We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Lucy Nystrom. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Lucy below.
Hi Lucy , really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?
The answer to this has only recently presented itself to me. I have been passionate about health and wellness and photography my entire life.
My dad always instilled in me the importance of food quality, nutrition, sleep, movement, laughter, strength, and community. Always having to add peas to my mac and cheese and always getting enough sleep irritated me as a child but now I appreciate what he instilled in me.
My father is a photographer and my mother is in fashion so I grew up on set with them, however, I always wanted to create my own path and not follow what they did. In high school, I was struggling with anxiety and decided to start taking photos. I would walk around in the woods, mountains, and streams in NH capturing fleeting moments and reflections. This was my version of meditation, which led me to where I am now.
I got my first job after college in NYC at a clean beauty hair company called Hairstory Studio where i was the photographer for 10 years. The company held value on wellness and in the beginning, we would often practice yoga together. I was encouraged to develop my daily yoga practice in 2014 and have been practicing ever since. I always knew i wanted to teach and share what yoga gave to me.
I grew up between NYC and Bridgehampton and always wanted to move back out east to Greenport. I moved out to Shelter Island during the pandemic and my partner (Wade) and I started looking at houses, and in 2021 we bought our house in Greenport. I then decided that it was time to put my two passions together and I decided to start my own business, New Moon Health & Wellness.
I decided it was time to take my 200-hour Yoga teacher training and become a certified yoga instructor. I also went back to school for nutrition and am a Certified Holistic Health Coach. I wanted to incorporate my love of photography into my business as well. I decided I wanted to help wellness practitioners have their business vision come to life through photography, helping them express what they do which can often be an untangable thing, and capturing/expressing it through imagery.
Little did i know that when i picked up a camera in 2007 as a way of meditation it would be how I found my purpose and would one day be a business.
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?
New Moon Health is your one-stop shop for all your Health and Wellness needs on the North Fork and Shelter Island.
Our mission is to create a resource for the community, by supporting the practitioners and businesses in the community.
Our offerings include Health Coaching, yoga, and local resources.
NEW MOON AS A PLATFORM MISSION
The purpose of New Moon Health & Wellness is to create a health and wellness resource for the North Fork and Shelter Island community by supporting the local practitioners and businesses in the community. A platform for all things health and wellness.
I had always had a hard time finding all my wellness needs and often saw all the events after they had happened. I figured other people were struggling with the same things which is how the platform was born. Sharing all the wellness events on Instagram and spreading awareness of all the amazing practitioners in our community. I have always loved helping people and bringing people together.
On Fridays we post all the yoga in the area and on Thursdays we post all the wellness-related events in the area on Instagram @NewMoon_Health .
YOGA MISSION
Yoga is a beautiful thing like no other because everyone can practice yoga, everyone’s practice is unique and means something different to them. I want to go against this new idea that is forming that yoga is for fit and flexible people this is not true. I have been practicing yoga every day since 2014 and am not flexible at all, i have scoliosis which limits my mobility, flexibility is not the goal of my practice. Yoga should be fun, spiritual, active, grounding, and centering, allows you to connect your breath and movement, and provides you with the space for whatever you may need that day, time for yourself, there are 8 limbs of yoga and only one is about poses.
I teach yoga and yoga sculpt at different venues around the North Fork and Shelter Island. Including yoga at: Karuna, The Giving Room, Sound View, North Fork Wellness, Activated Wellness, The Pridwin, Sylvester Mannor, and The Shelter Island Yacht Club. I also teach private yoga sessions to people looking to have an individual experience or to larger groups like bachelorette parties and events. Full yoga schedule and offerings on www.NewMoonHealthAndWellness.com
I also offer retreats in collaboration with other local practitioners in the off-season, the next one will be in March at The Sound View, more info coming soon.
HEALTH COACHING MISSION/VISION
Lucy’s mission as a health coach is to help clients understand the importance of whole health and that everyone is bio-individual.
