POV 2026 vs. 2016 - let me set the stage.
POV 2026 vs. 2016
Grab a bevy…let us go down memory lane together 😅🤓
This year’s trend really holds some major weight for me. 2016 was definitely the year of snap chat filters 🐶🐱 (thankfully in some ways), because it was also the year my health 🥴 CRASHED hard.
2016 was the year I started working full time as a self-employed esthetician. I met many of my current clients that year- and I am grateful ❤️ I still have relationships with many of you now.
It was also the start of a 10 year struggle with my skin.
That was utterly soul crushing 😭 I had never had any skin issues of this magnitude, and if someone would have told me it was going to take 10 years of learning and unlearning to correct this condition, I’m not sure I would even be here right now.
At 36 years old I would have thought my bad skin years were long behind me …to be truthful, I actually never had bad skin before. I worked in cosmetics, I never left the house without makeup, but it was more of my job and the culture of the time than it was about insecurity. I liked makeup, I was good at it, I received thousands of dollars a year in gratis product and basically mascara sales paid for two university degrees and a return to college to become a hairdresser; I was so entrenched in the industry.
Let’s back up a few years more to 2012. I left my teaching job at the school board, ended a major relationship and started a whole new career direction in what I thought was a dream job. Big shift.
The job was exciting; meeting so many new people, traveling constantly. Big expectations with even bigger 🤑 bonuses. I was in my 30s. I had experience, credibility with credentials and the practical industry skills to really grow quickly. What I didn’t have was good boundaries and even less work life balance skills; but I was praised for that too, so my new career momentum continued. A few years into this perfect storm wrapped in success and reward my health started declining rapidly. I doubled down …I was still doing wedding makeup and hair, I was working for a Toronto based company, I was doing training and promotional work for a national skincare brand and teaching courses in the Fanshawe community calendar. Oh and I bought my first home and was in a full on renovation …so why not start a new business too!
Looking back on 2016 that was probably too much, but I never gave myself a moment to think otherwise, but my health was definitely keeping score.
The whispers of 2014 were now full blown screams and sadly for me it was all coming out on my SKIN. Not just a few areas, but my whole body. Rashes, hives, boils, pimples, inflammation, hair loss, weight gain …my period even stopped for a year and a half.
And at the time I really did not understand WHY?! … why was this happening and why couldn’t I get any help or diagnosis as to what the hell was going on?!
I used to believe that my body was failing me - I now know my body was screaming at me to listen. It wanted so desperately to heal, but it could not do that in the same conditions, lifestyle, food, thoughts that made me SICK.
I fumbled around for Y E A R S. Trying to find the right doctors, healers, supplements, plant medicine, kambo, retreats, books, podcasts - I LEARNED so much, but my skin was still purging and cycling from bad to horrible, yet never fully cleared up.
I had let go of all the side hustles at this point, but was still hustling hard in my esthetics business, academy and acquiring new skills to grow beauty by PREEN into KEPT. (there was many hurdles there, but that’s for another post or podcast). Another renovation and new commercial space was demanding enough to push through the depression and self-loathing.
March 2020 🦠 - hard stop.
The blessing in all the madnesses. I sold my house, my car and packed two suitcases.
I did not have a plan, but I knew too much (from the last 4 years of scouring any and all I could learn about my skin, my lymphatic system and my gut health) to stay in Canada.
I moved to the beach. I got 100x more sun than the last decade allowed. I stopped wearing makeup, I started studying plants, I ate real food without added chemicals and I FASTED. I fasted from food, people, politics, providing service, running on empty, needing to be needed, proving myself over and over again…
What I DID NOT DO became my medicine.
I have always wanted to formally write about my experience and vocalize my story; but the storm was 10 long years. I wish I documented it more… and even now it is hard to post the photos on social media, but here we are - here I am.
Cheers to the last decade 😅 it was not what I wanted, but in fact it was exactly what I NEEDED.
Follow along as I slowly start adding recipes, product recommendations and some good ol’ humor to get us through this next season of life.
Be well ❤️ Stephanie