Reclaiming Wellness As Our Birthright with Bonkosi Horn

Reclaiming Wellness As Our Birthright with Bonkosi Horn

In this episode of the Black Girl In Om Podcast, co-founder and creative director of Freedom Apothecary Bonkosi Horn (she/her) joins Lauren Ash (she/they) in conversation around reclaiming self care and wellness as our birthright. Freedom Apothecary is a space that centers Black women & WOC coming together in community along their self-discovery, healing, and wellness journeys through holistic lifestyle practices and rituals. All of the products they carry are nontoxic, clean beauty, and created by women. Lauren and Bonkosi talk about offering ourselves grace as we bring further awareness and active intention to what goes on and in our bodies. While mainstream wellness conversations can get a bad rep for being only for a certain type of person, Lauren and Bon discuss how true self care is our birthright as Black women. We deserve to prioritize our experience and nurture a relationship to self. Bonkosi is here to help us along this journey and to connect us with a network of like-minded women through Freedom Apothecary! While their physical space is in Phili, you can access an abundance of clean women-founded offerings from them wherever you are through their website. True wellness should be accessible to everyone because, as Bon says, “It’s a right. It’s not a luxury.”

IN THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL FIND OUT MORE ABOUT

• How tapping into what she was craving positioned Bonkosi to dream up Freedom Apothecary

• Where to start when making a choice to divest from brands and products with dangerous ingredients.

• An App that helps you to choose the safest beauty and household products by allowing you to see what ingredients are in them and alerting you to which ones are toxic.

• Resources that help Lauren to feel more empowered in her choices around the products she uses

• Bonkosi’s advice for doing DIY skincare right

• Bon’s experience growing a brand that is centered on wellbeing specifically for women and women of color

• The process of learning to ask for help when you need it

• How motherhood encourages intentional prioritization and boundary-setting

Freedom Apothecary is reopening, safely and slowly the first week of April, so head over to FreedomApothecary.com to find out more about their many offerings or to book an appointment at their Blend Bar!

For 20% off of Organifi’s delicious completely plant-based and low-sugar organic superfood blends, head over to Organifi.com/blackgirlinom

Quotes From The Episode:

“Look to what you need. There’s often times so many people, that you couldn’t have ever imagined, waiting on you to simply (simply, not easily) launch what it is that you need.” — @HelloLaurenAsh | click to tweet

“Wellness gets this bad rep for being only for a certain type of person. For us we wanted to make wellness, true wellness, accessible to everyone because it’s a right. it’s not a luxury“ — @Bonkosi | click to tweet

“It doesn’t have to be expensive. It doesn’t have to be a luxury. Self-care is only radical because it hasn’t been a thing for women of color. It shouldn’t be radical. Self care and wellness is a right.” — @Bonkosi | click to tweet

“We have to take care of ourselves first, but we’ve been taught that we can’t do that. That’s not the priority. That taking care of who we are and what we need is the last thing we should be doing” — @Bonkosi | click to tweet

“When we’re talking about chemicals and ingredients that are inherently harmful to us, that doesn’t just absorb and go into the ether. It goes literally into our bodies and interacts with us in ways that can be really detrimental” — @HelloLaurenAsh | click to tweet

“You can wait until the product is out. use the product that you currently have, and then when you have the opportunity or it’s time to buy something else, you get to make a more informed decision.” — @Bonkosi | click to tweet

“When you don’t ask for what you need, you will not survive” — @Bonkosi | click to tweet

‘That just comes with practice. it’s uncomfortable at first. it’s going to continue to be uncomfortable until it becomes a norm” — @Bonkosi on learning to ask for help | click to tweet

“When you find and uncover your confidence, you’re able to live more confidently, but you're also able to live in your truest self. authenticity takes so much courage, but it also is so freeing when you find it” — @Bonkosi | click to tweet

“Abundance isn’t always about gaining more. It can be also a deepening into what already is” - @HelloLaurenAsh | click to tweet