Meet Tanya Edmonds

Today we’d like to introduce you to Tanya Edmonds. 

Hi Tanya, 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.
I have been on a 30-year journey of guiding others in mind-body wellness, which started out with wanting to heal myself and get more in touch with my own body and mind (like all the best journeys do!). Prior to this, I was working in a creative capacity in “the industry” and completely and utterly ignored my own needs and boundaries, both physically, mentally, and emotionally. I was always the first one to arrive, the last one to leave set, the first one to volunteer to pull all-nighters, didn’t need to take meal breaks…was not listening to my body AT ALL. I got very burnt out and really had to rethink everything . My youthful and strong body was Teflon. Or so I thought. 

I took some time off for my health and decided to completely change trajectory and leave the film world behind. Still wanting to work with my hands I enrolled in classes to learn different styles of massage and structural bodywork. I was particularly drawn to eastern modalities and ones that incorporated idea that the body-mind is a continuum, and that one is not healed without the other. I started practicing Vippasana or insight meditation, whose modern western version would be mindfulness-based meditation. I incorporated this concept into all my sessions throughout the years. I am also a certified yoga instructor and apply the principles of yoga philosophy to my treatments. 

During covid, I decided that I would give up the more hands-on aspect of my work (partly because of wear and tear injuries, partly because of physical distancing, and mostly because of wishing to transcend and evolve with my work). I left the hands-on work behind in favour of coaching and mentoring others with a basis in mindfulness and embodiment techniques. I also started to circle back into the art world during covid and began revisiting my creative side. I’m reminded of some meme I saw during the covid lockdown where it showed two retro women and one says to the other something like, “I learned a new language, how to bake sourdough bread, and wrote a novel during lockdown,” and the other replies ” I learned how to eat cake with my hands”. Cracked me up. We all handled that unprecedented time differently, in ways that were best and unique to each of us. I was one who really used it to orchestrate my next stage of life. 

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Hmmm…smooth road? Hardly. But could you imagine how utterly meaningless life would be if it was all a smooth road? I’m always telling clients who say they just want to be happy all the time and never experience stress, that I believe that’s called being dead. It becomes ultimately how we handle the stress and our perception of things that is key to a happy life, not the absence of stressful events. Learning to surf the waves, because we can’t stop them from coming. 

My biggest challenges have, by no coincidence, been about navigating the road of wellness in myself – whether it be physical or emotional…always trying to find the balance. Always listening and learning from my own inner experiences. I say no coincidence because I believe that makes me a better teacher. A sort of “been there done that” thing. It’s never-ending!!! 

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
As a mindfulness and embodiment mentor and coach, I help connect others to their own body-mind more consciously. To live more fully awake and aware in their own lives. To listen more deeply to the body and to understand more of how their own thoughts and mind stream effects their life, and that this awareness of self holds the key to transformation. I use nature as a foundational model and liken this process to living in “full bloom”. 

I have always been deeply moved by nature. It is restorative to me (to everyone) and it’s essential for me to be outdoors and around the natural world daily. I believe I bring a very grounded and soothing energy to my work and love holding the lantern to light another’s path. 

As an artist, I primarily create “portraits” of trees and plant life and love to explore techniques that are reminiscent of late 19th-century photography, where there is a sense of majestic stillness and ethereal beauty. 

Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
I’m pretty humble about anything I do, and I am not the best self-promoter, but was very surprised to learn that one of my closest friends had got a mindfulness, sleep and relaxation app called “Aura” and was shocked to see that I was one of the coaches and content creators on the app!!! I thought I had made this pretty clear but apparently, I don’t shout these things loud enough from the rooftops. So, consider this my plug!!! 

Contact Info:

• Website: tanyaedmondswisebynature.com
• Other: https://www.aurahealth.io/coaches/tanya-edmonds?referralCode=undefined&referralType=coach_bm_coaching&utm_source=coachweb

Image Credits
Per Peterson