Why Slowing Down and Romanticizing Life Turns Your Days into Art Instead of Errands (with Khinya Wade)

Why Slowing Down and Romanticizing Life Turns Your Days into Art Instead of Errands (with Khinya Wade)

What if the answer to burnout, overwhelm, and the constant grind… was to slow down? Not a little. A lot.

In this soul-soothing episode of A Beautiful Fix, Tracy sits down with Khinya Wade—founder of Kirinyaga Wellness, intentional living guide, and creator of one of the most romantic, earth-rooted lifestyles we’ve ever seen. From cooking in a wood-fired clay oven in her outdoor Earth Kitchen to healing through ancestral rituals, Khinya shares what it means to truly build a life around beauty, ritual, and presence.

They talk about the power of slow living, how convenience can rob us of joy, and why daily moments—like candlelit dinners and homemade strawberry jam—are sacred acts of reclamation. You’ll hear how Khinya built Kirinyaga Wellness as a healing space, the way she navigates life transitions with grace, and what it really means to romanticize your life (starting with the ordinary).

You’ll walk away with a renewed desire to turn your days into art—not just errands.

Topics we explore:

• The healing power of slow living & romanticizing your everyday routines
• How to reconnect with your body, nervous system, and ancestral wisdom
• Creating a life rooted in presence instead of pressure
• The Earth Kitchen, wildflowers, strawberry jam & other acts of ritual beauty
• Why slowing down brings more clarity than any to-do list ever could

Want to connect with Khinya Wade?

Follow her journey and explore Kirinyaga Wellness at: TikTok & IG: @kirinyaga_wellness 
Website: https://www.kirinyagawellness.com/

🎧 Listen now on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts—and don’t forget to subscribe and leave a review if this one moved you.

Want More?

Grab your Human Design chart here

Want to unpack it together? Book a 1:1 session here

Subscribe to A Beautiful Fix on Apple or Spotify

Ready to feel more alive and aligned? Grab my free guide, Finding Your Beautiful Fix: Simple Shifts to Rediscovering Your Inner Power !

Subscribe to Tracy’s weekly Sunday Love Note, Thought Gems, at abeautifulfix.com—your weekly reminder to pause, breathe, and choose your focus.
to help you reset, reconnect, and rediscover what’s possible.

Support the Show

💕 Love this episode? Follow & leave a quick review—it helps others find A Beautiful Fix!

💬 Join the conversation on Instagram & Facebook @ABeautifulFix or find me on LinkedIn: Tracy...

Transcript

 Why Slowing Down and Romanticizing Life Turns Your Days into Art Instead of Errands (with Khinya Wade)

You can make anything beautiful.

You can romanticize your life at any time. And it doesn't have to be that you live in a state of delusion and you're like, I'm gonna romanticize my life and not pay any attention to the things that are going on. It's just a matter of if you're having a bad day, you go to the record player, you put something on. You hear the little [crackling sound], you go to the kitchen, you start cooking, you light incense. Maybe you cook by candlelight that night, or you sit outside and, and you go for a walk and you intentionally step on the leaves so that way you can hear the crunch underneath your feet.

You just take your time. You enjoy the beauty and the mundane because we have so many things that provide convenience for us. But convenience wraps us of an experience. There's plenty of things you can do to romanticize your life. 

Welcome to a Beautiful Fix. I'm Tracy Hill. Each week we'll dive into the latest thought, Jim recharging and reconnecting with what lights you up and makes you feel alive. Let's discover your next beautiful fix together.

 Hey, real quick before we dive in, you're powerful and sometimes you just need someone to remind you what's already in you. That's what human design does. It's the difference between guessing and knowing so you can stop searching outside yourself and start trusting the answers within. I promise you, they're there.

Grab your free chart@abeautifulfix.com and when you're ready to go deeper, book a one-to-one session with me. Alright, let's get into the episode.

  Today's episode is one I've been especially excited to share because my guest is someone who has created one of the most intentional and romanticized lifestyles I've ever seen. And I'd love to give everybody a quick challenge. So today I'd like for you to smile and feel good.

Every time you hear me say the word beautiful in this episode, because it's going to happen a lot. And really quickly, for those of you who are just joining, um, one of the reasons, well, the primary reason why this is called a beautiful fix is because I learned that my passion in life. It's beautiful things.

It's being in the presence of beauty, whether that is a conversation, an experience, a sunset, nature, whatever. I love it. And so when I was in a period of my life where I was feeling very down, I would seek. These beautiful fixes. Not too different than a caffeine fix or a heroin fix only. These were beautiful fixes.

I would search for something beautiful because it's so high vibrational, it lifts you. So my guest today, she has, she has delivered on my search for beautiful fixes. So. Khinya Wade is the founder of Kirinyaga Wellness, a serene retreat space nestled in the southern Appalachian foothills in Alabama. It's a place where she, her husband and spirit have woven together nature and intentional living and deep presence into a way of life.

Through time massage, mindful habitat, and what she calls the medicine of quiet presence. Khinya helps others reconnect with their bodies, calm their nervous systems, and remember what peace actually feels like. But what first pulled me in wasn't just what she offers, it was how she lives. I've been following Khinya's journey online for a while now, and it's honestly.

Like watching someone slow down time and turn everyday life into art. She cooks meals from scratch in an outdoor earth kitchen complete with a Woodburn clay oven. She built herself. Can you keep me honest here, right? I, I saw a whole thing about that. Been help, but Yes. Yes. Yeah. Okay. She grows her own food.

She's built a garden library using reclaimed materials. Inspired by the JP Morgan and Parisian libraries, her budget was $150. Everything she touches feels like it carries both beauty and meaning. Okay, so when you scroll her social feed, and I highly recommend you just rabbit hole her content, it feels like presence and it reminds you that even the smallest things that many of us may consider mundane like cooking can be beautiful acts of devotion when done with intention.

