Ep. 72 Mekisha Banks

On this episode, I am joined by Mekisha Banks. Mekisha is the founder of Everbella, which creates self-care rituals that treat eczema, psoriasis, dermatitis, dry and dehydrated skin conditions. 

At the age of 13, Mekisha discovered that the common drugstore beauty products and conventional prescription drugs were not providing the results she needed for her eczema, environmental allergies, and asthma. This realization sparked her mission to create a product that was versatile enough to address all her skin concerns, yet simple enough using raw, natural ingredients. Through her journey with her skin, Mekisha realized that her passion and purpose lay in helping others manage their unique skin conditions. After receiving her license as a Medical Skin Care Specialist and working as an educator at a Medical Aesthetics College for 11 years, she knew it was time to put her knowledge, experience, and love for skin into her own brand. The Everbella brand is dedicated to not only improving the appearance of the skin but also the overall well-being of an individual, it is a brand that focuses on both beauty and wellness.

We discuss how important it is to take time for yourself and prioritize your well-being. Mekisha shares her daily rituals with us and how she hopes that her actions will inspire her daughter to make the same positive choices when it comes to her own self-care rituals. 

all – everbella
Everbella (@everbella) • Instagram photos and videos
Everbella - YouTube

Ashley (@filledupcup_) • Instagram photos and videos
Filled Up Cup - Unconventional Self Care for Modern Women

Transcript

0:00

Welcome to the Filled Up Cup podcast. We are a different kind of self care resource, one that has nothing to do with bubble baths and face masks, and everything to do with rediscovering yourself. We bring you real reviews, honest experiences, and unfiltered opinions that will make you laugh, cry, and most importantly, leave you with a filled up cup.

Ashley: 0:32

I am so excited. I have Mekisha Banks joining me. Mekisha is the founder of EverBella. Thank you so much for joining me today.

Mekisha: 0:40

Thank you so much for having me. It's a pleasure to be here.

Ashley: 0:44

Can you explain what EverBella is?

Mekisha: 0:47

So EverBella is a self care company that helps empower individuals to make self care rituals that will treat their eczema, psoriasis, dermatitis, dry, and dehydrated skin.

Ashley: 1:02

Is there, a backstory on why creating these kind of products was so important to you?

Mekisha: 1:07

Yes. For example, I had eczema from my earliest times of remembering my life and basically from like when I was about five or so years old. And I just remember every single time having to go to the doctor with my mom and get new prescriptions almost It's on a weekly or monthly basis, just depending on how severe it was at that time. I just got fed up. I got fed up because there was a certain point around when I was 12, I started kind of getting a little bit more into it, looking at the product or the ingredients that were in there. And I realized at a certain point in time. I would put it on and like a week later, it wasn't good enough. I had to get a new prescription. I would go put it on. I had to go back. It was just not strong enough to help dull it down. So I started researching a little bit into ingredients and researching into eczema and just started to fiddle around with essential oils and natural oils and start mixing things together. And when I would. Kind of moisturize my skin with it. I started realizing that the eczema started going away and I've always had this kind of in touch feeling with mother earth. I always, you know, ate really healthy or worked out and meditate. I started getting into yoga and eventually I just started seeing my eczema going away. My asthma started going away. My allergy started going away and I just. I guess this is working and I just kind of kept going, but it was more of like a side thing I would give to friends and family, but not really trying to market it. It was just because it was helping my skin.

Ashley: 2:46

I love when things like that become a passion that it's something that again, obviously, like, It must have been really frustrating for you having to kind of be scientist and create all of these things to try to find the root of of the problem, but I find that sometimes when we find that thing, whatever it is, and we have such passion behind it, it really can be this amazing gift to be able to share with people and it almost makes work not feel like work in the sense when you find something that feels like you were meant to do it.

Mekisha: 3:16

Yeah, I completely agree. My full background is in, aesthetics and medical aesthetics and like the beauty industry and doing hair, but I never really thought that was my actual, full passion. It kind of just fell into it. I've done so many different things from photography and. Editing and website designing, but somehow I kept getting pulled back into skincare and I kept getting more involved and I kept researching it and kept going deeper into it in terms of meditation and just self care and so forth. And it just. Dawned on me at some point in time. It was before 2000 and 15. I was like, okay, I think there's something I got to do about this. I need to go a little bit deeper, a little bit more into it. And it was actually a student that I was teaching at the college. I was at. She's the one that actually encouraged me to launch the line because she. Was a chemist and she checked over everything and she was like, I think you should launch this. This is really well formulated. Who did it? And I was like, it was just me. And she's like, no, this is probably a very advanced, you know, scientifically well balanced, formula. You should kind of go deeper into this. And that's when I just said, okay, I think this is time for me to do it.

Ashley: 4:34

It's so funny. I think especially as women, it's like, we almost don't trust ourselves to be like, okay, I'm definitely gonna do it. It's almost like once we have somebody else be like, hey, this is a really good idea that it's like, yeah, this is a really good idea and having that confidence to move forward.

