Today we’d like to introduce you to Jessica Esfandiary.
Hi Jessica, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I moved to Los Angeles because I wanted to pursue my career in Film and TV. That feels like a lifetime ago. After a few years on the grind of that industry, I was feeling burnt out and unfulfilled; like I didn’t really have a purpose. I remember I came home from set one day and told my husband I wanted to find a good documentary crew and work on a project that meant something, a film that could inspire social change or help people with their lives in some way. I was emotional when I was telling him because I wanted a change so badly. As classic manifestation works, two days later I was connected with Kelly Noonan Gores, the Director and Creator of Heal Documentary. They needed an assistant for post-production social media and marketing and I jumped at the internship. That experience completely changed my life. I thought I wanted to work on documentaries that inspire social change what I didn’t realize was I was destined to help people Heal as I had done for myself.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
After working on that film, I did my first yoga teacher training and never looked back. I launched myself into learning as much as I could about Mind-Body Medicine and how our minds and our energy shape our entire lives. I spent a few years traveling and training, working on myself, and collecting all the tools I could. Each time I came home for a stretch, I would try to figure out how this could be my life all the time, but I couldn’t quite concept it.
I was still doing a lot of my own healing and didn’t quite see how a path forward or how anyone would ever take me seriously. If I did any of this work for my career. I had my own woo-woo stigma. It’s crazy to think now how much I resisted these inherent gifts that have been around for 1000s of years and that would wind up helping the people I loved the most. But I had a lot of self-doubt and judgment. I was my biggest obstacle.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I specialize in facilitating retreats and healing ceremonies and integrative coaching programs for those ready to be in the driver’s seat of their own transformation. I’m known for the Unleash Your Inner Goddess Retreat, which I host with my partner and talented photographer, Lauren Urbiztondo. These retreats are a powerful way for women to wake up to all they have inside of them. We help women shed the layers that keep them from being connected and at home in their bodies to shift into their purpose and build beautifully rich, vulnerable and intimate relationships with other sisters. I’m most proud of that community of women. Watching them grow, love, and support one another gives me so much joy and fulfillment.
So maybe we end on discussing what matters most to you and why?
People awakening their own inner healer matters to me the most. I believe my life’s work is to help people remember who they really are. When we realize our own divinity and are empowered to take care of our health in a holistic way, mind, body, and spirit, we engage in the world in a new way. Helping women get out of the hurry and grind culture and instead find peace and alignment to reach their goals is what my coaching programs are all about. When women realize their power and find a community of sisters who are also on that same journey, magic is inevitable.
Contact Info:
- Email: support@jessicaesfandairy.com
- Website: https://www.jessicaesfandiary.com/
- Instagram: journey.with.jessica
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/journeywithjessicae
Image Credits
Images shot by Lauren Urbiztondo @lolo_urbiztondo
