My holistic skin care business began a number of years ago under the name, Petal Holistic Skin Care. I spent a fair amount of time searching for the "right and perfect" name. One that would embody who I am and what I was doing. Petal Holistic Skin Care felt soft and pretty. Inviting. The Dr Hauschka products that I work with use an abundance of roses within many of their products and this name felt like an alignment of that.
When I began my business I was married and a mother of 7 yr old twins. Honestly, it was a miracle that I had any business at all. Needless to say, it wasn't necessarily thriving. But I adored it. I loved the idea of it, the product and company I was so honored to work with and, my business name.
I expanded a little, grew some and hung on as best I could. My scope of work was mostly skin care tho I was also teaching yoga and dance to school kids as well.
My kids grew. I grew. I moved my business location a few times for a variety of reasons. I changed the look of my business. New colors, business cards, menu of services. The name remained the same but it was starting to no longer feel like me. It was too soft, too gentle, too sweet sounding. I stayed with it though. It sort of fit and I wasn't feeling a lot of energy or enough passion to know if I should really change it.
Sometime towards the end of 2013, my life went into a tailspin. Many big life changes happened. In retrospect, it was the cracking open that was necessary so that I could heal my way through and into my truth. My fully realized, unapologetically honest, authentically me, life.
I stumbled, fell, sought refuge, found therapies of many modalities. I reached out to every healer I knew and some I didn't. I wept endlessly, wrote obsessively. I drank with friends, I smoked, listened to music, cried some more.
I hiked and walked. I roamed the canyon where I lived in the dark of night, weeping myself clean. Somehow, I continued to work but admittedly in a very distracted way. I could barely care.
I slowly plunged my way through to a state of existence that felt fairly stable. I, somewhat abruptly, left the space where I had been seeing clients for a number of years. So much shift and change had occurred,I wasn't sure where I wanted to go, who I wanted to be. The road ahead seemed long and open. Overwhelming.
I sat with it all for awhile, feeling my way into the next part. I decided to create a studio space in a room at the back of the house I lived in. Just me, doing my thing. I spent a good month or so clearing out junk, cleaning, painting, hanging blinds and curtains, collecting pieces and things necessary to create MY space.
In the midst of all this I was really coming to terms with my dissatisfaction of my business name. It no longer suited me, no longer felt like me and who I had been growing into. But I had no clarity or idea of what my new name would be.
I have learned along the way, especially over the last decade, that if I sit with the energy of something that needs an answer, letting myself "feel" and allow it to reveal itself, it always does!
And most times, it arrives with an immediate knowing and physical response.
My maiden name is Blum. Means flower in German. I had been thinking more about my maiden name, was missing it. I also had constant thoughts about my dad who had passed away in the midst of my personal wipeout. I remembered that shortly after he died, he came to me one night in my dream and left me with the words Dignity and Grace.
Driving a freeway in the pouring rain one afternoon, a truck hauling a shiny, silver container passed me. There wasn't any visible writing anywhere on the truck. As it pulled in front of me I saw on the very back, GRACE. I knew at that moment my new business name. An homage to my dad, a reminder of me and my true name and essence; blume.
Blume/Blum means flower/blossom. And this, truly embodies everything I do in my business and work. I encourage and offer guidance and tools to my clients to " bloom". To flower. To plant and grow. To find roots of strength and fortitude while nurturing and stepping into truths to bloom into the fully realized self.
I have recently moved my studio space again. This time to a more energetic and thriving area on the edge of Old Town Pasadena. I love and honor my business name. It inspires me, motivates me and warms my heart each time I see it. It is the essence of my true self which is the root of everything I do. And I see my dad, shining through encouraging me, supporting me and helping me to keep blumeing...
Bloom ( blume ): noun.
A beautiful process of becoming