Podcast music by Chris Robertson.

Katie Hess is author of Flowerevolution, host of The Flowerlounge podcast, and founder of LotusWei.

LotusWei—which has been featured on O, The Oprah Magazine, New York Times, and LA Times—offers products that help us integrate flower essences into our lives in various ways. These products include flower elixers, bath salts, aura mists, and more.

In this podcast, which Katie and I recorded over Instagram Live, Katie talks about how flower essences offer many benefits such as healing, vitality, and clarity. If you would like to watch our conversation, then just visit my Instagram profile @ruanliving.

I hope you enjoy this podcast as much as I have!

Podcast Transcript

The transcript below has been edited for enhanced readability. Please note: Nothing in the podcast or transcript below should be interpreted as medical or professional advice. The information provided is for informational purposes only.

Katie Hess: [00:01:24] Where are you now? I'm in Phenix, Arizona. [00:01:26][2.0]

Sophia Ruan Gushée: [00:01:26] Have you been there for a while? [00:01:27][0.8]

Katie Hess: [00:01:28] Yes, two years. [00:01:29][0.6]

Sophia Ruan Gushée: [00:01:30] I'm so excited to talk to you. I was surprised when I first heard about you and your book Flower Evolution and All That You've Done, including your podcast, The Flower Lounge in Lotus Way, which I want to hear more about. I was just so surprised that I never thought about how to integrate flowers into my tool, box healing and remedies and self-care. I love plants, I love herbs, but I never thought about flowers. How did you become passionate about flowers? [00:02:02][31.9]

Katie Hess: [00:02:03] I think when I graduated college, I was like searching for what to do and how to help people reach their full potential. I just kind of stopped and looked around me and said, Okay, I see a lot of people, myself included, who would never say, like, I maximize my potential and I reach my full time as fearless and as loving and kind and courageous as ever be. [00:02:26][22.5]

 [00:02:26] I think we all sort of inherently know that there's more and that there's more wisdom and that we're capable of more. And so we really just kind of went on a search looking for what would be something that I could bring and share with people that would help accelerate the personal growth and help that I remove self limiting beliefs and really just be able to expand into the full capacity of ARE. And so I stumbled on a master, a flower essences from Spain shortly after. And you basically taught me two things. [00:02:54][27.2]

Katie Hess: [00:02:54] One was that every flower on the planet has a really specific benefit for us. Like every flower, like unbelievable stuff, like any kind of thing you could imagine. Maybe it's you want to sleep, all right. Love or rejection, or I didn't get no attention. I was a kid or literally anything you could imagine. There is a flower for it, and it's super easy and natural and fun. [00:03:18][23.8]

 [00:03:18] And the other thing, he said, was that if three percent of the world's population, three three percent were actively working with these remedies, it would create enough convertible the fact that it would change the outcome of the future of the planet. And that really spoke to me because I think, you know, maybe your community will also resonate like you when you start thinking about all the problems in the world, you get overwhelmed, like, how am I going to be able to make an impact to make another so many great? But then when you think of three percent, just kind of like, OK, I, you devote the rest of my life to reaching three percent. If I knew that it was going to create this incredible wave of happiness and awakening transformation on the planet. So that's how I get started. [00:03:58][39.5]

 [00:03:59] I came back to the United States that was on fire, and I'm sure the first 10 years I worked with people one on one, and that was back when my yoga and meditation were not cooling it. And then the second 10 years, I just had to figure out how to be an entrepreneur and how to make products, and how to make things so rich. People all over the world are right here beautiful. [00:04:19][20.8]

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Ruan Living (@ruanliving)

Sophia Ruan Gushée: [00:04:20] I recently heard that it would only take raising the consciousness of one percent of the world. It's changed the world, and that also seemed like a more manageable goal. You mentioned that you discover that every flower can harvest in a unique way. Does your book Flower Evolution profile flowers and how they can help us? [00:04:44][23.9]

Katie Hess: [00:04:45] Yeah. So there are almost 50 flowers on them, but it's kind of like, choose your own adventure. The first part talks about what our flower essences and how they work and what's the science behind it and what can happen, what's possible. [00:04:56][11.6]

