Episode 4 : Alaina Rhodes

Alaina may be a newish employee to ēlia but she is not new to ēlia. She has been on this incredible journey over the last few years and as ēlia enters into whole wellness, Alaina is playing a critical role. Starting with what we're drinking today, you will learn more about us both from the beginning. She practices functional medicine and is bringing that to ēlia through the Renewal Collective and you can learn more about that on our website at eliadayspa.com. There is so much to say and I'm having a hard time making it concise...so, please take a listen and join us as we talk about about what were passionate about and how we love helping others. 

-nichole

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:09

Alright, so today on Spala Land, which this is our fourth episode, by the way. I'm really excited for this. Um, I've got Elena Rhodes with me. So welcome, Elena. Um, so before we get started, can you tell me what's what you're drinking today? What's in your cup?

SPEAKER_03 0:27

Oh, yeah. This is my I've been drinking this for a few weeks now. This is my favorite like morning stack. It is Peak Tees Um BT Fountain electrolyte pack. So it's got hyaluronic acid and ceramides in it, which I love. Love that for your skin too. Yes. Um, L-glutamine and hydrogen. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 0:46

So that's a lot packed into that. Yes. Are there any um so fake sugars kind of affect me quite a bit? Is there anything in there that I need to be cautious about?

SPEAKER_03 0:56

No, this is a super clean, clean drink as long as you're relatively healthy. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:02

Well, I may need to have the link to that because I could use a little bit of um electrolyte. So good. And today I have in my spalal land cup um special tea, and I drink a different tea every day depending on where I am in my cycle, and it helps me wherever I am in my cycle. So these are herbs to um just help me with my hormone levels and all of that as I go through perimetopause. So it tastes good. It does taste good, and you know, I'm learning lots of things. So it's a different tea that I'm drinking about every four to six days, depending on where I'm in, what phase I'm in with my cycle. So even if you get tired of one thing, you know, like within the next couple days, you're gonna be drinking something else because your body needs something else. So this is I'm about five weeks into this, drinking it on a regular basis, and I will say I have started to notice a difference already. Amazing just like just during my period, being way less uncomfortable.

SPEAKER_03 2:06

Amazing.

SPEAKER_02 2:07

Used all those words wrong, but that's okay.

SPEAKER_03 2:10

Yeah, it I mean, your hormones fluctuate so much throughout your cycle, you need different supportive herbs at different times, so it makes perfect sense.

SPEAKER_02 2:17

Yeah, so I'm I've been really enjoying this, so yeah, this is um what I'm drinking today. So I'm excited. Love it. Uh but yeah, I usually drink it at night. So I did put a little bit of raw honey in here too. So it's delicious. But yeah, all right, Elena. So thank you so much for being on Spala Land today. And I guess we're coming towards the end of April as this podcast launches. But I would like to ask you a couple questions. So Elena is a licensed esthetician, but we go back, we're going on nine years ago when I first met you. And you were working in the staple coffee shop of Mealtown Coffee here on the square. Um, but I remember meeting you, and I I also remember a couple years later after we had opened Elia, because you started working for me for just temporarily for a little bit. I guess Ely would have been a couple years old at that time. And um, it was funny because I remember you saying, you're like, yeah, we were really wondering how a spa was gonna go.

SPEAKER_03 3:24

Yes, I didn't feel like the square was quite ready to sustain a spa, but you were very brave for taking it on.

SPEAKER_02 3:32

So here we are, nine years later. We started nine years ago, we opened Alia nine years ago.

SPEAKER_03 3:37

Proved us wrong.

SPEAKER_02 3:38

April 2017. Didn't know I had to prove anybody. Um, but yeah, um I I just thought that was just a funny comment you made when you started working for me for a little bit. I was like, and here you are.

SPEAKER_00 3:52

Now you're working as an esthetician here at Alia. We are so thankful that you're here.

SPEAKER_02 4:09

So can you tell us a little bit about why you decided to go become an esthetician? And um, I mean, I knew why are I knew you were going to school um as you were leaving up going to school and that you're gonna be here. Okay, so now that you're here as an esthetician at Alia, can you tell me what made you go into this field?