Her videos show her making. Apple pies and preserving jam, and everything's made from scratch and there are wild flowers that it's, it's just gorgeous. So today I'm honored to welcome Khinya to the show and hear more about the beautiful life she's built. One that doesn't just look different, but feels different.

I'm thrilled to share her story with you, Khinya. Welcome to a beautiful fix. Thank you for having me. Thank you, Tracy. Of course, I literally could barely sleep last night. That excited. So, um, I have all these questions, but you know, the. I am inspired by how you live life, and I thought, mm-hmm. I really just want this to just flow.

So yeah, we'll see where it goes, but I'd love for you to start with just your story. Like what led you to build this beautiful way of life? Okay. So. It did. The journey was not pretty in the beginning. No, it was far from beautiful. If I'm gonna be transparent, it was a journey that I put myself in the mud in and I had to get out of, I put myself in a ditch and I had to crawl out of it.

And it was 2018. Um. I don't need to cuss, but my life was just shit. That was just the best way to describe it. That's just the best way to describe it. It was just not very pretty. Me and my husband, we were at odds. Everything was just not going well. I didn't know how to articulate, um, what was going on within me.

There was just so many things that I didn't know how to express. And one night I will always remember this. I just was in the shower and I was like, I need help. I need to change my whole entire life. And then, um, I got out of the shower, I went downstairs. We were living in an apartment then, and I just, I heard a voice and for lack of better words, it sounded, it was like a voice from God.

It was not my voice. It was, um, spirit source, whatever name you wanna put on it. But I heard it. And it was like, what are you passionate about? And I was like, you know what, everyone on my father's side of the family, they're entrepreneurs and I love nature and I wanna work for myself. And then it was like time massage just fell right into my lap.

And I was like, you know what? I could do a massage. And I looked up massage therapy in Gadsden State, which was right next door to my apartment complex. They offered to, uh, massage classes. And I applied. This all happened, I think. Uh, late February, maybe early March of 2018, I applied for the massage therapy program and I got in on my birthday.

And then through, throughout that process, me and my husband, we were, we knew we needed to move out of that apartment, and we knew we needed to work on ourselves. And so we started looking for homes, but we never thought we'd live in Alabama. Uh, we just didn't know where we would wanna live. I never really saw myself living here, honestly.

And, wait, can, can you, where, where were you, I'm sorry to interrupt, but where were you before? Uh, we were in Alabama. No. Okay. You were? Yeah. Okay. So we've lived in, um, I've traveled, but I've always lived in northeast Alabama. Um, and so it was just. It was like, okay, well we need to find a place to stay. And then we ended up looking for homes and we got, oh yeah, okay.

There it goes. We ended up looking for homes and then, um, on our wedding anniversary, even though we were not connecting with one, uh, with each other, and we were still having such a hard time. Christopher found this home and he was like, can you need to go look at it? Because the last time he told me to go look at a home, and I was like, that's just too far away.

It's away from I 20, which is, um, a straight shot to Atlanta or Birmingham. And I knew I wanted to bring in clients from Atlanta and Birmingham. And so, um, I was like, that's just too far away. And when I finally went and looked at that first home he told me to go look at. He, it was beautiful. It had like its own pond, a gazebo land dear, everything.

It was gorgeous and someone already put in an offer and got it when we decided that we wanted it. So this time around I was like, I'm not gonna do that to myself. So I immediately packed up the car, I brought my fa Dylan with me, and we went and we looked at the property. All I saw was the garden, and it was everything for me.

So later on that day, we, we were able to tour the home and we put in an offer on our wedding anniversary April 16th. And, and then we moved in in June 20th. And that same year, oh my gosh, so much happened in that year. We moved in June 20th. In August. I went to Ghana, uh, for the first time, and I went with my stepmother to go visit my father's land in Ghana.

In the Volta region, and that experience just transformed me. It, it, it put such a fire in me because it was the mirror that I needed to see because I, I ended up being so lost and just not knowing who I was. I mean, I was 23 who really knows who they are at 23, but I just felt so lost and confused that, and it was like no one was really showing me like.

What I was doing to my life or, and what I was also capable of. And so when I went to Ghana and that mirror was held up to my face, I was like, okay, I see it. I accept it because I'm that type. If you tell me the honest truth, the first time I, I, I accept it. It may hurt my ego, but I accept it and I go with it.

Compared to someone who pacifies me, I don't do well with that. I need someone to be brutally honest with me. And I came home, I cut off all my hair and I started fresh.

Okay. Yeah, we have to go back. We have to go back. There was so much that you shared in there. Um. So when you, first of all, it seems like milestones, amazing things happen to you on milestones. Your birthday, your anniversary. That's, that's, that's interesting. Yeah. Um, when you went to Ghana mm-hmm. You mentioned a mirror was held up.

Can you walk us through that a little bit? Like was it family that was telling you about your culture, your roots, or was it just kind of spirit or sore, spoke to you there? Like what was that mirror? Um, when we first landed and I stepped on the continent for the first time, I felt home within myself. I'll always tell everyone, like, I literally felt like Spirit said, you are home.

And so, um, I just knew that I was there for the right reasons. And then, um, not too long afterwards. After, um, I was there for just a few days. It was like people just started to like, show me that, hey, I think there's some things you need to work on. 'cause I'm not gonna lie. Back then I was, um, pretty cocky.

I can honestly say I was a very, um, arrogant woman. Yeah. I thought I knew everything. I thought you couldn't tell me. Uh, you couldn't tell me anything because I'm tall. Beautiful. This. Um, gorgeous smile. My skin color, great shape, all that. And yet you could tell me a lot. I needed to learn a lot. And one thing that really stood out is there's this, um, resort in Cape Town and it's called One Africa.

And it's right on the ocean. And so it's like a cliff. And then the ocean is right there. The water is roaring. I have never heard waves that loud before in my entire life. And one day we were having breakfast and this massage therapist and um, I think he was also a chiropractor, he came and sat down at the table and funny enough, everyone at that table was from Alabama.