 [00:04:57] And then the second part is huge, beautiful photographs of flowers and also like a leaf so you can choose what are you visually most attracted to? Because what you are most attracted to is always what you need the most. And then you can turn to that page and see not only something interesting about the flower, but what does that mirror back to you? What does that reflect back to you? What's happening deep inside of you? What wants to emerge? What wants to come out more in a sense or be dissolved? [00:05:24][27.4]

Sophia Ruan Gushée: [00:05:25] So in terms of how flowers help us, how much of it is that physical chemical properties that how much DNA is sort of an energetic, harmonized thing, as I've heard you say. [00:05:37][12.2]

Katie Hess: [00:05:38] That's a great question. So I see it as like three different types of plant medicine. One is more physical, like you can use the whole body of the planet to work on our body. So, for example, teas, tinctures, you know, grinding up serves, making a tincture that's operating on our body and using the chemical constituents of the plant to alter our physicality. Then you have things like essential oils and aromatherapy. Between also work with a lot of aromatherapy. It's incredible that's working more on the nervous system, the olfactory system, and is highly scented. [00:06:14][36.3]

 [00:06:15] And then you get to the flower essences which don't have a sense at all. It's just pure energy, pure life for something of the plant. It's not. The things that can be seen is very similar to like I see on your beautiful Instagram page, so much for the post that you've been posting recently are about EMF radiation and these invisible waves that are being emitted from our devices that we can't see. But we believe in that because we know our devices work right. So the same thing is happening in Mother Nature. There is this slight floral botanical by being emitted that we can't see with our eyes, but we think it sounds brutal. But it's also happening. And rather than fighting to survive, it's very compatible and healing and nourishing the body. So that's how it actually works is if you can capture this life force energy and bottle it up, which we do, then when you put it on your body or in your body, it's traveling through your acupuncture meridians and acupuncture treatment without the needles, just using the pure life force of nature. [00:07:16][60.6]

Sophia Ruan Gushée: [00:07:17] So beautiful. I love the term floral botanical WiFi. I heard you talk once to battle bees being attracted to the flowers they pollinate through not scents, but the electromagnetic fields of the flowers. Would you talk more about that? [00:07:36][18.4]

Katie Hess: [00:07:36] Yeah. I mean, I think all of us have thought that bees are attracted by scent color. And actually, it can be further than the truth that tent cities and universities in the UK showing that there is actually a very subtle electrical frequency. Honestly, that's what we're collecting when we make our essences. But it's nice to see it reflected in the science that there is this very subtle electrical current that's being emitted from the flowers, which is creating this really dynamic communication between the bees and the flowers. And the bees can pick up on these frequencies of the little hairs on their legs. And so, you know, they're communicating about pollination. And I know many here and there's this whole interaction occurring in the world that we're just simply not aware of because we're not. I mean, we are. I think if we want to be, we are attuned to that level of subtle frequency. But previously we just have all of this happened. [00:08:29][53.3]

Sophia Ruan Gushée: [00:08:30] I get the impression that we can benefit from flowers in any way that we can experience them through sight, smell, touch and ingesting parts of them through flower essences and tinctures. That right, you're nodding yes. [00:08:46][16.0]

Katie Hess: [00:08:47] Yeah. In Tokyo, they've done studies around the practice of forest bathing, which many people are becoming more familiar with here in the States, where you're just literally bathing in the energy of the forest or of Mother Nature.

They've shown that if you do that—this is where I get super geeked out because the healing potential of the Earth is exponential and really shows us the demonstration of the abundance that exists in this world... So for example, if you spend one day in the wild, your adrenaline and cortisol will plummet. So your stress will go way down, your white blood cell count will go way up, so your immune system is really strong. Your stress goes down. As human beings, we're into intuitive enough to feel when we're in the wild,  we child-like, curious, wonder, energy, and vitality, and suddenly we feel like ourselves again and wonder, How did we survive without feeling that way?

In Tokyo, in the medical schools, they have shown that if you spend one day in the wild, all of those health benefits last in your body for a week. If you spend two days in the wild, the health benefits last in your body for an entire month.

So there's this exponential quality of healing in mother nature.

