Violet Elder shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.
Violet, really appreciate you sharing your stories and insights with us. The world would have so much more understanding and empathy if we all were a bit more open about our stories and how they have helped shaped our journey and worldview. Let’s jump in with a fun one: What is a normal day like for you right now?
The most consistent thing in my life at the moment is the morning crow of roosters flocking through the silence of the moist Hawaiian air at sunrise. I awaken to the dew and the whispers of a morning dawn, the sun beginning its travels through the sky.
A few months ago, I decided to take a leap toward a more sustainable life — I signed up for a work trade in Hawaii, leaving Denver for a short while to learn the wisdom of Kauai. For years, I had been dreaming of volcanoes and fertile soil to start a new phase in my life — to birth a new project. My friend, sister, and co-founder of the Embodied Collective joined me on this rebirth, and today our days look like tending to the soil, harvesting fruits, making delicious goodies, and being open to a gratifying and immersive experience. Returning to more original ways of living by growing our own food, learning the native plants and ecosystems, and living in community.
My days are carried by the essence and practice of presence — listening to the whispers of the interactive natural world and universe, learning from the land, the ocean, the wind, the plants, the fire. I spend most of my days observing — observing my nervous system, the ways in which I show up for others and for myself. I also spend quite a bit of time tending to my latest creative endeavors The Embodied Collective: an online space for authentic creation, intentional living, and collaboration. Many days I am preparing for the next release of our magazine; undergoing creative photoshoots of inspiring people, editing photos of women playing, creating, and in ceremony – working with my partner to create inspiring visuals and written words. Storytelling from freedom fighters — people who are here to make a difference in the world by following their hearts and being in service to a greater future.
Hawaii has taught me much about right relationship — a principle that I am embodying every day. The lesson of now. Living slower, following the rhythms of the natural world.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
My name is Violet Elder — I am a creator and mentor who is especially attuned to nervous system clarity, energetic systems, and embodied healing. In 2023, I received bachelor’s degrees in Cultural Anthropology and Neuroscience, my academic and professional focus being the intersection between ancestral and shamanic knowledge, and the experiential component of consciousness on both the personal and collective level. This study led me to explore natural and energetic healing modalities.
In 2022, I began cultivating herbal remedies — creating an online apothecary and offering 1:1 and group work integrating Neuroscience, Anthropology, Evidential Mediumship, Reiki, and Herbalism. As of September 2025, I have launched a new program and collective called The Embodied Collective — an online space to uplift artists, creators, and healers. We publish monthly magazines featuring conscious creators, inspiring writing and poetry, lifestyle practices, recipes, and more. This collective is a space for leaders and bridge-makers to build community among like-minded creators all across the world. We meet bi-monthly on the full and new moon to come together in leadership and authentic embodiment. We tell stories, share wisdom, and reconnect with authentic community.
I grew up on a small farm in Oregon, where we cultivated all kinds of berries, vegetables, and flowers. I spent much of my days lying in the soft grass, throwing fallen apples to the sheep, and making flower bouquets and potions in the birdbaths. Nature is the original healer, and I was blessed as a child to experience living in conjunction with the natural world. My work and mission are to bring people back into right relationship with the abundance the world has to offer through creating a bond with the earth once more. To believe that we are worthy of this relationship. Most of my work in mentorship, photography, writing, speaking, and leading is centered around this mission.
Appreciate your sharing that. Let’s talk about your life, growing up and some of topics and learnings around that. Who were you before the world told you who you had to be?
When my mom tells me this story, I imagine it to be a hot summer day in July – she opens the car door exposing my child carrier to the intense Colorado sun. I had just spent the car ride observing the trees, sky, clouds, and wind through the car window. I’m only about four or five at this time, and as she draws nearer to unbuckle my seatbelt, I raise up my arms as if I am going for a large embrace, and I say: “Mom. I f*cking love you!”
Before the world told me to watch my mouth, to quiet down, to imagine less, and to listen more – I was a kind-hearted, charismatic, and diplomatic little girl with a fiery heart, a light-hearted essence, and an affinity for all things beautiful. Artistic and creative, I observed the world through presence, wonder, curiosity, and playfulness. I knew the world to be much richer than what others had told me of it because I believed we had the power to create and imagine a life as we please. I imagined each plant had magical powers, and as did I. I felt as though I could read another’s mind and that I could heal any broken heart. I felt free to sing, dance, play, build, and create. My largeness was okay back then because I was so small, just a girl. The imaginative little girl with a brilliant mind and a heart of innocence never wanted to leave when people told her to study up, to find a secure career, to be serious about success, and to essentially, ignore the impulse of my heart. And while the little girl who yelled, “mom, I f*cking love you!” quieted for a time as moved through competitive swimming careers, business ventures, and multiple college degrees, she never stopped being bold within the refuge of herself.
Today, I remember that little girl who came here to awaken us to the imagination again, to have the courage to be different, and to activate the embodied wisdom that we all innately hold within our souls’ blueprint. The girl who believed in beauty and harmony between all things, and the girl who has the drive to change the world.
What fear has held you back the most in your life?
