Meet Zylah King

We recently connected with Zylah King and have shared our conversation below.

Zylah, sincerely appreciate your selflessness in agreeing to discuss your mental health journey and how you overcame and persisted despite the challenges. Please share with our readers how you overcame. For readers, please note this is not medical advice, we are not doctors, you should always consult professionals for advice and that this is merely one person sharing their story and experience.

***Warning: Sensitive Content; topics on mental health and suicidal thoughts are discussed in this reading, as well as different actions or behavior that were a result of those issues. I am sharing my story to let people know that they aren’t alone in their struggles with mental health, and to educate others on what it may look like in someone’s life, and to share what it looks like for a true, rising Christian to push through the challenges of life by faith despite not knowing if it’ll actually work out or not! Mental health should always be taken seriously and should not be overlooked or ignored. Instead, it should be prioritized and talked about. My experience was and is unique and although it was a rough journey, I am grateful for every second of it because it made me stronger, and it helped me find myself! So with that being said, I hope you can take something away from this reading that can help you in your journey!

When I was in the earlyyyyy early learning stages of my business and soap making in general, I was going through a lot of mental health issues. I was still fighting off depression, and soon after I started having issues with my anxiety. It was very difficult because I had dealt with depression for basically my whole life and right when I was beginning to feel some kind of relief from it, anxiety came in and did way more damage than depression ever did. It was difficult to sleep, it was difficult to think simply because my mind would blow up any minor thoughts I had. I suffered many panic attacks that felt impossible to fight, and they grew worse and worse. I never went to counseling, I never got a therapist, and never took any medication. I refused to. “But, why?” you may be asking. I’m more than happy to tell you why!
When I was a young child, I was facing things that I couldn’t understand; spiritual warfare. I was depressed at a young age, but I didn’t really tell anyone. I thought the voices I heard that kept me up at night were my own thoughts. The ones that told me my life was worthless. The ones that told me there was no heaven, and no hell. The ones that told me my very purpose in life was to die. The ones that told me I would be nothing, so I might as well speed up the process. The ones that fed my young, confused mind lies; lies masquerading as the truth. Those voices would fill my head every single night, keeping me up. Stealing my joy. Stealing my peace. Stealing my innocence. Stealing my strength. And everyday I’d wake up, I’d put on a social mask. One that covered up the depression. One that covered up the pain. One that covered up all the scars, and wounds that would then be reopened at night when I laid my head on my pillow. I was numb; but somehow it still hurt, and I could feel all the pain. Yet through all these things, I somehow kept faith in God.
One night, the voices were louder than ever before, and I couldn’t take it anymore. I had cried and cried, suffered and suffered, but the voices didn’t stop. I got up from bed, and I quietly went to the kitchen. With tears in my eyes, voices in my head, and a pounding headache, I opened a drawer and grabbed a knife. I took a step back, and I tightened my grip. As tears flowed from my eyes, I lifted the knife up to my head, aligned with my temple. I was too young to actually think about what I was doing; too young to understand that this was in fact a spiritual attack, and an attempt of the devil to wipe out one of Gods children. When I lifted my arm to take my own life, I felt my arm immediately stiffen. I couldn’t move it at all. I felt a warmth come over me, starting with my left hand which held the knife, and spreading throughout my entire body. Soon after that, I heard a voice so powerful, it cut through all of the voices that were torturing me. It spoke with such might and power and authority; I had never heard a voice like this before. It spoke 7 words into my being, and those 7 words saved my life; “No. You Can’t. You Have A Purpose.”. As those words echoed throughout my being, I saw visions of people, so many people. Some of them I knew. But most of the faces I saw I had never seen before. Thousands and thousands of faces flashed before me. I saw the faces of those I loved.
Although I didn’t recognize this voice as God at the time, everything within my body knew in that moment that I could not take my life. Every fiber within my being knew that whatever this voice was, it was 100% right; and I don’t know how else to explain that feeling other than simply saying that I received a “sense of knowing” that night. I didn’t know what my purpose was, I didn’t know who that voice was, I didn’t know who those people were and what they had to do with me and my life, but I was more than 100% sure that I knew what that voice said was nothing but the truth. Once I could feel myself again and was able to move my arm, I burst into tears and I put the knife back in the drawer it had came from, and although I sobbed myself to sleep that night, the voices that pushed me to that point did not speak anymore that night.
After that night, I made it my mission to always have faith no matter what life may look like. Whenever hardships would come my way, I’d remember those 7 words, and I’d remember that I speared my own life so that I could give it to God. And since I’m here, and this is what I’m facing, I must to overcome it, for God has a purpose for my life, and nothing will or can stop that!