I think everyone should take flower essences because we're not spending enough time in nature, so we need to bring it into our everyday lives. But if you're out there listening and you're one of those people who spends tons of time in your garden, around the forest, or while you're uploading, downloading, taking and information from some of the plants and flowers. That's how our ancestors received so much nourishment from nature as well. [00:10:28][101.4]

Sophia Ruan Gushée: [00:10:29] I'm going to read you a question from a viewer. I want to take the first name to protect the viewer's privacy. But the question is why do you recommend for energetic protection when you are spending a lot of time with people that have been stabbed? I'm not sure what this person means. [00:10:46][17.4]

Katie Hess: [00:10:47] I understand. [00:10:47][0.7]

Katie Hess: [00:10:49] So earlier this year, we came out with an elixir and the mist called Sacred Body, and the premise behind this is that it is charging of the life force of your body in such a way that it gives you enhanced.. how to explain this... it's not a physical thing... It's purely energetic. [00:11:10][20.9]

 [00:11:10] But when you look at it, we're not just this body. The most important part of us is what animates. It's like the life force of our consciousness that is animating the body. And you can see that when we die you can actually measure the weight of the consciousness and energy that is the body. [00:11:27][17.0]

 [00:11:28] So this is a particular blend of nine flower essences that is working on that level of energy and life force to give you incredible energy, vitality, protection, and rapid detox. So kicking out anything that is foreign. It could be EMFs, it could be what they call in the homeopathic world... they call it a Miasm. So it's almost like a... Let's say that you've been exposed to chemicals or heavy metals or radiation, there's something that happens to your life force or your electromagnetic field that creates a sort of stain or cloud, or propensity to have physical imbalances later. Because everything starts out of here, like everything starts out in the aura, right? I mean, even if you think of it in terms of if, I have some sort of emotional something, if I don't deal with it out in the emotional and mental field, it will end up in my physical body as like a last red flag of imbalance. [00:12:26][57.9]

 [00:12:26] So to answer the question, there's an elixir that's called Sacred Body that you can put in your coffee, water, tea, or directly in the mouth. There's a mist that has Night-blooming jasmine, so it just smells incredible. And I recommend that people use those for six months straight. Or if you're feeling pretty good whenever you go out in public and you're around a lot of people, and this is a direct response to that question, but it's also could be for pollution or additives in food or any sort of thing that you would want to really rapidly detox from your body. [00:13:00][33.3]

Sophia Ruan Gushée: [00:13:02] Please repeat the name of this? [00:13:03][1.3]

Katie Hess: [00:13:04] Sacred Body. [00:13:04][0.7]

Sophia Ruan Gushée: [00:13:13] Where can we find it? [00:13:14][0.9]

Katie Hess: [00:13:15] It's at LotusWei.com [00:13:15][0.4]

Sophia Ruan Gushée: [00:13:20] A follow-up question is, What are flowers in this formula? [00:13:23][3.6]

Katie Hess: [00:13:29] There's a flower called Self Heal, which enhances your capacity to self heal. There are two different forms of agave, which is such a cool desert plant. I mean, living here in the desert. It grows and grows and grows for decades. And then finally, it puts all its energy into blooming and then dies. So it's just this incredibly powerful flower, helping you discharge whatever. It is not helpful. [00:13:56][27.6]

 [00:13:57] There is a flower called Crown Flower that's really helpful for dissolving and purifying fears and polarity and a sense of extreme like when they feel like things are black or white, or good or bad, or, when we find ourselves going to these polarities. [00:14:13][15.6]

 [00:14:15] If you go to the website, you'll see all the flowers and their benefits. It's such a beautiful formula. We typically stick to really just talking about the emotional and mental benefits, but this is one of those formulas that you really can feel the difference on a physical level, which is surprising. We've had a lot of people talk about their ears are plugged, or they're constipated, or they have headaches, or they feel weird sharp pains, or strange sensations so this is a formula that can benefit from an energy perspective. [00:14:53][37.8]

Sophia Ruan Gushée: [00:14:54] So I'm wondering how these formulas, how specifically do they help? I understand they can help in an energetic way, but do they also jumpstart parts of our bodies—maybe the immune system, or certain meridians to get the body more activated to address something? Would you explain that more? [00:15:17][23.6]