Mekisha: 4:50

Absolutely. I love that you brought up that point of being a woman because the industry that I was in before getting into aesthetics, it was very male dominated, it was very sometimes demeaning. It felt really, unencouraging in terms of, you know, pursuing the career that I was looking into. It was only until when I had my daughter and I was like, okay, I think I really need to pursue this a lot deeper. It was more of a curiosity. It's where I found other women that were very encouraging that said, you need to go further with this. You know, we need it. being a mother, and we have our children that have eczema, we don't really know where to go, and males don't really have the same kind of nurturing feeling towards the skincare. And that's where I said, yeah, it's very important because I deal with that with my daughter, she actually ended up having eczema in the beginning. Now she has absolutely no eczema issues whatsoever, because I would use the products on her. It's very much that thing where sometimes you have to get encouragement from other people to see that. Yes, you can do this. And once you start, you can't stop.

Ashley: 5:58

It is

Mekisha: 5:59

one

Ashley: 5:59

of those things. Like, not that we don't think about what we put on ourselves, but as moms, We don't necessarily want to just give our babies steroid creams or a one mold fits all that it is really, I think the industry prior was really lacking that there didn't feel like a lot of options or a lot of answers that something like this, that is a lot more natural and actually natural, not just like quote unquote natural is so amazing for giving to young kids as well as ourselves.

Mekisha: 6:31

Yeah, I absolutely agree. The thing that was the issue back then is that there were no natural products. The closest that we were to natural that we were familiar with was Aveeno. And it had a very strong presence in the industry. But eventually, when I went deeper into not just that brand, but all the other brands that were out there, it was really just waxes. and fragrance. There really was a very small amount of actual natural ingredients in anything more than 10 years ago or 15 years ago. So it was slowly where people started opening up their mind more to having more natural and It's unfortunate because it took almost a whole world having skin issues for people to open up their eyes and say, wait, there's no other options. There's no natural products. There's no natural this. And even now, when we're looking at a lot of the products, there's a lot of hidden things in ingredients. There's a lot of hidden, things on labels that make people feel like they're getting natural, but they're not getting natural. So that's why a lot of. Handmade products or handmade brands are coming out a lot more because they're the ones that are really truly getting natural ingredients and putting things together. So a lot of the big brands, you really can't fully trust everything because they don't have really clean labels with their ingredients.

Ashley: 7:58

I think that there's this misconception that. it's more regulated than it is. Like, I think that in the industry, there's so much greenwashing that it can say natural, or it can say even organic, or it can say all of these words, but unless there's specific symbols on it, they can just say it. There's nobody saying like that's false advertising. So unless you're somebody who can look at the back of the bottle and know, like, What word looks like some weird scientific term that has way too many letters and doesn't seem like English Unless you're somebody who's gonna look at that and then Google it and see it's sort of what is in every single product You really never know.

Mekisha: 8:35

Well, that's the whole thing Especially my background of being a medical esthetician and skincare specialist. Brands will say Shea butter or hyaluronic acid, you'll see that in a lot of things, retinols, but the percentage of those actual ingredients are so minimal, they don't do anything on the skin, but because that ingredient is in their list. They will put all over their product, shea butter, shea butter, shea butter. But when you think of the percentage of the shea butter, it might be 2 percent compared to setyl alcohol, which is just an alcohol or water, which is 90%. There's really actually no shea butter in there. It's so diluted that you're not actually getting any benefits of it. So that's what customers don't realize that. Take turn the product to the back and just yes, take a picture of it. Go home and just throw the whole thing in Google. You actually see the full listing of it. It's just they won't know necessarily what the full percentages of each ingredient. But if you see that there's. That ingredient that you were really, kind of drawn to it's at the bottom of the label. There is nothing in that product with that ingredient. Majority of it is the top product or top ingredients on the list. And most of the time, those are filled with water or alcohol or a filler, carrier oil that really doesn't do too much, just depending on the benefits of that ingredient. But. That's my point. There's so much brands out there that will say that their product is infused with this and infused with that. But unfortunately it's such a small diluted amount that you think you're getting that benefit, but you really are not getting that benefit. And that's again, one of the reasons why I wanted our labels to be super clean and very transparent and very forthcoming. So people understand what they're getting and what's going on in their skin and how it can help.

Ashley: 10:31

It never really occurred to me that the list of ingredients would really sort of matter that it is a really interesting point that yeah whatever is first that would be used most and whatever is at the end is really just like a sprinkle and one thing that I really do appreciate about your products and your website is that you actually have like a no list and the list of products that you won't use in ever Bella's products.

Mekisha: 10:55

Yes. No, thank you. And it's very true. The no list is so important because some of those ingredients will trigger an issue in the skin. They will strip the natural oils from the skin. It will actually cause the skin to purge. It will leave a film on the skin, preventing certain ingredients of absorbing into the skin. It could change your blood. It could actually affect your oil glands. So it was so important that every product, I scaled it down. I made it very basic. I added a lot of active ingredients that are really clean and steered away from anything that was synthetic, that were fillers, that were parabens, that were things that just weren't benefiting the skin at all. So a no ingredient listing was really important for Me, but also for everyone else to know that, you know, compare it, bring it to your other products, and if you see it's there, you can actually educate yourself and say, Oh, actually, this is really bad. Maybe that's why my skin is purging or irritated or red or inflamed.