That night had to have happened in like early middle school, maybe earlier than that (I honestly don’t remember). But ever since then, I’ve had faith that God will lead me through it all. Yes, I had my doubts. At one point, I even told God out loud that He would not be able to heal me from my depression out of pain and frustration. But even in saying that out loud with my own mouth, I knew that I didn’t mean it, and I knew that it was a lie. In fact, instead of God leaving me right then and there, and giving up on me, He still stayed with me. He listened to me. He loved me. He cared for me. He never ever left me, even if He decided not to talk to me; He was still there.
I dealt with depression all the way up into highschool, until I got in an almost 3 year relationship with someone I thought could heal me, yet they only hurt me more. After that I felt unfixable. I felt like roadkill that was constantly being ran over. I went to God. I showed Him my scars. I showed Him my pain. I showed Him everything that was wrong with me, and this is what He said: “I will heal you completely”. And so I did the only thing that I knew how to do; I had faith. I had faith that God would heal me completely. And over the next 2 years I could slowly see myself healing. Through my faith, God corrected me and showed me the changes I needed to make in order to better myself. I could feel the chains loosening!
That is until the devil decided to introduce me to anxiety. Depression was a playground compared to the frightening amusement park that was anxiety. The voices no longer attacked me directly, instead they filled my head with thoughts that threatened my circumstances, my people, and my life. They’d tell me that I’d never be successful. They told me that my brother was going to kill himself. They’d tell me possiblies that would never come to pass; lies. Day and night, I couldn’t escape. I would depend on music to keep the voices at bay, and I suffered panic attacks that scared me. But even through all of these things and more, I still had faith.
I was so over all that I was going through that I wasn’t going to allow God to forget me. I wasn’t going to allow God to use anything but Himself to save me. So, I didn’t go to therapy, I didn’t get put on medication, I didn’t go to counseling. I prayed to God, and I told Him that if He was going to heal me like He said He would, it would be Him and only Him. I didn’t allow space for anything in my life that could take the credit away from God in the eyes of man. So yes, I suffered more than others, but I needed to know for myself what God could do in my life without help from anything else. Sure, I may have talked to a couple people about some of the things I was dealing with, but that won’t even stack up to 10% of the things that I’ve been through.
One day, I was sitting on my bed on my phone, and I had a thought. A thought the size of the point of a needle. To this day, I still don’t even remember what the thought was, but I remember this thought acting as the lighter fluid that set off the worse panic attack I’ve ever had in my life. I was crying hysterically, and it would come in waves. It felt like throwing up, in the sense that you couldn’t stop it once it started. When I’d try to stop crying I’d only cry harder. My stomach felt like it was on fire while being twisted in all sorts of ways. My head felt like it was being slammed into the wall over and over and over again to the point where I’d hold my own head trying to stop the pain. My breathing was so irregular, I couldn’t keep it steady. Every minute or so I could feel myself falling, and my vision would start to darken, but I fought to keep myself up and conscious. I don’t know how long it lasted, but it felt like eternity. Every time I would catch my breath, and have a break from crying, it was startup all over again. I was scared. I felt alone. I didn’t know what to do. Once it finally passed, I had nothing left. I felt like everything possible had been taken from me. I felt like a zombie. I thought to myself, “How could I ever be healed from this?”. Then the impossible happened.
Either the next day after that incident or a few days later (again, I don’t really remember that well), I woke up and I felt different; I felt new. I noticed it as soon as I opened my eyes. I didn’t know what this feeling was. It was very unfamiliar to me, but it felt good! When I realized what that feeling was, I instantly burst into tears and began sobbing and thanking God; it was joy! It was REAL happiness. It was peace. Something that I quickly realized that I’ve never felt before. All the years that I thought I knew what happiness was; it was all a lie. From the day I was being brought into this earth I suffered (my mothers womb ruptured the day of my birth due to improper incisions made when my mom was giving birth to my brother overseas in Germany. This lead to me basically drowning in blood before I could even be born). My joy was stolen, my peace destroyed. But God!
He kept me sane. He pushed me to be strong. He saved my life, in the beginning and ever since! And He healed me completely, all on His own, just like He said He would! That day I gained so much respect for God and our relationship. I rejoice everyday and I’m still amazed at how He healed me from something I told Him He couldn’t heal me from.
So even though I am not perfect, and sometimes I still fall victim to the enemies schemes and tricks, I always have God to lead me through them and show me how to conquer them one step at a time! And the same way I approached my mental health issues is the same way I approach finding the strength to fulfill my purpose in my business Queen’s Destiny; by having full faith in God and letting Him be the head of my life because at the end of the day, when I do things my way, it feels right at first, but then s*** hits the fan. When I do things His way, it’s hard and scary and it doesn’t always feel good, but it always results in bettering myself, my people, and my circumstances, and it will always work for my good!

