We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Maribel Herrera a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Maribel , sincerely appreciate your selflessness in agreeing to discuss your mental health journey and how you overcame and persisted despite the challenges. Please share with our readers how you overcame. For readers, please note this is not medical advice, we are not doctors, you should always consult professionals for advice and that this is merely one person sharing their story and experience.
At the age of 13 I was diagnosed with bio polar, general anxiety, and depression. As far back as I can remember, as a young child I have always felt anxious and sad about life. I so desperately didn’t want to feel that way. I began therapy and met an amazing therapist that told me to just try everything. Try painting, try singing, try cooking, EVERYTHING. Eventually, I would find something that sparked my interest and I would continue to invest my time and energy into it. That the interest would be so great, that I would forget about that anxious feeling while I was engulfed in it. It began with various forms of art for me, drawing turned into pottery, that turned into painting, that turned into sewing that eventually led me to my love, floral design. Through out my career of being a floral designer, I have had countless battles with depression, anxiety with cycling through being bi-polar, with wanting to end my life and seeing no bigger purpose for myself in the grand scheme of things, But through it all flowers were a language that spoke to me and always brought me back down to remember that I was helping make other people happy, that I was an extension of emotion. That the emotions I were feeling were ok to feel but I couldn’t stay in them. That I had to push past them at times to be a part of the better good for humanity. To spread the positive emotions that flowers give. My negative emotions have pushed and driven me to be an ambassador of positivity and to transcend the love that flowers can give. You can’t have light without darkness.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
I am a floral artist, a designer, a creator, an educator, and an ambassador of providing an extension of emotion through flowers. I help enhance what is a momentous day, I add style, flow, texture, and color to an outfit, I help someone say I love you when words simply aren’t enough, and I am a creator of beauty and creativity. I have a home base company that I work for, I freelance and I have my own small business. I am quite active in the floral industry. I specialize in weddings and events. I get to be a part of what most people consider the best day of their life. The florals I create are captured in photos that will hopefully be passed on from generation to generation. To know that I help be part of something that big is such an honor and privilege. From weddings come baby showers, birthdays, milestones and eventually celebrating the lives of loved ones that have passed on, I am there every step of the way honoring all those very special moments in life with flowers. I instruct workshops and advocate for self-love through floral design, watching someone walk away with something they created is truly a magical experience, and seeing that confidence they leave with is priceless. I am an educator, now having 14 years in the floral industry, and learning what is in season, what color palette will complement best, and how to manipulate a flower into another form are just a few tricks of the trade that I love to share with others and hopefully shine a light on subject matters that the general public may not know. Flowers are a language that i am so thankful to understand and I am so passionate about sharing it with everyone!
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?
Passion , perservernce and consitency. In my early years I needed the passion to push me to be consistent while in the perseverance stages of learning and growing in the floral indusdry. I was told at an early age to say yes to everything until I can’t say yes anymore. That perseverance was a part of my never give up mind set, I wanted to learn, I wanted to grow and I had to showup to make it happen. The consistiency kept me in a flow, with constantly surronding myself in the that kind of life, having beauty around me all the time, touching flowers everyday, being amoung other talented designers, that inspired me, learning the verbage and way things were done in the industy. That helped keep me in the loop an kept me on track to keep growing and learning.
What’s been one of your main areas of growth this year?
Realizing my self-worth. I have worked with many people and many personalities through out the years in the floral industry, with both lovely and negative experiences. The one thing I have learned in a professional and social setting is that people will treat you how you present yourself to them. Having boundaries, setting them, and making sure they are honored in order to preserve your self-worth is overlooked in the society we live in right now. I have learned who I am as a person, as a designer, as a creator, and all the beautiful aspects I have to offer people, if they do not see me and the things I do as positive contributions, it’s their loss. I will continue to look at them that way, as I value myself and what the beauty I help bring to the world.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @maribel_e_herrera_
Image Credits
sarahzimmermanphoto Diego Luna alliemarionphoto
