellow Expats who purposefully left society, as we know it, to live a simpler and more heartfelt life). It was here that I “remembered” who I was and re-connected to the powerful, lioness-goddess who had been hiding in my shadow for what felt like eternity.

Once she awoke, there was no turning back. I was on a new path, one that was led by my heart and not my mind. From there, I learned to make decisions, not based on what “made sense,” but more what felt right and lit me up from the inside.

Now, a year and a half later, since taking that leap of faith into the unknown, I am more grounded, centered and connected to my inner truth. I now know (and accept) that in this lifetime it is my soul mission to be a healer, a creative, an artist and a community-leader. And that when I take leaps of faith as long as I stay connected to – my truth – and what feels right at my heart-center, I will be held.

I have no doubt there will be mountains to climb along the way, but whenever I hit a rough patch and fear steps in, I go inward, connect to my body and my breath and she guides me.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

My background is in the global luxury industry (as a creative marketing brand strategist, an entrepreneur, and a high-level consultant) working with brands to be successful, relevant, and “cool” – mostly in fashion, beauty, wellness, hospitality, and lifestyle.

Currently I am in the creation phase of building my brand, Althaea Rising. My intention is to create an eco-system for fellow change-leaders and conscious brands to co-create, collaborate, support each other and “rise together.” I also lead one-on-one energy healing and intuitive business sessions and group: retreats, highly curated wellness events, manifestation circles and workshops.

At my core, I have always had wanderlust and been a bit of a hippie. I love adventure, travel and am fascinated by the raw and imperfectly perfect beauty when different cultures come together. I also have been on a spiritual journey for as long as I can remember. As a child I was very connected to my intuition, my imagination and energy around me. Although I was raised in a very loving and supportive family, my gifts weren’t really tapped into or nurtured because they weren’t understood or even realized.

After more than a decade of personal introspection, a deep dive into psychology and spirituality, a 10-month nomadic “eat, pray, love” journey and countless spirit-wellness classes, workshops, retreats, and teachings, it is my heart-felt mission to create a global circle community for change-leaders and conscious brands. I am still dreaming into what this looks like as it is a multi-faceted, living, breathing entity. It is a movement, a community, and a living force.

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

After a month of living in Costa Rica and practicing yoga every day in the jungle, I was inspired to take yoga teacher training. I have been a practicing and dedicated yogi for over 10+ years but I had never felt called to teacher training until this time. I magically found a training that was taking place nearby and in a week’s time.

After I paid my non-refundable deposit and was in the process of changing locations, so I could be closer to my destination (Mal Pais to Montezuma, CR), I found myself in a tremendous amount of pain and was (what it felt like) paralyzed.

I was devastated and full of fear. I could hardly walk let alone do a yoga flow. I also felt very alone and helpless, being so far away from home. I couldn’t understand where this pain came from, especially since I was so at peace living in the jungle. Everyday leading up to my teacher training, I had a different perspective on my situation. I was angry, I was sad, I was scared, I was helpless… until finally, I surrendered.

I surrendered to my body and listened to what she was telling me. Life is precious, but to truly embrace its beauty, we need to listen. Once I finally stopped fighting what was happening, I slowly started to heal.

In the end, I was able to not only finish but enjoy whole-heartedly my 3 weeks of very intensive yoga teacher training with more grace and appreciation because of my physical ailment.

Now, when my body speaks to me, I listen. That small change has made all the difference.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

To help others live, speak, and breathe their truth.

I believe we are all creative beings and when we “flow” with life, magic happens.

I am very much a fan of structure and feel it is needed to nurture creativity, but there is also a fine line of too much and too little structure. With structure (ie rules, boundaries, limiting beliefs) comes more often than not, stuck energy. And with stuck energy, comes pain, suffering and illness.

Since a child I believed, and still do, that if we lived more from our heart-center and our inner-knowing, the world would be a more peaceful place. But to do this, we need to shift our perspectives, individually and as a collective.

This is my passion and my why behind creating Althaea Rising – a global circle community for change-leaders and conscious brands.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.althaearising.com
• Instagram: @althaearising
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ellemolchan/

Image Credits
https://christopherbrownphoto.com He shot the photo of me with the hat & the one of me dancing with the big necklace