Meet Brooke Rankin

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Brooke Rankin. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Brooke below.

Brooke, 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.

Purpose, a unique human concept that we all deeply desire. I’ll sum up by saying, purpose is an ever-evolving definition that changes in life as you do. We never truly need to know our “purpose”. We simply need to follow the things that light up our soul and make our heart feel full and at peace.

But let’s rewind to a time in life where all I could ponder is what am I doing, what is my purpose, why am I even here, would the world be better off without me here?

Well that would bring us back to the year of 2021 in the life of Brooke. In less than a year, I lost 2 of the most important men in my life, my grandfather and my father, moved to a new state for a new job where I did not know a soul, went through more loss and grief, and completely lost myself as my mental health deteriorated. During this season of life, every single day was a struggle – I could not eat, sleep, or function – I was a shell of a human.

If you are curious for some actual journal excerpts from that season of life:

May 7th, 2022: Who Am I? Who is my soul? What tf do I want to do with my life? What do I even enjoy doing? What to do when you are lost?
If you are curious for the answer to the last question, at that time, I wrote: “Haha I have no idea because I don’t”. Yep, that was my entire answer to myself.

My questions to myself slowly started to change: What do I need to feel grounded and stable in my life? In what areas in my life can I simplify? What emotions keep coming up for me? What would I do if nobody else was watching? What are my fears? How can I communicate? Of course, there were other ones. Knowing that healing, just like purpose, is forever changing, ever-evolving, and of course, non-linear.

Over time, I found some more “answers” or maybe outlets. I turned to art and creativity for the fun of it. I would paint and watch TV (silly, but it made me feel a little less alone and a little more purposeful). I integrated yoga more regularly. Eventually, I went through my Yoga Teacher Training and started to embrace community, solitude on my mat, the emotions, and the expanding connection to myself.

With more learning my journal started to change:
* My purpose is my full experiences and one day it will help me find more and more of my light and in turn bring more light
* My Joys & Purpose: My beautiful family and friends, traveling – seeing the beauty of the world and exploring, quality time, owning my story in a way that feels right to me, mental health advocate, learning and trying new things, being authentic and living my truth, etc.
* And I know that the more I lean into me, the more I find my purpose and guiding light, creating more abundance in my life through helping others and receiving all that I am truly deserving of in this lifetime. 

And wow how those journal entries began to become my real life. I started traveling the world, sharing my story with those I have been fortunate enough to meet, consciously got the guts to leave the things that were not filling my heart and soul (the corporate job/life & relationships), and dove deeper into my authenticity and thereby service to others. Today that looks like, sharing my story online through my YouTube channel (@brookechooseslife), supporting others in refinding their inner oasis through my soul-led yoga and wellness business (The SS Oasis), and simply embracing self-love and authenticity everyday. Every single day, I ponder the question: what it means to live life just for me. So, I wonder, what does it mean to live life just for you?

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

In the beautiful year of 2023, I launched my soul-led wellness and yoga business, The SS Oasis. I get the joy and honor of guiding yoga, breathwork, wellness workshops, and more (both in-person and virtually). In each of these offerings, we get the opportunity to refind our inner oasis through the co-creation of safe, authentic, and vulnerable cocoons within community.

Shortly after the creation of The SS Oasis, I had a dream about creating my YouTube channel, @brookechooseslife. This channel was birthed from a place of desiring to embrace the full human experience and to share with deep authenticity. @brookechooseslife shows the journey with no destination, also known as life. Along this journey, we embrace the duality of life, embark on new chapters and experiences, have a few (or more than a few) existential life crises, and welcome the full human experience and all that it has to offer. Come along with me as we don’t just exist, but we truly choose life.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

When I hit a season of life where I could not fathom how to move forward (as in that challenging year of 2021), I learned when I needed to ask for help. I got to a point where I could not manage my feelings, difficulties, and challenges on my own anymore. Knowing when to ask for help and just asking is a skill I am constantly working to better. Sometimes we (or at least I) would let pride get in the way of asking for help. I eventually realized that this was the embodiment of a limiting belief regarding worthiness and receiving. All this to say, ask for help, we all deserve it.

The other really important life altering moment that happened during this season of life was realizing that if my brain was powerful enough to get me into the place that I was at (severely anxious & depressed), then my brain is extremely powerful. Realizing that the brain and thereby mind/mindset played an exponentially critical and important role in my life (and probably everyone’s). By understanding how powerful the mind is, I recognized that I could have more power and say in how I felt, how I handled things, and how I choose to live my life. This realization changed my dynamic with my mental health challenges and honestly gave me a sense of empowerment. Your mind is your strongest asset and/or biggest instigator. Allow yourself to recognize the strength and power that you hold within and choose the life you deserve to lead. Sometimes the “smallest” realizations and actions lead to the biggest leaps forward.

What do you do when you feel overwhelmed? Any advice or strategies?

Overwhelm: the feeling like a giant weight is gripping you, holding you down while the mind flutters, jumping around all over the place. So much to do, so much to achieve, the never ending list of to-dos. Someone please make it stop.

Unfortunately, a feeling we are all too familiar with, especially given the demands and instantaneous nature of the world today. So how do we relinquish these feelings? Here is what helps me (and I hope helps you too):

* Let yourself feel – it is ok to feel it all. Cry, shake, dance, scream-sing, hit a pillow – do what you need to allow the emotion to be honored and felt for as long as your beautiful soul needs (of course, without harm to yourself or to others).
* Maybe begin to allow yourself to feel into what is underneath the overwhelm – is it a buzz of anxiety, a tinge of fear, a moment of upset, a feeling of loneliness, a sense of anger at a situation? Is there a story running through your mind?
* This is where the journal usually makes its entrance. Write it out. Let the emotions, stories, feelings, limiting beliefs, everything – let it all out onto the page. This outlet could look very different for everyone! Maybe it is endless scribbles, doodles, painting, song-writing, anything that comes to mind. Simply an outlet to let you experience what it is in your heart and on your mind.
* Embody – this is where I usually breathe, do yoga, meditate, dance, etc. Enlisting the support of an embodiment practice that helps me release whatever was overwhelming me and return back home and at peace in my body, mind, and soul.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://thessoasis.com
• Other: Instagrams & YouTube Channels:

  @thessoasis
  @brookechooseslife