SPEAKER_03 4:30

Yeah, so the coffee industry was perfect for me because I was face-to-face with people, which I love. And so when I transitioned into working with functional health, um, I've been doing that for about four years now. The one thing it lacked was that human face-to-face connection because it's so primarily virtual. I'm just on screen. Um, and so I I was really lacking that in my life, and it was impacting me on a in a in a personal way. Um, so then I started thinking, what could I do that kind of overlaps with dysfunctional health, but also gives me human connection. Yes. Yes. Um, so I work a lot, I talk to my clients a lot about lymphatic health, nervous system regulation, um, gut health, skin health. And so so many of my clients have skin health issues too, myself included, actually.

SPEAKER_02 5:24

Um I think we'd recently figured something out with you.

SPEAKER_03 5:27

Yes, we did, yes, we did. But rosacea, eczema, acne, all of that's very common. So being an aesthetician was like a perfect overlap of all of these things that are important to me and that I love. Yeah. A perfect fit.

SPEAKER_02 5:42

Um so you mentioned that you're in the you you work with the nervous system. Um, so you beyond what you do as an aesthetician, the services that you do, you realize overlap. So you mentioned manual lymphatic drainage. So you went and you took some classes for that, along with I think we have nine people here, Ely, lymphatic. It has become such an incredible service here. Can you talk about um why you chose to go take that class and get certified and to be able to offer that to guests?

SPEAKER_03 6:17

Yeah, so again, like I said, I educate my clients on the lymphatic system all the time because it's well, first of all, it's the bulk of your immune system. Um and most of it resides in your gut. So any kind of anybody with gut issues, they need to work on their lymphatic system. Anyone with inflammation need to work on your lymphatic system. So everybody? Pretty much everybody. Everybody, yeah. Yes. And just people as a whole, we don't move the way that we were originally designed to move. Yeah. The way that we were built to be moving our bodies every day. We just we don't anymore. And Okay, real quick, how were we supposed to? Well, what are we built for? We're walking, we're hiking, we're like raising up, getting food out of you know, the bushes, we're we're farming, we're some more ancestors.

SPEAKER_02 7:11

Yes, yes, which yeah, which you know, we have we have very convenient grocery stores.

SPEAKER_03 7:16

Exactly. Not having to do a lot of a lot of movement beyond just basic walking. Um and your lymphatic system relies on muscle movement to pump it because it doesn't use the heart as a pump, it has no pump. So because society is not moving as designed, everybody really would benefit from that manual boost to get their lymph fluid flowing and get those toxins cleared out more efficiently, um, instead of because it just builds up over years and years.

SPEAKER_02 7:51

And so with lymphatic, so I I've learned about lymphatic a couple years ago, and it's just an incredible service. Um I'm gonna talk about a couple of the benefits of it because even when when we talked about you coming here before you even started here, like lymphatic was a passion of yours. Um and like I know why. Like we have we are seeing so many more lymphatics on the alias schedule every single week. It's or you're adding it, maybe a client's adding it 20 minutes to a massage or 20 minutes to a facial. We also do cranial sacral here too, so that's being added more. But um so personally, lymph upper body lymphatics so it's called face, neck, and brain. Yes, upper body. I'm like, I didn't know I had a lint in my brain a couple of years ago. I was like, oh, it's up there too. And oh, it also goes all the way down to your ankles, yeah, it's everywhere, and it has to manually be pumped up around the heart to purify, yes, essentially, or go through like that filtration system. But one of the things that we've really used it for um has been our kids' sinus infections that they were getting every single year, and then the last three seasons, three years, um, for my one son specifically, my oldest son, he gets a we know when it's turning into a sinus infection or when the when the seasons change, and we've been able to get him in for lymphatic each time, and it has prevented him going on an antibiotic for the last three years now. Yes, and it has been amazing. But also I've noticed even this year, the length of his allergy season has shortened too. So he doesn't get them on a regular basis, yeah. So he doesn't get all the other benefits on a regular basis, but just for the sinus infections, it has been phenomenal.

SPEAKER_03 9:38

Well, allergies, particularly seasonal allergies, are a dysregulation of your immune system and your lymphatic system, huge component of your immune system. So doing that lymphatic drainage is helping to regulate that immune system so it doesn't overreact to pollen, it doesn't overreact to things in sense.