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

My name is Zylah King and I’m the owner of Queen’s Destiny! I make handmade bath and body products such as soap bars, body creams, body butters, and lip gloss! I also make wax melts, and I eventually plan on introducing more products like candles, body scrubs, body oils, and body sprays! I started my business because it was ultimately my purpose, but I’ve always enjoyed making body products! As a child, I loved stealing my moms sugar and coconut oil and making body scrubs. I would also worry her about buying crazy stuff like unscented gelatin to make soap jellies like the ones from lush, and I’d always go to the Bath & Body section of Michaels and beg her for a new kit to make some kind of bath and body product. Although I was a very creative kid and also enjoyed anything artistic, making bath and body products brought me the most pleasure!
As I was growing up, I loved buying different body products from different brands. From Dove soap bars to handmade body butters to Bath and Body works body mist and lotions, I was obsessed! But I quickly realized that although I tried so many different brands and different products, none of them seemed to get along with my skin. Different soap bars and body washes would always dry my skin out in the shower, making my skin feel rubbery and somehow dirtier, while different lotions or creams I would use could never keep my skin moisturized throughout the day. Once I got into using body butters over lotions or creams, I ran into two problems; #1: A lot of brands would claim to sell body butters but they were actually just very thick body creams (also referred to as emulsified body butters). Disregarding the fact that they contain water, they felt exactly like any other body cream or body lotion apart from the thick consistency. They didn’t have the buttery feel nor the look, and my skin still didn’t stay moisturized. #2: Some brands sell anhydrous body butters, meaning they don’t contain any water. These are the body butters I thought I have been longing for all along, but once I started using them regularly, I realized that they were too heavy and since they didn’t contain any water they weren’t hydrating/moisturizing my skin properly. I have extremely dry skin, which means when I get out of the shower, I have approximately a minute and 45 seconds (not actually, just being funny, lol) to moisturize my skin before it drinks all of the water that was supplied from the shower. This means if I get out of the shower and want to lounge and chill in my robe before I lotion up my body and get dressed, an anhydrous body butter would not be the best thing to use. So, in all the years of figuring out what the heck I need to use on my skin, I decided to do some research. I educated myself on skin moisturization versus hydration and what that means for creating products like soap bars, body creams or body butters. I spent plenty and plenty of time educating myself on the matter before trying to attempt soap making first, and then body creams and body butters later down the line. Ultimately, I wanted to create products that care for your skin in the right way, and make a variety of products that all different skin types can use! I also wanted to create unique products with unique fragrances, themes, and aesthetics in order to lift the spirits of the people who are receiving them. As someone who has gone through a lot of mental health issues, I know how the smallest things can brighten up your day. With that being said, I hope that one day my products will reach someone during a tough time and will hopefully lift them up and will make them happy even if it’s just for a little while!

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

One of the most impactful skills in my journey was obviously the skills of making my products! Making soap and body creams / Butters was not something that I always knew how to do. No one in my family had made soap like this, so it was something that was really unfamiliar to me. I was able to use the internet as a major resource to help me teach myself the skills I have when it comes to making my products!
I will forever shout out Pitt Community College and the endless resources I have access to there! Although I was a student there, even after my graduation I’m still able to set up meetings with the Small Business center in order to continually get outside feedback on my business and get tips on what I can do better for free! I feel like if you are a student, whether at a university or a community college, look for different resources you can utilize while you’re there, and see what connections you can make with people who are also there! No, college is not for everybody, but that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t hold incredibly helpful resources and can allow you to make connections to people you never knew! I was able to win funding for my business, bring awareness to my business, and even met very important people who I am still in contact with who are in high places!
One quality that I feel like has greatly impacted my business is the quality of determination. Being determined to get done what you need to get done regardless of how long it takes you is very very important. In order to have determination, you also need to have patience. You can make anything happen, but there is a time for that thing to happen so you can’t rush it and you can’t put it off. It will happen when it is time for it to happen, and as long as you stay determined to make that thing happen and you give it your all, you will succeed! Never give up and always have faith!

What is the number one obstacle or challenge you are currently facing and what are you doing to try to resolve or overcome this challenge?

One obstacle I’m trying to overcome is lack of motivation. Sometimes I have so many thoughts and so many ideas that when I finally come to sit down and address them, all of my motivation is diminished. I’m truly learning to slow down my thoughts and take each idea one at a time, that way I can find the proper motivation to get it done efficiently and skillfully. Focusing on one thing at a time definitely helps boost my motivation, which ultimately helps boost my performance in whatever task and performing, whether that be making a video for my social media or coming up with a soap design!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.queensdestiny-nc.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/queensdestiny.nc?igsh=YmpjM25iOTY4eDY=
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61564083354603&mibextid=ZbWKwL