Today we’d like to introduce you to Seve Mangrum.
Hi Seve, so excited to have you on the platform. So, before we get into questions about your work life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today.
Growing up in Chicago in between upper-class private school privilege and lower-class culture-rich street life I was given a unique schooling on perspective. In a home with a “jew-for-jesus, Chinese medicine/alternative healing loving mother and rigid, “brick-S!#@-house” ex-Green Beret father, I had quite the energetic polarity in my upbringing. All of these environment lead me to a deep love for culture, movement/sports, and human psychology.
After numerous basketball injuries, and deep therapeutic work (so much it would make your head spin) from the age of 8-16, I discovered, chose, and ultimately fell in love with dance. I traveled, competed, and showcased professional through my senior year of college, where I inevitably found myself searching for something more than just performing. After traveling Europe for 2 months, I knew I wanted to make a difference in the world. I was “called” deeply to pursue fitness and health, ultimately landing a job at the most high-profile gym in the nation, Equinox.
Before beginning my career, I suffered a nasty injury – in part due to my, at the time, raging confidence and machismo. This lead me on a journey of deep introspection before even beginning my career as a fitness expert. After my surgery, the surgeon expressed that he believed I would never move the same again which lit a fire under my ass to become a wizard of knowledge around post-rehabilitative training, ultimately ripping through my physical therapy in 3 weeks and working my way to top of the pecking order at Equinox in Chicago prior be requested to head up the training staff at new location only a year and half later in Los Angeles.
Fast forward 10 years – I find myself with my own business and brand with a proprietary movement meditation practice and a big mission, in which is to clean up a messy and imbalanced industry (the health and wellness one) and bring balance and harmony back into people’s lives.
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?
It has been a hell of a ride. In my youth, I had to navigate being diagnosed with learning disabilities and not feeling like I fit in with the other kids in the rigid curriculum at my private school (tough life haha). Navigating an emotionally unavailable father and ultimately divorced parents was more of a challenge than I expected. In my early teens, I dealt with many deaths (from suicide to gun violence to tragic events) of young friends. Later in life at the age of 27, I lost my father to a rare vascular disease due to his exposure to agent orange in Vietnam – this lead to a deep disdain for the military-industrial complex, pharmaceutical industry, and government at large.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
What I do is support Wellness Brand Founders in renewing their energies and creating frameworks for inner harmony so that they can multiply their impact on humanity and fulfill their mission while being in the best spiritual shape of their life.
I am an expert in the realms of movement, breath, and connection. I created a proprietary movement meditation (Wrken) practice that is replacement for the old (tradition meditation, tai chi, Qi-gong). I am most proud of the individuals I have touched and the by-product of those transformed lives. What sets me apart is that there is no one else that does what I do, no one. Wrken (the practice and the lifestyle) that elicit a deep sense of peace, harmony, and vitality can only be discovered within oneself by way of a specific guidance – one that only I (currently) provide.
What would you say has been one of the most important lessons you’ve learned?
The lessons and healing never end so you better fall in love with the process and not your attachment to the outcomes.
Contact Info:
- Website: wrken.com
- Instagram: @sevemangrum
- Facebook: Seve Mangrum
Image Credits
Kate Berry