We didn't know each other. What? Yeah. Two other ladies. One, I think the one lady said she was hunt from Huntsville, and the other one said she was from Montgomery. And then my, um, stepmother, she's from Atlanta, but we just, we were the only ones at the table. And then the chiropractor, massage therapist walked up and, um, he could sense, he asked me a question and I just, you know, had a little snarky remark or whatever, like, you know, just.

I don't know. I'm pretty sure he could sense that I was full of myself. And I, I guess you could say I had the potential to be, you know, full of myself. But at the same time, um, I needed to work on some things. 'cause he called me out and I, it is embarrassing, but I told people all this all the time because it, it changed my life.

He said, you need to fix your posture. 'cause my posture was terrible. Yes. My posture was terrible in that moment and it was the manifestation of who I was spiritually. I didn't know how to, um, advocate for Kenya. I didn't know how to express what's going on within myself. And so it all transformed into a slumped posture instead of a young woman who was confident, who knows herself.

I was portraying as that young woman, but. My body language said other things compared to where I'm at now. And he was like, you need to fix your posture. And he told me, he was like you, you have the potential to be who you think you are, but right now, in this moment you're not. And it was what I needed.

And it goes back to what I said before about someone who really gets in my tail. That's what I need. 'cause I remember I walked back and this was in front of everyone. The other ladies at the table. He didn't care. He didn't care. And it was what I needed. I needed, um, a good sense of humility. I needed to be humble.

Um, and I walked back to the room after that breakfast and I told my stepmom, I was like, you know, that hurt. But I think he's right. And she said, uh, maybe because she couldn't even tell me the truth. And it took me going all the way to Ghana for someone to tell me like, Hey, I see this in you. You have so much that, um, you could work towards and there's so much within you, such a power, but you don't see it within yourself.

And that's that fire. Was the thing that made me cut my hair when I came home. And which also helped transform me with my posture too. 'cause I really started to work with like, um, realigning my spine and pulling back my shoulders and my neck. And there's just so many things. So, um, I think that was the story about the mirror being held up to me.

Yes. Well, I love it. I, you know. I understand what you're saying about the cockiness and, but I love hearing a young woman be so confident, you know? Mm-hmm. In herself. So, um, it, I love that you're doing the work and the posture and the whole thing, but please don't ever lose, lose that part. It's, it's beautiful to see.

It's, it's, it's, um. It's awesome. Um, so, okay, so you go to Ghana and then you start to, you get this mirror held up and you realize I have some things that I need to change. You come back, you make some, some pretty big changes immediately cutting off your hair. Take us, where did you go from there? How did that then lead you into, into this life?

Um, so I came back home maybe a week or two later. I cut off my hair. And then I was trying to get and start massage therapy school, but my financial aid didn't fully process while I was in Ghana and the internet service was just not, it's probably, it just didn't work out. So I wasn't able to go to massage therapy school.

I had to wait until 2019 and throughout that time I was just a waitress and I just. I cut off all my friends that I had before. Not that they were, um, bad to me or anything, but I noticed for, for me to be able to heal, I need to go inward and I need to be a hermit. So I just stayed home and it may sound woo woo, but I just allowed the trees to talk to me.

I sat outside, I'm in my little house. Right now, the little library and I sat on the front porch and I just looked at the trees and I just sat in silence and I did a lot of crying and praying and shedding and it, um. It led me to the point where I was able to go to massage therapy school in 2019 and then, uh, COVID happened.

So I wasn't able to have the graduation ceremony, but I graduated in 2020 and I told my husband, I was like, I think I need some time to myself. So I took a year off, and then he also went on his second deployment. So that gave me another year to myself to really go inward and to work on Kenya. And in every two years a massage therapist has to learn something new.

And that's when, um, I was able to go to Thailand in 2022 and learn time massage. And so, uh, I think. I feel like there was one part of that that I missed. But yeah, that's pretty much everything. So in 2021, since Chris Christopher was gone on deployment, I knew I needed to stay busy, so I started cur yoga wellness.

And right before I went to Thailand, this is such a beautiful story. So my sister, Shauna, she kept telling me that I needed to name my business after myself. And I was like, I'm gonna be honest. I was like, that's lame. I don't wanna name it Kenya. Uh, um, uh, I don't wanna do that. And then she was like, well, I really think you need.

Too, she's very spiritually attuned. And um, I was like, well, I guess I'll look into the meaning of my name. 'cause I never looked into it. My mom always told me that she saw these Kenya dolls and they were so beautiful and she wanted a doll for a little girl. So that's why she named me Kenya. And um, my father always liked the name, so they just agreed on Khinya.

And then I looked into Khinya and what it meant. And so Khinya and Kiran are the same name. And so Khinya Kiran, mm-hmm. Is the, uh, mountain in Kenya. It's the second highest peak in the continent of Africa. And I believe the Kaku tribe and the BU tribe, uh, I hope I pronounce those right, but they built their homes around Mount Kenya.

And they would open their doors and their windows, and they were praised to the mountain because they believe God came and rested on the mountain. And I saw that as no coincidence that I wanted to name my business, Kean Yago Wellness, and have a place for people to come and rest and find themselves again.

And my name is God's Resting. And I, right before I went to Thailand, these two ladies, they reached out to me and they said they wanted to get a time, or no, I was doing regular massage, then a Swedish massage. And so they came over and I knew off of their last names, they weren't African American. I just didn't know where.

I didn't know where they came from. And she was like, tell me the name of your business. Um, what, what, where did that come from? So I told her the whole story that I just told you, and she was like, well, I asked because my family's from the Cocoa Tribe, and I wanted to know if, yeah, I wanted to know if you actually knew the meaning behind it.

And she said, yes, you're correct. That's, that's the meaning behind it. And that day I'll always remember it. It was like the wind was just, it was just roaring and everything was moving the trees when I was telling the story and they were just sitting on the little half front porch steps and they were just watching me and it was such a beautiful moment.

