We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Elina Fuhrman. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Elina below.
Elina, we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.
Finding your purpose is a funny thing. You don’t get to choose it; it chooses you. When I was diagnosed with breast cancer and given a grim prognosis, I asked the universe to help me find a way to live. I promised that if I do, I will share what helped me with others.
The Universe definitely has a sense of humor because she led me to soups. One serendipity after another, and I gave up my journalism career to devote my life to helping people heal their gut and themselves through nutrition.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I had so many chapters in my life. I came to the United States from Moldavia (my country is now called Moldova) when I was 20. I worked in politics, public affairs, production, hi-tech, aerospace and journalism. Most people know me as an international journalist because my other chapters were before technology was where it is today. I have so many interesting stories from the people I worked with, people I met and places I’ve been fortunate to experience.
These days, I joke that I’m a SOUP-er Woman. I wear so many hats…I’m a mom, entrepreneur, author, health coach, journalist, food as medicine innovator aka product and recipe developer, public speaker AND I cook soup!
Despite so many incredible experiences, soup is one of my life’s proudest achievements and I have to thank cancer for that. My cancer-healing journey was one of my life’s most important assignment, and a health opportunity. I always thought I led a healthy lifestyle, but very quickly I realized that conquering cancer would take much more than what I already knew. On a mission to heal myself, I relied on ancient medicines, like Ayurveda, Naturopathy and Traditional Chinese Medicine to guide me in learning about the power of herbs, spices and plants, and creating my own blends of therapeutic soups to heal the gut, boost immunity and energy, and so much more.
When I realized that all ancient medicines relied on soups to heal, I had an “aha” moment. I rolled up my sleeves, sharpened my knives and began discovering, researching, hunting down and cooking my own plant-based soups and broths. But what was special and unique about my soups was that I was simmering them, layering the veggies and chaunking the spices to achieve the most tantalizing flavors, open up the medicinal properties, energies and flavors of ingredients. The soups were also meant to be my medicine.
What I did is merge the best of ancient healing traditions in one bowl. Soup also helped me find awareness of my body, emotions and daily choices; tune into my deepest thoughts, create a balance in my life, and ultimately stop cancer in its tracks. When my doctors pronounced me ‘cured’ just after two years, I cried the tears of joy. And when my tears dried up, I decided that I had to helps others.
I went on to pioneer an entirely new category of prescription soups, wrote a best-selling book and about to launch The Gut Reset course, to share my knowledge and creations with more people. If you’ve been suffering from digestive issues and symptoms that feel overwhelming, you deserve a solution. The Gut Reset is a powerful, life-changing program designed to heal your digestive issues, turbocharge your health, heal your food sensitivities, motivate you to make healthy choices, inspire your tastebuds with delicious, flavorful, satisfying plant-based soups, and most importantly, enable a profound health transformation.
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?
The three qualities that were most impactful in my journey were: trusting my gut, not taking “no” for an answer and treating life’s unexpected twists and turns as opportunities instead of problems. Nobody believed that I could heal my cancer holistically and on my own; in fact I was called “crazy” so many times. While searching for answers to dozens of questions I had about cancer, healing, genetics and epigenetics, plants, medicine, energy and different healing modalities, I had to be open to hearing perspectives, sources and opinions I would have never considered before as a journalist. Being steadfast in my healing journey, trusting my inner knowing and realizing that only you know what it’s really like to face everything you have faced and everything you are facing…and the monumental leap of faith that everyone sees comes with thousands of sleepless nights, fighting your demons of self-doubt, facing your biggest fears and heaviest feelings. Learning to trust myself has been a process for me… I realize so many people struggle with that and look for answers outside of themselves.
Moving away from journalism and into the kitchen was a big shift as well, one that I had difficulty accepting. But witnessing my clients health transformations and miraculous healings gave me the energy and boost I needed to keep going. Also, tapping into my inner medicine woman ancestry to reawaken my spirit was a revelation that led me to accept my purpose in this lifetime.
Okay, so before we go we always love to ask if you are looking for folks to partner or collaborate with?
At the moment, I’m manifesting an operations genius/partner to help me take my creations to a whole new level and expand to other markets outside of LA.
I teach healthy cooking at hotels, resorts, spas and wellness centers, and would love to collaborate with more places. I would also like to partner with them on recipe and product development.
My door is always open for social media collaborations.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.soupelina.com
- Instagram: @soupelinala
- Facebook: @soupelina
- Linkedin: @elinafuhrman
- Twitter: @soupelinala
- Youtube: soupelina
Image Credits
The portrait by Rose Depont
Soups by Par Bengtsson