Katie Hess: [00:15:18] Yeah. I mean, our human bodies are like the ultimate self-healing vehicles. You could think of it in terms of like traditional Chinese medicine. How does that work? I mean, acupuncture has been around for anywhere from three to five thousand years with an incredible track record and research and results. And so like herbs aside, just looking at acupuncture, how that works when you're putting in a needle to a specific point of the body that opens up channels of information or channels of energy or remove stagnancy, then it allows the body to self-regulate and feel and do what it needs to do. And different meridian points can impact the spleen or the liver or the lungs or the heart. And all of that is intimately tied into our emotional realm and our mental, you know, our mental capacity, spiritual and energetic. Everything is connected. [00:16:12][53.8]

 [00:16:12] And so even though we talk about flower essences working on an energetic capacity, it's very similar to acupuncture and we've worked with an acupuncturist who is... Interesting because we want an acupuncturist who will bring in a patient, you know, take the time, check the calls, feel what's happening in the organ systems, get a good read, and then even just simply by taking an elixir and placing it on the body for a couple of seconds, then you can go back into the pulse check and everything has changed. It's like you skip over the whole first appointment. The whole first initial appointment with flower essences and go to a deeper level of healing just simply by either misting someone or having them ingest or even just laying it on their body. So, yeah, I mean, it's like we're very limited in what we can say in terms of flower essences working on a physical level, but it's very similar to acupuncture. When you remove stagnant seeds, when you introduce full energy flow into the body, it can self-heal, self-regulate at the speed of light. Very quickly. [00:17:17][65.1]

Sophia Ruan Gushée: [00:17:18] And for how long do you that benefits last? Is it like a few hours so you want frequent exposures throughout the day? Or can they last a long time, but you want to keep up with some kind of routine to heal more deeply? [00:17:33][15.1]

Katie Hess: [00:17:34] Yeah, I mean, I think our ancestors probably didn't even need flower essences because they were in nature so often. But the way that we live our lifestyles and the way that we're not eating at the right times or we're skipping meals or we're on our cell phones or computers all the time. And there's Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and all these things our affecting our electromagnetic fields. We recommend taking flower essence five times a day, at least. They will last in your system for several hours. If you're taking them with that level of regularity, you may find, for example, if I am working with wild abundance, if I'm taking this five times every day, when I stopped taking it, it will probably remain in my field for about a week. [00:18:14][40.9]

 [00:18:15] And then what else can I say about that? It's kind of like vitamins or sunshine, exercise or yoga or meditation or specifically meditation. Like when there is something that is beneficial for you, keep doing it. It's not addictive or that you need it. But I feel like we've gotten to a point where we just need it. You know, we need meditation, we need flower essences as we need all the things that can help us not only balance from daily life, but also stabilize us enough to be able to do the introspective work, to be able to face childhood or past life patterns or things that are arising that are challenging us. And help us stabilize so that we can allow it to move through us versus numbing it, avoiding it, running away from it, resisting it. Which is, I think, where initially we try to go. [00:19:08][52.7]

Sophia Ruan Gushée: [00:19:08] Are they safe to use with children or babies? [00:19:10][2.0]

Katie Hess: [00:19:11] Oh, absolutely. So we use honey in our elixirs, so we usually say after one year—just because of the honey. Kids love flower essences. They have such pure bodies and vehicles that they respond much more quickly than adults, oftentimes. And pregnant moms can take our senses. If you're breastfeeding, the baby will also get the benefits. If you're pregnant and maybe you look at the benefits. It's extremely safe, extremely gentle. [00:19:42][30.8]

Sophia Ruan Gushée: [00:19:43] Do you know if they affect hormones at all? Because, for example, lavender oil... It's advised that moms who are pregnant, or even baby boys, shouldn't be around lavender oil because it may disrupt their hormones and contribute to adverse health effects. Are there similar concerns with flower essences? [00:20:04][20.7]

Katie Hess: [00:20:04] No, because there are no chemical constituents in the remedies. There's actually no chemical parts of the plant in the remedy. It is just the pure life force. [00:20:14][9.5]

 [00:20:14] So it's really just bringing you back into balance, whatever your natural balances. And there are flowers, for example, like pomegranate that are extremely helpful for balancing hormones. But it's more like bringing you into your natural balance. So, like, if you have painful periods, cramps, or ovarian cysts, or PMS symptoms, or skipping periods, pomegranate is really helpful for bringing your hormones back into their own natural balance so that your periods are regular and pain-free and easy. It enhances fertility. It makes it so that your ovulation peak time is very trackable. So the answer your question? Nothing that could affect you negatively. Only that it can bring you back into what's your natural kind of harmony. [00:20:59][44.6]

