#68 Reclaiming Wellness As Our Birthright with Bonkosi Horn

04/06/21 • 47 min

In this episode of the Black Girl In Om Podcast, co-founder and creative director of Freedom Apothecary, Bonkosi Horn (she/her), joins BGIO founder Lauren Ash (she/they) in conversation around reclaiming self care and wellness as our birthright. Freedom Apothecary is a space that centers Black women & WOC coming together in community along their self-discovery, healing, and wellness journeys through holistic lifestyle practices and rituals. All of the products they carry are nontoxic, clean beauty, and created by women. Lauren and Bonkosi talk about offering ourselves grace as we bring further awareness and active intention to what goes on and in our bodies. While mainstream wellness conversations can get a bad rap for being only for a certain type of person, Lauren and Bon discuss how true self care is our birthright as Black women. We deserve to prioritize our experience and nurture a relationship to self. Bonkosi is here to help us along this journey, and to connect us with a network of like-minded women through Freedom Apothecary! While their physical space is in Philadelphia, you can access an abundance of clean, women-founded offerings from them wherever you are through their website. True wellness should be accessible to everyone because, as Bon says, “It’s a right. It’s not a luxury.”

IN THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL FIND OUT MORE ABOUT

How tapping into what she was craving positioned Bonkosi to dream up Freedom Apothecary
Where to start when making a choice to divest from brands and products with dangerous ingredients.
An App that helps you to choose the safest beauty and household products by allowing you to see what ingredients are in them and alerting you to which ones are toxic.
Resources that help Lauren to feel more empowered in her choices around the products she uses
Bonkosi’s advice for doing DIY skincare right
Bon’s experience growing a brand that is centered on wellbeing specifically for women and women of color
The process of learning to ask for help when you need it
How motherhood encourages intentional prioritization and boundary-setting

Keep up with Bonkosi Horn on Instagram and twitter @Bonkosi

Freedom Apothecary is reopening, safely and slowly the first week of April, so head over to FreedomApothecary.com to find out more about their many offerings or to book an appointment at their Blend Bar!

For 20% off of Organifi’s delicious completely plant-based and low-sugar organic superfood blends, head over to Organifi.com/blackgirlinom

If you're interested in offering support to BGIO's very first physical healing space for Black women, head over to gofund.me/8de0022e

IN THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL FIND OUT MORE ABOUT

How tapping into what she was craving positioned Bonkosi to dream up Freedom Apothecary
Where to start when making a choice to divest from brands and products with dangerous ingredients.
An App that helps you to choose the safest beauty and household products by allowing you to see what ingredients are in them and alerting you to which ones are toxic.
Resources that help Lauren to feel more empowered in her choices around the products she uses
Bonkosi’s advice for doing DIY skincare right
Bon’s experience growing a brand that is centered on wellbeing specifically for women and women of color
The process of learning to ask for help when you need it
How motherhood encourages intentional prioritization and boundary-setting

Keep up with Bonkosi Horn on Instagram and twitter @Bonkosi

For 20% off of Organifi’s delicious completely plant-based and low-sugar organic superfood blends, head over to Organifi.com/blackgirlinom

If you're interested in offering support to BGIO's very first physical healing space for Black women, head over to gofund.me/8de0022e

Previous Episode

Welcome home!

Lauren (she/they) announces that Black Girl In Om’s very first physical space, home, is coming soon to the Longfellow community in Minneapolis! In this mini-sode of the BGIO Podcast, Lauren takes us through the serendipitous journey toward crafting the vision and finding the perfect location to plant the roots of what will be an oasis of intergenerational healing and wellness for black people. Home will feature a black-sourced, organic herbal apothecary, diverse healing modalities from specialized practitioners, culturally-specific programming for black folk to heal and come together in community, a curated shop of essentials, and more. Even in the face of injustice, we can create heaven on earth right here, right now. The story of how home came to be is a testament to how walking in alignment with your purpose and staying committed to your vision inevitably attracts a resonant community along your shared path. Let the journey begin!

You can offer support to home by BGIO here.
To find out more about the space, head over to blackgirlinom.com/home-by-bgio

THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL FIND OUT MORE ABOUT

One of Lauren’s most frequent prayers
How Lauren uses triggering experiences as fuel for catalyzing change for what she desires to see
in the world
Tracee Stanley’s acknowledgement of the three different pandemics we’re living through this cultural moment
How Lauren manifested the space for home
What it looks like to hold the vision and allow the vision to be made manifest
A peek into what home will offer to the Longfellow community in Minneapolis and to children of the diaspora across the globe.
Lauren’s journey with Human Design

Next Episode

#69 Suspending All Constructs Of The Mind with Dr. G

Spiritual warrior Dr. G (Doc/She/This Being) joins BGIO founder Lauren Ash (She/They) in conversation around the power of play and presence in the face of life’s transitions. Dr G is a clinical psychologist, death doula, writer, and multidisciplinary teacher who works with individuals to transform their adversity into the grounds for strength by bringing greater awareness to the harmony of body, mind, and spirit. Doc and Lauren offer that deep rest and surrender through Yoga Nidra empowers them to dissolve imposed identities rooted in capitalism and patriarchy. With those influences quieted, the void space between lives and between worlds becomes accessible. From that space, we’re able to connect with the immortality of our collective consciousness, and to our power as individuals living within that collective. Lauren and Dr G encourage us to seek out who we are outside of the constructed systems we navigate. Once we dissolve those edges of being, anything becomes possible.

Stick around after the conversation with Dr. G to hear a special Q+A with Soulful Vibes Co. co-owner, Sunny Brooks, all about accessible wellness and the power of ritual.

THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL FIND OUT MORE ABOUT

The immortality of collective consciousness
What ‘dissolving’ our identities looks like, and how it open us up to possibility and reclamation
Intentionally wielding our power of choice
The question that led to a breakthrough for both Lauren and Dr G at the life-changing retreat that brought them together
How an active connection with Nature can awaken us to essential truths of growth and transformation
Utilizing the power of play to transform your relationship with difficult situations
How Lauren is returning to imagination and commitment
Rituals from the Diaspora for facing and processing death that Dr G invites us to utilize in the present moment.
The mantra that’s been helping Lauren to feel at home and at ease in nature.
Making the impossible possible

Head over to http://claudelleglasgow.com/ to schedule an appointment with Dr G

Stay in the loop with Dr G on Instagram @garudagrin

If you were touched by this episode and are inspired to extend a heart offering to Dr. G, you can do so through Paypal @ClaudelleRGlasgow or Venmo: DrCGlasgow

Shop by intention at SoulfulVibesCo.com for whatever affordable, high quality, high vibrational, spiritual and metaphysical items you may need to get your spiritual practice started, or to supplement your existing rituals. Use code BGIO15 for 15% off your purchase

Follow Soulful Vibes Co on Instagram @soulfulvibesco to keep up with their many intentional offerings

#SoulfulVibes #SoulfulVibesCo #SoulfulVibesCoPartner #SoulfulVibesCoAmbassador