SPEAKER_02 9:57

Yeah. Um, another benefit, I'm I'm highlighting the benefits. Um so when I had my fourth child, unbeknownst to me, it took me two years to figure out that it actually sent me into early perimenopause. And with the that comes lots of different symptoms that thankfully uh we are now starting to call talk about uh in a culture, which you know you know that the women's health is one of the least studied um fields. Yes, and it's it's it just breaks my heart that like women have been going through this since the start of time, and it's we've only studied men's bodies. We've only studied men's bodies, so I'm so thankful that it is now becoming part of a regular conversation, but part of that is brain fog. Yes, and oh my gosh, even this morning, like me, you and somebody else were in a meeting this morning. I'm like, uh words, words are just yes, they're not coming. And thankfully you and the other girl were able to help with my words. But I'm like, but I have seen for myself, but also other clients who've gotten manual lymphatic, like how much it has improved their brain fog too, especially since 2020 COVID year too. Yes. Um, it's gotten really bad. So, what are a couple other benefits that you have seen with people that you've seen? Because you you you've performed several manual lymphatics at this point. Yes.

SPEAKER_03 11:24

Uh one of the most obvious to see just in real time is you watch that puffiness in their face disappear. Like their cheekbones are popping after a lymphatic drainage treatment. Um, yes, and and that is uh what a lot of people originally are drawn to it for is for you know, they just feel like their their face is puffy. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:47

Um so that is one, and then also So again, that puffiness is a symptom of a deeper root cause. Yes. Yes, so just treating the puffiness, yes, it will temporarily be treated, but until you treat that root cause, puffiness will come back. And I mean you people can come back here as much as they want, but we also want you to feel whole from and understand why it's happening in the first place, yes.

SPEAKER_03 12:09

Um, and then like you're saying, the sinuses and ear fluid. I am someone who I get fluid built up in my ears all the time, and I love doing a lymphatic treatment, and you hit a point where they start swallowing a lot. Yeah, and that's how I know, like, okay, we got it moving.

SPEAKER_02 12:27

It's it's moving. Um, one of the myths that people have is that it's painful. Is lymph is manual lymphatic drainage painful?

SPEAKER_03 12:35

No, not at all.

SPEAKER_02 12:36

If it is, maybe see someone else you're in the wrong place. It is the most relaxing. So I don't know if I've ever been able to stay awake through a treatment. Um it's so not painful that actually recently we had um a mom bring her daughter up from Atlanta to see one of our service providers here because sh her daughter was experiencing lots of um earaches and ear infections, and so it helped her friend to not need tubes, which was incredible. And of course, everybody could be different, but she brought her two-year-old daughter up from Atlanta here to see one of our service providers to receive manual lymphatic drainage to help prevent that. And amazing. Um, as far as I know, she's still clear of tubes, and so no, it is not painful at all. A little two-year-old can't get it done.

SPEAKER_03 13:30

Well, and if you think about it, your lymphatic system is right under your skin. Yeah. So you you should not be pressing hard. There shouldn't be pressure.

SPEAKER_02 13:37

It's not, it's not like a regular massage.

SPEAKER_03 13:39

No, no, it's it's very gentle.

SPEAKER_02 13:41

Okay, outside of manual lymphatic drainage, because we virtually everybody can receive that. It's also really great, like post-surgery. Like, if anybody has surgery, you know, they need to make sure that like they don't have any tubes left in them before they come to Elia or drainage tubes, but it is such a fantastic post-surgery treatment. Um outside of manual lymphatic drainage, what would you say is one of your favorite services to give at Elia?

SPEAKER_03 14:09

I love the escalbute or the I feel like it's a it's the hydrolesscence is also really wonderful, and that it's very similar but longer than the escalbute. It's a little more involved. Um, but those are both so hydrating to the skin and so relaxing to the client. I see such a difference after giving those facials. Um, I yeah, I love the glow that they have after those. It's so good.

SPEAKER_02 14:38

Okay, so the Escalbute and the Hydro Lessons, those are both Yonka facials. So Yonka facials are a true French facial, they have a special machine in them. Again, not painful, super relaxing, smells amazing. Um, but have some different products and you use the products a different way. So the hydro lessons she mentioned has two masks.

SPEAKER_01 15:01

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 15:01

One of them is a time release mask, so you're increasing your hydration for the next eight to nine hours, which is amazing, but you can also sleep in that as a home care product, yes. Um great when traveling and you're like in areas where it just like sucks your skin dry, you can sleep in that mask. And then the second mask is a rubberized mask. Edelina, how did I tell you to put this mask on people's faces? What did I remember what I told you to? Like, have you ever done this? It's just like that.

SPEAKER_03 15:29

Oh, shoot. Yes, I do remember you saying that. Oh, frosted cake.