Ashley: 12:05

I think that we really do need to think of like the stuff that we're putting on our body, like our skin is our biggest organ, that we really do have to think this isn't something that looks cute and smells good, that we do have to think is it triggering an allergic reaction? Is it going to trigger an outbreak on your skin? Is it going to cause a root inflammation issue within your body that I personally haven't really considered that enough to think am I causing the problem with the product I'm using that I'm actually trying to fix?

Mekisha: 12:36

Yes. And that is why we are really educating people on our Instagram and all of our different social media platforms, because that is the biggest and most important thing people don't realize. One, your skin is the biggest organ, but two, your internal organs are just as important because what's inside shows on the outside. What you put on the outside. Travels to the inside. And it's a harmony between the two things. And that's why self care is such an important thing for us to explain to people that you do want to purge the inside. You want to really take care of the inside of your body because you'll see it on the outside. But when you're looking at the outside, you need to look at the products that you're using, because if there's a lot of fragrance in there that is traveling into your bloodstream, and it can, And cause an irritation to your skin, it could actually cause an inflammation to the skin because depending on the fragrance and depending on what they put together to make that fragrance, those molecules can actually travel into your bloodstream and then start to cause issues within your skin. It's the same idea when it comes to very harsh detergents. Those can strip natural oils on your skin, leaving your skin almost bare and start to itch and irritate as well. So it's like a science. It became a true science for me to see everything in detail, but it's, such an important factor for people to look at that. Whether it's your soap that you're using to wash dishes or to your clothes or perfume or shower gel or lotion or any of that, those ingredients that are not natural, they do negatively affect your skin, especially now because they're being a lot more populated in a very unhealthy way that can irritate the skin.

Ashley: 14:25

Not only just for our own physical well being, we also do have to be aware, we are rapidly polluting and killing our planet that if we are using whatever kind of soap, whether it's dish soap, whether it's laundry soap, whether it's soap for our body, that's going down our drain and into our pipes and then leading into Our environment. So it's really also being mindful of what we're putting out there and what problems were potentially adding to which is why I also love that your brand is a supporter of the Eden Reforestation Project. Why was that an important partner for you?

Mekisha: 15:01

I was always kind of in tune with Mother Earth. From when I was a kid, I remember there was a time where we used to have little field trips and we would clean up the schools. That no longer happens at school anymore, but it took a major impact on me in terms of never littering, throw things away in the garbage, make sure you, you know, recycle and so forth. It's always carried with me and even my friends and family, they would make sure they never littered around me. They would never throw anything on the floor. They would always recycle. And I remember a lot of people call me crazy. They're like, it's just a wrapper. And I'm like, yeah, but guess what that wrapper does? It accumulates, it clogs our water. It goes into those stream that we try to drink. And then it also affects our mammals. So when I started making the products, I never wanted to leave that. Principle that value that moral behind and start adding to, you know, that footprint of all of the amount of waste that comes from the beauty industry. So, in the beginning, it didn't really have the funds to be able to, have certain kind of post consumer plastics or certain glass. But every single time I would work my way towards it, having very minimal packaging, very minimal shipping material, very minimal, things that would affect the planet, but also affect, what the skincare product is being held in. So it was really important when we started to scale and the business started to change and we started to get a little bit bigger that I wanted to make sure that I was giving back in some way, shape, or form. And I always wanted to plant trees. I always wanted to do all of those. Things. And when I discovered that there was a brand that we could actually partner with even being a small scale business, because a lot of these charities will really only work with larger or medium chain businesses. What I liked is that there was a middle person called the good API. They were the ones that could actually. Bridge us to being able to work with the even project in order to help, every dollar go towards planting trees and it was probably the most. Fun most proud moment I've ever had was to be able to do that because I've always wanted to but I would reach out to companies and they're like, sorry, you're not large enough. Sorry. This is like the minimum requirement. I'm like, how am I going to do this? Like, how is other brands doing it? And I couldn't. So this was a great opportunity and it made me feel so proud because now seeing that we actually are contributing back. I'm just really, really happy with that.

Ashley: 17:34

How frustrating that it's like, Oh, you want to help? Sorry. You don't have enough followers. We can't deal with you. So as a consumer, I actually really love that brands are partnered with these organizations so it's like a low effort way of actually supporting if I don't have the time to go plant a tree I can definitely go shop and feel like at least I'm doing something that way and being socially responsible.

Mekisha: 17:56

Yes, because that is our responsibility at the end of the day, you know, a lot of the things that are happening globally. It's man made. It's caused by us. The least we could do is try and give back. That's probably the most important thing for me. If I wasn't making products, I would definitely be out there doing a lot more when it comes to reforestation. And I even actually got the opportunity to plant trees and it was the most liberating, the most. Appreciative thing that I could do. And it just, I loved it. It really, really hit my heart really well. And I'm happy that we're able to give back on the larger scale now. So that's good.