Sophia Ruan Gushée: [00:21:00] The is dreaming. I'm just going to move a little. Thank you for your patience. So a bottle of flower essence has no chemical properties, but it's like energy. Does that dissipate over time? So like in a bottle I've had for three years, is that less strong than if I use a new bottle? [00:21:23][22.9]

Katie Hess: [00:21:23] Yeah. So the alcohol is what preserves the aliveness. And we use bottles that filter out all visible light except for ultraviolet, which keeps the remedies super alive and active. So no, over time, they will not dissipate as long as they're not direct sunlight or in high heat for a long period of time, or you'd never do this, but like put them in the microwave or, you know, exposed to very high levels of radiation, they'll last virtually forever. [00:21:54][30.6]

Katie Hess: [00:21:57] In 2015, I wrote this book, A to Z of D-Toxing. I focus on toxic chemicals, heavy metals, and electromagnetic fields from what we buy, own, and do. As we go through the list of these three key exposures, how may flower essences help us repair or detox from those exposures? [00:22:26][29.3]

 [00:22:27] For example, with toxic chemicals, some like BPA or phthalates, stay in our body for five or six hours, and then the body naturally gets rid of them. For others, they can stay in our body for months, years, sometimes forever. Are there flower essences that come to mind that can help the body detox toxic chemicals or help repair from the effects? And if it feels right to comment on heavy metals please do. [00:22:58][30.1]

Katie Hess: [00:22:58] I mean, the simplest way is called flower essences help your body be at its full capacity. It's getting rid of junk. You know, getting rid of electrical stagnacies in your field, whether that's emotional or otherwise. There are specific flowers that can remove my miasms from heavy metals and chemicals. That's like the energetic aspects of having those substances in your physical body, like the energetic projection of having those substances in your body. [00:23:28][29.3]

 [00:23:28] We use Yarrow, White Yarrow flowers which is one of the most powerful flowers for revitalizing the body's natural energy after EMFs. We used to only put that in one blend called Radiant Energy, which was our main detox blend. And then we just started putting it in every single product we make because we're just all on our devices so much that it seemed necessary. It got to the point where we're absorbing so many EMFs that it was necessary to put it in everything. And then Sacred Body has more flower essences for really helping the body swiftly detox. [00:24:11][42.7]

 [00:24:12] But like it's happening on all levels. You know, it can be physical, but it's also energetic. But really, what it's doing is it's helping the body be at its full energetic and vital capacity so it can do what it needs to do without getting stuck, and that could even be emotions. It's like when you look at Traditional Chinese Medicine where we have lots of fear, it starts to affect our kidneys. When we have grief, it affects our lungs. When we have heartbreak, it affects their heart. When we're angry, it affects our liver. [00:24:38][26.2]

 [00:24:39] So it's also liberating stuck emotions and stuck thoughts And all of those can work with the other kind of toxic ingredients that we have in our bodies. [00:24:48][9.1]

Sophia Ruan Gushée: [00:24:49] So how do you use flower essences in your daily life? I'm sure throughout the day in various ways... [00:24:57][7.5]

Katie Hess: [00:25:01] I put flower essences in my coffee, in water... And I start off the day setting a really clear intention, always of something that I'm working on. [00:25:07][6.7]

Sophia Ruan Gushée: [00:25:11] It does not taste like anything? [00:25:13][1.4]

Katie Hess: [00:25:14] Nothing. I mean, ours, we put honey in them. So they taste like nectar. So if you want to put them directly in your mouth, it's yummy. But I have just gotten in the habit of putting them in every beverage and then drinking it throughout the day. [00:25:25][11.3]

 [00:25:26] It's hard to get enough water sometimes. So it's a really nice way to make your hydration really intentional because it's like every time you're drinking, you're gifting yourself not only the nourishment and support from flowers of Mother Nature, but also like reminding yourself, Yeah, I'm working on that one thing that's bothering me, or I'm working on being more fearless, or on being more open or vulnerable or whatever it is that you're working on. [00:25:51][25.2]

Katie Hess: [00:25:52] We also have mists and anointing oils where we blend essential oils with flower essences. And that's also really nice just to, when you have a moment in the day, to take a deep breath and smell the yummy smells. [00:26:08][16.4]

