We recently connected with Mary Ricciardi and have shared our conversation below.
Mary , so many exciting things to discuss, we can’t wait. Thanks for joining us and we appreciate you sharing your wisdom with our readers. So, maybe we can start by discussing optimism and where your optimism comes from?
My optimisim comes from my faith and my daily dependence on God. I have also been trained in mindset work and use that in my daily life to keep going strong and creating a positve optimisim about life. I truly believe it is possible for everyone even if they have been through trauma and hardships in life. Moving my body also helps tremendously to create optimisim and an attitude adjustment if I am having a hard day. I also practice deep diaphramatic breathing exercises and while doing so I pray. I start most my mornings this way.
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?
For over 15 years, I have been a lifestyle expert, as a board certified holistic health and life coach then my world stopped in 2013, when my 15 year old son became sick and was diagnosed with a form of childhood cancer.
The overwhelming grief, despair, and mental anguish after his death, began taking a toll on my body physically. My adrenals were out of control, and the adrenal overload caused brain fog. My gut health was a disaster. I had a bowel movement once a week. I was miserable.
My husband suggested I focus on helping other people with wellness again (my passion) to help bring me out of my despair. With my background in health and wellness, I decided on a nutritional line of supplements. I researched natural and clean ingredients that would help heal my body, and also serve others with similar conditions. In 2017, Warrior Strong Wellness started with a simple mission: create supplements with ingredient integrity (with no junk in them or fillers) and to help fund childhood cancer research in memory of my son.
A portion of every sale goes back to help fund childhood cancer research. Since 2017, we’ve had the opportunity to donate 60k to this research.
How big is the problem?
More children are lost to cancer in the U.S. than any other disease—in fact, more than many other childhood diseases combined.
Before they turn 20, about 1 in 285 children in the U.S. will have cancer.
Worldwide, a child is diagnosed every 2 minutes.
Shop with Warrior Strong Wellness and a portion of proceeds are donated to St. Baldrick’s Foundation to provide much-needed funds toward research for better treatments and cures.
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?
ONE. KEEP GOING. Taking it one day at a time, with grief , with my business, with my health- all of it -only worked if I continued on and kept going. I never set my goals too high especially at the beginning after losing my son, my main goal somedays was simply to get out of bed everyday and put each of my feet on the ground, and simply to drink water and eat a healthy meal and take my supplements.
TWO. MOVE. Staying Consistent with movement was a huge part of my life always, but after going through the trauma of childhood cancer and going through overwhelming grief after the loss of my 18 year old son, movement was medicine. after loss I started slow … simple walks, then I joined a pilates studio to ease my body back into movement ( I hadn’t worked out much during the 3 years of living in hospitals with my son) signing up for pilates classes helped me to stay consistent and with easy movements at first to buld back up strength. Now I do some pilates, walk daily and lift weights 3-4 times a week. It brings me joy, while I strength train and walk, I usually listen to something inspiring like an audio book or podcast as well.
THREE. PRAY & GET HELP. I pray daily and simply just talk to God, like a friend because He is my friend and is always there to listen. I went to EMDR therapy after 5 years after loss and it literally changed my life.I truly feel joy again and at times I never thought it would be possible. It’s okay to ask for help. Research Supplements that will help you to feel better. Ashwagandha helped and still helps me tremendously.
My advice is to do these three things daily, even if you haven’t went through loss, it will change your life.
If you are just beginning with a health journey, do these three things daily, try not to be hard on yourself, and remember consistency is always the most important thing and also remembering that your health journey is yours and yours alone and it is a forever thing, its not temporary. Taking it one day at a time with small tiny steps daily is the most bold and courageous thing you can do. If you’re needing more help trying to figure it all out please, reach out to me! I love helping our customers to thrive and begin living their lifestyle in the healthiest way possible.
One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?
Warrior Strong Wellness is looking for folks to collaborate with! We love talking to our customers and social media influencer folks who’d like to try and then share the love about our transformational supplements and our mission to give back to childhood cancer research. Please, reach out to me at mary@warriorstrongwellness.com or on our website or on social. If you’d like to collaborate with a growing women owned company!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.warriorstrongwellness.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/warriorstrongwellness
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/warriorstrongwellness
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/warriorstrongwellness
Image Credits
tonipatriciaphotography
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
