With Self Love X Orisha Oshun

Meet Orisha Oshun of Surviving Vegan

Orisha Oshun is a holistic health coach and vegan advocate, she teaches people how to change their lives by changing their diet and their mindset. She went from depression and attempted suicide to millions in the bank. Her online presence has gone from strength to strength and she and her husband are living an abundant, healthy lifestyle on a plant-based, clean diet.

Orisha Oshun is a holistic health coach and vegan advocate who shot to fame when her vegan oxtail recipe went viral on Facebook in November 2017. She leveraged the audience she gained as a result of that video’s popularity and created a highly profitable business as a result.

Orisha hasn’t always been a health advocate and master manifestation coach though, she comes from a background of depression, anxiety and attempted suicide. However, she pulled herself out of difficult times to create a fulfilling, happy life of abundance with her much-talked-about brand, Surviving Vegan.

Off the back of her first viral video, Orisha hosted her first-ever online community detox where participants lost weight, reduced blood pressure and eliminated several health problems.

The Surviving Vegan brand is currently worth millions and has an online audience of more than 500,000.

Orisha describes Surviving Vegan detoxes in the following way:

“Our detoxes are fast-acting, plant-based remedies used to remove excess weight from the body through waste release.”

Orisha is also running Millionaire Vegan coaching where she uses the power of detoxification and manifestation to help you create the life of your dreams. Orisha’s perspective on loving yourself and manifesting a life you love is truly amazing! Here’s what she shares with OurBlk Woman on “Self Love”…

What do you believe self-love is?

I always love talking about this, especially for Black women. This may sound cliche but self-love is truly aligning yourself spiritually, physically, emotionally and mentally. Sometimes self love can be getting a bi-weekly massage, a spiritual bath, or a day alone at the beach. Other times self love is writing a love letter to my younger self to release built up childhood trauma. Whatever it takes to revive my spirit. Over time, I’ve learnt to listen to my temple. Usually tells me how she needs to be loved.

What are the challenges you face when thinking of self-love?

As a mother of 5 beautiful Black vegan babies AND a co-founder of a company with numerous employees, my self-love challenge is having “me time”. It’s rare that I’m in a room by myself or not managing things on my phone, but that’s not how I want to live my life. 

How will you confront these challenges to move towards self-love?

One simple answer…#100DaysLeft. 

My husband, Grizzy, and I have made the decision to end my contract with the company to focus more on myself. After 4.5 years of being a content creator, on top of all of the other roles I play, my spirit is exhausted. So in less than 100 days I will no longer be the face of the company, but rather a more behind the scenes leader. We’ve come to realize that this holistic movement we’ve built is truly for the community, not for us. Which is why we will be 100% a people’s brand by the end of 2022. We plan on highlighting the transforming stories of our Surviving Vegan Academy students! This will allow me to take better care of Orisha and truly be an example for Black women CEOs everywhere. 

Do you have a personal story that you can share with our readers about your struggles or successes along your journey of self-understanding and self-love? Was there ever a tipping point that triggered a change regarding your feelings of self love?

Before Surviving Vegan was even birthed, I had a mental breakdown. To the point where I literally had to check myself into a mental institution. What triggered it was years of not dealing with old emotions I felt from childhood and new ones that arose in my adulthood. I was constantly suppressing them until one day I imploaded. 

Being in a mental institution I saw that there was a lot of numbness due to medications. When I saw women looking dazed and drugged up I made the decision right then and there. “That will not be me,” I remember saying that to myself. After that crucial decision, I decided to take a more natural, holistic approach to my mental health. It started with me going vegan. Not to sound crazy, but it was almost like the eating plants gave my spirit the power it needed to rediscover myself. 

As cheesy as it might sound to truly understand and “love yourself,” can you share with our readers a few reasons why it’s so important?

How can you be a good leader if you pour from an empty cup? Or a good mother? Or a good wife? 

Loving yourself is like filling up your spiritual gas tank. It’s the habit that allows you to drive yourself to serve others. 

Plus there’s already a huge stigma around us being the “angry Black woman”. While historically we do have a valid reason to be upset, life’s so much better when we choose to love ourselves through therapy, expressive movement, healthy eating, and reconnecting with the divine femine energy. 

There’s extreme power in “us” loving ourselves. It literally changes the narrative of our culture as we know it. 

When we talk about self-love and understanding we don’t necessarily mean blindly loving and accepting ourselves the way we are. Many times self-understanding requires us to reflect and ask ourselves the tough questions, to realize perhaps where we need to make changes in ourselves to be better not only for ourselves but our relationships.

What are some of those tough questions that will cut through the safe space of comfort we like to maintain, that our readers might want to ask themselves?

This is a great question! A HUGE part of self love is self diagnosis. Earlier I mentioned one of our programs, the 4-week Surviving Vegan Academy, where we’ve produced thousands of Wellness Coaches (both men and women). Part of their initiation in the course involves manifesting the life they truly want to live.

To do this, they must first start with DISCOVERING where they currently are by asking three very simple questions:

  1. What toxic thoughts do you think about yourself or others?
  2. What toxic feeling do you harbor towards yourself or the world around you?
  3. What toxic foods are you consuming?

Again, simple but very deep. You’d be surprised at how connected your eating habits are to your emotional and spiritual well being. Asking yourself these questions will allow you to face your current reality and release any and all negativity in your life. Starting with the food you eat!

Can you share an example of a time that you had to reflect and realize how you needed to make changes?

Everyday! I’m constantly asking myself those three questions above. I’ve assessed myself so much that now my spirit knows when I’m out of whack. 

What favorite book, podcast, or resource for self-psychology, intimacy, self love or relationships? What do you love about it and how did it resonate with you?

I will always mention the two biggest mentors in my life, the late Dr. Llaila Afrika and Queen Afua. I highly recommend that every Black woman on this Earth read African Holistic Health by Dr. Afrika and Sacred Woman by Queen Afua. 

You have not started loving yourself until you’ve read those books! 

SN: these are not books that you can read once. These books are a part of my work and my lifestyle, I even read these books with my children. These reads will guide your entire life. 

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? Maybe we’ll inspire our readers to start it…

Transition to a plant-based lifestyle. The movement starts with the most underlooked machine on the planet…our digestive system!

Most people don’t relate depression, anxiety, sadness, anger, insecurities, traumas, etc. to their diet, but that’s where it starts! This planet would be a lot more safe, happy and holy if everyone made the choice to love themselves through the food they eat. That’s my answer and I’m sticking to it!

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote” that you use to guide yourself by? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life and how our readers might learn to live by it in theirs?

Believe or not the quote I live by didn’t come from a person, it came from spirit.

Like many Black women, I overcame serious daddy issues. I was so upset and disappointed with some of my father’s parenting decisions (or lack of). I wanted an apology so bad from him, but during a deep mediation session spirit whispered this message to me.

“You have to heal even if the people that hurt you aren’t sorry.” 

Whew! Trust me I cried my eyes out after accepting this. Although that truth hurt, it made me 10 times stronger with the power of forgiveness. I had to see people with more grace, even if it was my own parents. I recommend that every Black woman that’s ever been hurt, abused, or abandoned live by this quote and most importantly, let go. 

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Award-Winning Publicist | Media Strategist | Journalist | Author | Our Sole Purpose, Inc. Founder | Black Media Honors Founder & Producer

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