Ashley: 18:33

It's kind of cool. I do not have a green thumb at all. So I'm always like, kind of surprised at the end of the season that I'm able to keep houseplants alive, but I love the fact of like actually watching them grow. It's like being able to water them and nurture them and like, see it, but it's awesome that I created that and to see sort of it go full circle of like, whatever we take out of the earth, being able to give it back, but actually in a sense, being able to watch that tree grow. It's such a surreal, like magical thing to watch something go from nothing to something.

Mekisha: 19:03

Yeah, I absolutely agree. I find taking care of plants, especially my own home, it's such a blessing because again, in the beginning, when I was told that I had really bad allergies, which was environmental I kind of like ran away from a tree or a bush that I would see. I'm like, oh, I can't, I'm allergic. Now, especially going a lot more natural and taking care of myself through different self care rituals, I have not one single issue with my allergies. There is no such thing as allergies. It is how do you tolerate or purify your body to be able to, be part of. Earth, which is where we came from. So I find, you know, now when I'm able to sit there and, touch them and nurture them and grow them and so forth and not have a reaction. It's just again, it's that same kind of message that we have to kind of research and get dig deeper into what these allergies are so that we can help ourselves more and help them. Earth more and not condemn it and say, Oh, I'm allergic to everything green. I can't do anything about it. No, you're not allergic. It's just, there's a way of you really kind of figuring out what's triggering you and then go from there.

Ashley: 20:13

Now, thinking that we are in the thick of the holiday season, if there's somebody that's like, I would like to try the products or I have somebody to buy for and I have no idea what to get them, what's one product of yours that you would recommend as a beginner product for somebody to try?

Mekisha: 20:30

I would always recommend the Everhydrate collection because it's just meant to hydrate the skin, give it moisture, give it that laxity back again in the skin. So I find anything from the Everhydrate collection to be the best one for everyone. Because unless you know that person really truly is suffering from eczema or some type of sensitivity, I wouldn't say give them EverSooth because they'll look and be like, I don't have eczema issues. So I would always, you know, steer people towards the EverHydrate, especially in this season as well. Now, everyone can benefit from having some more hydration in their skin. So that would be the best one, such as the scrub as well as the soak or even the butter. Like they're all amazing just to give skin that liveliness it needs that stimulation and give it that moisture that it needs.

Ashley: 21:21

There's also on your website talking about a three step ritual. Can you kind of explain what that is?

Mekisha: 21:28

Yeah, so I find a lot of people that I've interacted with for so long, they don't really know what to do. They just kind of wash and go out the door. And that's why we created that three step ritual. So a person kind of starts their journey in ritual building. self care building, and it kind of takes you on that journey of, cleansing the skin really well, taking your time exfoliating the skin so that you can get rid of any dead skin cells and kind of remove that toxicity, remove that heaviness off of the skin, and then finish off with nurturing the skin with moisture or oils. So that would be a butter or an oil itself. I find the oils are a little bit better for people that need conditioning in the skin or something lightweight because they don't want any kind of thickness on the skin. So that's where the oils are great. Or the butter is where you want something a little bit thicker, especially on your elbows or your knees, or even on your hands if you like something a little bit thicker. So the ritual is really to help someone know how to do like a. three step kind of program versus just buying a soap and thinking that's it. They don't need to do anything else or just buying a scrub and thinking that's the way to do it. It really brings a person on that journey of going through a self care ritual and taking the time to really treat their body versus rushing out the door and, not giving themselves that little moment of like breath and, you know, relaxation and nurturing.

Ashley: 22:59

I love that too. It's like taking the time to have that intentional moment for yourself. And I feel like a lot of the times like stereotypically thinking women, we often will do so much for other people, but we often will put ourselves last on our to do list. So it's like even giving yourself 15 minutes in the morning or evening to just going to wash my face. I'm going to take this time. I'm going to think about the moments of the day, let it kind of pass and then be able to, leave your bathroom and be like, Okay, I got this, or I'm ready for bed, I can relax now and just really, I don't know, finding that center of yourself.

Mekisha: 23:38

Thank you for saying that because it's so true. In the beginning, I never really took the time to take care of myself. And then while I was going on that journey of discovering eczema issues and so forth, I did. Slow down in the morning and I perfected like a morning ritual for myself and a nighttime ritual for myself and I realized that, you know, a lot of people would really just rush the day, they rush and wake up, they rush to get their food, they rush to go to work, they rush through work, they rush home after work, they rush to get their food, and they get in the bed and they're like, oh, finally. But if you really start your day with a ritual that really just centers yourself, aligns yourself, clears your channel, really allow yourself to breathe and steady your breath, you'll start to notice that you're more aware through the day, you will have less anxiety, you'll have more of awareness of triggers and things that bother you. So I find it's such an important thing for us to do and it's becoming a little bit more known now to be more aware and it doesn't have to be meditation. It just means just breathe, just take your time and breathe, be conscious and aware of what you're putting on your skin and what you're saying to yourself in the morning and what you're saying to yourself while you're doing your work and you know, go through your day with that ease. I find it's, such an important thing that we had to bring out more.