SPEAKER_02 15:36

Trick question. If you've ever frosted a cake, you kind of like apply the mask like a like you're frosting a cake. And um, so it's a rubberized mask, but it helps heighten, uh not heighten, tighten, brighten, and hydrate the skin. So those are fun.

SPEAKER_03 15:53

They're very fun to apply. And the skin just looks it looks so good.

SPEAKER_02 15:58

Yeah, and it comes off like in one piece. That's a professional only product. We don't carry that at home. Um, so while I have you here, I also want to ask you, what what does your home care routine look like? Um, and I know it might change a little bit depending on hormones and how your body's reacting to different things, but like what would you say is your typical home care routine right now?

SPEAKER_03 16:20

Right now, I'm really loving Green NV's Sooth for my cleanser. Can you describe the soothe a little bit? Yeah, my skin is super prone to irritation and just being painful. Um, and so the sooth, it's it's a creamy uh cleanser.

SPEAKER_02 16:39

It's like milk.

SPEAKER_03 16:39

Like a milky cleanser. Yeah, it's not, yeah, it's not like a thick lotion. No. Um, but it feels so good on my skin. I feel such a difference afterwards. So I use that. Um, and then I use the sooth toner, which is an eelier product.

SPEAKER_02 16:55

An eel product, yes. We didn't try. Promise we didn't try. Apparently, all skincare companies like to use the same name.

SPEAKER_03 17:03

Well, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:04

So it's they're all soothing. So soothe toner is a peppermint distillate base.

SPEAKER_03 17:09

Yep. And toner itself has been such a game changer for me. I use it, part of it is that I was only using it once a day, and I've gotten to where I carry it with me, and I use it all day long, and it has helped decrease the inflammation of my skin so much.

SPEAKER_02 17:23

Yep. So toner isn't like a lot of times people get toners and astringents mixed up. So an astringent is going to strip the oils from your skin. Right. And it might I remember so I grew up using Mary Kay, that is what I learned to use on my skin, and I will say, like, I was taught my mom taught me from a very young age to always take care of my always take care of my face. But I remember Mary Kay number two. Number two. I mean, you put it on with a cotton ball, and my skin would just burr. But I thought, like, pain means beauty, pain means beauty. This is you know, here I am like trying to 11 years old, just like essentially stripping all the healthy stuff from my skin when that is not what my skin needed. So that's an astringent. Yes. If it's burning your skin or tingling your skin, I everyone who's listening, I encourage you not to do that on a daily basis. There's a time and place for it, but it's not a day, it's not a toner. That's an astringent. So toner is balancing out your skin speech. Say you went to go work out, you can rebalance it out with a toner. You can spray it over your makeup, you can reset your makeup if you wear makeup. So it goes, it's it's it's not meant to burn your skin.

SPEAKER_03 18:34

Yes, it's such a simple addition, but it makes a huge idea. I can't go a day without using my toner.

SPEAKER_02 18:39

Right. Um but yeah, so many of our toners that we also have kill bacteria. Um, depending which one you're using, they're hydrating or they are controlling the oils, but again, not in a harsh way where you're damaging that your skin barrier.

SPEAKER_03 18:54

Right.

SPEAKER_02 18:54

Okay, so we got your your cleanser.

SPEAKER_03 18:56

My cleanser, toner. Your toner. And then I follow up with the nourish moisturizer. Okay. I did not, this is terrible. Because I'm so acne prone, I haven't I did not use moisturizer for years because I thought there's enough oil on my face. The last thing I need is more moisture.

SPEAKER_00 19:15

But boy, I've been educated.

SPEAKER_03 19:19

And if you're acne prone and you're not using moisturizer, you are it's gonna get worse.

SPEAKER_02 19:24

This is good, it's gonna backfire when you're can I ask you when you started using a moisturizer?

SPEAKER_03 19:29

Uh, around the time of graduating statistics.

SPEAKER_02 19:36

So 2025. Okay. Yeah. Um, yeah, so there are not all moisturizers are good for acne skin. You have to find the right one, which is that's also really brings up a good point. It's like all skincare is customized. Like we don't have any of our sets, like, hey, here's your three-step set for dry skin, your three-step set for oily skin, because the cleanser that you typically use would be for dry skin. Right. But you can be dry but acneic. Yes. And so you just need to balance things out. So balancing the skin out is super, super important. So I love that I love that I love the products you're choosing to use for your skin because it it gives you the right balance of oils and water. Because your skin's your essentially what's good. Sebum is the oil that's in your skin, is made up of sebum is made up of oil and water, and you have to find that balance.