Lucy specializes in helping clients discover the best food and movement options to optimize their health. She helps clients overcome health barriers and issues, identify and achieve attainable goals, and eliminate and manage stress by adding more joy to their lives. Lucy aims to help clients find what works for them and make it fun so changes are sustainable and long lasting, as there is not a singular diet or movement plan that works for everyone.
So what is whole health? A whole health method is looking at all areas of your life that affect your health; not just diet. Most people, myself included, hyper-focus on diet or exercise, but this is not whole health. What has worked for others doesn’t mean it’s the best for every individual.. Whole health is achieved by looking at all the elements in your life and trying to create a balance across all elements. This includes nutrition, movement, stress, sleep community (relationships and social life), environment (home and work), and joy (what makes you light up) to achieve your optimal health. Focusing on eliminating stress might have a larger impact on your health than what you are eating. Stressing over the cookie you ate might have more of an adverse effect on your body than just eating the cookie and enjoying it would have.
So what is bio-individuality? Everyone is unique in their needs and factors. Genes and environment are some of the elements that play a role in making everyone bio-individual. There is not a singular diet, exercise routine, social need, or home/work environment that works for everyone. Each person is individual and each person needs to discover what makes individuals thrive mentally, emotionally, and physically.
Lucy aims to help people create a well-rounded and balanced life so clients can thrive. Joy, stress, sleep, movement, home environment, and social life are just as important to health as what is put into the body so let Lucy figure out what client’s bio-individual needs in all these areas are.
We offer 3 health coaching packages for you to choose from.
MY HEALTH JOURNEY
I grew up playing sports (track, riding, snowboarding, water sports ect.) which developed my passion for strength and mobility training. The more I move the better I feel. I have always been conscious of what I am putting in and on my body. Growing up my Dad was very health conscious, always making me put broccoli on my pizza and telling me about these new studies he read on sleep, which at the time I found aggravating but now am very appreciative of the awareness he instilled in me. In 2015 I started my journey on the Bulletproof Diet, which changed how I thought about food. I am now obsessed with hacking my body to feel my best, and when I deviate I understand why I feel the way I do. I don’t think there is one thing that works for everyone but I love discussing health and fitness, learning from others, and sharing what I have learned on my journey to better living. Through these conversations, I was able to get to the bottom of a chronic cough that had stumped many doctors and get rid of my chronic migraines. I became a health coach to further my knowledge of health and wellness and to help others with their own personal journey.
PHOTOGRAPHY
I love helping people express their vision and what their business is all about through photography. I offer a collaborative approach to capturing what your business is about making sure we create images that are exactly what you imagined in your head.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Perseverance
nothing comes easy everything good comes from hard work and dedication, putting in the time will pay off in the long run
Patience
everything that is meant to be will happen and fall into place, don’t rush, set up the structure first, it can be exciting to start a new business and you want to get it all done at once or i did at least but have patience with the process
Your Time
Your time is extremely valuable, i know starting a business is hard, time-consuming, and costs a lot of money but sometimes your time is more valuable doing what you are good at and you should hire or call in a favor to help you.
schedule time for yourself, make sure you are still having fun, having self-care time, doing what you love, and resting
this is hard for me as a Capricorn but schedule in time for myself is something I’m working on at this point in my journey
How can folks who want to work with you connect?
If you have a health of wellness business on the North Fork or Shelter Island please reach out. I am always sharing the local yoga, fitness classes, events ect.
There is a lot more than just food and movement involved in wellness if you have any business that brings people joy, helps people be creative, sustainable, educational, and creates community please reach out.
We have a local resource page listing all the local: practitioners, doctors, acupuncturists, creative workshops, people helping you be organized and create a balanced home environment, chefs, farms, coaches, fitness professionals, studios, healers, and more.
The purpose of New Moon Health & Wellness is to create a health and wellness resource for the North Fork and Shelter Island community by supporting the local practitioners and businesses in the community. A platform for all things health and wellness.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.newmoonhealthandwellness.com
- Instagram: newmoon_Health
- Other: photography website is www.LucyNystrom.com
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
