IWD 2023 with Natalie Sellars

To honour and celebrate International Women’s Day this year, we invited five inspirational local women to share what womanhood means to them. This is Natalie's story. 

Tell us a bit about you. What are you currently focused on, what does your day to day look like?  

I am a holistic facialist and owner of KINDER LIFE, a holistic face and body salon and online shop. I work with small batch, handcrafted, organic skin care, weaving ancient wisdom with meditations and modern technology to create a truly unique experience for each client in our salon.  I LOVE what I do and share the magic of the plant realm with clients through my facials. I embrace slow intentional living and after becoming extremely burnt out in my 30s and going through many years of chronic health issues with my fiancé. 

I've been studying organic skin care formulation for the last 16 months and have started the journey of creating beautiful, slowly hand blending face and body products that we are now using in our spa treatments in the salon, I love this and want to continue to learn more and create more. 

My days are much slower, but still full. I'm rewiring my nervous system slowly, I don’t even look at my phone until I have had some time to myself, and I have my morning HUMMBLE (it’s an adaptogenic choc chai and a game changer, I gave up coffee!).  I always exercise in the morning and don't start work until 10 or 11 am. My workdays are all fully booked but I always allow gaps and breaks for myself and all my staff, so we embody all we are promoting. My admin or study days are much the same. I organise all my meals and I'm in bed by 9 pm.

I gave up Netflix and have started reading in the evening getting my sleep hygiene sorted has changed everything.  Everything flows, even when the external stressors don't seem to be slowing down. My focus is on the actionable steps I can take to keep my nervous system regulated throughout it all.  

What is a life motto that you live by? 

“Will this matter a year from now?”

I used to get so stressed out by the rollercoaster of life, my fiancé’s health, outside forces, and having a business. Now, when I ask myself this, most of the stress falls away. When we are forced to face the big stuff, we learn that most of the things we stress about don’t even matter later that DAY, let alone next year.  If it will matter, then I know the next step is ACTION.  

How would you describe the modern woman? 

A modern woman is supported by and supports the people around her. She is open, kind, strong and vulnerable. She is honest about what she wants, what she needs and what she is capable of giving. She takes responsibility for the energy she gives out into the world, the communication she has with all around her and the exchanges of energy she engages in. She leads with intention, from smaller communities and relationships to larger scale leadership, she understands that all she creates is connected to the whole. A modern woman calls on support to continue to grow, to learn, to create, to give back and keeps her heart wide open as she navigates all this life has to offer. 

What does being a woman mean to you? 

Womanhood is an undeniable force that connects me to the world around me through cycles and rhythms.   

As a woman I am connected to the innate cycles of myself, the earth, and the universe. Understanding and living by this is our superpower, this is all humans’ superpowers. When I trust my intuition, when I connect into my heart, when I flow with the cycles that already exist, I feel my most powerful and my most feminine. 

Is there a book that really stood out to you over the years that you would recommend to other women? 

I loved 'Quiet' The power of introverts in a world that can't stop talking, by Susan Cain. 

In a world that has so much noise and the rise of the extroverts, I had always felt like I was putting on a show, needing to go home and sleep for days after events or anything where the attention was on me.  This book helped me understand the true nature of myself as an introvert and instead value myself and the fluctuations of sharing of myself and being of service and much needed boundaries and down time. 

Can you recount a time you felt empowered by another woman, who they were, what the event entailed? 

I'm empowered by so many clients, the stories they share with me, from miscarriages, to divorce, deaths of loved ones (as well as all their amazing celebrations), but I get to witness these humans in their most vulnerable and happiest time yet the show up, they share, and they allow me to support them in some small way. To me, this empowers me to keep going, because it does matter, in those moments, by presence matters, their presence matters. This is the kind of thing that truly empowers me and keeps me in awe of womanhood.  

What are you most looking forward to in 2023 and what’s next for you! 

I'm looking forward to launching my own micro batch, slow and intentionally created products, to continue to nourish and support (and be nourished and supported by) the people around me, be that my staff, my clients, my family or my friends and to travel to Tonga with fiancé to connect to his land, his culture and his family. 

You can keep up with Natalie at @nataliesellarsfacialist