SPEAKER_03 20:34

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 20:34

Um we also know that act not all acne can be cured from the surface, a lot is internal too. Yes, but making sure you are treating from the outside is such a huge part of the battle. Yes. Okay, so that's what you do on a daily basis. Is there anything else that you do maybe once a week or once a month or that you try to do maybe?

SPEAKER_03 20:55

Um, I love the gommage from Yanka, and my skin loves that gommage.

SPEAKER_02 21:02

Okay, so gommage is also featured in this gabute and the hydrogen essence that you mentioned. I love it. Yes, and gommage in French means to erase. And so what we're doing is we're erasing that dead skin. Yes. But the gommage to um, what are some other benefits you see from gommage?

SPEAKER_03 21:19

I feel my skin tone evens out. Um, so I get you know some redness here in my cheeks, and uh my skin feels so even afterwards uh and hydrated. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:30

Just so much hydration from an exfoliating product.

SPEAKER_03 21:33

Which again, I just I'd been using acne products my whole life thinking I had super oily skin, and I I don't. I you can have dry but acneic skin.

SPEAKER_02 21:42

And that's you can have dry skin that overproduces sebum. Yes. And it can come and go too. Yeah, I I've got extremely dry skin, like you can hardly see my pores, but that means my skin is gonna be super dehydrated. I'm gonna show my fine lines and wrinkles sooner than later, unfortunately. But I'm you know, I'm doing my best to To prevent that, but I remember in college I suffered with acne so much, but it was like right in the center of my forehead, so right in between my eyebrows. Come to find out it's a gut issue, yeah. Um, but it's it was also a water issue, so I would be at college and my skin would be going crazy, crazy, crazy if I'd go home and now I was on well water instead of city water, and so the chemicals in the city water my skin wasn't used to, but it was also gut issues going on, but I was doing the same thing again. Wasn't aesthetician, right? Um just trying to do what I saw when I went in the store. Oh, I have acne, I need to use an acne product. Oh wait, now that's stripping all the oils from my skin, and it's just getting worse and worse and worse. So I think you uh made a good case for why it's important to balance your skin. And there is a time and place for acne treatments, for sure. It's a time frame, right? Not a daily use.

SPEAKER_03 22:58

Right. And it's also getting that mix of the internal and the external support. I spent because I'm in functional health, I tried to solve all of my skin problems just internally. And I I did make progress, I made significant progress, but it wasn't everything. I needed the topical as well. So you gotta have both.

SPEAKER_02 23:18

You do. Well, Elena, thank you so much for joining me on Spala Land today. If there is one little snippet that you could leave um everybody with, what would it be today? Or maybe a lesson you've learned, or I don't know, whatever you want to, whatever you want to tell anybody.

SPEAKER_03 23:33

Probably on the note of what I was just saying, like it's all connected. It is all connected. Every system in your body interacts with every system in your body. And um, to find true balance and homeostasis, we have to address everything from the skin to the gut to the lymphatic. Yep. It's all connected.

SPEAKER_02 23:53

And then you have your own business outside of Ilya, and you help people from the inside out. So, real quick, tell us a little bit what of what that is, and also your website too, so people can go check you out and see what you do. Because personally, I can tell you that I mean, we met with a met with you for a consult for like 30 minutes with my daughter one time, and it literally just gave us so much hope. Awesome. And I'm I just keep sending people to you because I'm like, Elaine can help you. Elena can help you.

SPEAKER_03 24:22

Uh my business is called Mandala Wellness. Mandala because it means balance and wholeness. Um, and my website is mandala-hw.com. And I help people balance hormones, I help people uh support their detoxification. We address autoimmune dysautonomia. Nervous system is a huge part of what I do with all of my clients. So again, we address every system because every system needs support.

SPEAKER_02 24:51

So yeah, you dove in and now you can help people from the inside out and also just help people reset. And um yeah, I'm just so thankful that you're here. So thank you for being a part of Elia. Thank you for having me here. And you know, I'm glad I met you nine years ago. Me too. And I know you might not have had a ton of confidence in me, but I was quickly proven wrong. But um, yeah, so thankful that you're here and that we get to work together on the square and just be a part of this amazing community.

SPEAKER_03 25:23

It's an honor to be here. So truly. Thank you. Thank you.