 [00:26:09] We have really interesting aromatherapy blends. Very complex, very different, very and unique. And you can also trust your nose: whatever smells good to you is what you need. You can rub them all over your body and give yourself a massage. You can take a bath in the bath salts. [00:26:28][19.2]

Katie Hess: [00:26:31] It doesn't just have to be like a mental process or an intentional process, it can just be like a total full-body, sensuous experience. [00:26:38][6.9]

Sophia Ruan Gushée: [00:26:40] Sounds like someone who wants to get started and start in whichever way feels comfortable. Is it more powerful to drop them in your mouth like under your tongue? Or is drinking it in water just as impactful? [00:26:53][13.0]

Katie Hess: [00:26:54] All of it actually. Even just like putting it on externally. [00:26:57][3.1]

 [00:26:58] The main thing is you want to try to get it in four to five times a day. But over the years, we've seen that it doesn't even matter in the mouth, in your drink, on your skin. It really just needs to be in your electromagnetic fields in whatever capacity. [00:27:10][12.5]

 [00:27:11] There is a quiz on our website where you choose the flowers that you're most attracted to, and that can give you an idea of where to start. We tend to think of the blends as being in three different layers. The first is stabilization, so those are all the things that we want right now. I want to be able to sleep. I want to feel calm. I want love. I want to be able to get things done and have energy and detox. So we recommend usually people start there. [00:27:35][24.4]

Katie Hess: [00:27:36] You don't even really have to try. Like, whatever you're attracted to will be what you need most. [00:27:41][4.8]

 [00:27:41] And so you don't even really need to think about it. But, just for reference, that first layer of flower essences is stabilizing and making you really strong. [00:27:49][7.8]

 [00:27:50] And then the second layer is more like, OK, now that I'm feeling really strong, maybe you can start poking around, and look in the closet of your psyche. [00:27:59][9.7]

Katie Hess: [00:28:00] What are the things that I may want to work on? Or what are some patterns? Or what's holding you back? [00:28:04][3.9]

 [00:28:05] And then from there it just goes into continued awareness and liberation and freedom of things that are holding us back. So whichever way you do it, you'll find yourself getting exactly what you need. [00:28:19][13.7]

Katie Hess: [00:28:35] You've grown the business exponentially. Do you have any advice for those who are earlier in their entrepreneurial path? [00:28:45][9.5]

Katie Hess: [00:28:46] You can figure anything out. You don't need anyone. [00:28:48][2.1]

 [00:28:49] There's no one smarter than you. I mean, of course, you can... How do I file an LLC? How do I do accounting? How do I do it right? [00:28:55][6.1]

 [00:28:55] Like, you can take in information from other people, but you're really the best person to bring forth whatever vision you have. And there's nothing that you can't figure out. [00:29:04][8.3]

 [00:29:04] Business is not mysterious. You figure out one thing. And then as soon as you have that figured out, then you have to figure out the next thing. [00:29:11][7.3]

 [00:29:12] And it doesn't matter how much money you're bringing in, everybody has a ceiling. Like, maybe it feels hard at first to charge someone $150 for a consultation. And maybe then you master that. And then it feels hard to charge $10,000 for a special formula of some sort of products. It doesn't matter how much success or money you have because there's the next level of thing that you have to work through. [00:29:40][28.3]

Katie Hess: [00:29:41] From my perspective, a business can only be as good as the person running it at the top. [00:29:45][3.7]

 [00:29:45] And as clear as we make ourselves is as clear and beneficial as a business can be. And business will show you everywhere where you're stuck. [00:29:54][9.1]

 [00:29:55] So, if you have fears or scarcity, or you're afraid to sell, or you're afraid of being judged, or you're afraid of doing something wrong, like whatever those things are business will show you that. It's a wonderful teacher, right? [00:30:07][12.7]

 [00:30:08] And as you move through that, it's just like peeling off layers. [00:30:12][3.8]

 [00:30:13] Business is an incredible teacher and purifier and strengthener. And it shows us that we aren't our thoughts. We aren't our emotions. We aren't our own fears. [00:30:23][10.6]

 [00:30:24] And we can grow beyond our beliefs. [00:30:26][2.0]

 [00:30:27] And there are so many opportunities out there. [00:30:29][1.6]

