Today we’d like to introduce you to Candice Johnson.
Candice, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I have been a nurse for over ten years. I began my nursing career in Bone Marrow/Stem Cell Transplant and hospice. The stress was so high, between little staffing to the deaths, to all of the emotional requirements. I had no tools on how to handle these stressors. Neither did any of my fellow nurses. I was increased on all depression and anxiety medications. By age 23, I was on 12 medication for asthma, anxiety, and depression. I didn’t think anything of it, because most of my nurse friends were also on these medications. Their doctors gave them no tools (besides drugs) either. I was drinking a lot.
I had some childhood trauma surface about a year after starting my nursing career. I fell into a massive depression and took medical leave. I slept on my couch for almost three months. The doctor and therapist said, “It’s all in your head”, there are more meds. My medical leave expired and I returned to work and began to experience these blackouts, pseudo-seizures, and panic. Many of my team of nurses thought I was faking, including my boss. I was bullied, looked down on, I had no safe place to go to. Nor did the hospital offer my anything.
Every part of my body was SCREAMING that there had to be a better way, I quit all of my medications after discovering “healthy/organic” food, supplementation, mindfulness articles. I found yoga on my TV and began to do it every day. I learned how to BREATHE. Suddenly, my life changed. New people came into the life that saw me for who I was. Destined to create HUGE movements. Safe places to speak about the transformations going on in myself and the world.
Fast forward ten years, two more career burnouts, massage therapy school, a move from PA to CA, two reiki masterships later, I realized what was missing in my career altogether. Time management, breath, stress care, self WORTH, caregiver strain, and self-fulfillment. When I began in administrative roles, I noticed that my staff nurses were in the same place I was when I was 23. No one to support them, provide self-sustaining education or safe places.
That’s where YogaRx coaching programs was born. I began teaching nurses how to find time for themselves, leave depression behind, and to finally have careers and family lives that they’ve only seen in their dreams. Over the past year, I have begun building this model out further for hospitals. We canNOT continue to have unhealthy people, teach unhealthy people, how to be healthy. That dichotomy was not working 10 years ago and it is STILL not working now. They change must come. The administration at hospitals will see that THIS how they increase patient satisfaction and decrease nursing turnover rates. Providing the backbone of the healthcare industry, nurses, the support they deserve and crave, will revolutionize our industry.
Has it been a smooth road?
Starting my own business has NOT been a smooth road. I’ve had family tell me that I am wasting my career. I’ve been so broke and in debt that I lost multiple nights of sleep. I’ve witnessed other NursePreneuers already succeeding in what I want to accomplish.
None of it has been enough for me to give up. When you receive that direct message from God that says, “THIS is what you were put on this Earth to do,” you have to ACCEPT right away that it’s not going to be easy. You have to ACCEPT that you’re going to make it through ALL of the hurdles and growing pains. You have to ACCEPT that you ARE good enough, no matter HOW BIG that goal is.
Please tell us more about your work, what you are currently focused on and most proud of.
I am an Integrative Nurse’s Coach.
That’s fancy for I took a long look at my 10+ nursing career and my 8+ years of spiritual training, energy work, meditation practice, yoga theory, and spiritual mentoring and thought… what if I could COMBINE my expertise.
Many nurses become nurses because of some kind of childhood or adulthood trauma (physical, emotional, or sexual). On top of that, the healthcare industry is currently that nurses are not given access to
1. One on one grief-relief.
2. Routine, monthly stress care activities.
3. A healing space in the workplace to ground from trauma during the job.
4. Self-care practices.
NURSES, the backbone of our industry, are coming from a state of DEPLETION of sleep, energy, and vitality to care for sick people.
The program that I have created, takes nurses through a 3 month, one-on-one program teaching stress care, trauma releasing space and techniques, deep breathing and meditation routines, time management skills, self-fulfillment practices and more.
My clients have experienced: saved marriages, weight loss, career changes, sexual abuse and trauma healing, the courage to speak up, and even developed new hobbies!
Are there any apps, books, podcasts or other resources that you’ve benefited from using?
CURRENT TOP 2 BOOKS:
1. The Bible
2. Untethered Soul – Michael Singer (read it at least 3 times)
PODCASTS:
1. Woke + Wired (for the conscious entrepreneur)
2. The Doctor’s Farmacy – Dr. Mark Hyman (functional medicine)
3. The Minimalists Podcast
4. Small Doses with Amanda Seales (comedy)
5. Irish and Celtic Music Podcast – Mark Gunn (great for working)
6. Lifestyle Locker Radio – Dr. Josh Handt
7. Entrepreneurs on Fire – John Lee Dumas (conscious business creation)
Contact Info:
- Address: 1240 India Street #417
San Diego, CA 92101 - Website: www.yogarx.co
- Phone: 7607986400
- Email: candice@yogarx.co
- Instagram: @candice.yogarx
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/candiceyogarx
- Other: Business Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/yogarx.co/ + Business Instagram: @yogarx.co
Image Credit:
Bob Bossinger (Personal Photo – orange wheat field photograph) –
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1007333222
All other photographs are credited to Kevin Sigal –
https://www.facebook.com/kevin.sigal
Getting in touch: SDVoyager is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
