Katie

Hi, Katie! I wanted to say a huge thank you for being here. I'm really honoured to have you here and to listen to your story. You're such a magical woman. I'm really, really honoured. So, to begin, tell us a little bit about yourself - whatever comes to mind.

So I am originally from New Zealand, and when I left high school, I fell in love with traveling and fell in love with food and health and seeing the world. I just fell into working with food and looking at different health retreats around the world, and that led to me studying to be a nutritionist and then studying to be a naturopath. So I'm in this beautiful place in my life where I am really learning everything about what it means to be well and healthy, and learning all about working with natural medicines, herbal medicines, nutrition, and lifestyle support.

I'm in my final and clinical year of my naturopathic medicine degree, and yeah, I'm just so excited to start being able to support people with their health.

I love it. How do you express your story through the way you show up - in life, in style, in presence?

So I think I live my life with a lot of intention. I spend a lot of time working on my well-being - so meditation, eating really well. Movement is really important to me. I have a strong spiritual practice, which has always been really important to me. I think I'm very intentional with my connections, surrounding myself with beautiful, like-minded people that will inspire me. Then I guess I feel very dedicated to the work that I'm doing and the work that I want to bring to the world. So I think I feel like I've created this life for myself. It's very much in alignment with my values.

Beautiful. Looking back, how has your mom shaped you, both in terms of strengths you've gained and perhaps things that held you back?

So I come from a very medical family. My dad was a doctor, my granddad, my great-granddad, and my mom was a nurse. So I've always had this strong interest in health and well-being, and my dad really inspired me to work hard at school. I studied three sciences, and I felt like that really set me up for what I'm doing now, because I do have this science background, and I love studying. And even though I've kind of put my own little flair on it, I'm learning about wellness from a very holistic perspective. I feel grateful for my family upbringing.

I'm also really grateful for the first half of my 20s. I spent those years traveling and exploring the world and learning and understanding different cultures and really getting to know people and understanding people. So I feel like that set me up so well for the work that I'm going to be doing, which is supporting people in their health.

Beautiful. Do you have any countries that you enjoyed the most?

I just adore Peru. I'm so in love with Peru. I've been there a couple of times now, and I just love the culture, and I love the people. I love the indigenous traditions and the healing arts from Peru. So, yeah, I would love to go back there - maybe next year (laughs).

Maybe we go together(also laughs).All right. Well, I actually wanted to ask you why you decided to become a naturopath, but it feels like you already covered it. Would you like to add anything else about it?

I think health is everything, and if we don't have health, we have nothing. Being in a well, healthy, and optimally functioning body has the ability to enhance our life experience. And I think society makes it really hard for us to be healthy - just with our high-stress lifestyle, with the food that we eat, you know, the alcohol that we drink. So I think I just feel really inspired to support people, to educate people, because it doesn't have to be challenging. You know, there are little tweaks we can make to really enhance our lives.

And I'm just so passionate about the natural world and plants and how they can support us in our healing - and you know how food can influence us and how it makes us feel. And, yeah, I just live and breathe it, and it just brings me so much joy to support people in the healing process.

That's amazing. I really admire what you do. And can you also tell us a little bit more about the catering business?

Of course. So when I left high school, I never went to university. I ended up traveling, and I think I just fell into it. I worked all over the world in different restaurants and cafes and then health retreats, and I just developed this passion and love for food. I mean, I've always been a massive foodie and loved cooking, and then I think one thing just led to another.

I started a small market stall where I was selling raw cakes, and salads, and healthy food. And then that evolved into doing a little bit of catering. And now I predominantly do retreat catering. So I think it just came from my love of food and well-being, and then wanting to offer people this amazing service of catering and looking after them for retreats.

Food is my love language. I just love cooking for people, I love feeding people. So yeah, it's been amazing.

That's another example of how, when you're aligned, everything just falls into place.

Yes, of course. And I've met the most amazing people through it, and I've had some incredible opportunities come my way.

Beautiful. About half a year ago, you went through a big life change - the ending of your relationship. Could you share what that experience was like and the insights you gained from it?

It's a really beautiful question. It was definitely the hardest thing I've ever done in my whole entire life - letting go of somebody that I love, who is no longer in alignment with who I am and where I was going. And it took a lot of trust. It took a lot of perseverance, and it took a lot of allowing myself to be with every single emotion, because I've never experienced grief in such a big capacity as I did with the ending of my relationship.

But often, through the most painful and challenging times, we experience the most transformation. So I've come out on the other side, six months later, feeling so much stronger in myself, so much more grounded, so much more aligned. I feel like everything in my life has fallen into place. I'm living in a place that feels really in alignment. I'm doing work that I love. I'm surrounded by beautiful people. And often, endings simply initiate new beginnings. It's been a big death-rebirth and transformative portal, yeah, which I feel very grateful for now.

What has healing looked like for you, and what does it still look like to you?

Spaciousness has been so important for my healing process. So, when my relationship ended, I quit my job in Wellington, and took a few months to myself before I moved up to Auckland to finish my studies.

In that time, I spent a lot of time in nature, a lot of alone time, listening to a lot of music, journaling, spending time with loved ones, and working with different healing modalities as well. So lots of talk therapy, working with different counsellors and therapists, and then also more energetic, spiritual healing - working with indigenous practices like miri miri.

Just allowing myself to feel everything, and allowing myself just to grief. It's so easy to want to hide and run away and avoid the emotion, because it can be so big when you're grieving a loved one and you're letting go of the life you once lived.

So I think just really allowing yourself to feel has been so helpful. And again, just trusting - trusting the process, and trusting that what I'm going through is moving me in a direction that's more in alignment.

Is there a part of yourself that you have reclaimed in this process?

