This September, we're welcoming Gia Mariam Hassan, a local Alexandria mom with an amazing wellness collective perfectly timed for your September Reset. We sat down with Gia to talk through her upcoming September pop-up at The Seedling Collective, which will focus on coaching, wellness workshops, guided meditations, and collaborative guest pop-ups with other local female-owned businesses. Read on to learn more about Gia's holistic approach to wellness, the biggest business risk she ever took, and the top three things this wellness coach can't leave home without…

Tell us about yourself - who you are, where you live, your family, and any business partners.

I am an integrative wellness coach, and I've lived in Alexandria for 15 years. I was born and raised across the pond, in a quaint little English village called Comberbach, before moving to the city of Manchester. My ethnic roots are South Asian, and I grew up as a third-culture kid. I have lived and worked in the Middle East as a reporter and in refugee camps, but the United States has been my home for almost two decades now. I have two children (ages 15 and 12), and I have spent the last ten years steeped in education around nutrition, mindfulness, stress, resilience, mental health, trauma, social justice, climate change, and the interconnectedness of it all. The heart of my coaching practice is to offer collaborative support to my clients, whether they are individuals or organizations. I continue to evolve my business and offerings because, ultimately, we are evolutionary beings.

How did you get into the wellness business?

I have always had an interest in the body as a whole system, connected to the world around it, and to one another. I started as a health coach because nutrition and science excite me. I also wanted a career that gave me the flexibility to be with my kids, so I started out coaching moms. But every client I was seeing was overwhelmed or burning out. I expanded my reach and started to work in corporate wellness. Each organization I worked with was struggling with employee burnout too. It seemed that the issue was deeper, so I started to connect my mindfulness practice to what I offered before becoming certified as a mindfulness meditation teacher. My attention is focused on dismantling and unwinding the messaging that causes harm, assisting with stress and resilience through building capacity, naming the ecology and systems that impact our well-being, and moving clients through challenging times by collaboratively building practices. Like with the nutrition I practice, I use a functional approach that includes a person's history, relationships, body systems, and current ecology to be creative with what wellness looks like. 

What is the biggest business risk you took, and did it pay off?

My biggest risk is being subversive and not necessarily subscribing to what we are told is "the right way" to do business. I like to feel into my intuition and be very intentional about my work, which inherently feels pretty risky in a very urgent world. I find that it continually pays off because the connections I have made are more valuable than anything else! I also realize that I am afforded a great amount of privilege to be able to take my time with my business, and so much of what I consider is how to use this privilege and platform for collective well-being.

What is one simple advice you can give to those looking to update their wellness routine but don't know where to start?

Start with building your self-awareness - we often just want quick fixes because we are always in a hurry, and being stretched so thin, we often don't have the capacity to go beyond the surface and deepen our body awareness. We don't stop to ask ourselves, "what is my stress state?" and we often don't know that we are as stressed as we are and how our heightened stress levels are robbing us of ease, joy, and healing. I believe at the root of any helpful wellness routine, you start with this and build a relationship with your body to nourish yourself in the way that your body requires. 

Name 3 things you can't live without.

Yikes, three things! I feel like I could list many (and number 1 is always my kids), but here is a mix of the tangible and intangible:

• My daily practices (therapeutic tremors/ meditation/writing/movement)

• My water bottle (sometimes it feels like my security blanket)

• A KN95/N95 mask (as someone who responsibly works in wellness, and with long covid, I do not go anywhere without my mask)

Urban Sanctuary Wellness is popping up at The Seedling Collective from August 31 through October 3. Follow @urbansanctuarywellness on Instagram for workshops, event details, and special announcements. Start your healthy habits now and finish Q4 healthier than ever!