Today we’d like to introduce you to Tanya Murphy.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Tanya. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Thank you for allowing me to share my journey, I’m so grateful for this opportunity. The development of panic attacks begins my journey to discovering wellness.
I starting having anxiety and panic attacks in 2013, not knowing what they were. I thought I was having a heart attack one day driving in the car with my children and ended up pulling over and having my daughter call an ambulance. After getting to the ER all the symptoms disappeared but the very next day the panic came back with a vengeance. I once again ended up in the ER where once again the symptoms disappeared. I was so embarrassed and scared that I was losing my mind until a nurse asked me if I ever had anxiety before? That was the first time I considered I was dealing with anxiety and what that looked like for me.
Over the course of several years, the impact of living with anxiety began to be overwhelming. I was praying, getting wrong advice from well-meaning people and in some instances being told I wasn’t truly trusting God with my mind. After waking up one morning ready to take my own life, I realized I needed medical help and some holistic tools to help me manage stress and overcome anxiety. I started seeing a therapist, took a low dose of Xanax, starting learning mindfulness-based stress reduction meditation, changed my diet to feed my brain and Ustawi was born.
I made my mental wellness a priority. I began studying and practicing mindfulness meditation and became a Certified Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Practitioner. I’m also a Certified Aromatherapist specializing in Aromachology (the science of the influence of odors on human behavior and the examination of the relationship between feelings and emotions). I’m a Christian Meditation Facilitator leading classes from a Hebraic perspective (like Jesus meditated) and I’m a Cognitive Behavioral Anxiety Coach. I also practice Yin Yoga to strengthen and stay in tune with my body. By the grace of the Lord, I was able to stop taking medication, I lost weight and focused on continually improving and protecting my mental and emotional well-being. All of these things lead to Ustawi.
Has it been a smooth road?
The journey has been hard but I wouldn’t trade the invaluable experience and empathy I gained for anything. My journey is what founded my business and the process of pulling Ustawi together has been one of the smoothest transitions I’ve ever experienced, not easy, smooth. Once I said yes to the plan the Lord gave me, everything has fallen into place in ways I could never have imagined.
One of my biggest struggles has been getting people to become comfortable with the idea of meditation, particularly the idea of being quiet with our thoughts and the emotions that come with them. We are designed to be thinking, creative beings, we meditate all the time whether we’re aware of it or not. We meditate on what we’ll have for dinner, how the bills will get paid, issues we’re dealing with at work, our health and so on. If you’ve ever meditated you’re very aware that keeping your mind from wandering is a task all by itself, so much so that as meditation facilitators we are always gently reminding you to not be frustrated when thoughts come, just acknowledge them and return to focusing on the breathe. That’s because we know you never stop thinking, you only attempt to direct your thought through intention.
The form of meditation most dear to my soul is Christian Meditation from a Hebraic perspective. As a Minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ it is important to me to teach meditation in the way Jesus meditated, but if we’re looking for Jesus sitting in lotus position with finger to thumb we’ll miss it because that’s not how Jesus meditated. Jesus meditated in the Hebrew tradition of stealing away and spending time in quiet and solitude to be refreshed and replenished by the Lord. Christian meditation is a time of refreshing and takes place in a variety of ways from Lectio Davina (using scripture to guide the meditative practice) to Creation Gazing. Christian meditation is over 5000 years old and was practiced by prophets, the desert fathers and mothers as well as by Christian monks as a way to still ourselves in the presence of God and to make ourselves attuned to His still small voice.
Mindfulness meditation’s roots is also over 5000 years old. Its principles were founded on Buddhist meditation techniques but Mindfulness is a secular practice developed in the 1979 with no religious connotation, only a focus on being aware, with intention, in the present moment, nonjudgementally.
Christian meditation is theocentric, meaning God called and God lead. The Lord leads the process and determines the outcome. Mindfulness meditation is Anthocentric, meaning mind lead with the intention to get something out of it. The easy way to think of it is Mindfulness starts in the mind, Christian Meditation starts in the heart. Once I explain this the fears seen to melt away and the meditative practice can begin.
I offer classes on both Mindfulness and Christian meditation and have a multitude of people currently practicing throughout the world through my online private meditative sessions. I also offer my meditations through the Insight Timer meditation app and meet with clients in Grayson, GA as well as Washington, DC.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Ustawi Wellness Studio story. Tell us more about the business.
Ustawi, Swahili for wellness, is a boutique meditation and relaxation studio that cultivates wellness experiences that facilitate balance, calm, focus and clarity through ancient and contemporary holistic modalities, events and retreats. We are currently building a brand new studio in Grayson, GA where we will offer state of the art meditative practices combined with the latest in scientific wellness therapies to help our clients utilize tools, techniques and strategies to not only manage stress but to overcome self-defeating, anxiety inducing mindsets. We’re also planning to open a studio in Washington, DC in fall 2020.
Our holistic wellness approach includes practical relaxation techniques, restoration tools, eating education for brain health such as ketogenics and low carb/high fat to improve brain wellness and our flagship therapy the HaloIR Breathe & Detox 5 Sensory Experience, an infrared sauna halotherapy combined with aromatherapy, chromotherapy and meditation all in one therapeutic service.
One of the programs I’m most proud of is our lineup of meditation classes for middle and high school students to give them the basic meditative tools to be more mindful and manage their day to day stress.
What sets Ustawi apart is we are pioneers in our community, our soul purpose to help people be more mindful and less stressed. We are the only meditation studio in Gwinnett County to offer holistic therapies to complement the meditative experience and we are the only studio to incorporate nootropics, aromachology and chromotherapy to help enhance cognitive function, focus, memory, creativity and overall brain wellness.
Ustawi is a dream realized for me and I feel so blessed the Lord is allowing me to steward this wonderful gift of mental and emotional wellness support.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
The wellness industry is a $4.2 trillion dollar industry that is expected to see substantial growth over the next decade as people have a desire to be more in control of their wellness options and are finding more holistic ways to manage their wellness.
We are seeing that people want to do more than just use aromatherapy for sleep and calm, they are becoming interested in the science of how aromachology can be used to enhance brain wellness, slow brain aging, impact emotional responses and support mental wellness. Nootropics and aromachology are the next big thing in the wellness industry and Ustawi will be ahead of the trend by educating our clients now and introducing them to products and services that provide nootropic benefits now.
Contact Info:
- Address: Ustawi Wellness Studio
2125 Loganville Hwy
Suite 202
Grayson, GA 30017 - Website: www.ustawiwellnessstudio.com
- Phone: 404-563-4202
- Email: info@ustawiwellnessstudio.com
- Instagram: @ustawiwellnessstudio
- Facebook: @ustawiwellnessstudio
- Twitter: @ustawiwellness
Image Credit:
Photo by RJ Johns of Twenty and 3.
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