Ashley: 25:08

I think that if the pandemic taught us anything, it was sort of that hustle culture wasn't doing much for us. We were having to do, way more housework, way more at home work, way more, teaching of our kids if we had them. And it got to the point that I think collectively we got all so burnt out that we kind of realized that, what's the point in hustling? We have 24 hours in a day, but do we need to make every single one of them this like do or die and if I miss this moment, then it's gone forever. It's undeniable like pressure on ourselves where I feel like if we start to be intentional and whether we want to call it, taking time for yourself. If you find that like putting a meditation as a label on it feels stressful, like it can still be that. But it's just taking that time to breathe, to check in with your body, to be like, I don't know, in yourself a little bit more than just the go, go, go. I feel like it's so needed for our health and for our mental health and just overall for us to be better humans to each other.

Mekisha: 26:12

Yeah. And it's very true that In the last, how many years of humanity, it's always been about getting it done, chasing, going after your goals, setting your goals and chasing it and chasing it, that we almost lost the presence of just being there. Having fun, enjoying company, enjoying people, enjoying, each other's company or in just enjoying what our life is about. So now there's such a major shift and that's what we've kind of been feeling and I know some people might find a little bit too spiritual, but that's a major shift that's really happening right now across humanity where. We're becoming, whole again. We're coming back to that feeling of loving myself and, confidence and self esteem and self love and taking the time to really just be in the moment and not thinking about yesterday, not thinking about tomorrow, but thinking about this very moment that we have. And that's why self care rituals are so important and whether it is breathing and doing, you know, Certain kind of breathing techniques, whether it is about just, writing a I love you list, gratitude list whether it is just sitting down and, just listening to clear music, singing bowls, any of that. It's just really about being in that moment of self care and self awareness and just enjoying yourself again.

Ashley: 27:41

I definitely agree with that. I also think that we are starting to come back to community a little bit. I feel like we, for the longest time, had this lack mindset where there could only be one skincare brand that's going to be the popular one. Or one influencer that's going to be the one to get all of the things. And I think that If nothing else, the Internet has taught us that that really isn't the case, that there is this abundance out there and there is room for everybody. So it's like we can be in collaboration more than we have to be in competition.

Mekisha: 28:14

Yes, thank you. Oh, I love everything that you're saying because that is exactly what I've dealt with on my own personal journey for so long and again, being in the beauty industry, that is mainly what sometimes drives the beauty industry. You have to be the it one. You have to be the top. You cannot have another fellow women beside you or another fellow stylist beside you be popular. It's always this idea of individual You know, one person being the leader when really we all are a team. We're all here together. We're all collectively, creating a business. We're all collectively, you know, creating art. We're all collectively here just living. It's very true that we. Are now seeing that a lot more, especially on social media that we're here to be together versus individually. And I find now we are able to connect with people across the world. So even more now we're becoming more of a community across the globe versus it be so. Singular one tribe in this one city, and that's it's very diverse now as a global effect. And I do agree about it being something where we can all do what we like to do without it feeling like a competition. It's really about building a community versus being like, you're the outsider. You can't be in this team.

Ashley: 29:40

I definitely agree. One thing that I love about your brand too is that you really include that wellness component that you have blog posts it's not just hey buy my product. It's like this is our lifestyle. This is what we stand for.

Mekisha: 29:54

Yes, it's, very much a movement of wellness. It's a movement of healing. It's a movement of inclusiveness. It's not about singling out a person because we're all here. We all have the same qualities and the same gifts, you know, one may be a little bit different than the other, but the point is that we can all. Rise together as a community not individually. I don't want people to feel singled out I don't want anyone to feel you know Abused or any of that. I want everyone to feel like this brand is good for everyone You know, we are all here together. We can all rise together Let's help each other because at the end of the day while you're holding someone up someone else is holding you up So it's about Building a community of people that have that same inspiration and aspirations to help heal, build, prosper, abundance and grow. I

Ashley: 30:50

love that you're creating that safe space in your corner of the internet.

Mekisha: 30:53

Yes. Thank you so much.

Ashley: 30:55

Can you tell us what your favorite wellness routine is?

Mekisha: 30:59

It depends on the day, but my normal day to day routine or ritual is I get up around 345, four o'clock. I go for a walk. And while I'm walking, I'm repeating mantras. I'm star gazing. Just really taking in that breath and that groundedness outside. And then I go to the, gym. I have a meditation kind of breath, work in the sauna room just so I can really ground myself, purify my skin, and get rid of any toxins. Then I go and actually work out for about an hour, depending on what area that I really want to focus on. After that, I come home, I drink my tea, I journal. I read a little bit. I learned something new. So I'm, you know, learning different languages now. And then I start my day with my daughter making her breakfast and have that moment with her and my cats as well. And that's like my morning kind of ritual. I have like a night ritual and that. comprises of after dinner and all that great stuff with my daughter, I go to learn something. So I try to read again for another 30 minutes, or I try to kind of note down how was the day productively. And then I start to watch some things that are spiritual. And then I. Go to bed and my bedtime is relatively early. Everyone used to make fun of me, but it's okay because I find because I get up so early I have to go to sleep. But I also realized if you're not resting, you cannot put your best foot forward in the day. So that's like my normal day to day kind of ritual. I have bath rituals. I also have hair rituals. I have a whole different slew of different rituals, but that's my regular day to day that I build on. And I really kind of change depending on my mood and how I feel. But it's such a big thing for myself, my foundation to be able to run a business with my business partner or be a mother or, be an employee if I'm working anywhere or just be a person. It keeps me centered.