Definitely. I feel a lot more in touch with my power and my authority. I feel like I'm a lot more boundaried. I feel like I know myself a lot better. I know what my values are, I know what I want, I know what I don't want. And I feel like I've just gotten to know myself better, you know, in that process of being on my own and rediscovering myself - who I am outside of a relationship, and what my passions are, what I love to do, and what I want to create with my life. Yeah, so definitely (laughs), it's been the most empowering process.

I love it for you. How do you see the world? Do you believe there is something greater guiding us, or do you take a more material perspective? What’s your view on life and how it all works?

I think there is an innate intelligence that is moving us where we need to go. I think there is something bigger, that is beyond our human brain - beyond what we can even understand - that is guiding us and supporting us. And I don’t feel like we have control over our lives. I feel like there's something, yeah, beautiful, bigger, brighter, that's guiding us where we need to be and creating our path. And it's talking to us through our intuition and all of these signs and synchronicities. And I think if we're sensitive to that, and if we listen to that, it's really taking us to our highest potential. And I’ve really discovered that in the last six months—listening to my inner knowing of where I need to be and what I need to do, and how life has just opened up for me in that process of listening to that.

What brings you the greatest joy?

Oh, many things. I think just having my bare feet on the earth, being in nature, being with people that I love and adore, and laughing with people. I love being with animals - so spending time around horses. I love learning, so yeah, loving my studies and just learning all of this empowering information that I can use to help people. And yeah, I love creating. I love playing music, and listening to music, and dancing, and traveling. I'm obsessed with traveling and being in new places and experiencing new cultures.

What’s your next destination?

Egypt! Egypt at the end of the year or the beginning of next, yeah - which I am beyond excited for.

And on the other hand, what tends to bring you down, and how do you support yourself in those moments?

I think stress - being overwhelmed with life. I have the tendency to overcommit myself, so at times, I can just become quite overwhelmed with everything in my life. Especially at the moment, I'm in a very intensive year of study, and I get really overwhelmed being in a city centre and having constant stimulation. And yeah, I think just being in environments that aren't in alignment with who I am and where I'm going - that will get me down.

How do you connect to yourself? Are there any practices or rituals that help you stay grounded and clear?

So I would say being in meditation. I love breathwork, dancing - sometimes I’ll just get earphones and put my favourite songs on and just dance in my room. I think being in nature as well, just grounding myself in nature. And I think I’m someone who’s highly sensitive, so I do need alone time to recharge. So yes, spending time on my own in nature is really supportive for me.

How have you learned to trust yourself more deeply?

I think by listening to the inner whisper that is our intuition. Because the times that I've ignored that, it's only gotten louder and louder and louder until I've listened. I feel like listening to that and the knowing has always taken me to places that I've needed to be. And the more that I do that, the more that I deepen that trust within myself.

Which part of yourself are you still learning to love?

I think I have very high expectations of myself, and I've always believed that my worth is dictated by my productivity and how much I do. And so I'm learning to love myself regardless of what my achievements are, or what my qualifications are, or what kind of work I do - just loving myself as I am, without needing to achieve anything or be a certain way.

I needed to hear that. Thank you. What do you wish other women knew about themselves?

That they are incredible. And that we have the power to create the lives that we desire for ourselves. And we are so much more capable than what we believe we are. And we deserve everything that we desire. We don't need to be a certain way to be loved. We are worthy of being loved just as we are.

If you could speak to your younger self today, what would you tell her?

Just trust the process - trust the process of life, and just trust where life is leading you. And that there is no need to rush. Yeah, I feel like we have a whole lifetime to achieve our goals, and there's no need to rush that process. Enjoy the process of your becoming.

Yeah, yeah, just enjoy the current version of yourself.

Totally. Enjoy the journey. Stop trying to reach the destination, stop trying to achieve the goals, and just enjoy the process. Cause it all comes.

It already is (both laugh).

Yeah, totally.

And what's one piece of advice you would like to give yourself right now?

That’s a good one. One piece of advice I would give to myself… We often overestimate what we can achieve in a day and underestimate what we can achieve in a year. So just doing a little bit each day towards my goals gets me there in no time. And again—don’t need to rush the process. I have time, and everything is happening in divine timing, just as it should.

What intention are you currently holding in your heart?

So I guess I'm really in the process of beginning to birth my career as a naturopath and starting my business. I'm really passionate about women's health and supporting women with their hormonal health and gut health, nervous systems, fertility. And so I'm in the process of creating a business around that, and I’ll be offering my services starting December - to really support women in their health and thriving, and reaching optimal well-being. So, yeah, that’s my biggest goal at the moment: to build a business supporting women in their health and well-being.

That's beautiful. I look forward to it. What are you creating for yourself and your future?

Yes, I'm just building. I'm wanting to build a really big and beautiful life for myself -a life that is intentional. So living in alignment with my values, creating a business that I'm passionate about. I would love to have a family one day, would love to travel. So yeah, just wanting to build this big, beautiful life for myself, incorporating all of those things and just living really intentionally, and becoming the greatest version of myself possible - and just reaching my potential as a human.

What does the next season of your life feel like?

It feels really strong. I'm definitely cultivating a lot of masculine energy at the moment to get through my workload. So it feels really strong and disciplined, but it also feels very expansive. And it feels like a season of growth. It feels like a season of becoming.

Wow, that’s very powerful. All right, well, that's all. Thank you so much for being here, for sharing so openly. I'm sure that your story will touch many.

I'm so happy. Thank you so much for having me.

If you would like to become a client of Katie’s naturopathic practice, Katie is taking clients from the end of July onwards in her student practice. You can contact her on her Instagram: Katie Mac