 [00:30:30] The only other thing I would say is, Follow your joy. That's the one mistake that I made early on is that I think I followed a little bit too much of what I thought I had to do, or what other people were doing, or where flower essences were found. [00:30:42][12.3]

 [00:30:43] And if I would have just done what made me happy from the get go, we would probably be 10 times more successful because I remember myself wanting to just do videos for YouTube and social media. I didn't really want to go to these spa events. And try to fit in where I don't fit in. And I didn't want to wear high heels. And I didn't want to get drunk at the bar. And I don't know how to schmooze. And I don't know how to dress properly for these events, right? [00:31:06][23.4]

 [00:31:06] If I would have just totally let that go and done what I thought was fun for me, we probably would be more successful. [00:31:13][6.3]

 [00:31:13] So really, follow your joy and know that you can do it however you want to do it. [00:31:20][6.6]

 [00:31:20] When I finally started letting go of what I thought I should be doing, we took the money that we were investing into trade shows and started investing you into doing events all over the world with huge budgets for flowers. I mean, we would go in and buy thousands of flowers and build mandalas and invite people into the space and have candles and edible flower foods. And, you know, create these really intimate experiences for people and that grew our business more than any trade show. So do things the way that feels good to you and people will come and money will follow you. [00:31:54][33.3]

Sophia Ruan Gushée: [00:31:55] How would you describe your relationship with social media? It's become so essential for businesses. Yet you being a lover of nature, I would imagine it's not natural for you to spend a lot of time with technology. You'd rather be around flowers than in nature? [00:32:14][19.2]

Katie Hess: [00:32:15] I love connecting with people though. And social media is such a great, medium for connecting with people. So many of the natural places that we go, it's so easy to share. I remember when we went to Iceland and Costa Rica and Asia, we could be in the middle of nowhere and we still had a connection. We still had a connection and we could share a piece of what we were feeling in nature. [00:32:39][23.9]

 [00:32:40] It's been harder for me in the last two years... Like I've been in hibernation a little bit. It's nice that you wanted to do an IG Live because I actually really enjoy it. But I feel like I've been kind of in hibernation mode. And, you know, I think that I really should come on and do a selfie video every day or every couple of days and share from hard. [00:33:01][20.4]

 [00:33:02] But sometimes we need to go inward. And sometimes it's OK to hibernate. And sometimes there are things that are happening on the inside that will then translate to a more powerful presence when sharing later. Does that make sense? Do you ever feel that pressure? [00:33:19][16.4]

Sophia Ruan Gushée: [00:33:20] That makes perfect sense. It's nice to hear that you have been hibernating, wanting to hibernate. I think I can relate to that. I know that you hibernating will nourish what you have to offer later when it feels right to be out of hibernation. [00:33:44][23.4]

Katie Hess: [00:33:45] I hope so. I mean, I was doing a weekly podcast for three years straight and then I thought I'd take a couple weeks break. And it's been a 10 months break. In some ways, I feel like, There's so much to offer. But, I like to think that when we hibernate, we're building up our resources for later. [00:34:04][19.0]

Sophia Ruan Gushée: [00:34:05] Absolutely. You're recharging, reharmonizing. [00:34:05][0.3]

 [00:34:25] As we wrap up, I'm going to ask you what you wish more people knew about a list of things. The first is, What do you wish more people knew about flowers? [00:34:33][7.7]

Katie Hess: [00:34:38] You're not alone. We think we're alone. Sometimes it really lonely. Sometimes I get really crazy and have to wonder how I'll be able to go on and to know that we're living in this incredible paradise and that there are so many plants and flowers that are rooting for us and that are selflessly offering themselves as a channel of reconnecting you to your own inner wisdom and compassion and strength. [00:35:04][25.8]

 [00:35:05] I wish more people knew that there is this way that you can plug yourself into yourself and your strength and your self-trust and your divinity with a little help from flowers. [00:35:17][12.3]

Sophia Ruan Gushée: [00:35:18] And it doesn't take too much, right? [00:35:20][2.4]

Katie Hess: [00:35:24] It's so easy. You don't have to do your high-intensity training in the morning, or join a gym, or go to yoga classes, or really clamp down on your eating habits. [00:35:32][8.1]

Sophia Ruan Gushée: [00:35:36] What do you wish more people knew about health and healing? [00:35:40][3.6]

