This week we had the pleasure of asking Sonia Osorio the HOT 6. Sonia is a petite but fierce woman with a very kind heart and she always has good advice or idea in store to whatever question I might ask her. She has helped both me and Mr C in our quest of finding balance and health.
What is it that you do? Who would benefit from seeing you?
I am a Naturopath/Homeopath, massage therapist, and yoga and meditation instructor. Been practising professionally for 20 years, but this has been a lifetime of practice.
In my practice as a massage therapist, I had been seeing, hearing and touching things that were very unique to each person, and I realized that this required a new context and method to work with the language that I was hearing. For me, that was homeopathy and naturopathy, which work with the body’s innate healing power and wisdom to bring about a global response to health and well-being. This is beyond treating a variety of symptoms and “labelling” it as a disease or condition; it is about exploring what each person’s symptoms are pointing towards and then addressing this. The basic precepts in homeopathy are based on minimum dose, to support the body’s innate healing response, with the least interference possible.
Somewhere along the way, I also felt that it was important to teach women – and people of all genders and orientations – more about their bodies’ natural cycles and rhythms, and so I began offering workshops and private consultations in natural birth control and fertility awareness as a means of supporting health and well-being and connecting to our creative potential.
I also offer consultations and peer supervision for health care professionals who want to explore and integrate the principles of yoga into their existing practice.
Really, what I do is work with people, where they are and as they are, in a way that best supports their unique capacity for health and well-being, so that this can continue to radiate out to others. If there is a sense of imbalance in your body or your life, then we can explore this together, using whatever modalities best support that.
There is so much pressure in today’s society to have it all, see all and be all. How do you counter the stress that this brings and find balance in your life?
To have all, see all, be all is a myth perpetuated to distract us from what is truly important to health and happiness. Stress comes when we think we need to be someone else or do something more. We already have all we need – and if we can see deeply into things as they are, there is really no one that we need to be and nowhere that we need to get to. The name of my company is LivingBalanceNow, which is a good reminder for me: balance is only possible Now – ruminating over the past or projecting into the future just creates further imbalance.
What does it mean to you to live a healthy life?
Health is among our most precious resources. I see it all the time in my work and have experienced it personally: to lose your health makes you appreciate it even more once it’s regained. Take care of that resource first and foremost – and then commit to protecting the natural resources that support life around you. We are not separate. There is an interdependent chain of life that keeps us healthy.
What are the top three things you do to contribute to saving this planet?
1) I support what is life-enhancing in myself and help others discover what that is for them.
2) I commit to my yoga-meditation practice because it reminds me that all is inter-related and that all life is sacred.
3) I tread lightly but am fiercely committed to not causing harm to other living creatures – including this Earth which is a living, breathing entity.
What are your favorite health habits/routines?
1) My yoga-meditation practice.
2) Taking time out to walk in parks and be in nature (barefoot is best, if possible, weather permitting!)
3) To be near running water; to watch the play of sun, moon, stars, wind.
4) At least once a year I go on retreat, in silence, in the mountains or near the ocean.
What’s the best advice you have for us on how to live life to the fullest?
1) Live like you will die tomorrow – you will appreciate your life, and the presence of those who are near and dear to you – and all that surrounds you, all the more.
2) Be kind to others.
3) Rest – it’s what I see most people not able to do enough of.
4) Be patient with yourself and don’t believe any voice – internal or external – that tells you that you’re not “enough” and that you cannot celebrate who you are right now.