Today we’d like to introduce you to Yolanda Neals.
Hi Yolanda, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Well as a child, I experienced a lot of trauma. In the early 80’s the working-class community that I grew up in got ravished by the crack epidemic. My parents fell prey to it. But with sheer determination, I worked hard to get myself through high school and off to college in spite of how bad things had gotten. I spent a couple years in college, couldn’t afford it anymore, so I joined the Army to pay for it. I traveled the world for a few years, then got out of the service and moved to Atlanta to go back to college.
In 1996, I suffered a devastating ectopic pregnancy and the impact of that experience spiraled me into a deep depression. A friend invited me to attend the Empowerment Conferences at the Essence Music Festival down in New Orleans to help cheer me up and motivate me beyond my depressed circumstances. I went kicking and screaming but I left that event a changed person. I was totally motivated and inspired by the relatable stories, the cultural warm embrace and the helpful tools that I received to support my own personal growth. I made the Essence Festival Empowerment Conferences my annual healing retreat and attended it faithfully until Hurricane Katrina hit years later. That’s how I started my beautiful healing journey. From the first Essence Festival to the last one I attended, I began to read tons of spiritual development and inspirational empowerment books. This led me to attend Iyanla Vanzant’s Inner Vision Institute for Spiritual Development in 2003 and my life has been a healing journey every since. Healing is a lifestyle for me and it has ushered me thru to a beautiful life. So I have dedicated my life to sharing and supporting the healing journeys of others by creating culturally sacred spaces for others to ignite their healing journeys. I have been curating urban holistic healing spaces for about 15 years now, all across the country.
I am now blessed to co-own 12,000 sq ft of total holistic healing and wellness via the iwifresh Farm Oasis. I have partnered with the awesome Skincare Chef Yolanda Owens, who is the founder/owner of iwifresh Garden Day Spa and creator of the famous iwifresh Farm-2-Skin organic skincare products. She created the amazing iwifresh brand over 15 years ago and she and I met about 13 years ago. At which time, I was managing a holistic wellness center down in South Fulton and I brought her products in as our signature line for body scrubs, massage oils and garden facials. Yolanda and I have since come full circle by partnering a couple of years ago to open our own wellness center, which is the new iwifresh Farm Oasis! The iwifresh Farm Oasis houses 21 black-owned small businesses under our umbrella that cater to serving culturally competent holistic wellness services in to the urban community.
At the iwifresh Farm Oasis we offer everything from reflexology, body scrubs, yoni steam spa, IV vitamin infusions, an organic juice bar, Reiki Master level classes and energy work, acupuncture, mental health services, a plant-based apothecary, chiropractic services, and round the clock community-based programming which includes all types of classes, workshops and special events. The iwifresh Farm Oasis has something for everyone! We have two floors of pure bliss and top-notch services that cover total Mind, Body, Spirit wellness. We specialize in holistic relaxation, rejuvenation and restoration, which can be experienced via membership or general admission, seven days a week from 10 am-10 pm. Come experience our 12 zen spaces via our custom-made dry hot cedar sauna/infrared sauna within a sauna; our indoor/outdoor rainforest shower; our biofyllic plant therapy room; our restorative Himalayan salt room along with our relaxing library, meditation and sleep stations within our African village. This self-healing sanctuary is a location destination, creatively curated to give you a healing retreat experience intended to enrich, empower and educate you, hopefully igniting your own beautiful healing journey that becomes a part of enhancing your lifestyle!
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Although we have been blessed to persevere through the pandemic, it has been tough on us as black-owned businesses because the ability to receive financial assistance to get us through the pandemic as business owners has been a struggle. We are currently relying on the overall community support via a crowdfunding campaign to raise enough money to sustain all 21 businesses and our staff, as well as to provide some scholarships to people from our community seeking our wellness support. We have been very instrumental in providing holistic immune-boosting services as a way to try and prevent COVID. We provide wellness services to people who unfortunately get COVID and we provide healing services to people who are recovering from COVID. So we are striving to sustain ourselves, our businesses and our community throughout this entire pandemic experience because our community has been hit the hardest mentally, physically and economically.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about iwifresh Farm Oasis and Kindred Healing Center?
We are the cornerstone of wellness in the urban community. A wonderful one stop shop for feeling good, healing good and being good!
How do you define success?
I define my success as being passionate, powerful, purposeful and fully present as I simultaneously enjoy my life and my life’s work in divine harmonious balance. Creating my own happiness!
Contact Info:
- Email: yneals@gmail.com
- Website: www.iwifresh.com
- Instagram: @iwifarmoasis
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/iwiFarmOasis
- Youtube: Iwi healing network
Image Credits
Photos by Lisa Z of Simply Zee Imagery
