Meet Cheryl Paswater

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

Hi Cheryl, thank you for being such a positive, uplifting person. We’ve noticed that so many of the successful folks we’ve had the good fortune of connecting with have high levels of optimism and so we’d love to hear about your optimism and where you think it comes from.

Falling and getting back up again. I truly believe that our mindset is everything so even when we sometimes don’t feel optimistic then we need to dig deep and change the narrative.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

Short version…I am an artist and arts educator who stumbled into the health world on my own healing journey. That led me into the world of fermentation before it became a buzz word and Contraband Ferments was born out of that. I also worked as a sous chef, nanny, adjunct professor, etc in the mix with my art and fermentation careers. My personal health journey coupled with what I was experiencing teaching fermentation really pushed me to further my education in Health Coaching, as a Herbalist and eventually led to my going back to school for Functional Medicine.

My friends joke and call me of SME (subject matter expert) on a gazillion things. I think it’s just that I like to learn but also I wouldn’t be a good Functional Medicine Practitioner had I not been an artist. And I wouldn’t of been a good fermenter had I not been an artist. And all the things start to venn diagram and they all inform each other. It’s a little rogue and a little punk rock and I love it

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

First off, you can’t be scared to try new things or take risks. Art making is all about trying new things.

Secondly, nothing ever goes how you think it’s going to go. The universe is in full control of things not me, not you, etc and our only job is to be present.

Third is that you can’t heal in the environment that made you sick to begin with. This was very powerful for me on my own healing journey and something I have to remind my own clients of on their journeys.

To close, maybe we can chat about your parents and what they did that was particularly impactful for you?

They let us be kids.

We rode bikes, played in dirt, we had a childhood that was not attached to iPads, cell phones, TVs, or helicopter parents. We had to work things out with our friends, we were trusted to go outside and play and be home by dinner time. We wen’t like full on feral but we played and I think they understood the sacredness of childhood.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.contrabandferments.com & www.cherylpaswaterfunctionalmed.com
• Instagram: contrabandferments & cherylpaswaterfunctionalmed
• Linkedin: Cheryl Paswater