Uh, I love sharing that story with people. Abs, there's so many beautiful synchronicities. I mean, you, things happen on special days of your life. You go to Ghana, you meet people from Alabama. Um, and then as you're telling this story, there's a woman who's from Kenya who, who, who lets you know Yes. That's it.

And then you've got, you know, mother, mother Earth doing her thing with the wind. Yeah. It's just clearly meant to be. So then, so then when you purchased your home, did it look the way it looks in social media right now or did you have to, um, to renovate it? Um, so we are the second family to live here. The previous owners, Joel and Anez Wood, they built the home in 1962 and they had no money to build the home.

And I'm so grateful for my neighbor, Ms. Diane, because she went to church with them and she has their testimony about the home from when they gave it to the church, um, as. Kinda like inspiration for the other people who went to the church who didn't have money, but they were looking for their home. So they wrote their testimony about the home and how when they moved here, the people they bought the land from told them to build a modest home.

And they only had enough money to build a modest home. So everything that they built was with their own hands and with their sons, their three boys. And um. They eventually started to create the garden that I'm in right now. And everything was here, like a little white house, but it looked nothing like this.

The floors weren't done. The, there was no paint on the walls, nothing. The greenhouse was filled with renovation. Um, um. Trash from when the people who bought it from Joel and Inez would, they just flipped the home. But they put all the renovation trash inside of the greenhouse and the home sat for I think about 10 years, maybe 15 years, because they moved to the historic district, Joel and Inez.

Um, I'm not sure, but in their later years, they decided to leave this home and move to the historic district in, um, downtown Gadsden. And the home is surrounded by trees. We're in northeast Alabama, so we're surrounded by deciduous trees and tons of pines, and a lot of the trees will fall on the fence. So, um, the fence had so many fallen trees on it, and then the bridge was old and dilapidated.

Um, because the home sat for so many years, a lot of the, um, pathways were covered with mud because there's like three terraces to the garden. And so the terra, or not terraces, but three levels, excuse me, to the garden. And so the, um, the paths closest to the little house were covered in mud. We didn't even know they existed until one day we were just outside doing some yard work.

And then we heard a thump and we started digging and we find the pavers. Yes. And the, the area where the earth kitchen is, it was fully, um, overgrown with brush. It looked nothing like how it looks today. We first cleared it out in 2019 and then we had to clear it out again in 2021. And I believe in 2022 is when we started building the earth kitchen.

But we've put our stamp on this place. Definitely. 'cause my husband didn't even know he could build until we moved here. He didn't know he could build furniture. His grandfather was, um, a carpenter and electrician. Yeah. His grandfather was a carpenter and electrician, and he built their, um, summer home that they had on the lake.

But, uh, Christopher never met him because he passed away, or he did, but he passed away when he was little, so he doesn't remember him. And, uh, Chris just didn't know. I asked him if he could build me a table for, um, our dining room. And that was the first thing he built. And when I saw that table and how beautiful it was, I was like, okay, you're building all the furniture now.

And we built the, um, the furniture and the kitchen and, and my studio and the outdoor outdoor furniture and then the outdoor kitchen as well. Um, with the outhouse. Yeah, we've done a lot. We've done a lot. What? And then so. What I am Sorry, go ahead. No, no, no. Go ahead. What was the inspiration behind building, um, the, the earth kitchen, building a, a full kitchen outdoors?

Like, walk me through that. Um, there's this young woman on, um, on YouTube. I believe her name is Zeki. I may be pronouncing it wrong, but she's a Chinese woman and she lives in the mountains and I am obsessed with watching her videos. I see her as the queen of content creation 'cause she cooks outside, she grows her own vegetables, everything's from scratch.

She does the old traditional methods of using an aox. To, um, help pull the, um, the stone mill around so that she could grind, um, her beings or anything that she's using. So she inspired me and I found her in massage therapy school. I'm not gonna lie, one day I didn't feel like going to class, so I decided to stay home and, um, I was just, I, that's the day that I found her.

And I benched watched all of her videos. She's probably the only content creator that I can repeat repeatedly watch her videos because they inspire me so much. 'cause she puts in so much work and it looks like something out of a fairytale. And I told my husband, I was like, you know, I want that. I want my own outdoor kitchen.

And this was in 2020. And he was like, well let's just start with an outdoor oven. So we built that little, the small oven on the little house front porch. Yes. And right before he left for his second deployment. And then, um, I just never gave up on that dream of having an outdoor kitchen. And I wrote down everything that I wanted it to look like.

I even came up with little rough sketches of how it would look. There's actually a sketch right there. It's not the prettiest, but a sketch of what I wanted it to look like. And I would walk the garden with nces. And I would say out loud what I wanted it to look like, I would cry, I would release, I would be in great detail about what I wanted to feel and how I want other people to feel when they came to the property and what I wanted them to experience because I wanted it to be a holistic experience that I wanted it to.

For them to feel like they step back in time and that something deep and ancestral was coming out of them because my, um, we have a family book. Uh, I'm gonna do my best not to get off a on a tangent with this part, but we have a family book on my mother's side that goes back about 200 years, and it tells the story of, um, my grandfather, I think, I believe he was my fourth grandfather, fourth great grandfather, Morris Maribel.

And it tells a story about how he was. Bought on the slave auction block. And the last thing he remembers seeing was his mother, who was a Creole woman. She was wearing a white apron and that was the last thing he saw of her. And then he went with his slave owner across the Chattahoochee River and he lived on the plantation.

And, um, I just knowing that I have that memory or that I just know that. She wore an apron, a white apron, and that, that probably meant she was cooking. And I, I have that, I have that connection with me and his wife, um, Morris's, Maribel wife, um, what was her name? Warner Closter. She was a Cherokee woman and so she lived in the northeast Alabama region.

So that means the same clay that I'm using to build this earth kitchen is the same clay that. Her people, um, used to grow corn or to build their own homes or to do whatever they needed to do. And so it is a deep ancestral bond that the clay that is going to be on the walls and the clay in my clay oven is the same clay that she used, and then it's also the same clay that is growing the vegetables in the front yard.

