The Story behind the Company

Written by Akasha blends Founder, Inge Wilbrink

Would you like to know how following your curiosity and listening to your heart’s desire can bring you to the most interesting places? And how it can be a method to find your way back to yourself and to your passion?
Then I hope you will enjoy my Story! 

 

Nature has always been there for me. I love its peace and quiet. I enjoy seeing nature around me when I wanted to clear my head, or when I feel sick and I need a cure; nature has always provided me with answers.

It took me a while to find a way to infuse my love for nature and all the good it has to offer into my life, but I am happy to have found out how to do so.

Not knowing what I wanted to do in life and lacking a specific dream or desire, I went for the safe way: Choosing the profession that both of my parents were practising, teaching.

While I was just starting a new year as a teacher, my father got very ill. Soon after, I started to really feel the long days, the noise, the never ending to-do lists. I felt that I could not deal with it anymore. It made me open my eyes on something that I somehow already knew: This was not for me. Trying to keep up with all the things that were going on, I ended up in my first burn-out. Three months into it, I decided that it had been long enough and, although I was far from feeling better, I started again with some of my tasks. However, I had lost my will to be a teacher, and no matter what I did, I knew things needed to change. So I decided to stop teaching without having a back-up plan. The only thing I knew for sure is that I had to stop. Shortly after that, my father passed away. Left with a roller-coaster of emotions and after a lot of soul searching, I finally found a new job again.

My new happiness was found as a waitress in a small, personal restaurant, in the town where I was living. I loved the people I worked with, had mostly day-shifts, and felt truly accepted. I was feeling pretty happy for quite a while. But often, there was also this other feeling: Emptiness, with neither real passion nor concrete goal. A part of me was unfulfilled and, because I did not know what to do with it, I denied this the best I could.

After a changeover at the restaurant, I ended up working at a different restaurant. It was a huge place, in the downtown area of a city, super crowded and very noisy, but staff-wise, I had the comfort of quite some familiar faces. Believing that some familiarity was best for me, I kept going in this role. Despite this conviction, I found myself increasingly unhappy, and once again did not know what to do about it. I also could not keep up as the restaurant was getting even more crowded and busy. I kept on pushing through and finally made it to a holiday that I desperately needed. During that holiday, my uncle passed away. It came unexpectedly, and instead of a holiday, I rushed back home to help my mother with everything that needed to be arranged following the sudden loss of her brother, my uncle.

A half-year later, I suffered from a second burn-out. This was so tough to go through, and when I finally started to get better, my mum ended up in  intensive care after a surgery that had gone bad. It almost cost her her life. At that point, I felt like I was left with no choice but to take care of her during her recovery. I just did not want to lose her as well. And the better she got, the sicker I did. And there came burn-out number three. Why does this keep on happening? When will I be better? Why can’t I find a proper balance in my life? Is  there nothing that I can do right? I felt ashamed and lost all my self-confidence, repeating only negative thoughts in my head.

I tried a lot of different approaches to recover from my burn-outs. Some of them did not make me get better, some made things worse, but finally I found my way back to myself!

 

During the recovery from my first burn-out, I met a wonderful EFT specialist. EFT stands for Emotional Freedom Technique. It consists in tapping certain acupressure points on your body so that you can change how you respond to your feelings and do not get caught into them again. This therapy helped me a lot. I remember that this man asked me in one of our final sessions: “Do you know what you want to do?” I do not remember what I answered back then,  but I remember that I thought: I want to know more about witches… That little voice shocked me. It felt so alive and vibrant! Immediately afterwards I judged myself for it: “Are you insane? Get real! What is that for nonsense!” Not willing to find out what that thought was about, deciding to completely ignore it, I became a waitress…

 

The mistake I made over and over again was that I was only making decisions with my head. I went for safe, sensible and easy decisions. My heart was completely left out. It didn’t matter what I wanted or felt, it was always overruled by my brain.

But as Elizabeth Gilbert so beautifully said: “Follow your curiosity.” And that is exactly what I started to do! I started to DARE, to follow my curiosity and see where it was leading me!

The first interest I gave into was pottery. I love creating, feeling how the clay goes through my hands. It shuts the brain up because you have to feel what you have to do.

Shortly after it was tarot. I’ve always found it so cool to go to a market where someone would read the cards for me. I often wondered how it was possible that someone could be so accurate. So I took a one-year course in tarot reading. It’s amazing how you can develop your intuition! This is also where I learned about synchronicity (separate things that have nothing to do with each other but happen at the same time, feeling like a sign and not just a coincidence). So…

Read the signs (and trust them)! Signs/signals, everybody gets them. It is up to you to SEE it as a sign or to think “tttsss weird”, and move on… Signs are always positive, they give you a sparkle, a shiver, a warm and happy feeling. Things don’t always have to make sense. It might well be that they will lead you somewhere but only if you are open to see all the positive it can bring you!

At some point I wanted to buy some incense, so I went to the little store of my tarot teacher’s sister. She also has there a practice in natural medicine and aromatherapy, and what I did not know was… She was also a witch! And she happened to give classes about it! She spoke to me about some of the topics that were addressed: chakras, phases of the moon, essential oils, the healing powers of gemstones…  That was the second time (that I could notice) that I experienced that special shiver! So I finally decided (with still a lot of mixed feelings) to give into my desire and sign up for her class.

In the fifth lesson of this class we learned about aromatherapy; And I – WAS – HOOKED! Since that lesson I’ve went through every book that I could get my hands on and decided to also take a specific class on aromatherapy! This is where I learned all there is to know about essential oils and how to use them.

I was so happy with this knowledge! Not only did I find out what particular essential oils would help in certain situations, but I also learned a lot about skincare!

At the time I had lots of problems with my skin. It was either dull or super shiny. Often I had a lot of spots, while that had never really been a problem before in my life, and I also had big dark circles under my eyes.

I understood that if I wanted to change my skin condition, I had to make some changes. Of course you cannot change everything for the better by only using good products. It asks for a more holistic approach.

So I was changing what felt good to me. I started to eat different food, adding for instance a lot of vegetables to my diet, to drink lots of water, to get enough sleep, to meditate, and I also started to use natural skincare products.

Many products that I wanted to try were too expensive, and even if I would find it worth paying for, they would not provide any testers. Buying an expensive product without testing it was a risk that I did not want to take.

I have tried a lot of different products but never really got satisfied. More and more I noticed that other people also complained about their skin and the effects of the products that they wear. The main disappointment however was coming from investing in a more expensive product that in the end did not make wonders, did not deliver on its promises.

I understand these frustrations and for me it became a motivation to investigate what did work. I started to make my own products and asked my family and friends to help me by testing them.

Their enthusiasm got me even more excited! And this is how I ended up creating two facial oils, one eye roller and one sublimely perfumed skin-improving bath salts.

 

I am aware that I cannot make a promise to everybody. There is just no product that is able to satisfy everyone.

With the products of Akasha blends, I have looked at how they can help keeping your skin in a healthy condition. It is created to fit your skin type and satisfy its needs. Your skin will get the nourishment it needs, which will leave you with a wonderful glow!

 

‘To shine’ and ‘to radiate’ is what Akasha blends also stands for. You and your skin feel good and that is something that will be noticed!

 

I am happy to have found my passion and look forward to sharing this adventure with you.

So become the best version of yourself, glowing, sparkly, and carefully listening to what your intuition is trying to tell you!

 

Be soft.

But wild.

Awaken your beauty!

 

 

All the pictures on this page and on most pages of our website (including the product pictures in our online shop) have been made by the talented and wonderful Marlies van Rooij.