Dec 17, 2020 12:00:00 PM | student highlight Student Highlight: Holistic Health, Gratitude, and Smoothies |achs.edu

Qwania Dixon is working towards her Diploma in Holistic Health Practice at ACHS and is also the founder of Naturalista4me, a successful natural hair and holistic health blog.

Discovering holistic health

Working as a hairstylist, Qwania used natural-based products and also taught about them on her social media platform. But it wasn't until later that she seriously became interested in studying holistic health.

"What really got me into holistic health outside of just haircare is because I hit a state of depression," Qwania says. "During that time, everything in my life was just chaotic. I broke down. I was crying and praying at the same time. And when I got tired of crying, it just hit me to look into something to help myself. That’s when I came across holistic health."

Qwania began to learn about holistic health and practice it in her own life. Seeing how it helped her to overcome obstacles in her life led to her interest in learning more. "I wanted to take it a step further in getting some education behind it so I could continue to share true information. I began to google schools that would support my ultimate goal and came across ACHS and decided to go for that," she says.

Qwania says that holistic health has helped her maintain balance and stay grounded in her daily life. "At first when I started learning about holistic health, I was praying for things to change. I was praying for all of my problems to disappear, my obstacles in life to go away," she says. "But that’s not going to happen. You have to look at it as 'What can I incorporate to stay grounded and get the best out of this situation'.”

Studying at ACHS

As a mother with a full time job, Qwania says that at first she found it challenging to learn with online school. "Once I was able to get my schedule together and get in the habit of sitting down and focusing on my studies, then it got easier over time," she says. Being in school at the same time as her children has allowed her to set a good example for them. "I do say 'Wow, Mom’s doing her homework, so you should too!' and they’re excited because everyone’s in school," she says.

Even with the initial challenges, Qwania says that she enjoys her classes: "I love it. It’s exciting. It doesn’t bore me. There is always something new to learn. I can’t wait to jump into class and learn something new and then go share it with my family and friends and on my platform."

Naturalista4me

Qwania is the founder of Naturalista4me, a successful natural hair and holistic health blog. In addition, she creates educational YouTube videos on holistic health topics. "I began blogging about natural hair care in 2011 on YouTube. I was sharing with everyone things in their kitchen they can concoct to take care of their skin and hair," Qwania says. Later, she switched to a blog platform where she continues to write. 

In addition, Qwania does community workshops with some of the holistic health topics from her blog. She works to introduce holistic health to others so that they will be able to utilize it in their daily lives. Qwania has had to cancel her in-person events because of the COVID-19 pandemic and has also had to stop selling handmade products for the time being. "People were skeptical about purchasing something that I hand-made because of not knowing my state, whether I had COVID, who I’m around every day," she says.

Business plans

Qwania hopes to open a smoothie business in the upcoming year. Although the pandemic caused her to put a pause on some aspects of her business, it also gave her more time to plan for the future.

"I want to open a smoothie business," she says. "I use smoothies on my hair as well as internally to support my organs and my skin, and I talk about it online. I want to offer that in areas where they don’t have access to that."

She wants to start by opening a smoothie business in her hometown of Vidalia, GA. "It’s a very small country town and there aren't many health things there for the residents," Qwania says. "That is my goal for the next year, is to get that open and going. I’m excited. Although COVID is going on, it’s allowed me to sit down and focus on the details of the business."

If you are in the process of starting a business, Qwania has a piece of advice for you. She says that entrepreneurs are often very excited to start a business but become discouraged when everything doesn't start to flow right away. Hard work and consistency pay off, and so does visualization.

Qwania suggests meditation and visualizing the direction you want the business to go in. "That meditation can reduce the frustration of getting started and any obstacles that come with the business," Qwania says. She says that starting a business is very fulfilling because you are creating something that will help others.

Vision Boarding Tips

When Qwania first came across vision boarding, she was skeptical. "At first I thought no, that’s crazy. There’s no way you can put pictures on a board and it happens in your life," she says.

She made a vision board, and about a month later her life got more chaotic. "I think this is where people say it doesn’t work. Chaos, which is change really, begins to happen," she says. "But after all of that happened for me, my vision board began to manifest in my life." Everything that Qwania put on her first vision board came true in her life.

Now, Qwania is onto her second board and says that 95% of that board has already manifested itself into her life. "I am a firm believer in taking the time to sit down and do a vision board," she says.

The importance of gratitude

Taking care of your mind, body, and soul is so important to having endurance and maintaining balance no matter what is happening in your life, especially with the pandemic. Qwania says that a gratitude mindset can have a big impact. This is her advice on how to incorporate gratitude into your daily life:

"Early in the morning when you first wake up do a gratitude session. I do one for about 10 minutes. When you jump straight out of bed and into your life, everything hits you and you can start complaining. Traffic is too slow or this or that. When you get up in the morning and you set your mind in a certain state and just give thanks for the breath in your body, or the bed, or the couch, or wherever you’re resting, just give thanks. Know that if you want more, that can come, but you need to be happy with what you have now. The rest of the day you have a positive outlook instead of thinking things are negative. And your life will thank you for that."

What to keep up with Qwania? You can follow along with her on her blog, YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook.