Today we’d like to introduce you to Ancient Artery.
Hi Ancient Artery, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
Well although my community recognizes me as “Ancient Artery”, I was brought into this world as Shemayah Clemons, born in Inglewood, California in 2001. I began the journey I’m still on today in 2019 when I became dissatisfied and dis-eased with my old life. As a young Black woman, I always made a conscious effort to represent my people in the best ways possible. I never looked at myself as an individual, but rather a representative of a collective. Growing up as a teenager in high school, I made all my moves with the intention of holding it down for my people while also uplifting our communities, so responsibility was kinda my thing. I’ve always done a phenomenal job at honoring my responsibilities in showing the world how capable we are, and remaining faithful to my priorities with school; however in late 2019, at the age of 18, I was assigned a new set of responsibilities that forced this selfless woman to be unapologetically selfish—for once. This change of path was inspired by my declining state of health, which unknowingly stunted the growth that I’m experiencing today. Reflecting back on my childhood, I realized that as a young girl, my immune system was very weak and I was always finding myself staying home from school or in some doctor’s office needing some “medicine”.
As I got older, these doctor office visits turned into hospital visits, and it only became more frequent the more I remained oblivious to the root of the problem. It wasn’t until my sophomore year at UCLA that this story had to finally come to an end. After years of being so careless about how I took care of my body, my karma finally caught up to me. My immune system crashed, my reproductive system was suffering, my abilities turned to disabilities, and I fell into a deep deep hole. But amongst all this chaos, I surprisingly never lost my faith in myself. I accepted my declining health as an opportunity to rebuild myself from the ground up. I didn’t pick the shattered pieces of myself up off the floor. In fact, I left them there and walked right over them as I accepted the death of the old me. This was the beginning of the woman I am today. This was the beginning of my healing, and it was my traumatic health experiences that made me look at the world differently. Ultimately, my self-initiated healing journey is what inspires me to show others that there is always more room to HEAL.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
In all honesty, I felt like my life was perfect prior to my health crashing. I had—and still have—a very loving family, I had a cute little working car, I was going to UCLA for free because of all the scholarships I earned, and I had met the most amazing and supportive friends in college. I didn’t notice any problems with my life until I became horribly sick, which was very hard for me to cope with due to the fact that I felt like I didn’t deserve what I was going through. I felt like my body, God, the universe, and even myself hated me; however, my health shed light on the weakest parts of my life that needed strengthening. Being sick made me realize that my life was far from perfect, and in fact I was trapped in a deadly cycle that I once valued—college. As I developed new intentions to eat healthier, detox my body more, and practice better self-care in general, I realized that I wouldn’t truly be able to heal in the same environment I got even more sick in. The college environment played a huge role in deepening my sickness as it forced me to put my health second to assignments to satisfy other’s expectations of me as a student. The biggest challenge of all was coming to the decision that I was not happy at UCLA, and the longer I stayed, the less I would be able to accomplish with my healing.
Arriving at the decision that I wanted to drop out of college was tough because it exposed my insecurities and fears of looking like a failure to my people. Leaving UCLA also meant leaving the idea of fulfilling the responsibility of exemplifying excellence for my people— through a college degree— in the past. Through my health experiences, I was able to recognize what needed strengthening and what did or did not serve me in my life. Nonetheless, becoming sick and abandoning the people, places, and things that contributed to this demise was one of the greatest obstacles I had to overcome, especially because I had to abandon my old self. Most of the ways I used to think about my health and almost all of the things I used to love were killing me. Yet, the decision to initiate this healing journey has taught me so much about my people, our communities, the world, and the universe. In the end, my sickness was meant to inspire me to walk down this path and finally step into this purpose. Now, I’m exemplifying excellence in my own special way!
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
My community knows me “Ancient Artery”, and I consider myself to be Healing Enthusiast, meaning that I’m simply enthusiastic about ALL things regarding healing. In a more specific sense, I specialize in Holistic Living as a Holistic Lifestyle Specialist. In a walnut shell, I take everything that I learn throughout my journey and dissect it. This means I do a lot of studying and experimenting on myself, and essentially taking notes of the outcomes and incomes. Most outside awareness of my work comes from my Instagram account, as I produce easily digestible holistic health content to educate my community on a daily basis! Being that I’ve orchestrated such successful healing and reversal of dis-eased states with my own lifestyle changes, I’ve retained plenty of valuable knowledge that is not easily accessible to my people. As a conduit, I prioritize translating this knowledge in a way that my people can understand. There are so many people who claim to be “healers” and “holistic gurus” but the truth is, what sets me apart from those people is that I believe in activating the inner-healer in all of us; I believe in showing the people that all the tools we need to heal and be great is within and within arms reach. The work I do is no more than the work that NEEDS to be done. I’m just a woman who is leading by example every day, positively influencing my people to take care of themselves in some of the most efficient ways possible. Beyond my social media influence, I work one on one with people during consultations to construct guided healing and realignment plans based on their health goals. Additional awareness of the work I do is also stimulated by my role as a herbal product distributor. I offer herbal cleanses that help people absorb nutrients better by detoxing waste like mucus and parasites from their bodies. This cleanse also boosts the immune system, and assists us in maintaining good overall health. The most important purpose of distributing this cleanse is to show how simple cleansing the body can be after years of being told it’s unnecessary and difficult! As a trusted healing enthusiast and herbal product distributor I am creating quality opportunities to heal more accessible to my community. Essentially, I am very proud of my divine work as a creator of healing opportunities.
Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
Risk-taking is nothing more than self-discovery. While taking risks, you’re uncovering new layers of yourself and basically figuring out what you are capable of overcoming. The less risks we take, the less we know about ourselves. One of the biggest risks I’ve taken in my life led me to where I am today. Leaving UCLA was very risky, extremely questionable, but also life-changing because I was able to focus on the healing that needed to be done without the distraction of college. My health is more important than any school project or what somebody may think of me. Oftentimes, it’s the things we are most afraid to do that catapult us to where we really need to be! Most importantly, when we take risks, our faith and trust in ourselves summons some unbelievable blessings and opportunities because we are giving the universe confirmation that we are capable of handling the next step! It truly requires a brave person to take risks and stand up against their fears, but that’s exactly where courage is born and bravery exists.
Pricing:
- Cleanse Combo $30
Contact Info:
- Email: ancientartery@yahoo.com
- Website: ancientartery.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ancientartery/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyW0nnYwF5Thkb_P5iN3jlA
- Other: https://linktr.ee/Ancientartery
Image Credits:
@yvngcatt via Instagram 3/4 of the pictures (the most professional ones)