The fear of not being good enough. A fear that many of us hold and a fear that many of us have created via our own remembrance of responses and reactions from others that we have held onto throughout our life. I believe this is a fear that latched onto a core personality root within my innate perfectionism and empathetic responsibility. It mangled these traits like an old tree trying to grow through old cement. As a creative and an artist who appreciated beauty and harmony, I quickly took on this notion that my expression and my being could be responsible for making others feel seen. I realized that my expression was an emblem of beauty and harmony for people in my life. I was always told I was an “old soul” because of what I innately understood, and the ways in which I could truly see people, even as a child.
When there were times in which I couldn’t change a loved one’s mood, or when one would not accept the light-hearted love, I would isolate and question my inherent worth, a feeling state that the human cannot sustain. It is not life-giving. So when I stopped feeling received, I started to cave in on myself. I began to hide because I thought that I was failing – I developed a very daunting fear that I would never be able to accomplish my vision, to see my dreams manifested. I was paralyzed with a dilemma of authenticity and a feeling state of emotional responsibility. This fear morphed into this false narrative that perhaps I wasn’t enough to be received, or, perhaps too much, or that my work was responsible for helping someone ‘feel better’.
I would start projects a hundred times over, pondering if what I had just poured my soul into would be received or if it would be rejected. I started and stopped businesses and passion projects again and again for years.
I’ve come to accept that there are infinite ways of being. There are infinite forms of energetic expressions. We are unique as unique can get. There cannot be two of the same. Therefore, we cannot be perfect, we cannot awaken everyone to our wonder, we cannot make everyone feel better all the time. We cannot force people to see us fully. Yet, there are people whose exact makeup plays with your exact makeup in the most satisfying of ways. There is resonance, there is coherence, step into our own authenticity and you will stumble upon that resonance. The state of being free, flowing, moving. Learning to dance is more important than trying to be perfect. Being “good enough” doesn’t exist when there is only one way for you to be – the way you came here to be. You came here to experience – never let silly notions stray you from soaking up the delicious drops of life!
Next, maybe we can discuss some of your foundational philosophies and views? What’s a belief or project you’re committed to, no matter how long it takes?
I believe that humanity is going through a massive restructuring. I believe that people are waking up to create a more sustainable and life-giving future. I believe that the people on earth are banding together to create new systems, new ways of relating, of learning, of being in relationship. I believe that there is a collective consciousness that is steering us to a more integral way of relating to the world.
I am committed to creating spaces and containers that tap into our innate human desires: community, support, safety, security, balance, joy, play, and gratitude. As I observe the world today, as I was taught to do in my cultural studies: I see that people are falling out of love with the current systems, they are no longer believing in separation, they no longer trust hierarchy, they feel a calling, a deep longing to be with the earth, or to travel, or to be in community, or to rise above the hatred and current systems of oppression. I see a body of people who are ready to take responsibility for creating a new culture. I believe that there is much to come, as we are at a threshold in humanity where we are choosing to walk towards the tunnel of collective liberation and embodied nurturing. We are no longer choosing to seperat and join a rat race of someone else’s creation – we are choosing liberty and prosperity for all. We are choosing to believe that there is enough for us all to rise and lift each other up.
I will never stop trying to spread awareness of how to live in conjunction with the land, animals, people and elements. To try and save the natural world and humanities well-being. To create systems for greater health of mind, body, and spirit. Of course, nothing needs saving, but we as people are builders and I believe we are capable of building new structures to hold a brighter, more connected and authentic population. We are building a New Earth – one where we are rooted in collective liberation, truth, and authenticity.
Okay, so before we go, let’s tackle one more area. What is the story you hope people tell about you when you’re gone?
I hope that people tell my story as a magical and beautiful woman who lived long into the years of white hair and solitude. A woman who tended to the most beautiful gardens. A woman who had a mysterious and calming aura. A woman who lead large groups to their own perceived freedom. A woman who was patient and integral. I hope they tell the story of a young girl who grew up and never lost her sense of imagination and magic. A woman who told stories of countless miracles within her life.
I hope they tell the story of a girl who giggled much and her sneezes sounded like kittens. A woman who studied the brain and culture. A young woman who traveled the world to see beauty, to see pain, to see suffering, to accept it all and to always keep her original tone of mysterious optimism. I hope they say she was smart, empathetic, nurturing and kind yet sharp and spicy. Her words and her realizations pierce through your eyes and into your open heart where she then gives a soft and cuddly hug to all that you are. I hope they say that I am woman who is proud and that creates fire within others souls that inspire them to be anything and to say yes. I hope they say that she is a creative genious without even trying because she has come to know the work that she is meant to gift the world.
I hope that they tell stories of silliness and laughter. I hope they tell stories of wisdom and inspiration. That they read my book and they feel inspired to write their own.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @violetelder @embodiedthecollective @elderviolet_photography
- Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/in/violet-elder-40a846173
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/violet.elder.14/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJwbs_PGe4lJpbqKT3h92Rw
- Other: September ’25 Edition: The Embodied Collective Magazine https://www.canva.com/design/DAGxNy9tdsU/RW3BZ5ALcZM9ykLL-WBb9w/view?utm_content=DAGxNy9tdsU&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=uniquelinks&utlId=h0642dd1294
Image Credits
Violet Elder and Brandon Booth
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
