In today’s stressful world, it’s refreshing to find people who emit positivity and a healthy attitude, no matter what life hands their way. Meet Sarah Anne Stewart and Fern Olivia Langham, two holistic health practitioners with a business that’s designed to help you achieve optimal vitality. Their company, Bliss Out Retreats, offers health excursions like no other. The mission of Bliss Out Retreats aims “…to provide services that will inspire and empower others by raising awareness, thus enabling individuals to experience a transformed life of superb health and WELLNESS while supporting others in sharing this vision.” To learn more about Bliss Out Retreats, Sarah Anne, Fern Olivia, and their positive energy, I collaborated with these two lovely ladies to answer all of your burning questions!
What is Bliss Out Retreats?
Bliss Out Retreats offers soul-centered health excursions (and they are currently expanding internationally!). Each retreat offers days spent trekking through the rainforest and waterfalls, learning to surf, practicing yoga and meditating. You’ll also nourish your body with nutrition tips, workshops, and indulge in an array of whole, raw, natural food from a in-house personal chef. Their retreats will heal your mind, invigorate your soul, return you to a life of balance— and most of all—bliss.
The next retreat is December 4-8, 2014! Want in? Head on over to http://blissoutretreats.com and email info@blissoutretreats.com to claim your spot in December and don’t forget to mention my name for sweet discounts!
What was the inspiration behind Bliss Out Retreats?
On a chance encounter on a bench in Madison Square Park, Fern Olivia and Sarah Anne knew they had found something special. They instantly bonded over their desire to help empower and heal people and in less than two months, Bliss Out Retreats was launched. Both Sarah Anne and Fern Olivia seek to inspire the younger generation to take control over their health and give them the encouragement to heal. Through Bliss Out Retreats, their dream grows as they teach and help their guests reach a holistic approach to wellbeing. They are currently working on a new company called Bliss Out Wellness which will launch this fall.
Why Did Each of You Decide to Take A Holistic Approach to Living?
Sarah Anne: When my father was diagnosed with kidney and bladder cancer in 2001, he turned to the help of nutrition, holistic healing, alternative medicine, and a lot of mind-body work. Seven months later, the cancer was gone – completely. And it has never returned. Miraculous? Yes! My father is living proof that rules are made to be broken.
This experience sparked a light inside me that has never been put out. I made a promise to my father that I would someday have my own holistic healthcare practice so that I too could inspire others to discover this “holistic world” I grew up in. In my first life, I made my rounds, attending college, living in several big cities across America, and working in the fast-paced, stressed-out, crazed world as an event planner, fashion model, and real estate agent. During certain periods, it wasn’t all fun and games, and I too fell off the “wellness” bandwagon. I developed a sluggish immune system, lack of energy, chronic feeling of dullness, an inability to focus, weight gain, and sickness. I was a hot mess. But in my head, I thought that I could counterbalance an unhealthy lifestyle with wheatgrass shots and yoga…but I was so wrong. I had to take baby steps to clean out the residue of the media-induced late-night partying, yo-yo dieting, pill popping unhealthy habits that I had acquired. Fortunately, I found my way back to the nutrient-rich and much-less-chaotic life that I grew up with and that has sustained me for so many years. So now I feel at peace instead of in pieces.
Fern: After years of struggling with chronic digestive and immune issues, I was finally diagnosed with an autoimmune thyroid condition, adrenal fatigue, an intestinal infection and multiple food allergies. I came to my yoga mat to start listening to my body and becoming aware of how each and every choice I made affected me physically, emotionally, and energetically. I woke up to this whole new sense of consciousness and desire to heal my body. After making lifestyle changes and cleaning up what I was putting in and on my body, I am finally glowing again! Since becoming a 200-hour registered yoga teacher and board-certified holistic health coach, I have empowered individuals and families to transition to a healthier lifestyle, clear chronic inflammatory symptoms, and build a sustained, lasting state of well-being.
My intention is to give you the tools you need to look and feel your best. My tools for unlocking your radiant potential include a blend of yoga, meditation, Ayurvedic education, nutrition inspiration, guided lifestyle coaching and plenty of encouragement along each step of your journey. My clients often tell me that I bring out a light in them that they had forgotten, and that I am not only a yoga instructor or health coach, but a therapist and friend, too. I am deeply grateful for finding this path as a healer and I love waking up every single day to and inspire the world around me to live in health and harmony.
What Other Wellness Projects are Fern and Sarah Anne Involved In?
Fern Olivia is a registered yoga instructor and board-certified holistic health coach and has her own practice, Yoga With Fern. She specializes in empowering busy professionals to find balance and happiness in every aspect of their lives. She offers private yoga classes, group lessons, corporate yoga, yoga for brides, and workshops. Fern also is a practitioner for Sacred Space NY at Yelo Spa, a health expert for ALOHA, a cleanse specialist for Puree Artisan Juice Bar and has been featured on wellness sites such as ALOHA, Yogi Times, Mind Body Green, and Elephant Journal.
Sarah Anne also runs her own company, Introducing Wellness, with a focus approaching your health from a holistic aspect and discovering how all areas of your life are connected. Sarah offers one-on-one sessions, group workshops, and a one day intensive program. Sarah is also a practitioner for Sacred Space NY at Yelo Spa, a health expert for ALOHA, a cleanse specialist for Puree Artisan Juice Bar and currently writes for numerous online publications including Break the Norms.