Welcome to the launch of my new website and my first blog post!
I’m Candace Bank, a nurse practitioner, wellness enthusiast, and entrepreneur.
Some might also consider me a modern-day hippie. Peace, love, and personal freedom? Sign me up for that! Other values of the modern-day hippie, such as transformation, spirituality, organic living, community, and sustainability, are all values I try to embrace. Values like these are what started my enthusiasm for wellness.
From a young age, I’ve always had a curious mind and asked lots of questions. I’m assuming if you’re reading this, you probably have some questions of your own you’re looking to get answered.
You may be wondering, “Why should I care so much about wellness?” Well, I’ll tell you, but first, before I answer this question, I want you to think about what YOU want out of life. What is something that if you accomplished it, you could look back, and it will make you feel like you have lived a good life? Think about it because we are going to come back to it.
I became a nurse because I wanted to help people, and I had a strong stomach. Spending much of my time working in critical care, I realized, sure, I was helping people at that moment, but I really was only serving as a Band-Aid. If they survived this time, many people would be right back in the hospital the next week or month with another exacerbation of their chronic but usually preventable disease that was slowly sucking the life out of them.
Their lives now consisted of a cycle of hospital visits and doctors’ offices and not being able to do the things they once loved. Watching peoples once joyful lives turn into the mundane routines caused by poor wellness led to two things:
First, it led me to become a nurse practitioner and health and wellness coach to take a leading role in helping people before they start the cycle and become a frequent flyer to the hospital. I also wanted to prescribe holistic and integrative treatment options instead of just masking symptoms with toxic drugs.
People often ask why I didn’t just become a medical doctor. I thought about it many times, but the truth is, I love what nurses represent. Nurses are consistently ranked as the most trusted profession (except in 2001, when firefighters rightfully earned the honor). The care nurses are known to provide shows how a person should be treated and cared for, and that isn’t lost as a mid-level provider because you can’t take the nurse out of a nurse practitioner.
Second, it led me on my own wellness journey. As someone who has struggled with weight, anxiety, depression, and even been on the verge of developing a couple of preventable diseases, I recognized that I was setting myself up for a life of pain, fear, anger, and suffering, just like my patients in the hospital.
I set out on a journey to not only improve my overall health but my entire mind, body, and spirit wellness in an effort to rectify the damage I had already done to myself. Finding balance in all aspects of my life allowed me to reach goals I had struggled with my entire life. But most importantly, I am happier and able to enjoy life as I have never been before, and this is now a joyful journey I get to continue for the rest of my life.
On my personal wellness journey, I acquired multiple certifications, read dozens of books and articles, and even experimented on myself to gain the best possible understanding of how all the aspects of wellness work synergistically together. What I discovered had such a profound effect on me, I felt compelled to find a way to help others find the joy in wellness that I found and help them reach their peak wellness performance.
The entrepreneur in me recognized a need for a company that can guide people on their own wellness journey and helps them accomplish their life goals through a holistic and integrative approach, with the help of a qualified healthcare professional in a fun and positive manner.
So, Hippie Healing, LLC was born. Everything about Hippie Healing, from this blog to the website, to the services, to the products, to the brick and mortar coming soon, is all designed with the purpose to aid each individual however we can to help them have success and fun on their own wellness journey.
Now, I will attempt to answer some other questions you might have by sharing why I created this blog, what you will see more of in my posts, and why you might want to keep reading my posts.
Why I started my blog
To be honest, I never understood the purpose of blogs. But being the curious person that I am, I’ve stumbled across multiple sites and pages on the internet and have found some exciting content. I didn’t realize most of the content that piqued my interest was from a blog, or I had been directed from a blog. This realization helped me finally see all the benefits that blogging can bring. The main benefits that convinced me to give blogging a try were that it’s a great way to share my knowledge and a great way to connect with new people.
It’s hard for anyone to do what they don’t know how to do. By sharing the things I have discovered, researched, or experienced, I hope to provide some information that will help people along in their wellness journey.
