What do you do for a living, and what are the things that make you feel more alive?
I’m an herbalist and I operate multiple businesses. A few of them are my herbal apothecary, Oh Holiday! in Rockwell, The Chai Spa, a natural nail spa located in Mandaluyong, and Meta Home which is a company that does personal & business training for women.
How old are you?
I just turned 31 in May! I’m a Gemini.
What are the best pieces of life advice you have ever received? Most of the best pieces of advice I have ever received are from my mother. Once she told me at the airport, when I left the US at just 18 years old to come to the Philippines, a country I’ve never been to, she said don’t look back ever.
And that has kind of stuck with me through almost everything I’ve done. If I’ve started something I try not to look back while I’m in that process because sometimes you start to doubt yourself or you start to procrastinate and it’s different from reflection. Reflection is looking back and seeing where you’ve made mistakes and where you can grow, but while I’m in the process I try to bulldoze forward and not stop until I’ve gotten it done.
What do you think is the biggest challenge, and the best thing, about being your age? The biggest challenge is definitely the amount of pressure that is put on people in their 30s to be at some distinguished place in their life. But I also think the best thing about being in your 30s is having some wisdom and some knowledge from your 20s and yet you’re not too old, you’re not old at all, to start doing what you’ve always dreamed of with that learned knowledge and wisdom from your 20’s.
How have you grown wiser in the past two years? In the past two years through the pandemic, I could say I have grown wiser but more importantly, I have grown to know who I really am and what I really want to do with my life and that is help people through herbal medicine.
Who are the women you look up to and how have they helped shape your life?
Definitely, my mom, she was a single mom of seven children and she was the first naturopath I knew. She always tried to heal my sister and I with natural remedies from the kitchen or with soup or teas and she always taught us the importance of self-care way before it was something that was popularized and something that became trendy.
She also taught us the importance of strength and knowing how strong we are mentally and even physically but also emotionally. As women we’re so vulnerable in the world and whether it’s having to raise a family or having to work, or having to go to school, or whatever hardships life brings you it’s important to know that there’s strength within you and you can get through it.
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She Talks Generations celebrates wisdom-sharing among women, and highlights the different perspectives and unique strengths that we bring to the table at every life stage.