Ashley: 33:06

I think it is really important to put value on that routine. It's like, it gives you something to look forward to. It gives you sort of that peace of mind that from this time to this time, like anything could happen in a day. But these are the things that I'm like, I know I can count on myself doing this. Movement is so great for our mental health. But I think sleep is something that is so overlooked. Like people will kind of like laugh if you're like, Oh, I love to nap. Or I love to sleep it makes such a difference if you're somebody who can't sleep or doesn't get enough sleep or has broken sleep, like it can have such a big ripple effect throughout your whole entire day. Good for you that you can go to sleep early and that you can get up early and create that routine for yourself because it is something that's setting you up for success.

Mekisha: 33:53

Thank you. It's very true that your sleep is important. I'm studying it a little bit right now too, because I know some people know the term REM sleep and your brain needs a minimum of six hours for it to have this flushing effect. And many people don't realize that their brain has like a Full out flush in the sleep. So if you're not getting a minimum of six hours of sleep, six to eight hours of sleep, you're not flushing those toxins or resetting your brain, if you want to call it. So what ends up happening, the residual Build up and the the nervous system is so wired that the next day, that's why you have this unawareness. You're not centered. You have this chaotic mind is because your brain did not fully flush while it was sleeping. And again, I will know more of the terms and study a lot more, but from what I gather, that is what's happening when you're sleeping. So sleep is really important, especially for recovery on your muscles and your tissue and your organs and your digestive system. That alone is what's happening. We overlook it and it became a fashion that if you don't sleep, you're working. If you don't sleep, you're productive. No, you're dying. It's so important and I took it in myself. In my younger days it was okay, but I value it so much more now, more than I did before.

Ashley: 35:14

I Think that when we're hearing those messages, those go, go, go. And the, don't sleep or sleep is for the lazy or whatever we really have to question like who's benefiting those messages and why are we being sold that is that really helping us or is that feeding into somebody else's propaganda?

Mekisha: 35:32

Exactly. I find my daughter was very much on the bag wagon of staying up and trying to be on social media. I said, no, we are cutting that phone off at a certain time at night because you do not need to be on social media until two or three in the morning. It is going to ruin your life, ruin your eyesight and give you the misconception of what's out there. And it's not correct. It's like this illusion. So even her, I put her into that same practice of going to sleep at a certain time, or at least locking off her social media so that she. Stops being so activated with what she sees on social media. If we actually all get into this practice of turning off social media or turning off actual digital, we'll actually notice that we do want to go to sleep. Our body is actually tired, or I can actually have a conversation with the people around me. And then you will fall asleep much easier because you turned off things that are actually stimulating your brain and stimulating your nervous system and stimulating your body. And that's where you're feeling like you don't need to sleep. But if you actually turn them off and move them away, that electromagnetic field one will turn off and it's not stimulating you, but you're not getting activated visually by seeing it as well.

Ashley: 36:47

We've created this myth that we have to be accessible or that we're going to somehow miss out. It's like if our phones aren't at arm's reach all the time, and again, I'm not as good as practicing as I preach. I'm still pretty bad for it, but it's like creating the solution that it doesn't have to be near us all the time. If somebody has to wait until the next morning to get a response from an email. Or a text or things like that, the world is not going to implode, we're going to be okay. But I think it's reminding ourselves of that just because we're so used to this idea that, everything happens instantaneous.

Mekisha: 37:20

Yes, it's the feeling of immediate gratification. And if we turn off this idea of immediate gratification, we'll actually be a lot more relaxed, and we'll be a lot more aware and present in our life, and not feeling like, if I don't do this, something's gonna happen. This immediacy, this anxiousness. And again, Like we said, we're all kind of working through, we're all kind of dealing with it because that's kind of the world we live in, but we have to, recondition ourselves to take that away and take that, down. And I'm, guilty as well sometimes. I'm like, oh, let me double check. Let me see that. But then I'll like, stop. I'm like, hold on. I've been scrolling. For so long, or why am I responding to emails and it's at nine o'clock at night or 10 o'clock at night? It's a really important thing and you know, if we don't start doing it now, the next generation is going to be unfortunately the ones that suffer from this.

Ashley: 38:15

We really do have to model the behavior, we can tell our kids like. Don't do as I do, do as I say, but that never ever works. So if you're somebody who's constantly scrolling, you can't really be surprised when your kid is doing the same thing. If you have children that it's, it's, they really do model after us.

