We were lucky to catch up with Felice Freiwald recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Felice, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?
Nature. Ever since I was a child nature was my safe place. My refuge from unpredictable adults, the demands of perfection, as well as feelings of not belonging. Running through the woods, visiting with the animals, playing in the creek, getting dirty, these are the things that let my spirit know everything is OK. It was here that I began to recognize the resiliency within nature and myself. Have you ever visited a forest after a wildfire? The rebirth of the soil that takes place after the devastation is such an amazing thing. Or the strength it takes for a flower to grow up through the concrete? To bloom despite being buried. When the storms come the sun always returns. This is what I think of when things are difficult. When I feel like giving up, I always ask myself, what would the flower do? Or the deer? Or the river? Challenging myself out on the trail has also become a way to grow resilience. Running up to the top of a mountain, red faced, gasping for air, wind trying to blow me over…one step at a time I push through the pain making the summit with a smile on my face. I did it! It was hard, I wanted to quit, but look at this view! I feel amazing! I use these lessons when things get difficult in life…just keep going, the light will return, you are learning, don’t listen to the negative voices in your head, place one foot in front of the other…bloom.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
I graduated with a BA in English Literature from the University of Maryland. I originally thought I would be an English professor, but the road to get there didn’t seem to align with the person I was becoming. I was definitely a bit of a lost soul after I graduated college, I’ve never been one to cave to societal or familial pressures, and I knew there was something out there for me, I just hadn’t discovered it yet. I was waiting tables in a local restaurant when I started having issues with my hip. A friend of mine was in massage school at the time and she was kind enough to work the muscles in my hip and show me a few stretches. Hip issue gone! I developed an entrepreneurial spirit when I was a kid babysitting, making jewelry and crafts, embroidering jeans for people, the jobs I had working for someone else always sucked the life out of me. Maybe I should go to massage school so I can work for myself and help people feel better? My intuition said let’s do it and it turned out I was pretty good at it. Right out of school I secured an office with a local chiropractor and the rest is history!
I’ve been in business now for 24 years. Over the years I have grown Tonic Trails to the point where I had to make the decision to bring on other therapists in order to retain the clients being referred to me. It was a big leap, but I took the chance and went for it. I also made the decision to go back to school a few years ago to become a functional health coach as I was becoming pretty passionate about helping people heal in a different way, with food. I struggled through school as I myself was not feeling so great. My brain was having trouble retaining information, I was having to learn new technology, I was working full time, and taking care of my son, there were many times I wanted to give up, but I took those valuable lessons from my time in nature and powered through as I knew I needed to help folks figure out why they didn’t feel so well. Functional Diagnostic Nutrition really helped me figure out the health issues I had been experiencing since I was a kid and now at the age of 51 feel better than ever.
Last Spring, once again following my intuition, I made the decision to move Tonic Trails out of an office building in downtown Golden and into a retail space on the outskirts of town where we could grow even more and be away from the growing congestion of the city. This has most definitely been the hardest challenge yet of my career and I won’t lie, I often wake up in the middle of the night panicked about how I’m going to make this work. It has cost way more than expected and is taking more time to build than I had anticipated, but I get up every day, put my feet on the ground, remind myself why I’m doing this and put one foot in front of the other.
My focus has always been on providing Golden and the surrounding area with outstanding therapeutic massage to help people overcome injury, pain, and imbalances in order to maintain a healthy lifestyle out on the trails. Our massages incorporate several modalities including deep tissue, neuromuscular, and sports massage as well as relaxing techniques to help calm the nervous system. We work with a number of other professionals in the area including chiropractors, physical therapists, and doctors to really help our clients feel their best. My health coaching is still evolving, but what I find myself dealing with most often are people who are not getting answers from their doctors as to why they feel like crap. FDN has taught me how to look for hidden stressors in the metabolism with functional lab testing and detailed intake forms. I look at diet, hormones, stress levels, gut health, and more to see where we can find healing opportunities. Nothing makes me happier then seeing my clients turn their health around naturally. Coming up in the new year we will be having some pop-up events like IV therapy and PRP therapy to address pelvic floor dysfunction for women. I’m also looking at bringing in some other modalities like acupuncture. My vision is to make Tonic Trails the place for all things wellness.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
I believe the three qualities that have been most impactful on this journey are 1. My ability to make a connection with all kinds of people. I don’t judge people for what they believe or don’t believe and have found over the years that we have way more in common than people realize. 2. Following my intuition. If you continue to have a voice in your head telling you to do something, listen. 3. Stepping out of fear and believing in myself.
The best advice I can give to people looking to harness these qualities is to spend quiet time in nature and to realize that the things we fear or resist the most are the things we should be doing. Take the risk, step out of the safety of your box, and just do it. If you fail, you can always start again.
Thanks so much for sharing all these insights with us today. Before we go, is there a book that’s played in important role in your development?
I don’t think I can pick one book that has played an important role in my development as I have read so many over the years. Authors like Hernest Hemingway, Mark Twain, Edward Abbey, Maya Angelou, and Mary Oliver to name a few always inspired me with their characters who blazed their own trails and overcame the hardships placed on them by society. So many of the books I have read in my life focused on the resilience of humans and nature. I still have lots of these books at home and many of the pages are filled with marks highlighting important quotes. I think the one quote that sticks with me most is from Mary Oliver, “Tell me what it is you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”
Contact Info:
- Website: tonictrails.com
- Instagram: tonictrails
- Facebook: Tonic Trails Wellness
Image Credits
James DeWalt Photography
