We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Sophia Avramides. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Sophia below.

Sophia, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Do you think your parents have had a meaningful impact on you and your journey?

My parents, like many Greeks in the US, are restaurant entrepreneurs. As a kid, I watched as my parents showed my brother, sister and I the definition of “hard work”, quite literally, as they gave their all day after day for a business that was oftentimes challenging. The restaurant industry is notoriously one of the most difficult to be in – it requires so much physical and emotional energy and effort. I still look back on my childhood and teenage years and wonder how my parents managed to own, operate, work in, and manage a full-time restaurant and staff while raising three kids.

One of the biggest lessons that I have learned from my parents is the art of gratitude – expressing thanks for the things we have in our lives rather than ruminating on what we don’t. Even on the hardest days, I would always see my mom returning back to this frequency of gratitude and, in turn, love. She would always count her blessings, and say what she was thankful for, rather than harp on what was wrong, negative, or lacking.

And my dad – well, he taught me the art of resiliency, consistency and pushing forward… almost to a fault. I remember asking him once if he could go back to school, choose any career, have any sort of do-over in his life, what would he do, what would he choose? And he told me that he wouldn’t change a single thing about what he DID choose. Despite the 6am mornings (every morning), the unreliable employees, the redundancy of day in and day out at a family restaurant… that’s what he would choose because that is what brought his family joy, support, and the ability to go after our own dreams.

Sophia, 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?

Well, I got here because of the deep desire to get to know myself better and get to healing the parts of myself that needed extra love. As a kid, I was diagnosed with a fairly severe case of psoriasis that brought me a lot of undesired attention as a pre-teen and well into my teenage years and twenties. I also had an eating disorder that I believe was the product of 90s and early-2000s celebrity culture (loved reading those toxic tabloids!), and a totally unchecked case of social anxiety that stemmed into some serious psychosomatic issues. So like many of us, I had some sh*t to work out.

When cannabis entered the chat when I was 17, I started to feel an internal peace and happiness I had never experienced before. Music sounded better, food tasted better, and I started to hear when my body was communicating with my mind. In college, I became interested in psychedelics, and felt STRONGLY drawn to alternative systems of medicine, all while attending a school primarily focused on training pharmacists (an ironic yet eye-opening place to be). I felt breakthroughs in my psyche, authenticity coming out of me in ways I had never felt before, and a general reclaiming of who I am and what I wanted to become.

After graduating my undergrad, through divine synchronicity, a training in Ayurvedic medicine fell into my lap. I attended Ayurveda school at Kripalu School of Ayurveda for a year (where I met my now romantic partner), and i watched the world outside of me transform and morph as I viewed it through an entirely new lens – a world of elements, both simple and complex at the same time. Ayurveda brought light to all of the imbalances and health conditions I had, it gave me a vocabulary to discuss those things with out judgment, and instead, with grace and love.

Avraveda, my herbalism business, was born out of my love for both cannabis and Ayurveda. Since 2015, I’ve been crafting small-batch herbal remedies for the skin and within. Avraveda Apothecary has herbal tinctures, elixirs, salves, body butters, smoking blends, massage oils and more made with organic, reverently sourced, often homegrown and responsibly wild-crafted botanicals.

When I first began, every single batch was infused with cannabis and herbs to balance the cannabis out and bring beautiful synergy! Nowadays, my formulas don’t often have cannabis in them, but they are always balanced beautifully with Ayurveda in mind. I work with the seasons we are in, focusing on what plants are in bloom and have the right energetics to help us in our human bodies feel most optimal, healthy and functional in our day to day lives.

I also believe strongly in the magic of creating the life of our choosing – I believe we are all artists and alchemists – and those intentions are woven deep into each and every one of my herbal offerings.

In addition to the apothecary, I’ve offered hundreds of hours of workshops to my community as I LOVE sharing information and activating AHA! moments for other people, and I’ve sat with curious clients looking for one-on-one support in their healing journey and life.

As a human, I am always evolving and learning, and there are some truly exciting things in the works for Avraveda’s offerings in the year to come.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I’ve had to unlearn that I need to do it all by myself. The most successful, joyful moments that I have had in entrepreneurship is when I was working alongside other entrepreneurs.

I have a few favorite moments that showed me the power of joining forces – opening a pop-up herbal shop with two other bad-ass herbalists and friends; creating and running gorgeous festival booths (booth-tiques!) with my clothing designer friends, jewelery makers, and artists extraordinaire and being the resident herbalist; and the regular degular day to day co-working sessions with my fabulous self-employed small business owners and brainstorming on ideas, venting on issues and creating solidarity with one another.

I’m still unhinging the parts of me that are caught up in acts of pride or the desire to go alone, and I’m learning how to integrate those parts into greater offerings that are woven into community. It reminds me of the quote, “if you want to go fast, go alone… if you want to go far, go together”. Not sure who said it, but I agree.

If you could go back in time, do you think you would have chosen a different profession or specialty?

I’m going to second my dad on this one and say  I wouldn’t change a thing! Although there are moments that are challenging in being an entrepreneur, my appreciation and love for creating something that helps me and can help, inspire and activate others is unparalleled.

Being an herbalist, and offering information to community members on gentle, intuitive ways for them to help heal themselves and their families is completely invaluable. I feel like I can never learn enough, and this pathway, the plant path, blows my mind every time I open up a book or log into a course to learn more about this passion of mine. I don’t see that stopping anytime soon.

The energy I feel when learning and teaching about the wisdom of our bodies or while I’m crafting in my apothecary with precious petals and leaves and roots – that energy is the forcefield I think could save the world if we all tapped into it in our own unique ways.

So if I could go back, I wouldn’t change a thing. I’ve only just begun. I’m so excited to be a plant witch in my 80s living in Greece and living off of the bounty of my garden, while sharing the abundance with my family, friends and community members, trading seeds and living in health and gratitude.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.avraveda.com
• Instagram: @avraveda
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvTF-p6FoPygmrfvIvLLTUQ