I've always been into wellness in the (yoga and kale in everything) sense since 2009 when I feel Yoga was starting to make its way a bit to Egypt, in the sense that we heard that it existed and some questioned if it was a form of religion of some sort. ​ I always felt this calling when it came to living in nature, by nature and using all natural products. ​ I even had this plan with my childhood best friend to open up a shop when we get older that sold natural health + wellness products called "Natural Sh*t" hehe yeah, my sense of humor hasn't changed in 13 years! ​ As I graduated with a Bachelors in Clinical Pharmacy, Cairo University, I knew that those were the worst 5 years of my life and that I will not spend the rest of my existence doing something I absolutely did not connect with or love. (I only chose it because of تنسيق) and because both my parents are from medical backgrounds (one's a surgeon and the other an obgyn), so of course I had to have a medical educational background. ​ While I absolutely hated it, I am grateful for it as it does help me in my chosen profession now and allows me to help my clients better. So alls well that ends well I guess 🤷🏻‍♀️ ​ Fast forward to 2018. I was 2 years into my marriage and had a small blog (my second at the time) where I wrote about heath and wellness. It was my own way of helping. At the time I had been 9 years deep in all things natural, learning every day from websites like MindBodyGreen and Well+Good and consuming any book that helped me learn more about this world that lit my soul on fire ✨ ​ But I wasn't making money from it yet. People in Egypt back then weren't into reading that much. I had started two business in the previous two years. One where I knit and crochets scarves, which I started with my best friend. And then I moved on to open another one where I made crochet bags from recycled cotton yarn (so random I know, I just love creating anything with my hands and I knew that even if this was a side hustle, it needed to be something I loved. ​ At the time I wasn't really looking for work ( I had worked 5 different jobs) and It confirmed in my mind that I always wanted to have my own business. Be my own boss and create a business that left the world better than it found it. ​ But the Universe had other plans for me. And in came Fayrouz and The Daily Crisp. She offered me a job, without me ever applying for one. We like to say it was her most Shark move yet 😉 ​ And I stayed there for 2 years until 2020 hit us and the company (like many others) had to shut down. But here's the kicker, I had already put in my resignation 2 weeks before the big storm that hit Cairo that made us all quarantine before the whole world quarantined. ​ I had left cause it felt that my time there had reached its end and because Fayrouz always knew that I was always not going to be a lifer since I wanted my own business. But to this day, that job will forever be the best job I ever had, and the OG TDC people are people I call family, till this day! ​ Soo...I left and I had this whole online business model planned to start my business. I had started "Lavender Vibes" another blog in 2019 and I wanted to take it seriously. But 2020 left me feeling like that horrible storm day never ended and I developed an anxiety disorder (which I never had before) and felt utterly lost... After a full year of soul searching, trying to understand the meaning of it all, and one tattoo later, it was on the yoga mat that I realized I needed to have a title. ​ You see, at that point I had acquired so much knowledge and experience about all that is health and wellness, medically, scientifically, spirituality and even energetically. But whenever we used to go to meeting with TDC we wouldn't know what to "call" me. ​ I would say sometimes Wellness enthusiast, or Wellness Consultant. But I realized that if I was to truly be put in a place where people could trust me to help them, I needed to have a proper title. ​ Which meant I had to get certified. I know that there are many experts out there without a certification and they still receive our deepest respect and trust. But I guess it was my insecurities talking (and in this case i'm so glad they did) but I knew I just had to get legit somehow. ​ And that's how I decided to become a wellness coach. ​ I thought it would mean I would get to tell people all about how to live their lives in a way that way healthy. But boy was I wrong... ​ ​ But that's a story you can know all about here: FAQ What is Health Coaching? ​ ​ Amongst the many (truly life altering) things I learned when I certified as a health coach in August of 2021 that wellness isn’t just yoga and matcha lattes (even though I have one almost every day hehe 🍵 ) And it is not just for the gym-goers, or meditators who seem to never eat anything that might have been prepared in a frying pan or that isn’t covered in Kale. ​ It can be just choosing not to have that second cup of coffee cause you know it will spike your anxiety. Or choosing to start your day with a chocolate croissant cause you listened to your body and it very clearly screamed “chocolate” at you. And that seems like a good enough segway as any to let you know that yes, Wellness includes eating whatever the fudge you want (including those fudge brownies)…cause I’m not a diet-believer. ​ I am one of those few (but growing) health coaches that believe in Food Freedom. We believe that we don’t harm our bodies by eating what we want, we harm our body when we feed it when it’s not hungry for food, but something else (a.k.a emotional needs for instance) ​ So, if you’re here thinking that you’ll find nutrition plans, I’m afraid you won’t find any. Only recipes of good yummy food and online programs to help you follow a Hunger Scale, connect to your body more to find out exactly what it needs and how you can change your relationship with food to never again (and I mean ever) feel guilty when you’re eating anything that was once deemed (bad for you)…and that is what Intuitive and Mindful Eating is all about. ​ And that is just a small portion of wellness...cause it's all connected my love. When we take care of our emotional wellness, we don't end up eating instead of feeling. When that happens, our bodies have more energy (cause it's not always digesting food that it didn't need) and we are able to exercise and take care of our physical wellness. Which means we'll probably sleep better at night, which will help regulate our emotions and so on. ​ There are 8 dimensions to wellness, and I can't wait to help you in all of them, either through coaching you personally, or creating courses for you, all that I know is that finally, 2009 Hanaa feels that I'm actually living the life she wanted, and I wake up every day, doing something to help make the world a better place!