So it is just one big old circle. And I wanted people to experience that. I wanted to experience it 'cause I've never felt that before. And I had little taste of it here and there. Like when we went on to Pioneer Villages, um, in elementary school for field trips and I, those, those field trips always stood out to me because I, I always remember the smell, the smell of the fire and how it made me feel and.

I just, I, I always held onto that memory and I didn't know why I was holding onto that memory, but it was because something within me was wanting to come out. Some, some deep ancestral part of me was wanting to come out and it manifested in the kitchen. Kenya, it's the most. Beautiful story on so many levels.

The fact that you even have that rich of a history of your family to be able to go back 200 years because as an African American in this country, it is extremely hard to trace. At least what I have found is to trace, um, your family back, you know, because so much of it was just stolen and, and rubbed and, and we just don't have access to it.

So for you to have that story, first of all, it's heartbreaking. Just the thought of him. I can't even imagine. Being pulled from his mom and never seeing her again, the whole thing. But for you to take something beautiful from it and to connect with her apron mm-hmm. And realize that, you know, make that connection.

And there's nothing like the Red Clay in Alabama. So my family, my mother's, um, family is from Birmingham. So my entire life we have been going back and forth to Birmingham. It is absolutely home to me. It is just, I, I've always, um. I just loved going there and, um, still love to, to go and visit family. And we also have family in Atlanta, so I, I just, I I love it.

And so my, my question for you is, um, as you are making these connections and you're being pulled towards this life, were you an amazing cook? I mean, or did you have to learn how to cook the way that you cook? Like what was that like? Um, so growing up I was always like super shy and I didn't know, um, how to.

Just not hide behind my mother's legs all the time. I was always attached to my mom, and if I was attached to her, that meant I was always in the kitchen with her and she trusted me enough to the point where in the fourth, was it the fourth grade? Yeah, I think it was the fourth grade. You know those hot eyes that you can take, like the electric eyes?

Like if you're going camping. Yes. Okay. She trusted me in the fourth grade and you could tell times were different. I took a knife, the hot plate, and all the ingredients to make fried rice in the fourth grade as my show and tell. Yeah, so she, 'cause she knew I, um, she saw me cook in the kitchen. I always cooked at home and she trusted me in her own kitchen.

So she was like, you can go and do that. That's, that's fine if you do that as your show and tell times, you're definitely different. But, um. Yeah, and I remember in the third grade I wanted to be a chef and uh, she took me to Walmart and I got an apron and I decorated it. I didn't care how it turned out, but I still wore it to career day.

And, and we were in the gym and you had to walk across the stage and they were like, what do you wanna be when you grow up? And I said, I wanna be a chef. And I really did. I asked for Christmas, I asked for pots and pans, and of course my mother obliged because, well, she got pots and pans for Christmas. And so, um, I got cookbooks.

I'm actually looking at one right now. Um, I have, I got cookbooks as a kid. I was al always obsessed. With food. Um, and you're gonna laugh at this story, um, one time my mom got pulled over when we were Dr. Uh, when she was driving and I was maybe three years old and I just started crying my eyes out and the police officer was like, what's wrong?

And I said, well, if you take her to jail, who's gonna feed me? And that, that, I don't think she got a ticket because of that, because I was crying and I was so, I was like, what? How am I going to eat? Yes. And so I've always loved cooking and I, but cooking outside over a fire, the skill just came to me. Um, I have.

That, that's the best way to describe it. I don't know where it came from. I just knew that I could do it. I just started doing it and I, that's it. I don't know how to describe it honestly. It is something deep and it's an ancestral bond that I have 'cause. If you look at every culture, it was surrounded by fire.

So it's in all of us, but for me, I guess it really called out to me and it just showed me like, you already know what to do. And even if I make mistakes here and there, I see it as me playing. I just see it as little 8-year-old Kenya and the third grade who's just playing and having fun in her imaginary kitchen with her imaginary friends.

And, and I don't, um, I'm not hard on myself when I'm out there cooking in that kitchen. I'm harder on myself inside our main home than I am in that kitchen. And that one, it's really just the love of playing. The love of cooking. And even inside, um, I think it was like your Butler's pantry. Oh yeah. I saw a video that is beautiful with all of your antique, um, uh, just objects.

And I saw one where your sister kind of came and she had something special and she was pulling from. Mm-hmm. I mean, there's just so much. So let me ask you this. Um. It has been such kind of an awakening to watch your content because we live in this world where there's just not enough time for anything.

It's, we're rushing and we're tired and we're exhausted. And the idea of dinner is like, oh my God, what am I gonna make? And you know, we, we look at the things that you have just made. Beautiful. Sometimes it's just, oh, this is something I have to do. We're looking for convenience, we're looking for fast.

Mm-hmm. How do you find the time to put so much intention into saying, I want something sweet, but instead of going to buy a pie, I am going to make it from scratch and I'm gonna cook it over this wood-burning oven. And I mean, and I'm gonna pull, you know, these wild flowers, flowers from my garden. Like, what is your, how, how are you doing it?

How are you doing it? Um, I would say, if I'm gonna be honest, it's about balance because sometimes I do just order a pizza 'cause I'm too tired. I feel, I feel a little better. I feel a little better. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. We're not always, it's, it's some, okay. Shout out to Meow Mushroom. I love Meow Mushroom Pizza, but, um, it's really because I see it as like.

An adventure to be able to do something like that and to look up. So if I'm cramping the pie crust and I look up and I see the chickens roaming and my heart is just bursting, and then I usually have classical music playing in the background. 'cause that's like my favorite genre of music I know. And. I just, I want to, I feel like if this is the one life I get to live in this vessel, why not do the most?

I have always been very extra. Um, as my husband and my siblings, they will tell you I'm very extra and I just. Think like, you know, why not? Why not do it? If I have it, why not? Why? And it just, it's just so beautiful to be able to create something like that and to share it online. And then also a lot of the times, because I don't really eat like that much anymore, and I just give it away.

