Hi! I am Dawn Fernandez and FOOD is my favorite F word. I love to cook it, eat it, and share it. Most of it “healthy,” but what does that even mean these days? Transforming yourself into a healthy, vibrant woman doesn’t mean giving up all the fun or depriving yourself. It’s quite the opposite! It’s about nourishing your body, mind, and spirit, connecting you to your intuition, and moving from a place of surviving to thriving.

I have a father with high expectations. It served me well for most of my life. I became a successful registered nurse with a rewarding career, I was married for eighteen years to my high school sweetheart, and I raised two amazing children... I was about 45 when everything changed. I left my career, I had been divorced for five years and was getting remarried, both children were becoming adults and going away to college. My identity was lost, my confidence in who I was and what my purpose was: ​shattered.

I was experiencing my dark night of the soul.

I was fatigued, my body ached and I was miserable. Every day I found myself asking, where did my life go?

(Maybe you’ve been asking yourself some of these same questions...?)

Then it happened, the little voice inside said “there is more.” Cue my “mid-life awakening”. That day I took a leap of faith and embarked on a journey of self-discovery that changed my entire life. In 2014 I became certified as a Holistic Health Coach and In 2015, I converted part of my house into 7Doors Wellness and felt called to host circles. I didn’t know what that meant, what it would look like or how it would happen. I just knew I needed a safe, sacred space to explore and share.

What I found was other women looking for the same thing. It was scary and beautiful all at once. So much healing. In that space, we re-discovered or better yet ​remembered who we are.

Food is the gateway. I learned very quickly how good it felt to decrease the inflammation in my body with vibrant foods filled with lifeforce energy.

I then began to look at my environment. I studied the products I was using and thanks to the clarity and focus that whole foods and less sugar provides I was able to see so many other places where I was being over-toxed. Cleaning products, hair care, skincare, laundry soap, and dryer sheets. All of it poisoning my body, my home, and the planet.

And cue the next layer of the mid-life awakening. Time to clear some more sleepies out of my eyes and dose myself up with some essential oils and wool dryer balls! ;)

As I worked through this process, I became more and more aware of how my body liked to move. I realized that yoga and dance and music were spiritual practices. I also began spending more and more time in Nature. Sitting under the trees in circle with women, nourishing them, FEEDING them, body, mind & spirit. Talking about the moon and the Divine Feminine rising in all of us fuels my soul. Walking in the forest and bathing in the elements is my new church.

You see... I’d been steeped in lots of organized religion but didn’t know what it meant to know myself (and The Universe) ​spiritually. ​I’d been taught, like many, to seek the answers ​externally​, not ​internally.​ I hadn’t been taught to trust myself. To go within.

Move the clock forward... and through a more conscious and sacred lifestyle I’ve learned:

•  To start making decisions and choices by listening to my inner voice who told me “there’s so much more...”

• To stop making choices based on “shoulds” and instead make choices based on my own bio-individual needs of the moment, day, season, etc.

•  To nix the people-pleasing and come from my own power... my own truth.

•  To finally believe that I am enough... exactly as I am... right this minute.

•  To rid myself of the “Good Girl Syndrome”

•  To start putting myself 1st and stop feeling guilty about  it.

• To use colorful food, crystals, oils, oracle cards and so much more to align and balance my chakras.

•  To follow the signs and feathers of the birds and other animals as Universal kisses that encourage me along this path I’m walking.

It’s this path... this journey that I’d like to invite you along to join me on. Allow me to hold YOU and support YOU in rediscovering and remembering​... so you can

Nourish. Connect. Thrive.

It’s safe for you to be seen and heard. It’s safe for you to go after your dreams. I’ve been down this path and I want to share in your journey.