Mekisha: 38:34

Yes, absolutely. My daughter is she's like a little project to me. I literally am always telling myself, okay, if I'm not doing it, she's not doing it. Okay, perfect. And then I'll see things that I do that she starts doing. I'm like, oh, yes, I'm not failing. I'm making it. I'm making it. She's literally my project of, instilling great behavior in her. Which makes

Ashley: 38:58

it easier when we can sort of rationalize it in that sense that it's not just for me It's for the next it does sort of make it easier to be like, okay, I can put this down I don't have to worry about it.

Mekisha: 39:09

I definitely try not to look at my phone at a certain time at night and some days I win, some days I don't, but I definitely try to stay away from looking at it. Even if it's a book, I'm trying to be more of a physical book versus a digital book because it takes one second for an alert to drop down on your digital device. You're like, let me check it out. And you're like, no, no, I told myself not to. To check it out. So that's one thing I told myself, I don't give me a digital, book for Christmas or for any occasion buy the physical book, I love the feeling, the smell and the touch of it, and it also allows me to not be looking at a digital device.

Ashley: 39:49

I find too, with paper copy of books, I get like the, I don't know, the dopamine hit of like, Oh, I only have a hundred more pages to go where I feel like if you're reading like on a Kindle, you just don't get the same satisfaction that way.

Mekisha: 39:59

No, you don't. You don't even feel excited. I like to flip the page and I like to highlight and I like to touch it. I like to hold it. I'm very much, you know, very studious in that way. I'm excited when I have books like I have journals upon journals and I'm excited looking at that. I have so much journals, you know, stacking up like I literally want to have a library. I want to have a library and be able to look at that and see, maybe my daughter may want to go in there and pick out a book that she might have saw me read. So you can't do that with a digital book. You can't be like, Oh, go through my books on a Kindle.

Ashley: 40:40

I also really love the name of your company, Everbella. Do you have a story on why you chose that name?

Mekisha: 40:46

Yes, it's such a funny, beautiful name, but my middle name is Everte, and my daughter's name is Isabel. So I kind of cut the two and put them together, and it wasn't for the brand, it was actually just for my Instagram profile. It was for my Instagram profile a long time ago before the brand even came about. It was like when Instagram first dropped, I'm like, oh my God. I gotta have my name. I didn't want my real name. So I put the two of those together. And then when I had the inspiration to start the company, I just couldn't figure out what name it should be. And then it dawned on me that why not EverBella? No one even knew about ever Bella. No one even thought of that. So that's when I put it out there and. It kind of stuck and everyone's kind of said it's such a beautiful name and I'm so, so proud of it because I started to see a much deeper meaning to it.

Ashley: 41:42

I love that. And again, it kind of falls back into the meant to be that it was so simple of like, it was your passion, but that this perfect name was waiting. You just didn't know it yet.

Mekisha: 41:53

Yes, it's great. I noticed now it's a little bit more popular in the industry or on social media and so forth. And it's okay. It's such a beautiful name, but it's something that's been around with me for a long time. It's stuck with me and it used to mean, forever beautiful. That's where it first came. And now it's just kind of keeps evolving and growing, but it's still kind of represents that forever, that infinity and Bella mean beautiful and all different forms of beautiful, not just one kind of beautiful. So it's a timeless name. It really is.

Ashley: 42:30

Definitely is very timeless. I am excited that it ended up working out and that you were to kind of claim it before the Bella maybe became a lot more popular.

Mekisha: 42:40

Yeah. The Bella or the ever, I noticed everything is happening that way. And I'm like, Oh my gosh, it's so popular now, but it's okay. Cause sometimes when you kind of channel things through the divine, you kind of are ahead of the time and you know, that's kind of what's happening right now is that self care movement. It was. Something I've been doing for so long and now it's becoming more popular and I'm so happy it is, but I never realized I was doing self care before I even became this household name, you know, spirituality is becoming a lot more of a household, recognition versus it being, you know, other traditional things that we would, believe in or follow, but, knowing a lot more that's happening and Knowing what's out there more in terms of divine kind of things. It's such a great feeling to see it becoming a lot more common, a lot more of a regular topic of discussion versus it being, Oh, that's woo. We don't talk about that. So yeah, it's a great feeling that, things are coming a lot more normalized.

Ashley: 43:44

Yeah, we really do need to take the stigma off and stuff like that and just really be able to have open frank conversations and if what people are talking about resonates with you, perfect. Maybe you found a community that way. And if it doesn't, well, it doesn't hurt you to disagree and find a different community like it just has to be more, I don't know, acceptance of each other.

Mekisha: 44:06

Yes, like we just have to have openness. That's it. Just a openness towards any and everything, you know, science is discovering a lot of things from spirituality that they denied, over a couple of decades ago. Now they're like, actually, we can prove it's correct. And it's like, see, it's not to say things are wrong. It's just that you just didn't have an open mind to it. Now you're having a more of an open mind to it. And it's a great feeling because we're evolving. And that's what's happening. We're evolving as a species, as a humanity, as a world, as everything. And we have to remember that. We have to just have that open mind, that compassion, that love and that respect for everyone's choices, beliefs, decisions in where they're going with their life and just, you know, accept it for what it is. It's not harming you.