A lot of times I, I just bake it and I give it away. Like this past summer, I did a lot of canning for, um, strawberry Jam. I see. I think I gave away every single jar except for one. And then I also baked biscuits that day too. And so, um, I gave away to my, the local fire department, my neighbor, miss Diane, just so, so many people.

I do it for that because it, it. To be able to curate my own movie set. 'cause that's how I feel. That's what I feel like I'm doing, is I live in a movie set. So why not just, and for what people say, be the main character. Why not just be the main character in my movie? And show up with a basket of warm biscuits and some jam.

And, and then also, I'm not gonna lie, I do it because it's nice to see people's faces too, of me showing up with this basket of jam and, um, and warm biscuits. 'cause they're, they're not expecting it. 'cause I'm like six foot tall and you know, a black woman in the south. You say that you made it over a fire in your mud kitchen.

What? Yes. First of all, I'm not sure if you're the main character. I think you're competing a little bit with that house of yours and that garden and your food. I mean, it's all, it's so much to take in it. I'm telling you that you have to watch her content because you have to watch it over and over again because of the detail and you can almost feel the love.

And it's not like, it's not like when you watch content where someone is in a kitchen with Sub-Zero, $15,000 refrigerators. Mm-hmm. It's a different kind of. Energy. I can't, I can't explain it. But tell us a little bit about Ki Kiran Yago Wellness. Like, so this is your home. Mm-hmm. You do this for you and your family and for all the people that you gift your, your, your delicious dishes to.

But then you also have, oh, it's a wellness center, it's a retreat center. Tell us a little bit about that. So with Kiran Yago Wellness, uh, I think it came from me wanting to help myself so much in that dark time that I wanna be able to. Give people a little bit of a light that what's, that's within me and I wanna share.

'cause I say all the time I see God as like a prism. And it depends on where you're standing, on what color you see. And so when you come to care and y wellness, you get to see this color of God that you may not have ever seen before. You got taste of it and you're been yearning for it. And I, that's what I want, is to give people an opportunity to slow down and to see how loved they really are.

Not that many people get an opportunity to drink tea from a crystal cup or to sit. In a garden for an extra 20 minutes after they get a massage. 'cause I knew in massage therapy school that I wanted it to be more than just a massage. I didn't want them to come and just get for them, for me to rub their body, and then they feel better and then they leave.

I wanted. To touch them spiritually, mentally, physically, emotionally, and for all five senses to be engaged. Um, I wanted it to be a lasting experience because if you can only afford to come that one time, let that one time last you the rest of the year, let it be imprinted on your heart so that way you, if you ever feel overwhelmed, you think back to that, that time that you had in the garden.

You're like, oh, that was a good time. Because that's all we have are these memories, and that's what I wanna create for people are just timeless memories that that last with them. Yeah. And so I've never had a time massage. Um, I typically get like a hot stone. I've heard of Swedish massages, but what is it about a time massage?

Like what, what makes. Unique. Okay, so time massage, you're fully clothed and you lay on a mat and I will put your body in different positions, um, so that you can get a deep stretch. It's a combination between Ayurveda yoga and Chinese acupressure. And I do northern style Thai massage because Southern and northern style are two different things.

Southern style is very much like the south of Thailand or mainly Bangkok fast. A lot of pressure. You're going, going, going to Northern. They still have the Lana culture. And so it's a lot slower. They even say the Northerners talk slower up in Northern Thailand, and it's a lot of deep stretches and acupressure compared to the main focus being Chinese, acupressure and then stretches.

So if you can envision ringing out a washcloth and how you twist it and all the water comes out, that's what I'm doing with your body with those stretches. Mm. And then afterwards you're just like a limp noodle and it's, it feels amazing because of my stature compared to, um, a tie woman, they're usually like five feet maybe, maybe five two, and under.

They're very petite. And I am six foot and I work out too. So I have a lot of muscle and that means that whenever I am giving you acupressure, I'm using my whole body weight and my stature alone. I don't mean to pop, um, your back or your hips or your shoulder, but it happens. And so it's kind of like getting, um, a Swedish massage because some of the movements that I do so is Swedish yoga and going to the chiropractor all in one.

And I stopped doing Swedish massage because. Um, as a practitioner, you give everything to the person on the table, and a lot of people sometimes just take, and they don't mean to, but they take, they take your energy and, um, they don't give anything in, in return, but with time massage, because if you need a deep stretch and we're both on the ground.

I have to put you in a deep stretch. So that means I'm getting, um, a intense stretch in my hips or in my, um, hamstrings or in my shoulders. And it's like a dance. It's so beautiful to watch and to experience and, um, I love it. I, I can't go back to Swedish massage because it's like doing yoga all day long.

Um, I, I really feel great. It sounds amazing. I think I have actually seen some videos of people kind of getting stretched out and it, I think it was a time, um, massage. Mm-hmm. Um, and so people come there to get massages and then they're able to go into your garden afterwards. Um, do you also offer retreats?

Um, can people come or take cooking classes? At one point we did, um, offer retreats and then I didn't really offer that many this year 'cause I took some time to myself. But yes, um, in 2026 we should be able to host more retreats and then cooking classes as well, because I'm going back to school for, um, for baking and, um.

Yes, I wanna be able to get my degree. And so I told myself, you know what, let's work to go to LaCorte on Blue, because I took a workshop there in Paris. But I, I knew within me that I wanted to make that full circle moment of little, little Kenya walking across the stage in the gym saying she wanted to be a chef to 31-year-old Kenya walking across the stage in Paris saying.

I'm a chef and eventually I would like to teach people how to, um, bake bread out of the earth kitchen because now it's fully functioning. Um, I would like to teach them how to bake bread in the big old earth oven, how to cook over fire. We've also hosted, um, in the past like are eve cooking classes and yoga retreat.

And, um, baseball experiences, especially now since the greenhouse we converted into an outdoor shower so people could come and get a time massage, um, take a shower in the, um, outdoor shower, get dressed, and then I serve them like tea in the earth kitchen. That way they, they touch every sense, they, every sense is touched when, um, they decide to.

Eventually leave the garden. Oh my God. I, I have got to, I have to figure out a way to come 'cause you're about an hour outside of Birmingham and an hour mm-hmm. From Atlanta. Right. It's like perfect. Um, an hour outside of Birmingham, about an hour and 40 from Atlanta. Oh, okay. Okay. Mm-hmm. So can you, with all of this, do you ever get overwhelmed?

Um, yeah. So the, what do you do then when life tries to pull on you and pull you back, you know, out of alignment? How do you. Ground yourself again or get rooted. Um, I isolate myself. I go back to what I know it's best for me. I need to be a hermit. I need to, um, just have my phone turned off for just a little bit and then just sit outside.

Gardening. I need to garden. Uh, uh, I have to garden. Actually at this point. This is, this will be my 10th year of gardening. Yeah. And it's therapy. I, I can't, I can't see myself without a garden ever in my life. 'cause growing up, I, I woke up out of nowhere one day and. I was like maybe seven, eight years old.

And I went into my mom's bedroom and I was like, I want a garden. And she was like, oh, okay. And um, I don't know where I got this money from, but I got some money and I went to dog tree and I bought those little seats that they sell and like the little kid, like shovel and things like that. So I started a garden and I marked it off and on the side of the house.

It would have never grown because I didn't know what I was doing. I barely put the seed in the ground, but I had, I had faith and then one day I heard the lawnmower and my stepdad didn't know that those rocks were there for my garden. Yeah, he ended up mowing over it, but uh, I gave up on it then. But when I was 20, the same feeling of you need a garden.

Came back to me. And so gardening is one way that I, um, heal myself and I return to Kenya cooking. Cooking for myself, cooking it, especially in that outdoor kitchen because you can't rely on any modern technology. I don't use thermometers or anything. I just use, um, traditional skills when it comes to like, um, testing to see if the oven is hot enough or I just.

Go off of instincts. Mm-hmm. So, um, it's one way that I really come home to Kenya and I started back meditating recently because I fell off and, um. Just connecting with myself, either through working out or stretching or even watching a good movie. I love movies like Pride and Prejudice and um, I call them like my white Women in trouble movies.

Um, those are my guilty obsessions. And so anything where, you know, it is set back and it's a time period movie, I love it, especially with Kira Knightly. So I do those things, yes, to just be able to take care of myself. Because I, I put a lot on my plate at times because I am such a creative woman, and if it's in me, I have to bring it to life.

I can't just let it sit there. But, and at the same time, sometimes I overwhelm myself and I just think like Kenya, it's okay. You're only 30. You don't have to get it all done in this one year or in this timeframe, in this decade, you hopefully will have this long, beautiful life to be able to make that happen for yourself.

And it's really just, yeah, those little things. Can you, I just love this and I, I wanna say to people who are listening. You know, there's so many threads that we can pull on from all the conversations that I've had with the amazing women I get to, to meet. Most stories start from a place of darkness, like something something has happened in, you know, their lives, and I know at the time it feels so heavy.

Yeah. I just want, if people are listening to hear that, a lot of times it's, there's a gift wrapped in there. Mm-hmm. It's, it's your life shaking you out of status quo, and it's, it's giving you an opportunity to step into something more beautiful. So that's, that's one thing that I'm taking from this. But the other part is this idea of stillness, of trusting what's within.

I know when I left my corporate career, I just sat in stillness. I'm not a still person, but it was something that I just felt called to, so similar to what you were saying, I would just sit in stillness on my. Watching the birds, and that is when something kind of started to awaken in me. So again, the answers are within, they're within.

We just have to get quiet enough. Listen, have a little bit of courage and faith to make that jump. Um. Okay, but be before I move on to our beautiful fix speed round. Mm-hmm. I'm just wondering, Kenya, is there anything that you haven't shared with us today that I haven't asked you that you would like to, to share?

Hmm. Um, I would say a lot of people who look. Who may look at my social media accounts, especially like my TikTok, um, they see this beautiful life and they think it requires money or, um, that I come from a privileged background, things like that. And I'm not gonna say it doesn't require some, some skin in the game.

It does. And at the same time. There's plenty of things that we have made on this part, like this room for instance. Ooh, was it $150 budget and repurposing, um, old wood from race beds, and then the outdoor kitchen. It's made out of pallets, stuff with old clothes and straw and mud. You can make anything beautiful.

You can romanticize your life at any time. And it doesn't have to be that you live in a state of delusion and you're like, you know, um, I'm gonna romanticize my life and not pay any attention to the things that are going on. It's just a matter of like, if you're having a bad day, you go to the record player.

If you have a record player at home, you go to the record player, you put something on. You hear the little t, you go to the kitchen, you start cooking, you slide an instant. Maybe you cook by candlelight that night, you know, or you sit outside and, and you go for a walk and you intentionally step on the leaves so that way you can hear the crunch underneath your feet.

You know, you just take your time. You, you enjoy the beauty and the mundane because we have so many things that provide convenience for us. But convenience wraps us of an experience. And that's even like putting your clothes on the line if you can. Or if you don't have a clothes line, maybe you hang them up, um, on your deck or around your home.

That way you smell the fresh laundry. You know, there's, there's plenty of things you can do to romanticize your life. It doesn't have to be on the same scale that I am doing. And if, if you want that, then just know it also takes a lot of work. A lot of work. There's been plenty of times where I'm out, me and my husband are outside late at night and it's dark.

We can barely see. We have headlamps on, but we, I really wanna get this project done. And thankfully he's so supportive, he's willing to help me that way we can get it done. Um, I just want people to know, it doesn't have to be on the same scale as what I am doing, or at the same capacity. It could be whatever you could handle, but please romanticize your life.

If you have the opportunity, you can put a handle by the window, seal and wash your dishes. I've done that plenty of times. Or just sitting outside with a warm drink in your hand and being grateful for that warm drink.