I strive to redefine what health and wellness mean. I believe we have a distorted view of how true wellness looks. The first mistake is most people use the words health and wellness synonymously. For the longest time, I would look at physically fit people and think they had everything in life figured out. “If they have abs, they must have it all together.” I was wrong.
Many people reach their goal weight but find they are not as happy as they thought they would be.
Or maybe you finally have stuck to a diet but are not seeing the results on the scale you would expect.
Or maybe fear, anxiety, or stress are keeping you from even starting towards your goals.
It takes a multi-dimensional approach to wellness to reach your health and wellness goals, or else we find ourselves being unable to achieve them over and over again. Without making a conscious effort to find balance, it is nearly impossible to reach all of your goals in life.
Thanks to the World Wide Web, it is possible to interact and connect with people across the planet. Through this blog, I hope to spread love, positivity, and a passion for wellness by connecting with people across the globe through my words. Your likes, pins, tweets, follows, shares, comments, and suggestions all help this blog accomplish its purpose.
What you will see more of in my posts
First off, there is a chance you will see some mistakes, especially grammatical and spelling. I wouldn’t call writing my strong suit, and I am certainly not an expert blogger. While I am a perfectionist, I will be quick to tell you; I am not even close to perfect.
My intention is not to write formal dissertations. I want to provide factual and valuable information for real people. I will try my best to limit the medical jargon, but I will include some need-to-know information based on scientific and medical certainty. If you don’t understand something, please feel free to share your questions and comments. With errors aside, I hope I will inspire you like you all continue to inspire me on my wellness journey, and I am looking forward to shining light on a more positive way of living.
In my posts, I will share the knowledge I have about wellness and holistic and integrative health. There is a ton of information out there, but I will do my best to simplify that information and highlight the keys to success.
I will share how-to information to help people on their wellness journey. The information I share will provide clear and simple instructions to teach you how-to live your best life.
I will also share stories, recipes, and motivation from my own experiences. Wellness is a lifelong journey, and we are all in this together. Some of my personal experiences will hopefully make you laugh. Some might make you cry, but most importantly, I hope you can learn from my experiences, avoid some of the mistakes and setbacks I experienced, and be motivated by the successes I’ve had.
Why you might want to keep reading
Now you may be wondering, “What’s in it for me?”
Well, by following my blog, I hope to lead you on a magnificent journey. Going back to the question I asked earlier about what would make you feel like you’re living a life worth living, what is your answer? (I actually want to know, so please share in the comments!)
While what you want out of life is obviously very personal, at the end of the day, what most people want out of life falls into one of two categories or both: happy or successful. Maybe you said you want to find love or want to be able to play and interact with your kids or grandkids and watch them grow up. Well, that’s what makes you happy. Or maybe you said you want to climb the corporate ladder or want to have rock-hard abs. Then, that’s what success looks like to you.
Now that you know what you want out of life, why haven’t you accomplished it? I can tell you; it’s difficult to find love when you don’t love yourself. It’s hard to run around and play with your kids or grandkids when you are overweight. It’s hard to climb the corporate ladder when you don’t have the energy to execute your career development plan. It’s challenging to obtain rock-hard abs when you stress eat. These are basic examples, but it goes to show, without balance, you may just be spinning your wheels and not getting anywhere.
Wellness isn’t just about the way you look. It’s mainly about the way you feel. When you make wellness a priority in your life, it is possible to be happy AND successful! I hope to give you all of the tools you need to make that a reality. To answer why you should care about wellness, it’s imperative if you want joy in your life.
To wrap things up
Fueled by my passion for wellness, helping people, and new experiences, I created Hippie Healing, LLC. Now, I help others have extraordinary and unforgettable wellness experiences that open the doors to happiness and success.
I hope to bring awareness resulting in a more optimistic world by healing one individual at a time by helping them along in their wellness journey. If my words don’t do it for you, check out the services and products we have that are sure to bring some joy to your wellness journey.
I hope you stay tuned. I am so excited to share with you what Hippie Healing has to offer!