Ashley: 44:55

I couldn't agree with you more. I think that we have been so divided or this idea that we're so cut off for people or that we're so different that it's really like, Accepting people and learning from people and just being open and I think, takes way more energy to hate something than it does to choose kindness and to choose love and like all of our weirdness and all of our differentnessif we were all the same, like how incredibly boring and we would probably fight a lot more because we would have to create sort of drama entertainment. So it's like. The more weird we are really benefits everybody and helps everybody shine in such a unique way that it's like instead of trying to, I don't know, create the sameness. It's kind of cool that we're all so different, but in a collective way that we can all work together.

Mekisha: 45:45

Absolutely. It's one of those ideas that, because it's been bred in us, you know, from a tribal time. It's all about, you have to be part of the tribe, you have to be a certain way. And if you're not, you're kicked out, right? Now it's, we're breaking that kind of foundation conditioning that we've had where if you're not part of us, look like us, do like us, eat like us, act like us, you're not part of the tribe. Now it's more of a breaking of that conditioning and saying, Hey, you like rainbows. I like black. I like white. I like stripes. I like coconuts. I cats. I like dogs. We're all hanging out together. Do you want to come and hang out? It's such a great feeling that we're now kind of abolishing that conditioning and we're changing it and we're becoming more unified versus segregated and demeaned and bullied for being different. I've always known that even though I was a person that got bullied when I was younger for being different. I just never changed that about myself. I'm like, I don't care. This is who I am and this is how I am. And if I feel like I want to do this, I'm going to do it. And now I feel so happy that people are like, I love your quirkiness. I love that you're weird. I love that you're different. And I'm just like, no, I'm not weird. I'm just, just me, you're you. And I love you the way you are. So it's really, really fun to see and so encouraging to see that. We're becoming different and we're slowly but surely are accepting of it. The more everyone believes that it's okay to be their own different, then we'll have a lot less hate. We'll have a lot less fighting. We'll have a lot less war. We'll have a lot less of everything because People are sticking to, I don't care what you have going on with you. I still love you for who you are. See the person for their heart. See the person for their true, honest intentions, not for how they look, what they eat, what they do in their personal private life, just love them for who they are. I'm hoping that in every way, shape or form, I can keep pushing that message along with, the message from EverBella too.

Ashley: 47:56

I hope that anybody listening to this can really like absorb that into themselves and take that energy into 2024 so that we are really working towards that peace..

Mekisha: 48:08

Yes, yes, and we can all do it if we just stop looking at things that are negative and, paying attention to things that are hurtful. And instead, really try to feel grounded and resonating with who they are. Take the time to really get to know who you are, what are your values, what are your morals, what are your likes, dislikes, and so forth, and let it shine. Because when you do that... I guarantee you like attracts like and you will find the people that resonate just like what you are resonating with and you kind of create your own kind of community and then it starts to spill out to other people because other people will see, Hey, you're doing your thing and you're doing it the way you want to. I guess I can do it too. And then they'll start doing it. So it's like a ripple effect, but it all starts with just one person, 1 percent every day, one action every day. To just feel grounded and accept themselves and love themselves. And we can change the world and we can change everything that's happening around us. If we just stop paying attention to the negative and really focus on that positive.

Ashley: 49:13

I couldn't agree more. It's a beautiful mindset. And I do think that the more positive that you put out and that how you've managed to create this, authentic safe space that I do really believe that like attracts like and that Everbella will have this ripple effect and that you will have created this ripple effect for people. So I really appreciate the fact that you're sharing your story and that your products did come to fruitation. And I really appreciate you having this conversation with me today.

Mekisha: 49:43

Thank you so much, Ashley. This was one of my favorite conversations with anyone and it allowed me to have that same safe space to express myself and I cannot wait for other people to hear it and feel inspired and I love what you do and I love that your own journey is to bring these stories and bring these people, whoever they are, and whatever their walks of life are out to light so that other people can hear it and be inspired to.

Ashley: 50:13

Oh, thank you so much. If anybody was wanting to purchase Everbella products, where are they available?

Mekisha: 50:20

So we are in a few pharmacies, but they're more in Ontario. So if they're in Mississauga or Brampton, they'll find those products there. Nonetheless, we do ship. Internationally, worldwide, Canada, everywhere on our website. So everbella. ca and we also do, direct shipping. They can do pickup, but if they are in certain areas, they can definitely pick them up at pharmacies or through certain naturopaths, but always accessible on our website, no matter where you are.

Ashley: 50:48

Can you let people know on social media where they can find you?

Mekisha: 50:53

Everbella. Just that one word, EverBella, they'll find us on there. We're on tikTok, YouTube, facebook, Instagram. We're pretty much everywhere.. That's so great. Thank you so much. Thank you.

51:10

Thank you so much for joining us today for this episode of the filled up cup podcast. Don't forget to hit subscribe and leave a review. If you like what you hear, you can also connect with us at filledupcup.Com. Thanks again for tuning in and we'll catch you in the next episode.