I'm just taking it in. I'm just breathing it in. It's just so beautiful. And the idea of just cooking by candlelight, it's so easy. I mean it's, or, or, or washing your dishes by candle. I think it's the intentionality that you put behind things. It's the thoughtfulness. Mm-hmm. It's the taking a step to say, how can I make this an experience?

How can I enjoy this? I think you sprinkle a little bit of gratitude in there and it's, um. I'm, I'm just gonna rethink everything that I, that I do for the rest of the day and month and year. Thank you. But, all right. It's time for my beautiful fixed speed round. Okay. Which is not, it's very, very long. Okay.

So what makes you come alive?

Hmm. Creating something beautiful. Out of nothing at that. Um, and I know I've mentioned this example before, but this, I love sitting in this library 'cause the, it, it reminds me of my travels and to know that I was able to do this. 'cause I'm not one to paint. I really don't care to paint at all to know that I put forth that effort and I was using my um.

I was using my creative skills to think outside the box of like, how can I create a bar cart or a bar cabinet in here? And I just took those old race beds and some old windows and hinges that we had and painted them, spray, painted the hinges and put it together. So I would say creating and especially creating an experience for people.

Like recently I held a, um, a fall festival for babies. And it was so magical, and to know that I created a core memory for them. That makes me come alive. 'cause they, they're like, they range from nine to four and I think they will remember that. And I allowed them to throw a pie in my face too. Saw that, I saw that You is a better woman than I am.

I, I. I don't think I could do it again. I don't know how third grade teacher, Ms. McElroy did it every year. I have no idea how she did that. But to, I would say it is creating something beautiful, which means it is creating a beautiful experience, either for myself or for others. But that makes me come alive to see that, to know that I have, um, I take a little corner in your heart or in your mind, just a little corner knowing that Ken's there and it's not because, um.

It is not because of anything superficial, it's because I made you come alive. Mm. I'll say that. And I have to say, you looking at something that you created, you and your husband created, I mean, it's wonderful when you can go out and pay someone to come in and do it all, but man, to take a step back and I built this, I, you know, it's, it's takes it to another level.

Yes. What is, what is a song that instantly shifts your energy or makes you feel something? Uh, it's a classical song. It's one of my favorites, and thankfully I found it on vinyl one day. Um, I have this. I know things come call out to me whenever I go antiquing or anything like that, and it was this one vinyl, I didn't know it had my favorite song on there until one day I put it on my record player.

I have one of those old school Panasonics from the, I think the seventies or the early eighties. And, um, I put it on there and I'm cleaning, and then all of a sudden I hear the melody and I'm like, my song, and it's Ralph V. Williams, um, Fantasia on Green Sleeves. That song is, is so beautiful. I love it. Um, that song, it really does something to me.

Or, um, rye Open. Uh, I'm a big fan of Rye The Artist, or even, um, bin Maryella. That's a good one too. Thank you. I'm just writing all this down. 'cause I love classical music. My, I've always said that one of the, the songs that moves me so much is Moonlight sonata. It's just something Oh yeah. About it. Mm-hmm. I just, I can't get enough of it.

Um, what's a book that cracked you open or stayed with you long after the last page? It is a simple children's book, but it is Big Panda, tiny Dragon. I love that book. I love that book. There's so many one-liners in that book. Uh. I, I'm obsessed with that one. I listen to it at least once every year. Um, I have the, I have the physical copy, so I like to read it once and then I like to at least listen to it one time a year.

And that's a phenomenal book. It is great for children and it's great for adults. Um, I love it. I love it. That is a new one. Okay. Um, what's your favorite little indulgence or guilty pleasure? Um, I mentioned it earlier, um, watching, um, period dramas like the Gilded L The Gilded Age on HBO was a really good one.

Or, um, Downton Abbey, but the other one, ice cream cones. I am a sucker for cone, especially while driving and especially like with my truck. 'cause I have a, um, my first truck was a 1978 F-150, but this is my second truck is a, um, 1985 F-150. So driving an old truck and having an ice cream cone, I'm not gonna lie.

I love it. I'm obsessed with it.

That's awesome. Well, what's one thing that always reminds you how beautiful life really is? Huh?

Two things. It would be watching leaves fall. There's this one quote from, um, this Disney movie. Uh, I may butcher it, but the movie's called Soul. It's one of my favorite movies. And she was like, what if, yeah, what if my purpose is to watch leaves fall and every time I get caught up in whatever's going on in my life and I see something fall from the sky or, uh.

Like, you know, those little, um, dandelion puffs through the wind. Yeah. During spring time I just think, okay, Kenya, just enjoy that, enjoy that little moment, that nugget. And then the other thing is, whenever I'm walking the garden, sometimes the, because the sun, um, it, the way it moves throughout the garden, especially during the spring and summertime, since I'm surrounded by trees, we get pockets of sunlight and.

Throughout the day, if I'm walking throughout the garden and I see a pocket of sunlight hit this plant that I've never seen, it just sparkle like that before I just stop and I look at it and I'm like, thank you. Thank you for sh showing me how brilliant you are, and thank you for allowing me to experience this with you.

And then, uh, not too long after the sun moves on to another spot and I just go on to whatever I was doing. I love it. We're surrounded by beautiful things. Oh, absolutely. How can people find and connect with you? Um, the, I post more on TikTok. I have to do better on posting on Instagram, but, um, my name is Kiran Yaga Wellness, and you can find me either on TikTok or Instagram with that US username.

And then my business website is kiranyaga wellness.com. Wonderful. And of as always, we'll put all of that in the show notes. Um. Mm-hmm. Well, thank you Khinya. You've reminded all of us that a beautiful life isn't something we have to chase. No. It's something we can create one quiet, intentional moment at a time.

I'm just so grateful to be able to share your story, your energy, and your wisdom today, and to my friends listening. If any of this resonated with you, I invite you to consider how you might be able to call in this level of beautiful, intentional living. And until next time, stay high on life. One beautiful fix at a time.