Katie Hess: [00:35:42] I wish more people knew that one doorway to help in healing that can be more powerful than we anticipate is through making time and space to be compassionate with ourselves, with where we get tripped up emotionally and mentally. I think we tend to be short-sighted and think that health and wellness is about our physical bodies. And although, yes, it is about our physical bodies—that we eat at McDonald's every day, we're not going to feel good. But there is another way. It is. It has more to do with how we feel. And how we think. And how we are. And how we allow ourselves to be. [00:36:21][38.8]

 [00:36:21] And that can sometimes have more powerful ramifications on the physical body—allowing ourselves to be turning toward attending to the parts of ourselves that are suffering or having a hard time, being able to admit to ourselves the truth of whatever situation we're experiencing, and being able to accept all parts of ourselves while the crazy, the tantruming, the longing, the angry, like whatever it is that we maybe don't want to see about ourselves, the more that we can turn to that and love those parts of ourselves, that will also heal the physical body. [00:36:57][35.6]

Sophia Ruan Gushée: [00:36:58] What do you wish more people knew about growing a business? [00:37:02][4.1]

 [00:37:05] That it's incredibly liberating and freeing, empowering. [00:37:07][2.3]

 [00:37:10] Yes, it's hard and hard in the sense of like, I think the first five years I worked seven days a week. But it's so invigorating and you can do it how you want to do it. I mean, you can have a side hustle even, and it frees you up. It gives you freedom. You have freedom. You create your own reality. That is the way of the world. We do create our own realities, but you get such a fast reflection of that when you have a business. [00:37:39][28.3]

Sophia Ruan Gushée: [00:37:39] What do you wish more people knew about Lotus Wei? [00:37:43][3.9]

Katie Hess: [00:37:45] I wish more people knew about us. We're growing. [00:37:48][3.6]

 [00:37:50] This whole idea of working with flowers essences for more happiness and strength and fearlessness and freedom, it's still very unknown in a way, even though more and more people are finding out about it. [00:38:01][11.8]

 [00:38:02] I remember when I came back from being out of the country, I was shocked at how many people in the United States were taking antidepressants and antianxiety medications. And that our culture was seeing that as the way to cope, when there is this incredible apothecary from the Earth that is so readily available and natural and doesn't have side effects. [00:38:24][21.8]

Katie Hess: [00:38:24] So I guess I wish more people knew that Lotus Wei is around. And I wish more people knew of the deep transformation that can occur once you start working with flower essences. [00:38:35][10.5]

 [00:38:36] New people who come in are continually surprised. They'll be like, Oh, the flowers are so pretty and joyful and they're really nice. And then they start working with these, and, they're like, Girl, how does this stuff work? Like, my life changed overnight? How is this even possible? [00:38:51][14.9]

 [00:38:51] So I wish that people knew how deeply transformative it can be and how quickly and easily and effortlessly it can be. [00:38:58][6.3]

Katie Hess: [00:39:07] My last question for you is, What are your top practical nontoxic living tips? [00:39:12][5.3]

Katie Hess: [00:39:14] I know this sounds strange but: a breathing practice. There's a breathing practice where you inhale naturally, and then you exhale through your mouth through your lips and you exhale all the air out of your belly. And you do that three times. [00:39:29][15.2]

 [00:39:30] You can do that as many times as you want during the day or as many times as you remember. It gets rid of excess air in the body, excess toxins, excess thoughts that can turn into stagnancies. That's something that's so easy, but we can do that at any moment. [00:39:46][16.5]

Katie Hess: [00:39:47] Take more breaks so that your own body can do the detox work that it already knows how to do. So that it can slow down enough to heal and self-regulate. And take more flower essences. [00:39:56][9.0]

Sophia Ruan Gushée: [00:40:00] I can't wait to start incorporating them into my life, into my family life. Thank you so much for your time today. It's been such a pleasure. [00:40:10][10.0]

Katie Hess: [00:40:12] Thank you. Thank you for asking such wonderful questions. [00:40:15][2.9]

Sophia Ruan Gushée: [00:40:16] Thanks for listening. Podcast show notes can be found at my website at nontoxic, loving diet tips to more easily listen to other episodes. Please subscribe to the Practical, Nontoxic Living podcast, and if you'd like to support it, then please like it and share it. Until next time. [00:40:16][0.0]

[2219.9]